Social Networking and Privacy

    There's no denying the ubiquitous presence of social networking.  It has become permanently engrained in the conscious of today's internet-savy generation whom feel the need to be constantly updated throughout the day.  I do find myself falling into this pattern of constant updates; I check my Twitter almost hourly.  Now due to the insignificance of my daily routines, I tend not to bore my one hundred and four followers with hourly updates; I usually tweet once to three times a day.  Rather, I enjoy absorbing he news others have to offer as I'm scrolling my beloved timeline.  It's a nice way for me to stay connected without having to surf the net for info.  If something major occurs, the people I follow are most likely tweeting about it.
    I prefer Twitter over for Facebook and I verbalize this preference often.  I would say there are three glaring reasons for this preference.  The first reason would have to be the intimacy of twitter if that makes sense.  I have over six hundred friend on Facebook and that is by no means a boast, it's just how it is; I've been a member since 2006.  With this overabundance of 'friends', there is a flood of info from people who I honestly don't really care to know that much about.  On twitter, all of the people I choose to follow are people who I know well and who's daily updates I truly care about.  It's an overall more engaging and intimate social networking experience.  The second reason would be the overall simplicity of Twitter's setup.  There's a timeline, a place to search for twitter users, trending topic updates, and individual profiles.  That's it.  No photos, no apps, no clutter and no annoying advertisements.  It's a much cleaner experience than Facebook.  Finally, my favorite aspect of twitter would have to be having the opportunity to follow celebrities.  Sure celebrities have Facebook pages, but they're more than likely fan pages or simply run by a publicist in the star's camp.  Twitter has verified celebrity accounts and they'll usually keep you updated on the big news they have planned.  It's a direct path to the life of idols, and their is always a chance of the coveted retweet; where a celebrity notices your tweet about them and decides to share this tweet with thousands of other people.  That's a dream of every twitter member; I guarantee it.  These are unique benefits that can only be found a social network.
    I believe the cultural move to social networking is mostly positive transition.  I was watching a segment on CNN that said Facebook is creating jobs and providing ample opportunities to small businesses who place advertising pages on the social networking site.  Due to the millions of members on the site, this provides an undeniable luxury to small businesses.  Computer science is proving to be an ever growing industry and social networks are providing jobs that were simply not possible twenty years ago.  Sure, there are complaints regarding privacy but I honestly don't see that being a problem.  If one conducts themselves properly and maturely when in social situations where facebook photos can be taken, there should be nothing to hide.  If someone is truly worried about their privacy to the point of outrage, maybe they should reconsider their presence on a social networking site.
    I have rarely tweeted anything that I truly regretted and I usually catch myself from tweeting something that will not get a positive response.  If I do in fact tweet something that I regret, I simply delete and think nothing of it.  As an average joe, my tweets are more than likely not gonna outrage to many people.  For the most part I feel my privacy on these social networks is in no danger.  For twitter, I use an alias so only people I want to find me on twitter can.  It is also locked and can only be viewed by people who I have allowed to follow me.   As far as Facebook is concerned, I understand that many companies and federations have the control and right to hack and view my profile.  I do see this as an invasion of privacy but I truly have nothing to be ashamed of on my page.  Then again, I rarely use my facebook so I'll probably never even notice a breach in privacy.  Go figure.

My Social Media Diet

    After a week of annotating my social media diet, I believe I can now accurately express my habits and preferences.  I'd say that I spend at least three to four hours visiting the internet daily through the use of my Macbook Pro.  I use the default apple web browser safari due to it's undeniably convenient "top sites" feature.  Through this feature, My top twelve sites are constantly available and updated throughout the day and are only one click of the mousepad away; However, this feature is both a gift and a curse.  Obviously, there is no denying the convenience of having my most coveted websites all in one virtual space but this also poses the problem of distractions.  My top sites, which consist of four music-oriented sites, ESPN's website, two all purpose sites (music, sports, men's style and fashion), three social networks (twitter, tumblr, facebook), and the gaming/pop culture website IGN, are where I spend all of my time online.  It's almost a sort of nervous impulse for me to click on the 'top sites' icon and check on these sites; it's second nature.  By frequently checking these sites, I can lose track of how long I have spent on the net and can forget about urging matters I must attend to in the real world.  I am capable of showing self-restraint for the most part, but that doesn't mean I can become easily side-tracked from time to time.
    As far as television concerned, I mostly just have the TV on to have it on.  I occasionally look up from my computer screen to check scores and highlights but the TV is undeniably secondary to the Internet.  My default channel is ESPN and I rarely change channels.  I watch all of the actual TV shows online because I usually forget when they come on and almost always miss their original showing.  These shows are usually HBO comedies, FX's phenomenal comedy Louie, or ABC comedies Modern Family and Happy Endings.  Not really big on dramas.
    I'm not proud to say it, but the only physical reading I do is completely school-orientated.  These reading usually take up 2 hours of my day but if I'm not reading an article or novel for class,  I'm most likey not reading recreationally; unless J.K. Rowling decides to pick up a pen again anytime soon.  All of my reading is done digitally.  I read sports articles, gaming articles, music articles,  and any other extended reading my top sites provide.  I know this is not ideal but I feel as if many kids in my internet-savvy generation are heading down the same path.
    I believe my social media diet pretty much says that I'm a frequent internet user and can occasionally become dependent on it.  My time on the internet is mostly spent on music based sites and that is the area where I like to be updated most.  I honestly believe that my generation vastly prefer the internet over TV because it provides information exponentially faster and almost everything found on TV can be found more quickly on the internet.  News sites such as CNN and MSNBC frequently update their sites so as opposed to waiting for the CBS evening news to come on at seven, an intrigued consumer can simply go to  a news-based website and fulfill his itching inquiry on the day's events.  This is the main reason I believe our generation are so internet-crazed; we get our information faster.  I personally see nothing wrong with this ideology and see no reason to change my internet consumption.  I use the internet for informative purposes mostly though the information does interest me.   I could cut down on how long I spend my time on the internet but I do not think it's jeopardizing any part of my life.  It's how today's society gets its information and there is see no shame in that.  No shame at all.