Apply Decision-Making Frameworks

Since the dawn of civilization, man has sought to further communication and interaction with his fellow man. The motivation behind this pursuit has been many fold: Some sought and seek this interaction for economic purposes, some for cultural purposes, and some still for educational purposes. Regardless of the incentive, different people in different times have sought to enhance the technology so as to further this pursuit. From the advent of writing in pre-bronze age Mesopotamia to the creation of the printing press in Renaissance Germany to more modern inventions like the radio and telegraph, much of human history has been devoted to making this large world smaller and smaller and furthering our communication and interaction. In this vain, society invented the internet, possibly the most revolutionary piece of technology in human history. Like the other aforementioned innovations, the internet provided man a medium to communicate with his fellow man. Yet, the internet furthered the pursuit of shrinking the world so much that thanks to it, physical distance is a small hindrance in the free exchange of ideas and opinions. One of the major disciplines constructing internet based communication is social networking. During the recent years, social networking has been the victim of ethical issues concerning vigilance and safeguard of privacy for the members and their personal data. The invasion of personal information is a cause of distress for many individuals and organizations. Moreover, it has become an issue that requires constant effort from the concerned parties who are striving to create a safe and comfortable environment for everyone to communicate on these social sites. During the course of this paper some ethical issues regarding the social networking sites such as Facebook will be discussed and the decision making process will be implemented to explore alternatives and implement the solutions.

“Stacy Snyder, an English education teacher candidate at Millersville University, was denied her teaching certificate and given an English degree rather than an education degree after campus administrators discovered photos on her MySpace profile portraying her as a “drunken pirate.” She filed a lawsuit against the university claiming an infringement upon her civil liberties (Read, 2007). Stacy’s situation is just one of many recent cases in which aspiring and practicing educators have faced unfortunate consequences because of the way others perceive the use of social networking tools such as MySpace and Face book. (Carter, Foulger & Ewbank, 2008). ” (www.pbworks.com, page 1)

The above mentioned example is one of many questioning the credibility of the social networking sites. The fact that anyone can go to a person’s profile and save his/her picture to be used as desired is uncomfortable and disturbing. Another method for the disruption of ethical boundaries in regards to these networking channels is their utilization