The Internet today...

[beniki]

I was looking at an EA Origin thread (one of the many, many many threads), and it made me remember something I've been thinking about for a while.

The younger generation are too comfortable with the internet.

I don't mean they should be scared of it or anything, but it just seems that these days, people aren't cautious enough. They readily give out personal information, allow all kinds of data scanning on their computers, and even frequently give their real names online.

It just seems so strange to me. I grew up using a pseudonym or a nick online, since it was considered dangerous to tell people your real name.

I don't know.. am I just overly paranoid about the dangers of giving away information, or is the younger generation of internet goers not taking things seriously enough?

 

[Spambot 3000]

I think you're right. Chances are this 'younger generation' is my generation and I can honestly say that the teens and pre-teens today are not cautious enough of the Internet. Facebook is a good example. It's apparently acceptable to have 900 and something friends (even though you only know 75 of them) on Facebook. This seems idiotic to me for two reasons:
1: You'll have a bunch of people you don't know or care about posting truckloads of shit you don't care about.
But more importantly:
2: Yeah, you DONT KNOW THEM

They could be a pedophile posing as a cheerleader for crying out loud. And there's the possibility that some boy with a staggering friends list will receive a message from this cheerleader-faced creep, something like: "heeey wanna meet up an chat?? " Oh, and this sex offender know which suburb he lives in because it's conveniently on the boys info for all to see.
Then if he accepts he'll be lured out to some park where he'll be swiftly abducted.
And it happens, I've seen news stories where girls go out to meet some hot guy they met on Facebook, and then promptly got murdered/raped etc.
And yet, some of them kids still don't get it.

So maybe I'm just showing a bias towards the moron factor of Facebook using youngsters, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got into the mindset of "Well my house hasn't been robbed yet because of my friends list, so the Internet must be safe YAAAY"
But we all know the Internet can be a dangerous place.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I think it is a natural evolution of things really. The more people are online the more anonymous you become even with the use of your real name.
But yes people might be a bit to easy with things, although I do not know how "dangerous it really is"

 

[Valanthe]

Hehe, while I see the roots of a "These gosh-darned kids" thread, I think this is relevant enough to warrant attention. It's true, I grew up the same as the OP, in a world where it was a huge faux paus to use someone's real name online, and an even dumber move to give -anyone- your own. And yet with the coming of facebook and twitter and the like, I see more and more people more than happy to share intimate details about their lives with complete strangers. I simply cannot help but shake my head and mutter 'these gosh-darned kids these days...'

On the flip side however, we have reached a point where if someone is savvy enough, there is no such thing as complete anonymity online, so it may be an evolution of "Well if we can't keep ourselves hidden, what's the point in trying to hide?" Case in point, as this happened to myself:

I once had a conversation with someone, and I had mentioned that I thought I was pretty good about keeping myself anonymous online, this person asked for the opportunity to prove me wrong, and I obliged, feeling pretty confident. All that he knew about me was my character name and guild on WoW, and the fact that I was Canadian. In five minutes he returned with my full name, street address, and phone number. I slept with a sword under my bed for a while after that, but he explained his process to me, and I've tested it myself.

He first went to the guild forums, and with a search for my character name, brought up my profile, that had my email in it, which he used to look me up on Facebook, giving him my first and last name and my place of residence. Now all he had to do was punch that info into Canada 411 and boom, my address and phone number were on his screen.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Ive never quite understood the need to hide so much of your identity like even your first name from the internet. The sickos arent just out there on the internet. They are on the streets and look just like you and me. Why this logic doesnt extend to the normal world is what I dont understand.

Though meeting with someone you dont know in a secluded area is a bad idea, both if you met them on the internet or if you met them in real life.

Quick tip, if they never add new pictures and just have the same old pictures forever be suspicious.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Look at my name. Not giving (my) name is my middle name.

*Buddushding*

Ahem.

Anyway, if I can get away with not giving any information out period. I don't trust any of you, and I live by the assumption every person I meet online is a spam bot or a Nigerian Prince who can't spell Nigeria, or money.

Or "the" for that matter...

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Ive never quite understood the need to hide so much of your identity like even your first name from the internet. The sickos arent just out there on the internet. They are on the streets and look just like you and me. Why this logic doesnt extend to the normal world is what I dont understand.

