Visitors to area have mixed feelings about social media

        Michael Rodham doesn't believe in Facebook. 

"It's absolutely an invasion of people's privacy," said Rodham, a tourist from England who visited Alexandria, Va., last month. "I think Facebook causes more problems, more breakups, and more trouble than it's worth." 

Like it or not, social media has become and integral part of life in 2014. Everything that anyone does becomes a shared experience with followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. People who went to high school together in the 1970s and '80s can reunite with old friends, college buddies can keep in touch after graduation; Facebook users are able to connect with one another more than any previous generations. A Washington Post Express article published last week cites a study saying that nearly 21 percent of people who met their spouses online and got married between 2005 and 2012 met through social networking sites. That's about the same amount of people who meet their spouses at school, in person. 

But social media isn't all fun and games. People like Rodham, who say that the new media is an invasion of privacy, are constantly being validated as the networks learn more and more about their users. 

On May 19, 2014, Facebook launched a new feature, called "Ask," on its site. The Ask button allows Facebook users to ask friends for information that they don't have posted on their profiles, such as relationship status or current city. If someone receives an Ask request, he can either share his information exclusively with the friend who requested it, or post it publicly on his profile. 

Visitors to both Alexandria and Washington, D.C. the week after the new feature was launched had mixed opinions about it. 

"It seems a bit intrusive," said Cheryl Compton, who brought a group of Texas high school students to the area for a field trip. "I'm a fairly private person. I think I might not [respond to an Ask request]." 

Birmingham, Ala., resident David Olivet, who shares a Facebook account with his wife Heather, stumbled across the Ask button the first week that it was available, and he took advantage of it. "We've got a relative that we're going to visit, and I didn't know her email address," Olivet said. "So I clicked on it to request her email, because she didn't have it publicized. And she sent it to me." 

Curtis Anderson from Tucson, Ariz., estimates that he checks his Facebook account five times each day. His feelings about the new Ask button are neutral. "I think [people will] either use it or they won't," said Anderson, who was visiting the National Mall with his family. "I think people will get upset about it, but I don't think that will stop [Facebook] from providing a service. If you don't answer, you don't answer." Anderson said he would honor an Ask request if it came from someone he really knew, but he would otherwise ignore it. 

In addition to toeing the line with data and information sharing, social media accounts can also lead to physically dangerous situations. The same week that Facebook's new Ask feature unveiling was in the news, a darker story out of North Carolina also emerged. 

On May 21, 2014, USA Today reported that a 27-year-old man from Albemarle had been hiding in the closet of 14-year-old girl and engaging in sexual activities with her. The two met online and communicated via social media, and the girl's parents were unaware. After chatting through their social media accounts for about a month, the man, Jarred Ashley Workman, and the teen agreed to meet in the woods near the girl's home in the Love Valley, N.C. area. Workman then snuck into the teen's house without her parents' knowledge and hid in her closet for five days, coming out at night to have sex with the girl. He was discovered when the girl's mother opened the closet door to put some laundry away. Workman is now in jail on a more than $1 million bond. 

This raises the question then of how many parents actually monitor their children's social media accounts. 

Heather Olivet said that while she and her husband typically don't log in to their kids' social media accounts, they do have access to them. "We have their passwords, but rarely do we go in them," said Olivet, with her family at the National Mall. "But we could." 

Anderson said that his teenage son has an Instagram account, but that he doesn't monitor it. 

Compton said that all of her children are adults except one, and she does monitor the minor's Facebook account.

Rodham said that the only media he needs is watching television back home in England. "It doesn't bother me," he said. "Too many people spend time on mobiles and iPhones and Facebook. You lose the ability to talk to people, to interact with people. It's a faceless society." 

Panelists address role of NSA, public in cyber security issues

        On Thursday morning, June 12, the American Enterprise Institute hosted a conference on cyber security. The general consensus among panelists and speakers, who ranged from Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, to Maureen Ohlhausen, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, is that the American public is generally uninformed on security issues and how to best protect themselves. 

