Jealous Valentine- how the internet is turning everyone into stalkers

           This article was about technology, specifically the internet, making it extremely easy to "stalk" someone from afar, completely in secret. It ties nto Valentine's Day because it focuses on someone's ex-boyfriend/girlfriend consistently stalking them on Facebook. It does bring up a few good points though. (and it goes back to our discussion we had yesterday in class). I believe that everyone who uses Facebook etc is a stalker. Those websites  are DESIGNED to disclose your personal information in an organized, easy to access way. People go on Facebook to see what other people are doing and to see if anything involves them (notifications). Some people don't even care what other people are doing, but are more focused on whether they get a notification saying that it involves them. It makes them feel "important" or "loved" when someone has 40 notifications on their profile from other people. It's not anyones fault. We are all stalkers, whether we know it or not. Other peoples beeswax is enticing and obviously taken advantage of if it is so easily accessed.
           The article makes a good point about technological explosion, Facebook changes, and smart phones and their contributions to social networking becoming stalker-ish. His target audience is anyone who uses social media like Facebook, making it a pretty wide one of over 800 million. Basulto also keeps the article timely by mentioning ex-lovers and online dating to keep with the Valentine's day theme. He addresses readers directly when in parentheses he questions " (How many times would you check out the Facebook profile of a former lover if you could?)" (Basulto 1). It almost sounds accusing, and forces the readers to admit that the juicy information is almost too easy to access and too tempting. He leaves the readers with a warning, "To turn our personal lives upside down, however, all it takes is for some of this data to get out into the wrong hands at the wrong time." (Basulto 1). I think it was a good article and went along nicely with the article we read, the quick write, and our class discussion form yesterday. 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/my-jealous-valentine-how-the-internet-may-be-turning-you-into-a-stalker/2010/12/20/gIQAooV4CR_blog.html