Though meeting with someone you dont know in a secluded area is a bad idea, both if you met them on the internet or if you met them in real life.

Quick tip, if they never add new pictures and just have the same old pictures forever be suspicious.

It is less of the sicko's and more of the hackers I worry about. Oh, you are a pervert? Oh, what are you going to do, touch me through the internet? However, a hacker can empty my bank account if I let them, and can and will get into my crap. I have had a trojan horse before, thankfully on a computer I had never bought anything on and just used for school while looking up images of My Little Pony of all things.

Spoiler: Although their have been very creepy tales of stuff that has happened because of the internet

 

[Gatx]

I'm not sure if it's a younger generation being too comfortable with the internet thing. I think it's just that more "normal" people are accessing the internet. See, whereas geeks have been navigating the internet for a while and have a sort of paranoia about security on varying levels, a person who isn't used to the internet just goes on and clicks on every pop-up, signs up for accounts, and so on and so forth.

I am amazed at the number of people that have computers and are online all the time (mostly facebook it seems), but lack so much knowledge about other parts of the internet. Some classmates of mine didn't know there were other wikis other than Wikipedia and Wikileaks.

 

[Cyael]

but guise 3: internet security is a joke - & majority of the people on failbook & stuff couldn't name one good way to do anything "safely" online

 

[Craorach]

I definitely agree that internet users these days just seem totally ignorant of everything we were taught when we started using it.

And yet they also seem to think, too often, that there are no consequences on the internet.

Look at all the people posting insanely stupid comments about their employees or people they know IRL, using their own names, and then being shocked when it gets back to them.

I use my real name in one place. Facebook. The only people on my Facebook, I know IRL. I never link it to another website, and I hate when websites pressure me to log in to them using it.

I'm an extreme example, but I was raised with the idea that privacy is more important than just about everything else in the world. Only a handful of people I work with know how to contact me outside of work, and I once got nearly fired for abjectly refusing to give my employer any phone numbers unless they broke company policy about putting them in a book accessible to all staff for shift covering.

I keep all aspects of my life separate. I socialise with nobody who is a workmate unless I, or they, have left that business. I don't converse online with people I know IRL with the exception of a handful of fellow WoW players.

People these days seem to think you need to mix your work, personal, private and social lives.. as if your co workers need or should know what you get up to on the internet or in private. This is why none of them care about using their real details for websites... because it doesn't matter to them.. they are so used to Tweeting what they are having for breakfast and posting pictures all over facebook that they never consider who else has access to that information.

 

[beniki]

Hehe, while I see the roots of a "These gosh-darned kids" thread,...

Kind of. It's not all the noobs on the intertubes, but I do see a lot of people saying 'They're just scanning my data to improve my gaming/facebook/browsing experience. What's wrong with that?' That's something that would strictly not fly little more than 5 years ago. It's a trend that I'm not sure is good.

I think it is a natural evolution of things really. The more people are online the more anonymous you become even with the use of your real name.
But yes people might be a bit to easy with things, although I do not know how "dangerous it really is"

Pedobear says hello... but more realistically, it's a sign that people aren't able to, or willing to protect themselves online. A good example would be walking around with your national insurance/social security number on a big flag on your back. Not really a problem most of the time, but there are arseholes out there who can take advantage.

I'm not sure if it's a younger generation being too comfortable with the internet thing. I think it's just that more "normal" people are accessing the internet. See, whereas geeks have been navigating the internet for a while and have a sort of paranoia about security on varying levels, a person who isn't used to the internet just goes on and clicks on every pop-up, signs up for accounts, and so on and so forth.

I am amazed at the number of people that have computers and are online all the time (mostly facebook it seems), but lack so much knowledge about other parts of the internet. Some classmates of mine didn't know there were other wikis other than Wikipedia and Wikileaks.

Kind of true. I wish computer education in schools was more than 'This is how you use MS Word.'

Ive never quite understood the need to hide so much of your identity like even your first name from the internet. The sickos arent just out there on the internet. They are on the streets and look just like you and me. Why this logic doesnt extend to the normal world is what I dont understand.

Though meeting with someone you dont know in a secluded area is a bad idea, both if you met them on the internet or if you met them in real life.

