I know You, I Walked with You Once Upon a Dream

Dear Reader,


This past week I noticed a dramatic change on the "People you may know" feature of Facebook. There were suddenly several people from work and dozens of people from the classes I am taking this semester. I have always been fascinated by the inner-workings of social media websites and the internet in general, especially when websites try to guess logically what is most interesting and pertinent to one's life. With this being said, today we can chat a little bit about how smart phones play into these features on Facebook and other sites.

You see, as I was trying to figure out how Facebook suddenly would systematically figure out my class and work schedule, I realized that last week I had added several different phone numbers to my phone because of classwork with classmates and getting people to cover shifts at work. You see, if you have a smart phone with the Facebook application, especially the Facebook Messenger application, the programs that run those applications now have access to all your contacts and their information. In other words, the very act of putting a name with a contact in my phone, the Facebook server looks for people by that name. If the name matches up with the number, it makes the connection and makes the suggestion that you be friends on Facebook.

So Facebook doesn't know me as well as originally thought. However, one should still be aware of how much they post online and how much they put on their smart phone. Taking all of this into account, let's look at a few ways you can still be safe and smart online (You don't want your smartphone to be smarter than you, right?):

1. My own rules for adding someone on Facebook include having met them in person at least once. It is baffling to me why you would have an entire relationship with someone online with someone without having met them in person. 
2. Another way to stay safe is verifying who a person is through their pictures. If I cannot tell who it is just by at least one photo, I won't add the person if their pictures make it hard to see their face or they just have quotes or what not as their profile picture.
3. Another rule that I don't live by as strictly is looking at mutual friends/contacts. In the past I would not add a person on a social media website without at least 3 mutual friends or contacts. That rule has changed slightly because of how much traveling I do. It is hard to add a person from Spain as a friend when you don't know anyone else in Spain. As of now, this rule is looking at the mutual friends and contacts to see who they associate with and if you trust those people. A popular saying in Spain is, "Dime con  quien andas y te diré quien eres (Tell me who go with and I'll tell you who you are)." 
4. Don't be afraid to disconnect with someone if you feel like your association is sketchy or uncomfortable.
5. On your smartphone, be aware of the permissions you give each application. Read carefully through each app you download. Unfortunately those permissions are legal documents, so don't be caught unaware. 
6. If your smartphone automatically connects different accounts of your contacts, make sure they are not connecting other accounts you don't want. Some accounts might be confused if you put a number in wrong. Don't end up talking to the wrong person because of a misspelling. 

These rules and others might put you in a place where you know all these people outside of social media but you are not connected online. but, is that such a bad thing? We should connect person to person anyway. As the title says, "I know you." It doesn't say "I know your online profile."