By Staff Report
If we could only stay six feet technologically apart.
Every day, our world gets closer together, and for some it can be overwhelming.
There are steps you can take to protect yourself and your family from those that seek to exploit good intentions.
The first step of protecting your social media presence is to review your social media privacy settings and keep that password changed often. In 2012, more than 117 million passwords were shared from LinkedIn users. Still today, less than 20 percent of us admit to frequent changing of our social media passwords. If you think about it, users share a vast amount of personal information with these social media sites, and we share it with people who are not as often close to us as we would like to think.
Step on an elevator or get in line behind someone at a convenience store and start telling them something you posted online last night. Social media is just about that secure when it comes to protecting your posts.
A best practice is to review and lock down your settings on any of the social media apps. On Facebook, for example, make sure you are only sharing information with friends and that to become a friend they must know you or be a friend of a friend. If you do not recognize someone who is requesting to be your friend, leave them in friend purgatory. You can also categorize your friends and then only make posts to close friends or other categories, so the world isnÂ’t reading your every word.
Even with friend restrictions, keep your personal things private. It is simply not enough to limit your friendÂ’s list, but keep in mind that when you post something, even if you delete it; it never really goes away. There is always a digital fingerprint that can be found, so have some discretion when posting things, especially if you are doing so from an emotional state of mind.
Another good practice is to every so often review your social media friendships and eliminate those that may have seemed close when you added them that may not be now. Some people even follow the rule: If IÂ’d never invite them over to my house, they donÂ’t need to see my posts on social media. There is a happy balance for everything.
Finally, if you feel you are being harassed online, visit stopbullying.gov or contact your nearest law enforcement agency.
Hannah Collins 
KINSLEY COOK