Michael Fraser, a "reformed burglar" working for the BBC (perhaps one of the more interesting job titles out there) calls it "Internet shopping for burglars." The combination of a willingness to "friend" total strangers and open broadcasting about one's holiday plans, whereabouts, purchases, home interiors and other personal information essentially creates a field day for professional burglars. In fact, we reported on just such an incident back in June.
The concept is backed up by recent statistics from British insurance and investment management firm Legal & General, whose survey found nearly 40% of social networking users share holiday plans on sites like Facebook and Twitter. They also found about 13% of Facebook users and 92% of Twitter users tend to accept friend requests or follows without checking up on the source.
Of course, on Twitter that's default behavior. You have to actively go out of your way to block someone, and the social culture is infused with an ethos of openness and public updating. On the flip side, surely there is some gray area emerging as we culturally get used to the ramifications of "living out in the open" with increasing frequency. It takes some getting used to, and until we're more widely savvy about it these kinds of events will continue to be learning experiences.