Thing 18 - Facebook & My Space

I created an account in both because I have "friends" in both. My friend in Facebook is so excited. She posted something on "My Wall" but I can't find the wall. She wants me to add a picture, but I don't have any available from this computer. (I'm babysitting my granddaughter :-) I knew that I was old when I registered at both sites and had to fill in my birth year. I had to scroll down a LONG way to get to the correct year. Both were fairly easy to set up accounts, but my marital status in Myspace was incorrect, but I got that changed. I had an immediate friend "Tom" in myspace, but I don't know Tom so I deleted him. Sorry Tom. I found a high school friend on one of them and I'm waiting to see if she will be my friend. We work on our reunions together and a 23 things classmate suggested that this was a good way to possibly find classmates.
My main concern is privacy. I don't want anything out there that can be "stolen". Just Friday I opened my home email account to find everything "wiped out." I had confirmations for flights, rent car, etc. Fortunately, I had printed the confirmations, but there were other things I did not want to lose. I was only at 6% usage so that wasn't the problem. I'm very frustrated and want my email Inbox back! I also hear that people put things in these networks that are checked by potential employers. After having one's identity stolen, I certainly don't trust the internet. I never buy things from any site, etc.
Educationally, we need to know about these sites so we can see what students are doing. As a librarian, I want to do more on internet safety and I need to be familiar with these sites as well. Unfortunately, young people are so trusting and don't think anything will every happen, but we all know what is in the news every day. The internet is such a helpful tool, but it has bad things too that we need to teach students.