Use of Social Media - Research Paper Example

Social Media Undeniably, social media has found profound use among the modern society. Actually, many facets of life have been characterized by one form of social media or another. Social media has revolutionized our way of life as people take on social media as the mainstream source of information, interaction, business, socialization, politics, and communication. At the same time, social media, with all its profound benefits, has brought about negative consequences. Social media has been flagged as a potential threat if used inappropriately. Issues of privacy, unnecessary information, negative influence, devaluation of human values are some of the negative issues associated with social media. For proper utilization of social media, governments should take control on managing social media so that issues like privacy, dangerous outcomes, and endless distractions can be maintained. Certainly, social media connects millions of people across the world. Among these people are genuine users as well as hackers and other malicious identities. Social media such as Facebook is a good avenue for accessing a large pool of people of all kinds. This makes it an attractive haven for any person with personal interests. For instance, politicians have often used social media to propagate their political ideologies some of which may trigger hatred among the target groups. North Africa an Arabian region revolution that began in Tunisia is a good example of overwhelming political usage of social media. Advertisers and business entities are always crawling through social media in search for opportunity to exploit. Whereas everybody is looking at an opportunity to benefit themselves, it poses a serious privacy risks to social media users. Certainly, “Breaches of privacy and security are frequently mentioned topics and so is identity theft, online bullying, and disclosure of potentially damaging or embarrassing personal information” (Shneiderman et al, 2011). This calls for government intervention in regulating the privacy of social media. The government, according to Madhava (2011), can regulate privacy of social media by enacting policies that are more stringent, tough laws, more collaboration with all social media stakeholders, as well as more proficient use of technology to enhance privacy in social media. Perhaps one of the most potentially dangerous technologies is the social media. Due to the high degree of penetration, wide usage, freedom, anonymity, and interconnectivity, social media is potentially dangerous if not properly regulated. Politically, social media, particularly Facebook, has been a prime platform for propagation of political and religious views. It does not come by surprise that the recent revolution in Tunisia, Egypt and other Islamic countries was made possible by social media. The hazardous nature of social media stems from the fact that it supports anonymity. People have different thoughts and ideologies that they would like others to adopt. Whereas some people have well-meaning ideologies, others such as extremists, pose a danger to the population. According to Shneiderman et al (2011), “the potential for more polarized discussions as users selectively view only materials aligned with their world view and scientists retreat to narrow research topics.” Terrorists have also been using social media platforms to propagate their ideologies. In order to protect users of social media against uncontrolled use, the relevant authorities need to put measures into place (Madhava, 2011). For example, it may be necessary and important for all social media platforms to keep electronic and retrievable copies of all web activities. This way, it would be easy for the relevant authorities to keep track of potentially harmful use. Additionally, user information may be required to be incorporated within the usage of the media platforms so that users can be held accountable for wrongful use of social media. If the government regulates use of social media in the proper way, then it would be possible to get more benefits from social media. With millions of people using different social media platforms every minute, distractions are certain. It is claimed, “Some estimates have put the amount of time spent by adults on Facebook as high as 90 minutes per day” (Edwards, 2008). Social media are bombarded with thousands of information from different perspectives. This ranges from entertainment, advertisement, business activities, and most importantly, the need for human beings to interact. The user experience in social media becomes a distraction and consequently, less useful. Actually, Edwards (2008) highlighted the top five time wasters as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, YouTube, Fark, and lastly, Lolcats. Arguably, these social media platforms become so distractive in life such that other important aspects of life are impaired, at least to some extent. Stone, as quoted by Edwards (2008) claims, “We have more attention and stress-related diseases than ever before because we cannot switch these devices off.” This means that the problem of distraction of social media is real and huge. More notable is the fact that social media interaction distracts people from the real life. Seemingly, there has been a shift from natural interaction to social media based interaction. This form of distraction can potentially affect the natural way of living. Therefore, it becomes absolutely necessary to control and regulate social media to ensure usefulness of the same. The government and other relevant authorities need to put measures that are more stringent to ensure that social media provides utility rather than distraction. This is even more important considering that modern society is characterized by busy lifestyles and difficult economic times. Conclusion Evidently, social media has profound uses but the full benefits can only be realized through regulation of social media platforms. Indeed, for proper utilization of social media, governments should take control on managing social media so that issues like privacy, dangerous outcomes, and endless distractions can be maintained. Wide usage of social media makes it vulnerable to security and privacy breaches and hence the need for the governments to keep an eye on social media. The users would also need to be controlled and guided in order to prevent overuse of social media platforms. Lastly, heightened campaigns and public awareness needs to be undertaken to ensure that the users of social media are well educated on the distractions posed by social media. If all the above discussed issues are addressed, the modern society can benefit profoundly from various forms of social media. References Read More