Danger! Social networking site

All too often we read in the press about a house being trashed because a teenager posted an invitation to a party on a social networking web site - usually Facebook - and had hordes of gatecrashers arrive. This has always puzzled me as I understand that the only way to read what somebody posts on their Facebook wall is to be a 'friend' of the poster. How do all those gatecrashers manage to read comments made by somebody completely unknown to them?

What is far worse than having a house trashed by uninvited guests - although Heaven knows, that must be bad enough - is hearing of children being groomed by perverts and paedophiles. I think I have an inkling of how they (the perverts) mange to do this. I have a F/b page, although I rarely even log on and even more rarely post anything, but I quite often receive emails saying that somebody wants to be my friend. I suppose it is about half of those wannabe friends that I have actually heard of - but the rest are complete strangers. (Yes, I know - a stranger is just a friend I have yet to meet.) I have heard somebody - a grown adult, not an impressionable teenager - say, 'I've got 197 friends now. How can I get to 200?' Or words to that effect. That seems to me to be part of the problem: there is a compulsion to collect as many so-called friends as possible, regardless of the fact that one knows nothing whatsoever about them.

I put that flag-thingy widget - a visitor counter - in the sidebar earlier this year. I think it was only this year although I suppose it might have been last. Anyway, the thing that surprises me is that this blog has had (I don't say 'attracted') all but 1600 different visitors since the widget was installed. The vast majority of those visitors were, I am sure, people who were idly surfing the bloggoshpere and clicking on the 'next blog' link at the top of most pages without pausing long enough to read anything of real interest to them. But I do wonder just how many people have read posts that I have made saying exactly when the Old Bat and I are going to be away from home - an open invitation to burglars (not that it would do them a lot of good) if they can work out just who I am and then where I live.

Am I becoming paranoid? I don't think so, but we do read so much about identity theft and putting the internet to use for illegal purposes that there are times when I get just a little anxious that I might be posting a bit too much personal information.

I realised, while typing that last paragraph, that anyone who lands on this blog can very easily find out exactly who I am and where I live. The information is just a couple of clicks away and, for semi-business purposes, there it must remain. At least until I can work out a way to make that information more secure. Oh crikey - I am becoming paranoid!