It is astounding to me how people complain constantly about Facebook and other social media violating their privacy by making their private information vulnerable to people who are not their "friends", yet they by their own volition constantly feel the need to keep people updated with frivolous information. I mean really, do I need to know you had a great slice of pizza at the local pizza parlor? I see the commercials on television and if I am hungry, I will go get a slice myself. While I am at it, no I do not need to know what you and your partner "did" last night, see inappropriate photos of you posted on your page or any other information that should be kept private. People were in an uproar a few weeks ago about potential employers asking for their Facebook passwords when they were interviewing for a job so they could look at their pages. While I know that is going too far, at the end of the day if we are posting our deepest darkest secrets for the world to see, now is not the time to start complaining about being "violated", we opened that door with our free flowing speech to violate ourselves.
Just because we have an opinion, does not mean it needs to be publicly voiced and it certainly does not mean that we have the right to say it with cruelty and unkindness. When I read certain articles, I am disgusted at the vile, cruel, unkind, racist and foolish things people are constantly saying in the comments section because of the anonymity of the Internet. Wisdom dictates that some things we just need to keep to ourselves. However, the tide is turning and free speech is not as "free" as people have been led to believe. People who smear businesses are being tracked down by their computers code number and being sued. I recently attended a seminar where the head of the organization sued and won his case against two people (who he discovered later were two of his competitors) who were falsely slandering his business. People who slam their bosses on their social media pages are finding themselves in hot water and sometimes fired. After seeing the movie The Hunger Games, a slew of teens and young adults that tweeted racist remarks about one of the lead characters are getting into alot of trouble. The huge backlash moved the guilty parties to quickly shut down their twitter accounts.
When the "founding fathers" spoke of 4th amendment rights, I do not believe it was meant to be used to speak whatever is on our minds at the moment. The provision was made so that people could stand for what was right without fear of being jailed or killed, not so nateisgreat28 or discoqueen227 can leave a scathing remark or comment and not be found out. If we really value our privacy like we say we do, then it is time we reinstate our self respect, stop using the world as our confessional and take measures to keep our private lives private and not ask our social media "friends" to raise the roof every time we do something trivial. If we want the social media sites and the web to stop violating our privacy, then we have to stop giving them reasons to. Would it not be better to utilize our 4th amendment rights on the global stage for more noble causes that elevate and empower people? With that in mind go freely enjoy your coke zero and that slice of pizza tweet free!
