As the years develop onward social networking trends continues to grow and consume our lives. The paradigm of friendship seems to be growing toward virtual interaction over regular social behaviours. Remember we cannot be friends unless you are on my friends list on Facebook even then I could block you or 'forget' to talk. It is plusible to hypothesis that the ongoing lack of social liability is attractive in the short term and these behavioural patterns continue to grow in western culture. Is this the direction we are traveling as a civilisation or to ask a deeper question is this the right direction for to evolve?
E-safety concerns have always been a priority for computer security professionals. There is a fine line between perceived paranoid scare tactics and full leniency with convenience. It is up to the modern day administrator/manager to understand what is needed for a particular service and reach a fine line between the requirements of privacy and the perceived requirements the users expects. Location based services clash with this model as it puts the end user in control of their personal data exposure. Placing end users in the driving seat forces them with a level of reponsibility not with just themselves but others around them.
Giving the end user an ability to use 'check in' services in a mobile environment combines the virtual friendships with real social interactions of meeting friends allowing social networks to seamlessly blend between the virtual and real. At what point does this socialite sharing cross the boundary in which abuse could follow. If so would it be a it technological issue or the mindset of the end users?
Good reflection of some of the key themes. Also consider how informed are people in general? Do they understand the consequences of what they do? What about if they thought it was ok to check in somewhere then decided it wasn't quite what they wanted to do? How easy is it to remove that?
ReplyDelete