Stranger Danger

Name: Brittany Lucero

Age: 22

Hair color: Dark Brunette

Eye color: Coffee brown

Weight: 126 lbs

Height: 5'3

Pet Peeves: Those who make noises when eating bananas, arrogant personalities, liars, carnivores...

What you are looking for in a life partner: Pants that fit

Describe yourself: fun, social, interesting, beautiful, PERFECT.

 When we think of online dating sites, answering simple questionnaires about ourselves comes to mind. We get to put our information out in online application form in hopes that somewhere, someone is compatible with us. We can manipulate our answers to be more appealing, or put so much detailed information to ensure we are facilitating a companionable match. Although you may not have noticed, both of these acts can be extremely dangerous. Today, I will take information I gathered from various online dating articles and warn you of the many dangers as well as tips to avoid being taken advantage of and catching a deceptive love match. 

It all began around 1964 at the World’s Fair. Foreign pen pals inspired the machine-generated matches. After a questionnaire was filled, it was submitted into a machine and out came a card with a like-minded person who too filled out a questionnaire. The technology was not all that great, but it sparked an interest for an accountant at the fair. He had a programmer friend at IBM who had heard about Operations Match, an online Harvard created, date maker. The two men got together and created a prototype; The next thing they knew, they had Project TACT (Technical Automated Compatibility Testing). It was New York’s first online dating service.

Today, we have millions of people using online dating services. In fact, according to Online Dating Magazine over 40 million Americans used online dating services in 2011. That many people spent over $1 billion in that year. That’s a lot of people and a ton of money. People are finding compatible matches.  Accorrding to Match.com, 17% of marriages in 2007 met on online dating websites. Keep in mind, sometimes with good comes evil, and if you want to find someone online, beware.

The University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business found that many of the dating sites’ metadata were not protected. This means that photos that you may post in your profile could be GPS tracked! That potential danger was eventually spotted and now being fixed by many sites; however, not all sites have complied to protect all your information. 

List of Websites that Expose MetaData

In addition to having your information not always fully protected, strangers, or “potential matches” could be predators. We have all heard about the Craigslist Killer, but there are others who could take advantage of you in other ways. For example, Albert Lovering pleaded guilty to 23 counts of theft. Man Guilty For Taking Advantage Albert acted like he was interested in these women romantically but over the course of his conversation, he manipulatively made these women believe he was in financial trouble. He gained over two hundred thousand dollars from these online dating victims.

People are not the only ones who can take advantage of you in the online dating scene. The online dating website Zoosk began releasing relationship advice, date discounts, and even, with the help of a behavior analysis, advertisements directed to those on the verge of a break-up that reads quotes about never ending love. That’s right; there’s an app! How manipulative!

With all of this negative information about how dangerous and scheming some of these sites can be, some sunlight shines. Not only have websites cracked down on privacy issues (including three major ones) and warnings to members concerning exposure about too much information, but also, PsychCentral listed the online liar characteristics to better help catch predators. Some of these characteristics include those members who avoid using the pronoun "I", those who do not have a lot to say simply because the  less they talk, the less likely they are to mistakenly contradict a lie. One interesting observation that should be noted is that men were more likely to lie overall, but women lied more about their weight. (Surprise, surprise...)

To conclude, when it comes down to it, online dating doesn't have to be calculating and entirely unsafe, as long as you're safe and aware of what to look for. If you are not educated about the true signs of a predator, ways company's could take advantage of the personal information you release, or the risk you are taking to make sure you don't end up alone and lonely,  your online dating experience may not be what it is QUACKED up to be. 

Until next time, thanks for reading!!!

we RIGHT it.

Citizen journalism is created when everyday people write the news. We decide what's important. We decide what gets disseminated. We become amateur journalists. You don't need a degree. You don't need a job. You don't even need any more than the basic tools- the internet and a collaborative news website. Doesn't that sound fun and easy? Well, it's no joke. It really is journalistic power right at your fingertips.

Because of Citizen Journalism, people from all over the world are exposing true situations that influence public policy. For instance, women in India are coming together and blogging about repression and the domination of men in their land. Commonly, men creep them out, especially on the streets. They stare, they harass, they say things under their breath. That would be uncomfortable to anybody, but it is a true problem there. They have even created advocates of this situation, and it all started through citizen journalism. The women would come together on forums and talk about the harassment, warn others which streets are filled with creepers, and even take photographs of these perverted men and display them on the website-for embarrassment. It may sound like a joke to us, but it is a real problem, and thanks to citizen journalism, Indian women are beginning to address the issue.

Even South Koreans are embracing citizen journalism, which, in turn, is making them more democratic.
How? Well, in a democratic society, it is for the people, by the people. In South Korea, an online magazine called OhMyNews is just that. They became more democratic after the speech abolition law was overrun by the Democratic Agreement of 1987. Now, magazines like OhMyNews can deviate from professional, include commenting systems, and everyone can participate.







<<Random Korean Man




Kids are citizens too.

In Brazil, children have even embraced citizen journalism. Newspaper clubs have allowed children to express themselves, their ideas, and their interest on paper. There are online newspapers where they can contribute, and they are given a chance to have a voice in a nation where exploitation and prostitution are not news to them.






So there may be a blurry line between professional and amateur journalism, but as long as the participatory culture continues, we will receive all kinds of news from all kinds of people.
Thanks for reading!