Why do people never learn?

It is interesting to think how it has almost been a decade since the social media sites, as we know them, and sites people can upload and post to first began.

Even though now there are more sites to join, more games to play and different ways to interact with people other than “poking” them, the new generation of kids and young adults using social media has not learned from the mistakes of those who were the first to log on.

There was a recent arrest in the City of Lockport involving videos submitted on YouTube.

This crime, involving a 19-year-old who decided to video tape himself taking a beer bottle, filling it with gasoline, setting it on fire and launching it at the side of a church, then posting it on YouTube is simply ridiculous.

I don’t think too many people out there would commit this attempted arson crime minus the video camera. But to add the camera takes it to another level of stupidity.

Millions of people visit YouTube daily, so there is a pretty good chance that people that post videos of them committing a crime are going to get caught or their video will be alerted to police.

Maybe 8 years ago, when the site first began, this recording of a crime and posting it to the Internet for the world to see would make a little more sense, because at that time people didn’t realize the consequences posting things online meant.

When Facebook first began people didn’t know that posting inappropriate pictures on their page, with no privacy settings or blocking features enacted, could result in their employer firing them or them not getting hired for a job.

People also didn’t realize when they did a status update bashing their employer, teacher or someone they were friends with, that there was a good chance the bashed party would find out and there would be consequences.

These things should not still be happening. There have been thousands of people that have had this happen to them. It has almost become a sort of social media urban legend, a tale of what not to do. However, inappropriate pictures of people falling over drunk, people using drugs, people making inappropriate gestures or posing with inappropriate items are still posted every day.

There is nothing wrong with taking these pictures, to each his own, but they should not be posted onto Facebook or on other Internet sites, even with a privacy setting on your page. You never know who can find away around those settings and access the full page, even if they aren’t your “friend.”

Cyberbullying fits that same situation. A few years ago — though it is never something that should be done and has always been completely inappropriate — kids could get away with calling people names and talking bad about fellow students through a computer, because people did not understand the effects cyberbullying had on others or how to deal with it.

Now, those that do it could face criminal charges. Yet, each day, kids are bullied on websites across the country.

With the advances in social media and the World Wide Web, it is hard to believe that people still make the same mistakes that have ruined the lives of many that have logged on before them.

Just remember, as much as you want it to be … posts to social media sites and interactive websites are anything but “private.”