When you come across a suspicious stranger, perhaps when walking down a dimly-lit street late at night or waiting at a bus stop in the shady side of town, would you tell them which school you attend, your phone number, home address, the names of your friends, and how hard you partied last night? As a matter of fact, many of you do exactly that.
Despite the many stories the press has brought to the newspapers on our morning coffee tables and articles on our laptops, people in our society still don’t understand how one website can tell a stranger everything about your life. Recently we performed an experiment on how many people would accept a friend request from a stranger on facebook. More than five hundred friend requests were accepted on both of the two accounts created, one a male account and the other a female. Scores of people assumed that because they shared several mutual friends with these accounts, it was safe to add them.
This simple yet risky act of pressing a single button gives a stranger access to all your personal information. Whether you posted your phone number somewhere on facebook, took a picture in front of your house with the address visible in the background or posted a photo of yourself in a bikini, this person you know nothing about has access to all of it.
An interesting thing to note is more friend requests were accepted on the female account compared to the male account. Messages received on the male account were noticeably more rude, with accusations that included cussing, and in a few cases, death threats. The male was called insults such as "f**king retard sh*t-head" and was threatened he will be "sh*t in [the] face". On the other hand, people flirted with the female account and tried plan a meeting in person. When the female account created a false story of who she was, people believed her and replied in an apologetic matter "Oh, yeah! Sorry, I don't know why I didn't remember you."
If we are constantly reminded about the danger of the internet, if it is so risky to give strangers access to all the information we carelessly put out there, why do people do it? Is it because they feel the need to have more and more friends on facebook? Is that worth jeopardizing your life for?
It could be anybody behind the computer screen. Be careful who you share personal information with, male or female.
Despite the many stories the press has brought to the newspapers on our morning coffee tables and articles on our laptops, people in our society still don’t understand how one website can tell a stranger everything about your life. Recently we performed an experiment on how many people would accept a friend request from a stranger on facebook. More than five hundred friend requests were accepted on both of the two accounts created, one a male account and the other a female. Scores of people assumed that because they shared several mutual friends with these accounts, it was safe to add them.
This simple yet risky act of pressing a single button gives a stranger access to all your personal information. Whether you posted your phone number somewhere on facebook, took a picture in front of your house with the address visible in the background or posted a photo of yourself in a bikini, this person you know nothing about has access to all of it.
An interesting thing to note is more friend requests were accepted on the female account compared to the male account. Messages received on the male account were noticeably more rude, with accusations that included cussing, and in a few cases, death threats. The male was called insults such as "f**king retard sh*t-head" and was threatened he will be "sh*t in [the] face". On the other hand, people flirted with the female account and tried plan a meeting in person. When the female account created a false story of who she was, people believed her and replied in an apologetic matter "Oh, yeah! Sorry, I don't know why I didn't remember you."
If we are constantly reminded about the danger of the internet, if it is so risky to give strangers access to all the information we carelessly put out there, why do people do it? Is it because they feel the need to have more and more friends on facebook? Is that worth jeopardizing your life for?
It could be anybody behind the computer screen. Be careful who you share personal information with, male or female.
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