Social media is widely known as an ever evolving network that only does good for humanity, but as we have learned in the past, that is hardly ever the truth. Sure social media is more beneficial than not, and provides easy ways to keep in touch, is good for advertising purposes and many other things but it also bring along some bad information. One problem that is being caused by social media which most people would not realize is that statistics show that robbers are using social media more and more to see if people are at home, among other things. I have seen this happening on television shows such as Criminal Minds but was interested to see if there is actually any proof that it is happening in real life, and the results are alarming. I found a report that ran an interview of 50 ex-burglars in England and an amazing 80% of the were using either Facebook, Twitter, Google Street View or Foursquare. People are making it easy for them to become a target by posting status updates regarding their vacations such as “Cuba for 2 weeks, leaving tomorrow!”. So for a robber it is easy to see that this house will be empty for two weeks, as they can easily go through other updates and get a feel for whether there are roommates or an other people that might still be in the house.
While this was a relatively small survey, it is easy to see why robbers can target people based on these type of status updates and pictures on different social media websites. So the next time you are going on vacation, you may want to think twice about uploading a picture of yourself on the beach with a margarita in your hand because life may not be so perfect when you return home. The article I read also includes other helpful tips on what to do, or what not to do, to ensure you don’t become the next victim. Here is the link!
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/science-scope/infographic-80-of-robbers-check-twitter-facebook-google-street-view/
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
Statistics on thieves using social media to plot their attacks is shocking and not all at the same time. Maybe I am inside the box…I have not heard of this happening but not so naive to think that this couldn’t or wouldn’t happen. Thieves will do just about anything. And at the same time, in a twisted way, it makes sense that thieves are using social media as a tool for them.
Social media is great but people need to be smart about what they put online. Not enough people think about the consequences of the content they put online.