Dangers of Facebook
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
by: Amy Johnson
Social networking sites – a source for good or evil?
Sites like Facebook and Twitter have quickly become the new way of keeping up with family members and friends all over the world. Especially with Facebook, people can keep up in many different ways; writing on walls, composing a private message, and being able to create events to let people know what's occurring are a few of the options.
A current event called “Kick A Ginger” day, referring to redheads, was held on Nov. 30 of this year. Many jokes have been told about gingers thanks to an episode of “South Park,” and the event was more than likely meant to be the same – a joke.
A few kids from a California middle school took it literal. A 12-year-old boy was beaten up by a group of classmates in two separate incidents; the Facebook event is linked to the case. The annual “Kick A Ginger” day caused the same kind of results last year.
People need to be able to distinguish between the difference between a joke or a real event. Perhaps Facebook should take a precautionary measure for events that have more than 500 guests; if Facebook sees an event such as “Kick A Ginger” day, they would be able to delete it before more and more people get involved.
