Social Media Networks: Boon or Bane?

by Awi Mayuga
(second entry)

Ellen Simonetti, a flight attendant, was fired by her employer for posting allegedly inappropriate pictures on her personal blog. Courtney Love faces a libel suit for posting a derogatory remark about a fashion designer on her twitter page. On the homefront, Gina Alajar's facebook status update was pinpointed as the "confirmation" of the Manny Pacquiao-Krista Ranillo affair.

Nowadays, people run into trouble for posting seemingly innocuous messages online. Even if it's easier for an online author to remove the offending post by simply deleting it (as opposed to rectifying an item printed on a newspaper), the evidence for a possible lawsuit is still there, stored in the server of the blog host or social media network. This leads us to think that social media networks are the new evil medium of our society.

But they're not all that bad. In fact, a facebook status update has saved an accused from serving sentence for a crime he did not commit.

Perhaps it's the accessibility and ease of use that tempt us to post our every waking thought, not pausing to think if we have our facts straight. But with every communication tool, it's not the tool per se that's bad, but how we use it. We really shouldn't go about posting our every move and our every thought online, especially in the heat of the moment.

Now excuse me as I need to update my twitter page that I've concluded my ICT blog entry for the week.