Facebook users warn against revealing personal details on social media

AMMAN — Facebook users on Thursday said people should be careful about what they post on social networking sites and avoid unwittingly revealing intimate secrets and personal details.

Publishing photographs, personal confessions and accounts of every move is a "dangerous habit", according to many users.

"I personally do not reveal anything on my Facebook account. Anything I write or post becomes public and open for everyone to see in cyberspace. Why would I do that?" Rayya Haj Abed, a nurse at a private hospital, told The Jordan Times.

"I am shocked when I see some of my Facebook friends post very personal comments about how they feel and why, or who hurt them and what they plan to do over the weekend. Some even swear at or slander someone, thinking that no one can see this on the Internet," Haj Abed said.

Mahmoud Hammoudeh, an IT student at a private university in Amman, said using Facebook for networking and meeting new friends, and staying in touch with acquaintances is a great thing.

Yet Hammoudeh, 20, said he was forced to drop many of his Facebook contacts over the past few months due to their "silly remarks and exaggeration in posts".

"Some of my friends on Facebook post pictures of everything they do, like whenever they cooked something at home, while others revealed secrets about fights between their parents. This is ridiculous," the IT student said over the phone.

"People do not differentiate nowadays between making general comments and revealing very personal and sensitive details and characteristics on Facebook," he stressed.

Fares Yousef, a salesman at a garment import company in Amman, said more awareness is needed on how to use social media properly.

“People think social networks are like an open space with no one around. They don't recognise that anything they post is in cyberspace and can be seen,” Yousef said.

“Facebook is a good website to connect people together and it should be used for good causes, not for silly and trivial comments and posts,” he added.