Ugly Face of Facebook – Beware of the Voyeur !

 With a whopping  subscriber count of 350 million(facebook alone) and counting , the whole world and his dog has got hooked on to Facebook , orkut and other social networking sites. Count me in. I mean , I am all ‘ears and eyes’ for a medium that brings me back in touch  with old friends and distant relatives. But the skeptic in me says “take it with a pinch of salt”. And true it is as nothing in today’s world comes in “ Black and white” , rather there are intricate grey layers that are not easy to spot.

As I set to find the grey areas in Social networking culture,  It was just a matter of putting things into persepective. The topmost evil related to Social networking is “ SEXTING” and exchange of pornographic content usually nude pictures of self/others. Sexting means to send a dirty sexual text message with the hopes of receiving "interesting (often risque)" picture messages in response. The sad part is that the teenagers who are still naïve and unaware of the seamy side of the things , more often than not fall prey to the  “ sex scavangers”.They get carried away into sharing their intimate pictures having been told that it is the “cool thing” to do. And then get blackmailed and sexually exploited. Those who find it hard to believe please read below a true story : 

“Recently in Wisconsin, Anthony R Stancl( 19,male,  of New Berlin) blackmailed dozens of fellow high school students into sex acts by using photos and videos obtained in a ‘Facebook’ scam.  He was found guilty and faced up to 50 years in prison”.

The modus operandi was to pose as a girl online and persuade others into sending him naked pictures of themselves, then using the images to blackmail them for unnatural sex. Authorities found more than 30 folders on Stancl’s computer containing about 300 nude images of other male students.

The handwriting is on the “wall” , be ware of the “voyeuristic vultures” plying in the online world. Do not share your personal stuff with others even on deepest temptation.

The other thing about social networking is “ the amount of time spent on it”. Youngsters ,mostly in the age band of 13-23 yrs, are the most fervent followers of these networks. They start with once in a week  and then few minutes daily , until they realize  they have become “creature of habit” and cannot keep their hands off  it. The time spent networking finally takes its toll on the studies/academics  and some teens do not even shy  from “smuggling” sleep hours  into social networking hours(the hazards of which I have put in my earlier blog on “sleep”). Clearly Individuals should know when and where to draw the line , and Parents need to play a more vital role here keeping a tab on  their child’s “online hours”.

In the end, I would say that social networking sites can be both a boon and a bane , depending upon whether you USE THEM OR ABUSE THEM.