Comments on: How Safe Is Blogging?

By: Ross Duggan

Ross Duggan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:58:34 +0000

I think it’s entirely within your remit to have as much information out there as you like – I keep plenty of information about myself available – as long as you understand the nature of that information (which you do, Ben).

I think it’s more important that people understand what the difference between “public” and “private” is online. Most people have many shades of grey that make up what they consider public and private, wheras in most cases the Internet has only two – black and white.

By: Ben Chapman

Ben Chapman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:49:48 +0000

I think the do/don’t would be a hard list to put together as it does really vary from person to person. I’ld be interested to see what you think about so much of my personal info being “out there”, comments anyone?

My general justification for having the details so out there is because I want to be accessible to IrishStudentBlog users, for example if something needed to be taken down very quickly they feel they can have that option. It’s also there to enable people to talk to me about it if necessary.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:28:02 +0000

A do/don’t list would be good

By: Ross Duggan

Ross Duggan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:26:10 +0000

The Internet can be unpleasantly public; and while I don’t wish to detract from Ben’s points, it’s more hostile for girls than it is for guys. Unless you actually assume the role of a girl online, you’re not likely to understand just how irritating and occasionally somewhat disturbing the “interest” girls generate online can be.

There are creeps out there. Maybe not necessarily dangerous ones, but certainly nobody you want taking a keen interest in you.

I think once you’re aware just how visible what you post is (especially on blogs, which are designed to be syndicated and linked to) you can start making choices about what you put out there.

I’ve got plenty of silly photographs knocking around, but mostly before the days of Flickr/Facebook/Bebo, etc It’s a much more connected Internet than it was ten years ago.

Maybe I should put together some sort of do’s and don’t thing.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:24:37 +0000

Oh well I’m lucky in that I’ve never had any bad experiences (other than the one stated above). I’m not against giving out information in general, I just think that some people are a little naive in what they let the general public see about them. I know someone who has a picture of themselves topless on Facebook.That’s just crazy

By: Tommy

Tommy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:13:11 +0000

I think you should do only as much as you feel comfortable with. Just because someone else posts their phone number online doesn’t mean you should or need to.

As for identifying stuff — you could technically find me (my tweets are geotagged — when I tweet from home, you can see that on a map), but I think that if you’re careful, there isn’t much of an issue.

My blog has been classed as ‘hyper-personal’ but I think that when you look at it, it’s not hugely. I mean, yes, you know I went to the zoo one day. Big deal. It’s not like I wander the streets of Ballymun alone at 3am and tweet about it.

As for blog comments, unless your blog’s been named as the fourth part of the Axis of Evil, invaded and occupied, it’s still not a democracy, and you have every right to edit or delete any comment anyone leaves.

By: Ben Chapman

Ben Chapman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:54:51 +0000

Sorry, quick addition to the above:

There’s also a lot of me on the internet (mostly CTYI me) that I would never have wanted people from school to see but curtsey of Facebook it’s out there and they’ve seen it and I feel it’s helped a lot of them understand a bit better who I am and that I’m not just a loner who tags along in the group, though that could just be maturity within my group of friends.
(Please excuse the poor spelling)

By: Áine O'Connell.

Áine O'Connell. — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:54:45 +0000

Wow…this has me thinking now. Really, really good post

By: Ben Chapman

Ben Chapman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:49:22 +0000

Interesting piece Liz, well written and thought out. I disagree with a few points here, firstly I think the internet is portrayed as a horribly scary place where psychos in basements prey on people who write blog posts or have public Bebo profiles. I highly doubt this is true, there is only one case that I am aware of where serious harm was caused by it, and then that was between two people who actually knew each other in real life (see: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4191027-teens-suicide-caused-by-facebook-bullies). As for posting info about yourself, I personally am quite happy to do that, around the internet if you look hard enough you can find pretty much everything about me from my school, home address, phone number and IM etc… I do not feel that this is anything that I should be particularly worried about. I do feel this makes me slightly more responsible for my actions online as I am not Anonymous (though, I can be).
Anyway, whatever you think is best for you in your case is probably exactly that, best for you! And stick with what you’re comfortable with, but we’re getting to a point where there is just so much about us online there’s no point in trying to hide it…