“I dare you.” These are the words on the homepage that greet visitors of the website “Take This Lollipop.” Along with it is a picture of a razor-embedded blue sucker, enticing the site visitor to take the challenge.
I admit it. The curiosity, in accordance with the lingering boredom between daily tasks, has sucked me in.
By clicking on the lollipop, it prompts a connection directly to my Facebook account. The application requests permission to access such information as relationships, status updates, friends, location and pictures.
Assuming this application is similar to others, I expect to receive some generic yet harmless prediction of which city I should live in, what my spirit animal is or which horror movie I belong in. No big deal.
The movie loads. I watch as a dark world unfolds before me.
The camera lens travels down a dark hall, entering a barren and run-down room of an apartment. A record player, which is presumably on its last leg, plays vintage music that ironically seems more suitable for a ‘50s ice cream shop.
A man, unkempt and ghastly in appearance, sits at a desk staring at his computer screen. He goes to Facebook, and begins to login in.
Suddenly, I’m staring at my own picture. He starts exploring my account, looking at my friends, my wall and pictures. My heart drops, as he audibly and visually shows his interest sorting through the pictures of my private albums.
Sick is the only word I can manage to utter.
The man becomes progressively aroused, and opens up Mapquest to find directions for Scottsdale. The map zooms into my neighborhood. He stops, turns his head and stares straight at the camera, with an eerie smirk.
“(Insert expletive comment here)!”
The creepy man gets into his car, driving in a mad rage, with my picture Scotch-taped to the dashboard. He opens the car door, and begins the search for his next victim: me.
The movie, although simulated and clearly tailored to each person by temporarily borrowing information via the user’s permission, leaves a gut-wrenching feeling of repulsion. Yet, it makes a valid point.
While social media provides ample opportunities and benefits to its users, perhaps we are becoming too comfortable sharing our personal information with friends and acquaintances.
Websites such as Foursquare and Twitter allow the public to surveillance where and what their friends are doing at any given moment. While this can be considered innocent networking, what happens when this information falls into the hands of a stalker or predator?
According to a special study conducted in 2009 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 3.4 million people in the U.S. were victims of stalking. Of those victims, 75 percent knew or were somehow connected to their stalkers.
Portraying the dangers of social media for adolescents, the National Centers for Victims of Crimes explains that “young people, in particular, may tend to view such sites as ‘part of their own little world,’ not a public bulletin board with millions of other visitors.”
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse advises people to use discretion when accepting friend requests, limit their friends’ ability to tag them in posts, and to avoid uploading pictures of your home that might hint at the location.
Although the Facebook support staff frequently sends similar privacy notifications to its users, the alerts often go unwarranted.
So was this a Halloween gimmick or clever public service announcement?
I think the message is clear. Take the challenge at www.takethislollipop.com to judge for yourself.
Reach the columnist at britni.adams@asu.edu
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