Virtually real. But be very careful :-)

Salam & Good day

No doubt, humans are social creatures by nature. We spend about 3/4 of our waking hours with family, friends, or co-workers (yes, in my case with these computers :-)). But, those are real people. (except those computers :-) )

But, what happens if most your friends (or social members, close ties) are only exist in the virtual world. Well, a jargon - the social networks sites. Yes, I do not think any one of us new to the term social networks , and I am sure you belong to at least one of them. (and the reason why you're reading this blog ;-) ). Normally, people tend to share most of the things in their social networking site. It is contagious, isn't ?

(source: from the joyoftech.com)

But there is bad side of that, we need to know what kind of data we allow to share (always think twice). It is great to share many things, but there is a catch. Are you, even in a real life you will share to the whole world about yourself? Personal information like your birthday , address , phone numbers, your mum's name, are among key information in many bank accounts. I am sure there are enough information out there in many social networks , where anyone under the sun (or may be the inter-galactic aliens (^_^)) can collect those information and do on-line transactions or login into your bank accounts.

(source: www.pierotonin.com)

But, no worries, on a more less-negative tone, social networking sites too, have their perks as well. One thing to remember is yes , social networks are good and fun as well as help a lot. They're social networking sites, good places for friends, old friends, colleagues, and family to stay connected to each other. You can stay "in the loop" with everything else around you. In my case, I can keep track of my old friends (from school, university etc) on Facebook. It's an awesome way to keep track of them. (and share the old days)

Yes, from my experience, the social networking thing is the draw. Especially when I move to new places, and miss my friends, family, therefore the social network site is the friend that is always available.

So, a simple thought.

1) Think about what's going on on it and whether or not you like it:
It's not that bad thing to ask your friend to remove a photo of you or remove a harsh note, nasty comment talking about you. Take good control in your part, and make sure that there's nothing there that you don't want others to know about. Thing could turn ugly, sometimes. :-)
Another note. To make yourself less public, please utilize the Privacy Settings. Come on, you don't have to let go your social revolution because you believe that you can't do anything about your own security. Sometimes, it is nice to keep the skeleton in the closet. :-)

2) Control your friends:
All of these social networking sites come with these pretty handy features –
(reject, delete and block.)
Press Reject if you have gotten a friend request from someone you don’t know. (no stranger!)
press Delete if they become friends and they start saying things that make you uncomfortable
Press Block if the same person keeps bugging you even after you’ve deleted them

As simple as that. Do not blame those people. After all, it is all about your choice. You, yourself choose to press accept and you choose to choose. By the way, if most of your answers from this site are positive, please take my words. Get a life ;-). I mean, the real one.

Pakcik said: Can i just say woaaaaa? Pitiful? Technically, yes. :-)