After reading the article, having a class discussion, and reading what my peers have said I had several thoughts running through my mind. I always used to wonder why all these websites are free, how they could afford to be free. I started to understand when my friend bought a livejournal account. I had no clue why someone would pay monthly for an account that I had for free, when I realized she didn’t have ads on her page and she had more room to upload icons and pictures. Then I realized, she was paying them so they didn’t need the ads. So really, no it’s not free. Those ads were paying for me to have an account. No matter what, someone is paying something somewhere.
As for privacy, I don’t believe there is any way that people will NOT put party pictures or videos up, nor do I think they should have to. However, it’s true that employers and schools shouldn’t be able to access these things. The perfect solution is what Facebook has been doing, upgrading their privacy options. This way people can have their media up there without worrying about who will find it inappropriate. Having the ability to control who sees what is a really bright idea.
When talking about identity, last semester I wrote a paper about how the media affects identity, both positively and negatively. Hiding behind a computer screen, it is easy to create a totally different personality. For example, many myspace accounts are fake. I agree with the discussion in class that facebook encourages authenticity.
