by ArtiSiN

Created on: February 06, 2010   Last Updated: February 18, 2010

1.  My mom sent me a Facebook friend request. What should I do?

Facebook started out as a social networking site strictly for college students, but with the success of other social networking sites Facebook has opened the floodgates to everyone, including your mom. Getting a friend request from your mom is kind of like her listening to your phone calls in high school, only now she can check in on you at anytime.  However, a simple tweak to your privacy settings can exempt her from seeing any of your status updates, photos or wall posts. This will save your mom the grief of a denied friend request and she won’t be any the wiser.

2.  I accepted my mother's friend request on Facebook, but now she writes embarrassing messages on my wall. Is it OK to de-friend her? 

Mom still cramping your style with her posts on your wall? Though you can’t de-friend your mom without a guilt trip, the last thing you want your friends seeing is, “my wittle baby!” from "mommy" sprawled across your wall. Unfortunately, there is no way to keep individual people from posting on your wall without disabling wall posts for everybody. But drastic times call for drastic measures! If you don’t want to disable wall posts from everyone, then your only other option would be talking to your mom and letting her know you “have a rep to protect”.

3.  My friend posted pictures online from our spring break trip to Cabo that are not suitable for public consumption. What should I do?

We all have our embarrassing moments when we’re drunk, but sometimes those moments get caught on camera.  So one day your checking your feed, and your heart stops as you recognize a younger you with whip cream on chest and three scantily clad females about to take a shot off your man gut! Time for damage control. First, un-tag your name from the photo. Second, ask your friend to take down the pic. And third, edit your ‘photos and videos of me’ settings to exclude those you don’t want seeing your photos; and under application settings > photos > additional permissions, uncheck ‘publish to streams’.

4.  My boss found compromising photos and information about me online that she says reflect poorly on the organization. I am worried about losing my job. What can I do?

So, you couldn’t contain the damage of those compromising photos in time, and now your boss is breathing down your neck about them. The first thing you must do is take to ground zero and delete the photos. Next, talk to your boss and explain that the photos he saw were of a younger and dumber you, and that it would never happen in your new found maturity.

5.  My friends told me about some websites that reward people with coupons from businesses if I check in at stores. It sounds fun, but is it safe to be disclosing my location?

If you learned anything from this article, it is that your privacy must be maintained when dealing with people and businesses on the Internet.  Unless it is absolutely necessary do not divulge your personal information online at any cost!  Most offers you see online are either scams or ploys to get more hits to their websites. Therefore it is a must that you watch what information you put out there, as not everyone will exercise a modest “netiquette” out there.  

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