My First Blog EVER!

Welcome to my first blog posting ever!  While I never was conceited enough to think that my thoughts and opinions were so interesting that other people would actually want to read them, for the sake of a grade in a class, here I am!  Until this class, I never followed anyone else's blogs either -- mostly because I sit in front of a computer for about six hours out of my day and that is the last thing I want to do when I get home.  I don't participate in any social networking site, instead preferring to share my photos, information, memories, etc., personally with people in my life who are truly important to me.   What a wonderful segue way to my first blog topic -- Facebook.  At my son's school open house, his teacher was asked why her picture wasn't on the school website.  She then told a story about students copying her picture that used to be on the website, Photo shopping her face onto pictures of compromising positions and then posting them on a fake Facebook page.  Friends alerted her to the page, she took the necessary steps to have the page removed and then had to go before the school board to explain that it really wasn't her.  She was exonerated, but a public apology was never made.  How many people who did not  know of this incident looked at that page and formed an immediate opinion about her?   She could not even pursue the students who committed this act because they are protected by free speech -- something I didn't know until I read  Bob Sullivan's blog (http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/10/the-headlines-conjure-up-every-parents-nightmare-teachers-fired-for-flirting-on-facebook-with-students-the-new-york-post-r.html) entitled "Teachers, Students and Facebook, A Toxic Mix."  While his blog is mostly concerned with teachers who "friend" students on Facebook and the resulting consequences, it was the part about postings on the Internet being covered by the free speech amendment that concerned me.  I'm going to learn a lot about technology in this program and I may not always like what I learn.  For now, I'll stay off of social networking sites.  For me, the best privacy setting is not to participate.