Defamation
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook on July 24, 2008, the High Court in London ordered British freelance cameraman Grant Raphael to pay £22,000 (then about US$43,700) for breach of privacy and libel. Raphael had posted a fake Facebook page purporting to be that of a former schoolfriend and business colleague, Mathew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallen out in 2000. The fake page claimed that Firsht was homosexual and untrustworthy. The case is believed to be the first successful invasion of privacy and defamation verdict against someone over an entry on a social networking site. It showed that because of the rapid trend of social networking, personal data are laid including full name, address, email address, phone number, top friends, photos, and interests. With that, there are more possibilities for strangers to abuse you in making use of your contact information. There would be more chances for personal fraud, or simply people could pretend or verify themselves as being you.
Distraction to Education
Based from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook, On January 23, 2006, The Chronicle of Higher Education continued an ongoing national debate on social networks with an opinion piece written by Michael Bugeja, director of the Journalism School at Iowa State University, entitled "Facing the Facebook". Bugeja, author of the Oxford University Press text Interpersonal Divide (2005), quoted representatives of the American Association of University Professors and colleagues in higher education to document the distraction of students using Facebook and other social network during class and at other venues in the wireless campus. Bugeja followed up on January 26, 2007 in The Chronicle with an article titled "Distractions in the Wireless Classroom", quoting several educators across the country who were banning laptops in the classroom. Similarly, organizations such as the National Association for Campus Activities, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and others have hosted seminars and presentations to discuss ramifications of students' use of Facebook and other social networking systems.
Some research on Facebook in higher education suggests that there may be some small educational benefits associated with student Facebook use, including improving engagement which is related to student retention. Furthermore, using technologies such as Facebook to connect with others can help college students be less depressed and cope with feelings of loneliness and homesickness. According to one case study, students surveyed who were regular facebook users had, on average, lower grades than those who were not.
Because of the cool offers of entertainment and easier communication through social networking sites, students happen to enjoy much of its services and tend to overlap time for it than the responsibilities for school work. That’s why grades happen to be lower according to case studies.
Workplace Interference
It would be really a problem if people at work using social networking sites happen to be unaware or forget that anything they post on such sites will be visible in public, if not in the present but will be in the future, even if the said accounts are set privately. This happened in a Cisco employee who damaged his reputation before he even started at his new job. He twittted “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty pay check against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work” It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco Alert, shared this open response, “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” It was clearly shown that through social networking, certain companies may be a victim of offensive insights, and with that, the included employee would surely be meet the consequence of what he did, and the company will face the negative feedbacks from the description laid on the twit.
Isolation and Weakening of Family Ties
Case Study in America shows that “twenty-five percent of the respondents in the 2004 survey appear to have no close ties, up from ten percent in 1984. Additionally a similar study amongst college student found that “1 in 7 say that social networking sites increase feelings of isolation” (Katonda News Network, 2010) As well as “Nearly 70% report reading posts from someone close to them that seemed like a cry for emotional help, and while most students would offer support in some way, fewer than half would make a personal visit”. This only shows that most people nowadays would tend to depend on the power of technology through social networking sites by simply using messaging, chat, twits or wall posts. By this, the usual personal contact will decline and may only lead to the technology o virtual connection, decreasing the strength of relationships and family ties.
Bridge to Trouble
In the London riots in particular, law enforcement suspects the looters relied heavily on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to coordinate and plan their riotous spree. Police there are working with BBM maker Research In Motion to decipher the messages and identify those responsible for burning and pillaging London stores.
It was said in http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/us/12bcfacebook.html?_r=1&ref=socialnetworking that the authorities in London arrested scores of people late Sunday and early Monday in hopes of heading off further violence after this weekend’s street riots, as evidence emerged suggesting that the unrest had been organized, at least in part, over private online messaging networks.
As the news said in http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-scan-facebook-twitter-trouble-190941500.htm, many, including the police, looked initially to Twitter and Facebook to find participants and organizers of the violence. But Jonathan Akwue, a media strategist in London, was among the first to write about the possible role BlackBerry Messenger, commonly known as BBM, played in organizing rioters.
Assistant Commissioner Kevin O'Connor is in charge of an NYPD unit created specifically to comb social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and BlackBerry messenger for information on planned crimes and their perpetrators.
Law enforcement has linked social media to increasing incidents of flash robs in the U.S. and the recent looting and rioting in London. Public safety agencies are consequently looking to step up their game in order to better protect citizens against these trends.
This concludes that through social networking, crimes, riots and chaos may be made more possible because of abuse of much easier access to communication.
