Identifying a Digital Culture issue which I have changed my opinion on

Over the course of the Digital Culture unit, I have learnt many new and different things that I have never really put my interest in, but I am now glad to have learnt all these new subjects because I never knew how much we used things such as Metadata, Tagging and Web 2.0 in our every day lives.

However, I found a topic that I became increasingly interested in, and even done my own research into it after writing the blog. This topic is Cyber Stalking, and subject which I never really took much interest or awareness in before, even though I had heard certain and various stories. After writing my previous blogs, I read a lot in cyber stalking, began watching documentaries on the subject and even old films which point out how dangerous it can really get.

Such films as "Chat room" which involves going into the surreal worlds of online chat rooms, and seeing the impact and seriousness of what getting too involved in these rooms could bring too you and your everyday normal life.

I also previously published a post on a documentary I watched about a young girl that got quite seriously cyber stalked by a stranger who then turned out too actually be her boyfriend.

There is also a website you can access, which illuminates the idea of a man stalking your profile and then travelling to your house, this really and shockingly shows how much the information you decide to post on Facebook can get you in to serious trouble when i comes to stranger people looking at your page. I will post the link to this video below.
http://www.watoday.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-horror-movie-sounds-cyberstalking-alarm-20111020-1m9nn.html

But not many people actually know the true extent of cyber stalking, so many people worryingly go there days to day lives with ongoing personal information on their Facebook profiles. Unfortunately, not many people that do get cyber stalked know that they can actually prosecute the stalker but this usually only happens after the victim is quite badly threatened or even hurt, to be honest, hardly anyone actually speaks up when they are being stalked and this is something that needs to start happening, more and more people need to become aware.

It is also very well known that woman are more likely to end up getting stalked by men, than men would woman, a issue which obviously scares any young woman who lives on her own in a student flat. 

I also enjoyed writing into the subject of "Is it possible for anyone to have a private life". 

Now I didn't realise how much everyone knew and everything until I thought a little more into in that blog post, I sort of saw it as "the norm" for us to know everything that's going on, but is that really right? 

What with the amount of technology we are capable of using these days, gossip and stories and circle round a social group in absolute seconds once found out, and of course I feel sorry the most for the celebrities who's every move is posted in various newspapers and magazines. 

http://www.scotster.com/forums/local-interest/Is-Your-Private-Life-Anymore.5366.html <- The following link is a forum with normal people discussing there thoughts on privacy in the 21st Century. 

It is just worrying to me that to keep anything private these days, you have to go to very high levels. It is always nice to have thing that you and only you know about, something close to you, but that is rare to find these days. 

However the fact I am studying journalism probably makes me sound extremely critical right now, but I want to be a journalist for awareness and help make change, not just jibber jabber on about peoples personal lives.

I think what is even more worrying is that fact that some employers could actually ask for your Facebook password. I remember one of my favourite teachers getting in a lot of trouble and almost sacked because of a picture he uploaded of him drinking. But shouldn't our social networking sites be for our personal and social outside life anyway? 

http://youtu.be/azIW1xjSTCo <- The following video talks deeply about the issue.