Striped:Shirt

I had a Twitter conversation with @byzantin3 which ran from two days:

byzantin3:

I just love the way Obama does his campaign. He is omnipresent in most social networks. extremely connected. Brilliant. 02:43 PM February 19, 2008 from web

Me:

 @byzantin3 i agree. with Obama, Yes We Can! 03:09 PM February 19, 2008 from Snitter in reply to byzantin3 

Me:

Lessig is the man 01:53 PM February 20, 2008 from Snitter 

byzantin3:

@stripedshirt yea, i think creative commons is one of the greatest empowerment standards given to mankind. 02:14 PM February 20, 2008 from web in reply to stripedshirt

@stripedshirt on second thoughts, will you vote for him if you can? 02:59 PM February 20, 2008 from web in reply to stripedshirt 

Me:

@byzantin3 based from what i know about him, he does good for other people (professor, CC), i’d say yes to that. 03:13 PM February 20, 2008 from Snitter in reply to byzantin3

@byzantin3 oops. were u talking about Obama or Lessig. hah 03:14 PM February 20, 2008 from Snitter in reply to byzantin3

byzantin3:

@stripedshirt was talking about Lessig. I’m not sure about him going for the run. 04:28 PM February 20, 2008 from web in reply to stripedshirt 

Today, I came across Lessig’s Change Congress. And to quote the man himself,

“I will decide in the next week or so whether it makes sense to advance that movement by running for Congress.”

Is this a coincidence or what?

Before the problem was sex offenders, now it’s gang recruiting according to this article from CBS5.com.

The other day in social media class we were discussing if virtual worlds needed some sort of regulations to prevent abuse. The same should be asked about social networks. I’m sure MySpace, Facebook and the rest do their own policing but spotting all this misconduct is easier said than done.

It is through these online networks that the digital natives connect and meet with new friends. But with our online profiles exposed to the public, it’s easy for gang members to collect and select potential recruits. It may first start with a poke or a friendly private message but once added ‘as a friend’, these students can be slowly manipulated or influenced by the gang members.

Social networking sites have their filters, flags to raise, profile limiting and blocking, etc. However, no feature will be preventive enough to stop possible interactions between gangsters and their targets in this social phenomenon.

At least that’s what my younger sister would say. She did not accept my dad’s friend request on Facebook until 2 weeks later when she placed him under the ‘Limited Profile’ list.

This article talks about how the younger generation feels uncomfortable that their parents are signing up on sites like Facebook. I understand how they feel because we share photos and send messages to our friends through all these social networking sites, which we feel isn’t necessary for our parents to know about. Times are changing and there’s no turning back. Even our future employers will be checking our profiles to get to know us better.

I think we just have to accept this trend. I actually don’t mind having my dad on my Facebook contact list. I’ve been so busy with school and he’s been flying out of the country a lot so Facebook helps us keep in touch.

It all boils down to managing our online identities. Be responsible, kids.