Welcome to the Social Networking Education blog

If you picked up this brochure and wanted more information on social networking sites, you are in the right place.

Welcome to the Social Networking Education Blog.

Thank you for visiting.

Our team distributed over 700 Truths About Social Networking brochures.

They can be found at the following Portland, Oregon locations:

New Seasons Grocery (NE 33rd St.)

AJ Java Cafe (N Abina St.)

Northwest Portland Public Library Branch- Teen Lounge (N.W. Thurman St.)

Hollywood Portland Public Library Branch-Teen Lounge (NE Tillamook St.)

Self Enhancement Inc. (N Kerby St.)

Lincoln High School on (SW Salmon)

Blend Coffee Shop (E Burnside St.)

East West College of Healing Arts (NE Oregon St.)

Portland Community College Cascade (NE Killingsworth St.)

Jefferson High School ( N. Kerby St.)

New Seasons Grocery (N. Interstate Ave.)

Downtown Portland Public Library Branch (SW 10th Ave.)

Northeast Community Center (NE 38th Ave.)

Whole Foods Market (E 30th and Burnside)

Belmont Portland Public Library Branch (SE 39th Ave.)

Stumptown Coffee (SE Belmont St.)

Dollar Scholar (SE Hawthorne St.)

La Merde (SE Morrison St.)

If you desire copies of The Truths About Social Networking brochure for yourself, a classroom or for your own distribution please email socialnetworkingblog@gmail.com

What is Social Networking?

Everyone is talking about and using social networking sites. Sites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have reached a critical mass in popularity, yet not user knows all the information they should.

Our aim is to create awareness and to educate people about social networking issues. 

Social Networking Ownership

Who really runs the show and who owns your information?

Myspace: 

Myspace was started by a marketing company called eUniverse. It is commonly belived that Myspace was created by an unassuming tech geek named "Tom". "Tom" becomes your first friend when you sign up. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch of  News Corp. bought the company and all the information within it. 

Rupert Murdoch compares Myspace and Facebook

Facebook:

Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, a young Harvard graduate. He created Facebook in 2004 as a tool to connect the student body. It quickly spread in popularity to other colleges. Today, the site is used by all demographics.  As of May 2009, Zuckerberg remains the CEO of Facebook Inc. with Microsoft being a major investor.

60 Minutes Interview with Mark Zuckerberg

Social Networking and Your Privacy

Do you have a Myspace, Facebook or Twitter account? 

When you signed up to become a user did you read the Privacy Policy?

If not, it is important to educate yourself.

When you sign up to use a social networking site the first thing the site collects is PII, 

Personally Identifiable Information. 

PII includes such information as your name, email address and telephone number etc.

This information is used to advertise to you, record and monitor your internet habits and shared with third parties.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace offer privacy settings so users can better protect information and photographs.

We wanted to clearly explain these settings so users would be more inclined to set their profiles in a way that is most comfortable

Online Now:	Show people when I am online: This function will allow you to control whether or not you want the "online now" symbol to flash when you physically logged into you account.
Birthday:	Show my birthday to my friends: This function will allow you to control whether or not you other users can see your birthday date and receive a notice when your birthday date is approaching.
Profile Viewable By:	Everyone: Anyone, Anywhere in the world can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information. Everyone 18 and over : Only users over the age 18 can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information. Remember, users can lie about their true age. My friends only: Only users you know and approve as Myspace friends can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information.
Comments:	Choose who can view your comments page. Anyone can view my comments page: Anyone, anywhere in the world can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information. Anyone 18 and over can view my comments page: Only users over the age 18 can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information. Remember, users can lie about their true age. Only my friends can view my comments page:Only users you know and approve as Myspace friends can see and access your profile, profile pictures and profile information.
Friends:	Choose who can view your friends page. Mutual friends are always public. Anyone can view my friends page: Anyone, anywhere in the world can see and access who your other, approved Myspace friends are.  Only my friends can view my friends page: Only your approved Myspace friends can see and access who your other, approved Myspace friends are.
Photos:	Choose who can view your photos page. Set album level privacy in photos. Anyone can view my Photos page: Anyone, anywhere in the world can see and access your profile pictures.  Anyone 18 and over can view my Photos page: Only users over the age of 18 can see and access profile pictures.  Only my friends can view my Photos page: Only users you know and approve as Myspace friends can see and access your profile pictures. Allow my photos to be shared/emailed: Anyone, anywhere in the world with allowed access to your photos (even Myspace friends) can share and email your photos. Think before you post.
Block Users By Age:	Allow users under 18 to contact me: This function prevents users under the age of 18 from accessing your profile. Remember, users can lie about their true age.
Block Users:	Block individual users by clicking "Block User" on their profile: This function allows you to block another user from accessing your profile. If you chose to block another user they will not be notified of your decision to block them. The user will immediately be unable to send you messages, write you comments, access your profile information or see your photos. A user you chose to block is essentially denied total communicationwith you. You can change and monitor your list of blocked users freely. [View list]

Tweeting, Tweets and Twitter Explained

Twitter was started by Jack Dorsey in 2006. It is currently owned by by Twitter Inc.

