Social Media and Parenting woes

Facebook Parenting is destroying our child's privacy - I read this article few days back, and it almost echoes my own concerns about rampant use of social media in general, and Facebook in particular, for sharing personal information. I have written about it in my post titled 'How Much Should We Share' earlier. 

I wouldn't say I haven't done it myself before. In the beginning I was extremely cautious of what I share on internet but later on, after I got used to the social media platforms and more importantly, when I saw others sharing their personal photographs and details, I considered it OK too. 

But being a parent is a different ball game altogether. You start looking at things differently. You start questioning your every move, about its implications on your child. 

Image courtesy: digitaltrends.com

When I see so many mommy bloggers around, sharing such beautiful moments with pictures on their blogs; I feel like doing it too. But I resist. I have a physical diary, to similar effect. When I discussed with my husband, if I should write a mommy blog too; he convinced me that a physical diary in my own handwriting will be much more precious for my child to have later on. 

Here are a few reasons why I don't support putting up excessive information or photographs of our children on the internet [or any platforms for that matter]:

• I don't want to put my child's life out there in public domain. Sharing embarrassing situations are definitely a no-no, but I am much more cautious beyond that, in the amount of information I am posting on the internet. Because as the article also says, once you have put some information online, it stays forever. It is not so simple as deleting a post. If you need a proof, go and Google your images. You will find a lot images which you have deleted from your profiles.
• I don't know how my child is going to turn out. He may become an introvert. In that case, will he like me sharing every piece of his life to public? I want to protect that right of my child to decide what kind of information he wants to share with the public. Who am I to decide?
• And most importantly, what I find most disturbing is: "Children grow up learning that posting pictures of one's self and sharing personal information is typical. We've created a sense of normality about a world where what's private is public. The sense of being entitled to privacy has been devalued." [text in inverted commas quoted from the article]

Having said that, I am not going to keep my child away from internet. In fact, I plan to introduce him to blogging as soon as possible. If used wisely, it is an excellent medium to express without being judged. What more can a child ask for!

Social Networking!

I think I am done with Social Networking sites. To begin with, I am not at all ‘social’ and I don’t ‘network’. I am happy in the place I am, with the people I am! But I do still love blogging. Blogging is one of the very few things that has been able to sustain my interest for so long (yup, I’m in blogworld since 2004).



I read about blog or weblog in paper, and was thrilled by this online diary which can be accessed at anytime and can be shared with everyone. So, of course, you need to be careful on what you write there.

I was introduced to Orkut somewhere in 2005 and got acquainted with Facebook quite recently. Since Orkut was my first brush with networking with friends, I always felt more comfortable there, but soon I realised, everyone moved to Facebook, so I moved too. Well, I’m not really active in either of them. I have a presence in LinkedIn, though I hardly ever log in. I am there on Twitter also, but it is really too much to update status frequently. And anyways, whatever I update will invariably about or around books. I don't solicit or encourage friendship with total strangers, so I neither accept, nor deny "frandship" requests. But I love blogging, it is the only thing which I have enjoyed so much to have continued doing! Especially, when I started my Book blog, because I love books, and I can blabber quite a lot about them.


Wait-a-minute....so while I am blogging to glory, I hear some voices in the background. I hear closely,guess what! it’s my father-in-law cursing the director of a particular TV serial of fooling us with stupid, illogical sequences, wherein people take a good 15 minutes to complete one sentence, and everyone encourages and contributes to confusion and misunderstanding. I hate TV serials, they just make me agitated and restless.


So well, coming back to Social Networking, I read in newspaper recently how putting any work-related status update is poor etiquette, things like how you are toiling hard at work, how you are staying late …getting it? Apparently, that will not go down well with your colleagues, when you are trying to befriend the senior management on social networking, and positioning yourself as a hard worker! See, exactly the reason why I just refrain from writing anything about work.


But I do love looking at updates of friends, of people I have lost touch with, how they are, what are they doing in their lives…looking at their pictures…..its nice :-)

====================================================

I also wanted to share something completely unrelated to the post above. Two days back when I was going to office, I read this cheeky message at the back of a gypsy:


“You can go fast, I can go everywhere……..”

Orkut – the Social Networking Phenomena

You may hate it, you may love it, but you can not ignore it – I’m talking about Orkut. God, everyone’s on it. If you are looking for an old pal, a former neighbour, even a pen-pal—just about everyone is there. When I was first introduced to it, including my friends, we just lapped it up like anything. There were “Hi’s” and “Hello’s” to all the old and new friends, and then there was a lull for a considerable time, because you didn’t know what to do now. Besides, there was always the question of just how much information one should be posting on a Social Networking Site because there were several cases of misuse and abuse. But, most of us have just gone ahead and used this site to share our life with friends

After so many years of surfing internet, it still continues to amaze me. With a click of mouse, I am taken to a world of possibilities. Of course, now there is problem of too much information and one gets lost in that, but still you have an option. Coming back to Orkut, it has really become a rage. Of course, now there are other, more refined versions of Networking sites but still Orkut truly pioneered the trend.