Be careful what you post online

GOING by social media usage, many Papua New Guineans like publicity.
Everything, from photographs of self to the food on the table before us and everything else, is uploaded with hardly a thought given to who is actually watching and how such information might be interpreted or used.
We think of the personal friends and family members who are watching and who often respond with a compliment.
Hardly a thought passes through people’s heads about the very many more people who also notice who might appreciate the free information you supply for darker motives.
Someone posted this week an old photograph of two youths, who appeared bashed up and who many said were phone or bag snatchers.
The person who posted the photograph (we called them poster these days) said police had interrogated the two who had broken into a house and robbed it off its contents while the home owners were away.
Apparently, the police learnt from the robbery suspects that they had learnt via Facebook posts that the occupants of the house were all away for several days on a family holiday.
This particular story (of the robbery suspects) sounds far-fetched and is possibly not true but the point is made.
Unintended use can be made of personal information you put online which might turn around and bite you.
Once the information is published, it is virtually impossible to call all of it back.
Even if a convincing case can be made to administrators of online mediums like Facebook or YouTube and a certain information were removed from the medium, somebody would have copied your personal data for their personal use.
That particular information is lost to you forever but be sure that it will appear in one form or another at some future date and it will not be for something complimentary or flattering.
In Papua New Guinea, tribal conflicts flare up overnight out of the smallest slight.
Deaths and injuries occur which are transmitted to relatives in towns and cities all around the country via telephony equipment.
Suddenly you, a member of the opposing tribe, post a sharp selfie of yourself and your family and detail your whereabouts down to the place and time and even the flight you are about to catch.
Be sure that you have just placed your life and those of your family members at tremendous risk because an enemy will also have seen your post and know of your whereabouts.
You have invited the enemy to pay you a visit when you least expect it.
Take another instance.
You take a group photograph and post it, not knowing that you are identifying a member of your group unwittingly to another group who might be looking for him or her for their own dark purposes.
You will never know how many unnecessary domestic fights occur because of social media posts.
Even on the level of just sharing a thought, what you might consider to be gems of wisdom might appear to others of far superior experience and schooling to be plain stupid.
You expose your class and grade and inexperience all by yourself to the wide world.
And who is to blame?
Be careful what you post.