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At the old age of 26, I can remember the time where stalking someone posed many challenges. You had to have reliable transportation, a camera, good binoculars and lots of free time. In the digital world of today, people willingly post more info and pictures online than any good stalker could have gotten in a year of diligent work. Where’s the adrenaline rush/ restraining order potential in that?

Social media networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Hi5 and so forth have turned many people into social junkies. If you get high off of twittering about every moment in your life; if you don’t know most of your Facebook friends; if you spend more time searching for people you used to know than actually talking to the ones you currently know…you might have a problem.

Social media outlets allow people and companies to connect to the world. A website is obviously a critical portal to the world for a company, but drawing people to it is often helped by these outlets. If I befriend 300 people online, I expose myself and my company not only to them, but potentially their friends and their friends and their friends…that’s a pretty big market.

But as exposure rises, privacy and manners decrease rapidly. First off, you never really know who you are talking to when you meet someone online. Are they a friend, a salesman, a mother’s basement dweller? Second, personal and professional relationships can often get mixed and complicated by the amount of info online about an individual. Had a little too much fun on spring break I see…

Lastly, once info is presented online, its hard to get back. One bad picture or careless remark can be put on the big screen for the world to see, hurting one’s image and everything he or she touches.

Social media is a tool to connect both personally and professionally to the world. Like any tool, people should be careful in how they use it. Last thing you want to do is lose a finger in front of the world…though it might get a million hits on YouTube.