Since my first website many years ago, the face of the web has changed many times.  Many of these changes have been good and make internet presentation much easier. You no longer have to learn code to produce a very nice web presence.  You can build a site just by filling the blanks on a website development tool. You tell the software what you want and almost instantly, the website appears.

Then there are the social media. They have the website set up for you. All you need to do is post notes. In the case of Twitter, the notes are short. For FaceBook, you determine how much you want to post and who can see it.  FaceBook is a free service; or is it?  Do you think it was designed to make you happy?  It was designed to provide a broad sampling of consumers for advertisers.  Not only can they provide an audience for advertisers, they can look at what you are posting and use that information to offer you specific goods and services based on your interests.  In other words, they read your postings and if you start talking about a baby, you will be flooded with baby items.  We complain that the government  snooping  and then turn around and open our innermost thoughts to the corporate world.  I don’t trust the government but I trust the big business even less.  The way I see it, as long as you understand the rules, and go in with your eyes open, FaceBook can be an enjoyable experience.

There is a saying, ” never point a gun at anyone” and most people are familiar with it.  That one thought has probably saved countless lives.  Another saying that everyone should be taught is, “Never post anything you don’t want the world to read”  You can not expect security measures to always protect you.  If you don’t post it, nobody can steal it.  Use some common sense.  That guy who is a friend of a friend of a friend of yours and wants to be your friend might really want to con you out of some money or perhaps he likes to look at cute little girl’s pictures.  Know who you friend.

I like FB and enjoy the friendships it has expanded,  If someone really wants your information, it is available. I won’t let that fear stop me from communicating with friends.  But  I also keep private information in e-mail. It isn’t perfectly secure but it is more secure than social media.

I plan to talk more about how to use FB in the future. Watch for it.