Quick tip, if they never add new pictures and just have the same old pictures forever be suspicious.

Yeah this is true... but a lot of people lack the common sense not to go down dark alleys with creepy guys, which is when bad things happen. Particularly kids who don't know any better. I'm concerned that younger people in particular don't take internet dangers seriously enough until, well, they walk down that electronic alley.

I definitely agree that internet users these days just seem totally ignorant of everything we were taught when we started using it.

And yet they also seem to think, too often, that there are no consequences on the internet.

Good, it's not just me... I sometimes wonder if the younger generation can link up internet activities to the real world, or if there's a 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' mentality. You see it all the time with abusive online behaviour, or just trolling in general.

Look at my name. Not giving (my) name is my middle name.

*Buddushding*

Ahem.

Anyway, if I can get away with not giving any information out period. I don't trust any of you, and I live by the assumption every person I meet online is a spam bot or a Nigerian Prince who can't spell Nigeria, or money.

Or "the" for that matter...

I'd share my tin foil hat with you... but, I don't trust you.

Incidently, my capthca for this post is 'pedfie when'. Ironic

 

[Craorach]

Good, it's not just me... I sometimes wonder if the younger generation can link up internet activities to the real world, or if there's a 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' mentality. You see it all the time with abusive online behaviour, or just trolling in general.

The weird thing to me is that is exactly how I always viewed the net... separate from my real life, etc. Everyone I knew did for years.

It's like the people who are getting into trouble via facebook and things like that have taken the idea that it is still like that, while thinking it's fine to put their real names on it

The terrible thing is that it's these people who took that separation and anonymity away from those of us who treasured it :/

 

[JoJo]

I'm pretty open about my name and personal details online really, say all you like about hackers and stalkers but the reality is that there's no reason anyone would want to track me in particular out of the millions of people online. I find the "meet up with anonymous pervert" argument ineffective as that's an argument against meeting people you don't know through the Internet, not giving out personal details. It does help that there are at-least 15 other people in the UK with the same first/surname combination as me meaning it's hard to find me from name alone without getting bogged down by others. If someone really wants to fap to a photo of me they found on FaceBook then they're free to, I really don't care.

Edit: It's worth adding that I generally keep my pseudonyms and real names separate, while I know someone could find my real name and Facebook (not linked from this account but I've mentioned my first and surname in a number of threads) with a bit of digging a lot of my data on FB is set to private and I refuse people I don't know. The important part is that it's stronger the other way round: potential employers typing in my real name would draw a blank of any of my online accounts under some variation of the name JoJo whilst being deluged by info about various other people with my name.

 

[Wintermoot]

unlike most people of my age I don't really post that much private information on social networking sites.
if kids end up being bullied over private information it,s their own fault.
PS
people should choose for themselves if they want to join social media or not but shouldn't be surprised or victimize themselves if they suffer the consequences (like having Anonymous chasing them like Jessy Slaughter)

PPS
the only reason I have FB/Twitter is because my friends forced me into it that,s also why I didn't link them to my Escapist account. I do have a Google account but that,s only for Gmail and Youtube.

 

[Wintermoot]

My Escapist profile is blank because I only made one out of necessity in order to post the very rare reply and whatnot.

United States
Miroku2235 for both Steam and Facebook, seeing a pattern?
Same as well for Aim, MSN, Yahoo, Trillian.

I got nothing to hide.

So.

You do not want to hide that you are a single agnostic man? You are all alone in this world. You write poetry. You are on at least 5 dating sites.

An example of this.

Would it be so easy to forget you
and the short time we shared.
The long talks till dawn
and of the loss of sleep we didn't care.
Though the distance was grand
cellphones helped bridge the gap.
Oh what obstacles I would face
if only I could win you back.
But I know I have lost you
and am willing to admit defeat.
And it's true parting is sorrow
but I've found it's none too sweet.

Your top three artists are "Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, TraptGet"

You are 24 years old.

One last point before I probably get banned.

