Social networking sites have changed every person’s ways of socializing and communicating with friends and acquaintances. Since the birth of social networking sites, it has given enormous benefits to the sphere, as it allows to keep in touch with anyone and to collaboration with others even in different geographic areas. By having the full advantages of social networking sites, a big disadvantage existed for some reasons, which is cyber stalking. So, are social networking sites doing us any good? Or are they just a sophisticated way of stalking people?
What do you think? Are they doing us any good or are they actually bad for us and may prove dangerous due to those 'stalkers'?

NOTE!: Don't stop to the extent of just stalkers, if you feel confident you can debate on how you feel about the social networking sites on the whole, and why they are good/bad for you, me and everyone else!
Debate.

lol how can you ask if social networking sites are doing us any good and ask people to debate about their efficiency if earlier you already state 'it has given enormous benefits to the sphere'

and also i honestly i don't think anyone would doubt the fact that SMs are potentially dangerous due to online stalkers. But i think it really it all comes down to how much personal information you chose to display online, who you connect with and where you share that information.

Quote from Alien

lol how can you ask if social networking sites are doing us any good and ask people to debate about their efficiency if earlier you already state 'it has given enormous benefits to the sphere'

and also i honestly i don't think anyone would doubt the fact that SMs are potentially dangerous due to online stalkers. But i think it really it all comes down to how much personal information you chose to display online, who you connect with and where you share that information.

That is true, but some sites require more information than your e-mail address, for an instance Twitch (I know it's not a social networking site, even tho you can say that people communicate and meet each other), PhantomL0rd, a famous LoL and Counter Strike : GO streamer was 'reported for keeping hostages' and SWAT's came all over his house aiming with guns everywhere, and that all happened in the middle of a stream. He was then kept 5 days in custody until everything was clear. That all happened by a group of hackers which then kept 'trolling his stream' for a month or so, ddosing every online game he played.

I personally think there are a lot things we can discuss and debate in this area.

Quote from Exxonite

That is true, but some sites require more information than your e-mail address, for an instance Twitch (I know it's not a social networking site, even tho you can say that people communicate and meet each other), PhantomL0rd, a famous LoL and Counter Strike : GO streamer was 'reported for keeping hostages' and SWAT's came all over his house aiming with guns everywhere, and that all happened in the middle of a stream. He was then kept 5 days in custody until everything was clear. That all happened by a group of hackers which then kept 'trolling his stream' for a month or so, ddosing every online game he played.

I personally think there are a lot things we can discuss and debate in this area.

Bad rebuttal, Exonnite/420AceDrake (also jesus fuck that account or get jeff the god to erase that name from existence its a meme cesspool). You can report anyone to the police and say that, and the SWAT will still show up. That's not anything to do with social media, just the world's security.

Also, I'd rather be cyber-stalked than have a neck-bearded, introverted, World of Warcraft player rape me.

Quote from Exxonite

That is true, but some sites require more information than your e-mail address, for an instance Twitch (I know it's not a social networking site, even tho you can say that people communicate and meet each other), PhantomL0rd, a famous LoL and Counter Strike : GO streamer was 'reported for keeping hostages' and SWAT's came all over his house aiming with guns everywhere, and that all happened in the middle of a stream. He was then kept 5 days in custody until everything was clear. That all happened by a group of hackers which then kept 'trolling his stream' for a month or so, ddosing every online game he played.

I personally think there are a lot things we can discuss and debate in this area.

Unless I've misunderstood what you've said, I think you're assuming that the hackers elicited his personal information from twitch servers(twitch dont even ask for any information like that and you can see so here). Whereas I didn't read any articles reporting the hackers got data from Twitch, I did find out that the incidents leading up to the streamer's SWATting were partially due to his own idiocy

Quote from Alien

Unless I've misunderstood what you've said, I think you're assuming that the hackers elicited his personal information from twitch servers(twitch dont even ask for any information like that and you can see so here). Whereas I didn't read any articles reporting the hackers got data from Twitch, I did find out that the incidents leading up to the streamer's SWATting were partially due to his own idiocy

They did somehow get his real name and address, you can watch the video he made about it. However, that's beside the debate. Stupid people tend to say their real names and addresses in social media.
Externus: Your point is..? I never tried to hide that I was 420AceDrake, I am pretty sure everyone was aware of it even without your incredible investigations. Thanks for the effort of trying to be funny anyways.

