Filter Failure Is Putting Our Future At Risk

Should society focus on addressing information overload or filter failure?
     Today's world is plagued by emerging as well as stagnant information that is constantly forcing itself into our everyday lives. Our lives are being flooded with information and there is not much that we can do to escape it. It has become natural for us to intake thousands of pieces of information everyday. When did it become "normal" for the world to know information like where President Barack Obama ate lunch today or even information about how I was feeling after having my wisdom teeth removed? Everyday, people are throwing fragments of their life on top of the already huge mountain of information that is open to the public. Society should not be concerned about the growing amount of information, but rather focus on addressing filtering the increasing amount of information.
   
     Filter failure is becoming a major concern in today's world. The problem is not only trying filtering what information we come into contact with, but also filtering what information we send out into the world. We must protect ourselves and our families when engaging in social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook, because it is becoming more evident that not everyone is our "friend". The number of identity thefts linked to social networking mediums is growing rapidly. Posting or writing about personal information online is somewhat common and acceptable to a certain extent. However, there is always a risk of divulging too much information. When people open up their lives on the internet, they are also opening themselves up to the risk of attracting stalkers, scammers, identity theives, etc. There are already good measures that people can take such as reading and understanding privacy settings and limiting the amount of personal content that is available to the public online. "According to Consumer Reports Social networking sites typically offer varying degrees of privacy, yet one-quarter of Facebook households either did not know of them or chose not to use them." In some ways we are becoming our own worst enemy by not paying attention to what information we send out into the world and what information we invite into our world. It is necessary to be aware of the risks involved when displaying personal content on the internet, but it is of great importance that we repair society's filtering system to protect us from oursleves. 

  http://www.examiner.com/identity-theft-in-nashville/revealing-too-much-information-on-social-networks-can-lead-to-id-theft