Social media has impacted the world in many ways like being able to spread awareness of recent news more quickly, or being a source of entertainment for many around the world. Social media can also be a big influence upon others, inspiring others to use their creativity for good. While social media has greatly benefited modern society, it is also important that we have ethical use of social media. Ethically using social media means that we should use it in a safe, secure, and truthful way in order to avoid the consequences of the unethical use of social media. Not using social media in a secure ethical manner could lead to results that could potentially ruin your personal life horribly.
When using social media, most platforms will collect your data which is the posts you view and interact with and even your personal information. Your data from social media is surveyed and used by these companies in order to find trends and preferences of users. However, your data can be exploited by cybercriminals to steal your personal info for identity theft and other acts such as impersonation in order to spread malware or viruses. Your personal info can be protected by enabling things like 2-Factor Authentication and reporting or ignoring potential scammers or hackers.
Most social media platforms can release your dopamine which is the chemical in your body that makes you feel good. However, this can lead to an addiction of using social media for an unhealthy amount of time which can lead to a rabbit hole of depression and a bad impact on your mental health. Some can only view social media negatively as they compare themselves to others on how many likes or views they get on posts. There are also many cases of cyberbullying due to one wanting to feel better than another or other bad reasons which may lead to one having a negative mentality. Many have sadly taken their own lives because of this because most cyberbullies do not realize the damage they’ve inflicted. However, major social media companies have taken responsibility for this and have tried implementing features that try to remind the user to take a break once in a while. To avoid the controversies of social media, set limits to how long you can be on social media and block or report any user trying to verbally attack you or delete the app entirely. Social media isn’t all bad however as you can find influencers on the platforms who try to motivate users and give positive advice and it can sometimes boost the confidence of users.
Social media is a great source of advertisement for businesses globally but some may exploit it for false advertisement. For example, social media accounts can make fake content with the use of video effects in order to sell a product to viewers as a scam for money. A big majority of news media companies also use social media to spread news awareness more quickly which is helpful to many who are not up to date with the world but a minority of media companies take advantage of viewers to spread fake news which can cause panic, confusion and arguments among the people. This can be simple to avoid as it can easily be fact checked by other news media if they are also talking about it or not. Social media can combat this by banning controversial news topics from being posted or having fake information accounts be reported and banned by users.
As social media can connect users to a vast group of diverse people, it can be easy to connect with family and friends and make new ones as well, but it can also be easy to find arguments with other people who disagree with what you think. Everyone on social media has different opinions so it is inevitable that you will encounter many different debates on many platforms which can get too unhinged sometimes which leads to harmful things like doxxing and cyberbullying which is why it is better to sometimes keep things to yourself and treat everyone with respect on social media. Being respectful can even lead to making new friends on the platforms which is amazing but staying on social media too long with other people can distance yourself from the friends and family you have in the real world. On social media, friends may get jealous of each other and start drama which can lead to the end of many relationships as things like leaks or personal content can be exposed to the public, usually as an attack on that person. But as long as you treat everyone on social media civilly and with respect then you should not experience anything harmful to your personal relations.
As someone who uses social media a lot, I have quite some knowledge on how to use social media ethically, but sometimes I do make mistakes like using it too much which can lead to me being negatively affected by its addictive influence. I can avoid mistakes like these in the future by using the features on my device to limit myself daily and also to treat everyone nicely on the platform and keep things to myself that I think might be a controversial subject for others. I would also raise my security more by enabling things like 2 Factor Authentication and investigating shady sites before visiting them so my private information will not be found by people with malicious intentions.
In conclusion, social media has had a great influence on our world today, as it helps us spread information quicker, connect to many around the world, and also have data collected by companies to find and help you see more of your preferences on social media. However, not using it ethically can lead to consequences like if the data that is collected is stolen by cybercriminals, it can be used without your permission for the criminals' self-benefit in many ways. A minority of advertisement and media companies can spread misinformation and false advertisement as well. Social media can also have a negative effect on your mental health as you isolate yourself from others into an addiction and there is a possiblity of encountering cyberbullies. However, all of the negative things on social media can be avoided if you ethically use it by fact checking information you see on social media instead of immediately believing it, treating everyone nicely, reporting negative behavior and activity, and having safety precautions like “2FA” to protect your private information.
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