Personal Blog: You are doing it to yourself...

So, I’m going to be honest here… when the professor assigned this “personal blog,” I was not too amused at all. I am not a fan of writing about myself or writing about any personal information about myself for that matter on the internet. I do not like allowing strangers to find out personal and confidential information that they would not have known otherwise. And I would be the one providing it to them, knowingly or not. But these thoughts triggered a couple others in my head and then the wheels just started turning full force.

One question that really stuck out in my head was this: why do people leave their phone numbers on their myspace or facebook pages?! I think that is so ludicrous! And my friends who have their phone numbers up there, are the ones who freak out when they get private calls and calls from random people they don’t know! Well, DUH! Where do you think they got it from? Oh, I wonder….

Another question that went along with the phone number was: why do people leave their addresses on their myspace and facebook’s too?! Now phone number, you can change easily if too many people get it… but your address! Come on now! You have to be joking! I have one of my really good friends who attend UM in Ann Arbor and she has her dorm room number and building listed. She is just giving the opportunity to all the creeps out there to find where she lives.

There are just so many ways to provide your personal information on the internet without you knowing. If you are a UM student, you address and phone number is on the internet. Yep, you are probably thinking, “No, no way. I didn’t put it up there…” Well, you didn’t, the school did. And to top it all off, anyone can access it! All you have to do is go to umich.edu, choose directory and type your name in. And there you have it! Ta-daa!! Right there in front of you is all the names the university has you registered under (many of which include your middle name), your address, phone number, and a few other pieces of information about you. This is a true example of how you are exposed to the internet, and ultimately you provided the university with all of your information so you did this to yourself…. But before you “X” out that page and freak out, there is a way to make it private and delete it J all you have to do is to choose “modify” and a log in page for ctools will appear. Log in, and you can choose to delete your personal information, and to make it private. Just make sure you SAVE SAVE SAVE!!

Now that we all know the dangers and all the other ways that you are exposed on the internet, what are you going to do about it? Are you just going to leave your phone number and address posted on your myspace or facebook? ?? Law and Order and CSI don’t just make up their material…. They get their inspiration from people like you…