My Experience using a Social Networking Site
Creating a blog is a way to build new connections with our friends and other people around the world. It allows us to communicate and learn about other cultures.
My first experience using a social networking site was when I created a Hi5 account in 2005. It was after I came to New York City. In my country, Peru, there were not popular social networks at the time. Four months after I move, I was invited by friends from my country. I was so excited to be able to communicate with them and learn about their activities and achievements. Hi5 is a networking site that allows the users to post their pictures, videos, music, and comments. This networking site was great at the time because I was able to search for friends that I had lost contact with even when I was in my country. I believe that people need a site like that where we can post photos and videos that allow our friends and families to learn about our activities. I was able to find most of my friends and meet their friends.
However, after Facebook become popular most of my friend moved there. I wanted to open an account, but, had the experience that using a social networking site is time consuming. I used to spend so much time commenting and watching pictures that at the end of the day I was not able to do my personal things. So, I decided not open any other social networking account and use my time in some activities that would benefit my daily life. In my free time I try to catch up on my studies and spend some time with my family. I opened a twitter account just because it is a course requirement.
Also I didn’t want to visit other social networking sites because of privacy concern. I still wonder how all our information is used. I learned that Facebook sells all people’s information to many companies that ask for it and we don’t have control over this.
Having the block at Baruch is great because I am constructing a site where I can communicate with friends, classmates and professors from Baruch.
2 responses so far
Hey Sara! Nice posting! I do agree with you that Facebook started to sell people’s info and becoming very commercial now a days. As one the largest network FB team should be more concern about it’s privacy settings.
Do you still use Hi5? I don’t know much about it though I know people were into it a few years ago.
If you’re concerned about the use of your private information on social networking sites, you might take a look at Diaspora. http://diasporaproject.org/ It was developed as an alternative to FB and its selling point is that it gives users full control of their data and does not share it with anyone. The idea is that your data is yours and only you can decide how it is to be used or not used.