Ethical Issues Raised by Living Life Online - Essay Example

Social and Ethical Issues Raised by “Living Life Online” The first social problem posed by living life online is that it allows people to give in to their knee-jerk reactions to situations around them because nobody can actually see them. This is totally different from reality wherein a person must consider another person's feelings, sentiments, and opinions prior to making any public declarations (Gillgian Jr., Social Networking Sites, and the Ethical Issues They Create ). Social media allows for the distortion of reality because of people's ability to react to incomplete information that they have received.

Also part of the social responsibility of a person living life online is the user's right to post pictures and videos of himself or most importantly, of others by tagging them. This is a tool that should not be used lightly as it could be used to harm the social reputation of other people in an instant. (Boyd, Why Youth (Heart) Social Networking Sites.”) It is this particular part of online life that has caused a wave of cyberbullying cases through the irresponsible use of social media profiles and photo tagging opportunities.

Due to the egalitarian method by which people interact online, the activity should have promoted camaraderie and greater fairness. Instead, the social networking lifestyle has caused an even greater divide among public users due to the anonymity of the service. Social networking or online life is not a place where one can expect to develop ethics and virtues such as honesty, openness, and patience. Characteristics in the real world, help mold the social consciousness and ethical responsibility within a person.

(Markula Center For Applied Ethics, “Unavoidable Ethical Questions About Social Networking). All of these instant gratification tools offered by social networking have reduced people and their online interaction to an avatar and a few strokes on the keyboard, thus producing a new generation of highly irresponsible and inconsiderate youth. This is because social networks allow them to act irresponsibly without having to fear repercussions socially because of the difficulty in proving such acts.

Ethics is not a consideration because networking sites do not make them responsible for their actions. It remains an unsupervised world where anything can happen. It is if you prefer to call it, the new wild west waiting to be tamed and brought to a new age of social and ethical responsibility.