Social Media and Security Issues - Term Paper Example

? Full Paper Social Networking This is the age of globalization where world has become efficient in the context of robust communication around the world. The cost effective and instant communication over the digitized networks has left other technologies far too behind, thanks to the social networking which enable the humans to communicate in a surprising and innovative way. An idea is available by (Facinelli, 2009) which states it as “user-generated content or consumer-generated media”. A question comes to mind, what is social networking meant for? Its purpose is to enable people for creating a virtual social network to exchange ideas and thoughts with class mates, old friends, lost friends, relatives, and new friends. Social networking sites have advantages as well as disadvantages later to be discussed. The factors impacting on the society are interrelated to each other. The severity of the impact of these sites may vary from severity level 1 to severity level 3. Social networking sites facilitate people to create a public or private profile to share it with a group of people within an isolated system. Likewise, these ‘web based’ services offer opportunities to create a new relation. The first social network site was launched in 1997 that was named as SixDegrees.com. Since then, these sites offered innovation in relationship performances, impression management, privacy management, online and offline status of friends. However, study shows that there is no research on cultural disparity (Vitkauskaite, 2011). Positive Impact of Social Networking Sites (SNS) Social networking sites (SNS) facilitate users to create new relationships. Continuous communication online strengthens relationships and gives opportunities for creative expressions in a collaborative way. The social networking sites provide free photo storage, blogging, games, invitations for participating friends and various services. The social networking sites provide common interest between people and proffer revelation to innovative ideas publishing around the globe and provide freedom of expression. Those people who have stammering problem while speaking can express their emotions and feeling to share with others in full confidence. Social networking sites also contributed people to make crucial decisions in their life. 60 million Americans are facilitated by the Internet for making one of the most crucial life decisions. The decisions were made with the support of expert decision makers which includes changing career paths, buying a house, changing cars, motivating someone who is dealing with hard times of life, caring for a person who is ill and vice versa. The social networking sites also contributed to support the educational correspondence regarding student assignments, career counseling and college planning. Students are able to coordinate with each other regarding multiple educational topics and suggestions. Students improve their visual, writing, reading and conflict resolution skills by discussing about issues on various matters with all level of students available around the globe. These features can be achieved by only connected to the Internet and registering to the free social networking sites. Students with low income can also utilize social networking sites services. Studies have shown that social networking sites have also increased quality of life. Social media can contribute via social networking sites which will be an alternative to a traditional way of communication. The social media portal is “is a resource that maps global social media, social networks and user generated content (UGC)” (About - mapping social media, social networks and UGC, n.d). The social networking sites have minimum age requirements. For instance, ‘Myspace’ has an age restriction for the user to be minimum 14 years old in order to automate the privacy level for that specific user so that the user can only find contents while basic search suitable for his age group. The social networking sites are emphasizing to benefits users by classification of diseases, drug addiction, autism, alcoholism, weight loss and vice versa (Parameswaran, 2010). The goal is to extend the exposure of information provided by people who have cured or solved a particular problem from similar issues to the ones who are dealing with them currently (Parameswaran, 2010). Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites (SNS) Social networking sites share some negative effects on societies, as people tends to spend a lot of time on these sites. The time spent on these sites may led to experiencing less time for face-to-face interaction, which portrays a negative impact on a daily life. The teenagers are not aware that the information and published material including pictures can be retrieved even after deletion from the social networking site. By over sharing, personal information may attract cyber criminals, burglars and even employers who can evaluate values of a person by reviewing comments on the site which may compromise the individual to lose his job. There is no credibility of the user authentication of what they are claiming to be on social networking sites. ‘Myspace’ has detected and removed 90,000 sex offenders from the site. As facebook, with such a huge number of registered users can also have sex offenders but has not claimed yet (MySpace removes 90,000 sex offenders - Technology & science - Security - msnbc.com). ‘Myspace’ was able to remove them but was not able to stop those users to make new accounts. Lot of students and teenagers are addicted of cyber bullying. The idea of cyber bullying is defined by (Gracie, 2010) as “Depending on the context of the remarks, they may even be interpreted as malicious or bullying. Words written on line can easily be retrieved and come back to haunt us in the future”. Impact of cyber bullying in society is immense as a woman named as Megan Meier created a relationship on MySpace with a fake profile of 16 year old boy. She was accommodated in Missouri, when she hanged herself after reading heart breaking messages. She is now considered as a victim of herself and referred as cyber bullying impersonator herself (Patrick, 2008). Moreover, a 49 year old lady was found to be guilty. The teenager killed herself after receiving taunting emails from the lady is also considered as a victim of cyber. Likewise, the pentagon is also reviewing the use of social networking sites including Twitter, and Facebook that may link to security issues. Some departments of the Pentagon are observing the threats and have prohibited the use of these sites. Moreover, Mr. William Lynn has asked the Pentagon’s chief information officer Robert Gates, to construct a comprehensive threat assessment report on the entire department of defense, (Pentagon reviews social website use.2009). The action was taken due to threats associated with it. Probably the identity credibility is not on the optimal level for these social networking sites which is prompting questions to the United States department of defense. References About - mapping social media, social networks and UGC Retrieved 8/5/2011, 2011, from http://www.socialmediaportal.com/Content/About.aspx Facinelli, S. (2009). What the heck is "social media?". Franchising World, 41(7), 40. Gracie, D. (2010). Stop cyber bullying!" [sic]. South Carolina Nurse, 17(1), 4-4 MySpace removes 90,000 sex offenders - technology & science - security - msnbc.com Retrieved 8/4/2011, 2011, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28999365/ns/technology_and_science-security/ Pentagon reviews social website use. (2009). Irish Times. Parameswaran, S. K. (2010). Preventive healthcare through social networking. Siliconindia, 13(6), 30-31. Patrick, R. (2008). Cyber harassment jury to be told of megan meier's suicide.St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO). Vitkauskaite, E. (2010). Overview of research on cross-cultural impact on social networking sites. Economics & Management, , 844-848. Read More