‘Cool’ FB friends can be dangerous
With social networking websites making inroads into our lives like never before, many of us are hating the invasion of privacy they bring with them. From pictures of family members, phone numbers, and even personal pictures with lovers, social networking websites reveal everything about you, don’t they? Ever thought how putting so much information on a public sphere can lead to problems?
Recently when a 20-year-old student, identified as Pankaj Mishra, from Swami Vivekanand College, Chembur allegedly raped his junior after she befriended him on Facebook, it got many thinking if it’s really “cool” to be friends with strangers on social networking websites?
Says Utsav Chaudhary, a 20-year-old, who is quite active on Facebook, “Most people today, especially girls are quite open and vocal about their relationships, family and life on Facebook, Twitter and Orkut. It’s a great idea. Many also give in to tempting ‘friendship requests’ by unknown people. It should be avoided. How can you meet someone you only know through Facebook? Authenticity is always a big question mark on such sites.”
According to Dr Geetanjali Kumar, a psychologist and counsellor it’s the need to “connect” with the world, that compels many to become friends with people with “attractive” profiles. “Many people create fake profiles on Facebook and Twitter just to boost their self-esteem. Others connect with people with great profiles to sound ‘with it’ or satisfy their need to connect with the world,” she adds.
Those, who’ve encountered incidents where they’ve met, the “not-so-cool” friends on social networking sites, suggest, “don’t fall for tempting profiles”.
Rohit (name changed on request), a 23-year-old, who met a girl after being friends with her on Facebook, shares, “We spoke for hours on the phone too. When I met her for the first time, I realised she was a completely different personality. After we met, she started sending me SMSes saying she’s in love with me. It took me really long to get rid of her. That’s when I decided to maintain a distance from all the anonymous requests on FB.”
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