"I've reached my limit. I simply cannot take any more of this shit. My ex, whom I still harbor feelings for, just has to rub it in my face that her current boyfriend "adores her" and is "perfect for her". Fuck you *****, I wanted to be your "special someone" but when I said I wasn't ready for a picket fence and kids at the age of 20, that wasn't ok with you. It's 4:30 AM and instead of sleeping I can't get my brain to shut the hell up for two seconds. Instead I keep thinking about some of the women I'm talking to, what to do about my unemployment situation, how to find time to freaking live my life. It truly is nights like these that make me wish I could wind back the clock and change things, or perhaps, stop the clock altogether."

You know what mate?

Privacy matters. Do not post what you think is innocuous information online. it is fucking dangerous and fucking stupid.

Have I made you realise that privacy matters? If so, Please respond by not banning me. Pretty sure what I just did toed the line.

Was all of that stuff you are totally ok being announced here on the escapist?

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/miroku2235/
http://www.okcupid.com/profile/Miroku2235/journal
http://www.datehookup.com/PostsBy-107783951-miroku2235.htm
http://allpoetry.com/poem/4620747-Lonely_Voyage-by-Miroku2235
https://twitter.com/#!/Miroku2235
https://twitter.com/#!/Miroku2235
http://www.furspace.com/Miroku2235 (Matching picture with OK cupid, this is still the same guy)
http://rude.com/Miroku2235/profile/
Oh, and you read erotica on liteerotica.com

My point?

Privacy matters a lot. Especially for someone who is or used to be a furry. That shit is embarassing and can prevent you from getting hired. Not officially, mind. But employers do not like to employ weird people. Oh, and you are unemployed right now. Having your entire personal history up on the internet doesn't help.

Maybe you should not post your username that you use for everything on the internet mate.

EDIT:

My Escapist profile is blank because I only made one out of necessity in order to post the very rare reply and whatnot.

United States
Miroku2235 for both Steam and Facebook, seeing a pattern?
Same as well for Aim, MSN, Yahoo, Trillian.

I got nothing to hide.

Since you have nothing to hide...
*SNIP*

There are a few examples of things he probably should be hiding.

obligatory this is from another thread but clearly illustrates why you should take care with personal information on the web today.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I try to keep useful personal information offline. Although, granted, i DO use the same username ("ThatLankyBastard") for pretty much everything online ,there aren't many details that can be tied to my identity IRL other then I live in Maritime Canada.

...on FB I have just shy of 100 friends, all of which I know personally. I won't accept a friend request unless I can pick your name off your face or attach your face to a name without looking at your profile.

I like to think that I am good with personal information online. Although I'm sure someone taking a direct interest in me could comb through everything I've said in the past few years to find enough info to locate me, but frankly if they're willing to go through that much then they'll probably have the ability to find me through ways I can't control (IP addresses, hacking my accounts, etc.)

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I still can't find anything about me besides my Facebook on Google, and that's pretty securely locked down (It has to text me a code if I go on a different computer. Technology is crazy these days)


Edit: Except when I type in my Minecraft username... Which my little brother pretty much solely uses. Okay. Me and my little brother are going to have the biggest fucking talk in the entire god damn world about some serious fucking issues. Wow.

I will never look at this kid the same again.

And yes OP. I now feel like I know exactly what you mean. It would appear my little brother does not have a sense of security and anonymity that you are talking about.

And I now understand why the few times I go on Minecraft that it's a brand new girl character.

This is bad.

 

[Joccaren]

Yes, a number of my generation are not careful enough online with their data - handing out mobile numbers over Facebook and such.
However, the same can be inverted: a number of people from older generations are too cautious with their info. E.G: This Origin hate. Use Steam? Use Facebook? You're getting data mined too, Origin is just one more on the list. I don't have any essential data on my PC or on Origin/Steam/Facebook, and I don't use the same passwords on different sites. Am I 100% safe? Nope. Am I safe enough that I really don't need to worry about Steam/Facebook/Origin? Yep.

 

[Kermi]

I grew up using a psedonym online, but than social networking removed that barrier somewhat. I don't advertise my real name, but I don't hide it either. I can't be bothered checking but it's probably right in my profile. It's certainly on my linked Twitter account and Facebook.

However I manage this. I don't share any compromising data over Twitter (which is not secure) and what information I have on Facebook is available to friends only - I have never added a friend on Facebook that I do not know personally and would give my address/phone number to in real life.