From professors to our parents, we have always been warned to be careful about what we post online because drunken photos, for instance, can and will haunt us forever.

Facebook and Twitter in general were created for intelligent people who want to connect with others, share their photos and lives with their friends, build and maintain relationships and potentially find jobs.

Most people understand that posting inappropriate photos or blurbs is probably not a brilliant idea, especially if they don’t have the right privacy settings. Whereas, posting pictures from your last vacation and letting your friends know how you feel is harmless, but sometimes those annoying fights on FB can result in your friends deleting you from their newsfeeds.

“I think there has to be some sort of balance with how you post and share. I mean, I’m not sharing my social life, but I am letting you know how I feel about gun control or how my dentists’ appointment went,” said DePaul senior, Natalia Hernandez.

Undoubtedly, the Internet has made it possible for anyone to voice their opinions, and freedom of speech is a beautiful right, but like everything else in life, humans really know how to turn something that is meant to do good things and turn it into something dangerous.

The problem with FB, Twitter and other networking sites is that people can do a lot of harm using them. Some evil people sit behind their computers and bully others, while others are sexual predators who contact children.

On the flip side, police and investigators can use these sites to arrest offenders or to get a lead on a crime. Officials look at their messages or latest posts to find out where they are hiding or what illegal activity they wrote about or posted pictures of.

For example, police officers have created fake FB pages and posed as girls to ticket underage drinkers, reports La Crosse Tribune. Other serious cases include tracking down murderers and rapists by using these sites.

A recent story developed Jan. 1, 2013, when Astoria, Ore. police received calls from people who reported on what their “friend” on FB was saying. 

Jacob Cox-Brown, 18, posted a status which stated, “Drivin drunk… classic 😉 but to whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry :P.”

According to CBS News, Cox-Brown was not charged with a DUI; however Deputy Chief Brad Johnston told the Associated Press that Cox-Brown was charged with failure to perform the duties of a driver.

Instances like this one give hope to humanity because if you see something that can be potentially dangerous to society, reporting it to the police is crucial.

Your “friends” on FB can annoy you, but the world is bigger than just your circle of friends and sometimes people post pictures of babies with bongs or eating rare iguanas and social media catches these criminals with the help of FB or Twitter members or police officials. So, maybe having freedom to post whatever we want may actually benefit society.

“With the world being such a wide and connected sphere now, social media makes the world small,” said Hernandez.