Terms and Conditions/ Privacy Policies: The Cliff Notes

Most of us probably don't read the 8+ pages of terms, conditions and privacy policies when we start a social networking profile. Who has time for that? Unfortunately, you should spend the time and read all terms and conditions before starting a profile to see what you are getting yourself into. Also, check the terms and conditions frequently- all these websites have the right to change the terms anytime they want. We have taken the liberty of reading the terms, conditions and privacy policies of Myspace, Facebook and Twitter and presented the basics to you.

Myspace

• Myspace does not own any of the “content” users put on the website BUT “By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services.”
• “The license you grant to MySpace.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to MySpace.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that MySpace.com is not required to pay you for the use on the MySpace Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that MySpace.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the MySpace Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the MySpace Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the MySpace Services.”
• Also noted in all caps: “EACH OF THE PARTIES HEREBY KNOWINGLY VOLUNTARILY AND INTENTIONALLY WAIVES ANY RIGHT IT MAY HAVE TO A TRIAL BY JURY IN RESPECTO OF ANY LITIGATION”

• “This Privacy Policy describes MySpace’s use and sharing of personally identifiable information (“PII”-- your full name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, or credit card number) as well as data that can, under certain circumstances, indirectly lead to PII (“Related Data”) that Members voluntarily provide to MySpace when they register”

• “Please be aware that your Profile Information, as well as any information posted to any public forum, can be accessed by the public. Profile Information located on private profiles can be accessed by MySpace at all times and, in limited cases, by certain third parties authorized by MySpace for purposes of ensuring compliance with MySpace’s Terms of Use.”
• “MySpace may share your PII and Related Data with those who help us manage or provide MySpace Services’ information activities (for example., message board administration, order fulfillment, statistical analyses, data processing), or with outside contractors, agents or sponsors who help us with the administration, judging and prize fulfillment aspects of contests, promotions and sweepstakes.”
• “MySpace may customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive on the MySpace Website, or may work with outside companies to do so. Your Related Data, non-PII and/or Profile Information may be shared with these companies so this customization can be accomplished.”
• “If you ask MySpace to stop using your PII, MySpace will honor that request while retaining any record of your PII that is necessary to comply with applicable federal, state or local law. “

Facebook

• “We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information. Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your networks and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.”
• “We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.”
• “Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.”
• “Facebook may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they're more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don't tell the movie company who you are.
• We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).”
• “Unlike most sites on the Web, Facebook limits access to site information by third party search engine "crawlers" (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask). Facebook takes action to block access by these engines to personal information beyond your name, profile picture, and limited aggregated data about your profile (e.g. number of wall postings).”

Twitter

• “Our primary goals in collecting personally identifiable information are to provide you with the product and services made available through the Site, including, but not limited, to the Service, to communicate with you, and to manage your registered user account, if you have one.”
• “Use of Contact Information In addition, we may use your contact information to market to you, and provide you with information about, our products and services, including but not limited to our Service. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such information or communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications.”
• “Log Data When you visit the Site, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website ("Log Data" ). This Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type or the domain from which you are visiting, the web-pages you visit, the search terms you use, and any advertisements on which you click.”
• “Service Providers We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, customer relationship, database storage and management, and direct marketing campaigns. We will share your personally identifiable information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data.”
• “Copyright (What's Yours is Yours) We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Twitter service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. You can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account. This will also remove any text and images you have stored in the system.”

More Information Than You Could Imagine!

Want access to an online archive of peer reviewed research on social networking?

Take me there!

A Humorous Comparison of Social Networking Sites

Animated Video about the Social Networking War

Think Before You Post

1. Don't post anything that would embarrass you later. 

“It's easy to think that only our friends are looking at our Myspace page, but the truth is that everyone can see it. Think twice before posting a photo or information you wouldn't want your parents, potential employers, colleges or boss to see” (myspace.com). 

Your profile is a representation of yourself. Your page is how the world “sees” you. If a potential employer, parent, friend or family wanted to know something about you, they might go to your profile page to get the information. Therefore,avoid posting any embarssing or troublesome photos or comments.

2. Don't forget that your profile and MySpace forums are public spaces.

“Don't post anything you would not want the world to know (e.g., your phone number, address, IM screen name, or specific whereabouts). Avoid posting such information as where you hang out every day or a picture of you in front of your office or school” (myspace.com).

The internet and all of its information is accessible from anywhere. It is important that you keep personal, financial or private things private so no other user can use that information to harm you.

3. Think before you post. 

“What's uploaded to the net can be downloaded by anyone and passed around or posted online pretty much forever. You shouldn't post photos or info you wouldn't want adults to see or people to know about you” (myspace.com)

Any photo you post can be saved to another persons computer and uploaded to other sites. Even if you chose to later delete a possible embarrassing photo it can be accessed with specific investigative software. A photos data never goes away and can be accessed forever.

Benefits and Risks by Digizen

Benefits and Risks of Social Networking

Digizen.org has an extensive explanation on the educational benefits and risks of social networking sites from both a teacher and a learner's perspective.

Benefits

Risks