Do you Facebook?
I can't remember when I first joined the popular social networking site called "Facebook," but it's been recently enough that I still consider myself a novice. I admit that the overwhelming reason for my joining was that I heard there were pictures of my grandchildren posted in that location. And, remarkably, Facebook is how my family discovered that one of my daughters-in-law was pregnant. Girls tell their Facebook friends everything.
It's a new world! By 2009 there were 321 million people, world-wide, on Facebook, which has largely replaced "My Space," as I understand it.
The appeal of the website is understandable. There is the siren song of quick access to your friends and relatives across the world. You can snap the new baby's picture and immediately post it on Facebook for all the relatives to see.
You can click over on the right margin and find all kinds of games to play and surveys to take. You can encourage your friends to play the games with you for added fun.
So popular is this amazing social tool that various organizations and businesses are jumping on board. I recently joined the facebook site for a local newspaper and a television station. The television station gives me access to news that I haven't been able to receive since the "Big Switch" switched me into the world of the unknowing and unseeing.
However, there are some worrisome aspects to this seemingly super-friendly "back-yard" approach to getting in touch with your friends.
For one thing, I just received an email advertisement from one of the restaurants that we were talking about on the Cape Girardeau Facebook page. Did I ask for that? I didn't, but it would seem that I opened myself up for it by clicking "become a fan."
I've also heard of Facebook fans having their computers infected with a virus. From what I gather, this can happen when you click on some of those cute applications at the right of the page.
There are even more sinister plots to watch for. In doing some research on the topic, I discovered several scams:
* The Nigerian 419 -- I first heard of this scam when my sister told me of getting an urgent e-mail from a friend, who said he was somewhere in Europe and needed money to get home. She had just attended a party at his house, so she called him and discovered that several of his friends had received the same message. Turns out that he had received a fake request from Yahoo.com to "update" his email account. When he did, a scammer hijacked his address book and sent out the phoney requests for money. The same decades-old scam has been adapted to Facebook.
* The Widget Warrior -- These are third-party applications that you can add onto your account. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't always check these applications before posting them in their system. Some of the applications install spyware on your computer when you click on them.
* The Koobface Virus --- This is an anagram of "Facebook." When the virus infects your PC, it sends messages or wall postings to your Facebook friends, directing them to a "hilarious video" of someone you know. When you click on it, malware is installed on your computer.
* The Phishing Pond -- This is a favorite hacker tactic, whereby you are led to click on various links, which lead you to an official Facebook login prompt. It asks you to enter your user name and password. If you do, they have all your account information. You should instead go back to the original Facebook page and log in manually. Don't trust a request to login in the middle of a session.
I'm sure there are hundreds more schemes, whereby hackers and scammers misuse Facebook and other social networking sites.
Over and over, the advice is to be vigilant, suspicious, and wary in dealing with Facebook and any other social site. One woman may even face jail time, because she sent a "poke" to another woman who had a protection order against her.
So cautious am I that I wouldn't even join a group designed to count the number of Christians on Facebook.
Still, is it worth it to see those darling faces of my children and grandchildren? What'd you think??
From the dark, cold hills of remote Tillman, Missouri, this is your rural roving reporter, checking out Facebook before she pops off to bed.
Comments
- -- Posted by BarbaraNTexas on Tue, Jan 19, 2010, at 7:27 AM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jan 19, 2010, at 7:44 AM
- -- Posted by mythought on Tue, Jan 19, 2010, at 7:56 AM
- -- Posted by changedname on Tue, Jan 19, 2010, at 7:56 AM
- -- Posted by cheers4dhs on Tue, Jan 19, 2010, at 11:31 AM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 9:34 AM
- -- Posted by cheers4dhs on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 9:58 AM
- -- Posted by changedname on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 10:22 AM
- -- Posted by kkcaver47 on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 2:31 PM
- -- Posted by kkcaver47 on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 2:56 PM
- -- Posted by GONENOW on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 5:43 PM
- -- Posted by lovebooks on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 7:09 PM
- -- Posted by GONENOW on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 7:15 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Wed, Jan 20, 2010, at 10:02 PM
- -- Posted by BarbaraNTexas on Thu, Jan 21, 2010, at 7:37 AMMadeline DeJournett's response:Well, I know that several people have contacted me through the e-mail address I have posted here with my biography, and I AM on Facebook (the NSC site), so we can connect like that, but I'm not sure about letting you guys have access to each other's true identities, after some of the knock-down-drag-out battles ya'll have had on here! I know a certain dead rocker who might not make it out alive!!
- -- Posted by cheers4dhs on Thu, Jan 21, 2010, at 11:37 AM
- -- Posted by mythought on Thu, Jan 21, 2010, at 12:20 PM
- -- Posted by GONENOW on Thu, Jan 21, 2010, at 3:52 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Thu, Jan 21, 2010, at 6:49 PM
- -- Posted by mythought on Fri, Jan 22, 2010, at 10:20 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Fri, Jan 22, 2010, at 3:59 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Fri, Jan 22, 2010, at 10:09 PM
- -- Posted by changedname on Sat, Jan 23, 2010, at 6:01 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Sat, Jan 23, 2010, at 1:17 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Sun, Jan 24, 2010, at 8:38 AM
- -- Posted by lovebooks on Sun, Jan 24, 2010, at 12:01 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Sun, Jan 24, 2010, at 1:31 PM
- -- Posted by changedname on Sun, Jan 24, 2010, at 2:47 PM
- -- Posted by FJGuy on Sun, Jan 24, 2010, at 5:25 PM
- -- Posted by wartz on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 1:30 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 4:18 PM
- -- Posted by changedname on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 5:23 PM
- -- Posted by changedname on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 5:26 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 5:30 PM
- -- Posted by changedname on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 6:33 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jan 25, 2010, at 9:39 PM
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