Tag: social networks

The term "catfish" comes from the 2010 movie in which a young New Yorker named Nev Schulman has an online relationship with a woman on Facebook. Turns out the woman fabricated her entire life on the social network, and when Nev finally made plans to meet her in real life, he realized that everything she told him was a lie.

Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o had a similar online relationship with what he thought was a 22-year-old woman named Lennay Kekua.

Social media has changed the world in many ways. For some, the change has been positive, for others the change has been detrimental. The future of social media and our young children’s participation in it is something both you and your spouse should look forward to, not dread. That being said, it’s easy to wonder exactly what we have to look forward to when there seems to be so much for parents to worry about.

Here are four reasons why you and your spouse should feel optimistic about your kids using social media:

Before taking off on that vacation, make sure you’re not needlessly putting your home and possessions at risk. Although people today are not leaving their doors physically open to thieves, many are unknowingly inviting burglars in by "over-sharing" on social media sites.

According to the MetLife Auto & Home Safety Pulse: Danger at the Door survey, 15 percent of the total population reports using social networking sites to post updates when leaving their homes, and more than double that amount—35 percent—of younger Americans (aged 18-34) "check in" to locations and tweet about their whereabouts when away. While it might be tempting to update family and friends on your adventures, this can give burglars clues about the best time to strike.

A New Jersey minister recently ordered all married senior staff at his church off the social networking site, Facebook, because of all of the problems it was causing with their marriages*. One church member in the article contended that if a person won’t share their password with their spouse then it’s a problem.

The idea was that if a person was withholding passwords it was because there’s something to hide, but there are many people who find forced password-sharing an invasion of independence and privacy (regardless of marital status).