Blog Post #3

Social media is a great platform for people to connect on, but you need to be mindful of the activities surrounding these sites. On September 5^th, a database of phone numbers became available to people online. These phone numbers were said to be linked with Facebook accounts. Mark Zuckerberg was one of the people whose phone number was linked to the public. We often think our information is private online, but there are many things that can be recovered and leaked to the public. For Zuckerberg, there could be millions of people who will try to scam him and get personal information, and that can really go for anyone in the public eye. As for us millennials, our phone numbers may not seem like a big deal to be publicized, but it’s important to know how much our phone numbers can do. People can scam and obtain important information and we have to be mindful of that.

As of Monday evening, it was confirmed the database was no longer available to the public. It is unclear who posted the data and what their reasoning was behind it. This made people feel unsafe and disrespected their privacy. As a result of this incident, they made sure to password-protect the data. Exposing this type of data, along with your name and other information Facebook may provide can put users at risk for scam phone calls and fraudulent activities.

            In today’s society it is very common for teenagers to have public profiles. Now that I look at it, I have a little over 3,000 followers and there is no way I know each of them personally. I have people following and accessing my social media accounts and I don’t even know who they are. That is extremely scary to think about. They know where I go to school, who my friends are, where I am from and multiple other things about me just by my social media. We think we are just posting pictures and sharing our experiences, but you never know what people’s motives are. It’s sad that we have to think this way because if I have a platform that allows me to share my thoughts, I want to be able to reach a lot of people.  

            After reading this, I will definitely be more cautious about who I let follow me as well as what content I share on social media. What’s your take on this? Do you think being public is unsafe, or should we be allowed to share our experiences with the world?