"No one wants their identity stolen," said panelist Robert Dix, Vice President of Juniper Networks. "We have a responsibility to educate people on how to protect themselves in cyberspace." 

Ohlhausen said that the FTC's website offers information on how to keep data secure, but Wheeler said that cyber adversaries do not fit a particular profile, and that technology is constantly changing. This poses a problem for security. 

"Our cyber adversaries worldwide are right at our virtual doors," he said. "They are waiting to break in. We live in an age where a few smart 20-year-olds in somebody's garage can render standard technology obsolete. Tackling the challenges of cyber security will require a joint effort." 

The panelists were at odds as to whether or not government organizations are working together to try to protect the nation's electronic data. "We don't have an agreement on the handoff between Homeland Security and national security," said Dix. But Christopher Painter, Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the Department of State, said that the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and FBI all work together to respond to threats. 

Alexander, who stepped down as director of the NSA in March of this year, opened his remarks with a simple statements that demonstrated just how much data is exchanged electronically. "If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world," he said. "And anyone who has access to Google has access to more information than the president of the United States did in the year 1990." 

One of the panelists, retired General Michael Hayden, addressed the stories surrounding former NSA employee Edward Snowden. "We don't say 'Snowden' at the NSA," he said. "We use the phrase, 'He Who Must Not Be Named.' He's a traitor to his country who has caused damage to our military readiness." Hayden said that 90 percent of information stolen by Snowden was of a military and tactical nature. 

Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, addressed the role of the NSA and its coverage by the media. 

"Every day there's an article that isn't exactly right about leaks coming from the NSA," he said. "The NSA does not listen to or monitor our domestic networks. That's against the law. There is no domestic surveillance program." 

Several of the panelists pointed out that domestic probing is illegal in the United States, but that the security agency can, and does, try to prevent cyber terrorism with foreign connections. "I ran the NSA for six years. We spy too," he said. "We spy to keep you safe." 

Carson: 'Our strength is in our unity'

Last Wednesday, neurosurgeon and author Dr. Ben Carson told attendees at a National Press Club luncheon about his plan for America's healthcare. He talked about taxes. He talked about education. And he said that he does not intend to make a run for the presidency in 2016. 

"I have taken no steps toward such a thing," Carson told the crowd. "I do not wish that job upon anybody, including myself." 

Carson, who caused waves after speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast last year, spoke for roughly 20 minutes before answering questions that were submitted by members of the audience. His speech focused on the importance of education and common sense. "The founders of our nation said our freedom and our system of government is based upon a well-informed and educated populous," he said. "And if they ever become anything other than that, the nature of the country will change. Why? Because people will not have the wherewithal to analyze what they're hearing." 

Carson criticized President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, referring to it as "The Unaffordable Care Act," then offered a solution of his own. He said he would like for every American to have a Health Savings Account from the day they are born, and money would accumulate in a person's account throughout their life. Most medical expenses could be paid for with the money collected in a person's HSA, and money would be transferrable between members of the same family. "A key thing for me is to make sure that the most important thing you have, your healthcare, is in your own hands," Carson said. "How can you give away your most important asset to the government? Because if they can control your most important asset, then it's not long before they can control everything else." 

Partially because of his stance on the Affordable Care Act, Carson is referred to sometimes as a conservative and considered a Tea Party favorite. He told the press club that he is a registered Independent who doesn't consider himself to be conservative or liberal, but logical. He said that common sense should be present in both parties; that's why it's called common sense. 

Carson addressed the national debt of 17 and a half trillion dollars in his speech as well. He said that if the debt was to be paid back at the amount of one billion dollars per day, it would take 47 years to pay off. Carson also pointed out that the United States is able to borrow money because its dollar is the reserve currency of the world. "That's a status that usually goes to the number one economic power in the world, which we have been since the 1870s and will not be by the end of this year because of our incredibly sluggish growth," he said. 

Throughout his time at the press club, Carson stressed the need for unity among Americans. He denounced divisions based on partisanship, economic status, race and gender, and that while he is unsure of the plans God has for him, he said, "Right now, it's to continue to go around and try to wake our nation up and help the people to realize that our strength is in our unity."