Quote from Exxonite

They did somehow get his real name and address, you can watch the video he made about it. However, that's beside the debate. Stupid people tend to say their real names and addresses in social media.
Externus: Your point is..? I never tried to hide that I was 420AceDrake, I am pretty sure everyone was aware of it even without your incredible investigations. Thanks for the effort of trying to be funny anyways.

you've said it yourself. I really don't think there is much more to debate about

edit: I misread your post as 'stupid people say their real names and addresses on social media' which lead me to think that you mean that only foolish people do that. Anyway it really doesn't change the fact that its a huge risk revealing personal information to such an unregulated service like the internet

Additionally, its possible for an experienced hacker to pinpoint ones physical address without breaching an SMs servers information on the targeted user.

Quote from Exxonite

They did somehow get his real name and address, you can watch the video he made about it. However, that's beside the debate. Stupid people tend to say their real names and addresses in social media.
Externus: Your point is..? I never tried to hide that I was 420AceDrake, I am pretty sure everyone was aware of it even without your incredible investigations. Thanks for the effort of trying to be funny anyways.

Sigh. You brought up Twitch saying how that's an example of how social media is bad, essentially. I said, that's a stupid argument because you can report anyone in real life without any help of social media or the Internet at all, saying the same thing, and the police and SWAT will still come and fuck you up. Reporting someone saying they have hostages will result in severe consequences for them online or offline.

Nice try at...not...being able to read?

Quote from Externus

Sigh. You brought up Twitch saying how that's an example of how social media is bad, essentially. I said, that's a stupid argument because you can report anyone in real life without any help of social media or the Internet at all, saying the same thing, and the police and SWAT will still come and fuck you up. Reporting someone saying they have hostages will result in severe consequences for them online or offline.

Nice try at...not...being able to read?

Yeah, try calling the police and saying 'PhantomL0rd has taken 5 hostages blah blah blah' , I mean.. I am sure that they are constantly watching his stream and know who he is. They'll surely know his real name and address, right? See, you make no sense whatsoever.

You can’t quantify whether they are doing more good or bad, but personally, for the most part, I think they have undoubtedly been beneficial. They have allowed for easier communication, easier exchange of ideas and have allowed for better spread of information from around the world; there is more connectivity. I mean hell, we are using social media right now and in the process we’re learning, laughing, etc. Has this made people an easier target? Of course. However there are precautions they could take to minimize being a victim of “cyber stalking”.

First let’s define cyber stalking. This is when a person exhibits direct unwanted harassment to another person on an online format (http://www.dvrcv.org.au/help-advice/cyber-stalking-and-harassment). E.g. leaving you messages repeatedly even when asked to stop. Cyber harassment, however, is when they do not directly contact you, but are accessing information or using your information in an unwanted way. According to this (http://cyberbullyingandstalkingguide.com/the-difference-between-cyber-bullying-and-cyber-stalking/) the only difference between cyber stalking and bullying is the age group involved, where the latter seems to be attributed towards children.

What is not cyber stalking, is going onto their facebook page and looking at all their activity even if they do not know you. It might be creepy, but with most online settings, you choose what information is accessible to the public. This can be found in facebook legal terms (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms) (Sharing your content and information). If you are aware that they have managed to bypass this, then I would assume that they are in illegal territory.

Now is there more cyber stalking now that there is social networking sites? Of course. You can’t have drink driving when there are no cars, and you can’t have cyber stalking without these sites. This brings up the idea of whether we blame the tool or the person? We have the idea of Swatting. You’re right, swatting can be done with or without social media. Swatting was done before the existence of twitch, so we can’t outright say that social media is the root cause of such actions (http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/february/swatting020408). Ultimately, it is the person. They want to see another person go through distress. I emphasise “see”. And the easiest way to see this is through accessing social media, such as Twitch. In this case, social media has become an incentive for someone to swat, fuelled by their already fucked up self.

In the end social media is here to stay. You can take precautions or simply choose to avoid it completely. You can risk getting into a car accident by driving or choose to walk for the rest of your life. There is risk to it, as there is to everything you do in life.