I have just finished watching a really interesting documentary on the trial of Amanda Knox, one of the three people found guilty of the murder of Meridith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007. The documentary was trying to establish the true identity of Amanda - was she the innocent, Seattle student her family said she was, or the hard partying girl the media portrayed.
The thing that came out was how the media had used social networking sites such as MySpace to build up a picture of Amanda Knox. By simply accessing her site, they had picked little things she had posted, little videos she had made, and put them together to form an overall image of her. It was this image they used throughout the murder trial and it became a powerful weapon in the prosecutions case.
As the trial unfolded, blogging became a powerful weapon in determining public opinion. Blogs started supporting Amanda Knox and blogs started accusing her of the murder and stating her guilt. Comments left on blogs became more and more vicious as the murder trial continued.
Amanda Know was found guilty and I am not in a position to say if this was correct or not. However, what it showed me was how careful people should be when posting comments, videos etc. on social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook & MySpace as you really don't know who will one day access them. I have already talked on my blog about potential employers using them to get a fuller picture of who someone is. The most worrying aspect is that unless you delete it yourself, the images and information stays on the web.
My advice would be to think before posting stuff - does it give a true reflection on who you are and would you want other people to read it?
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