The development of technology has drastically changed the world. As people are unable to calculate the rates of progress, it is impossible to determine what changes will be brought about with an even greater increase in technological advancements. The use of social networks has added to the hardships of life, as people endanger their personalities and reputations by their postings to the public. Twitter shows that sometimes, people make mistakes in their messages and are unable to control the outcome.
The biggest question is that sometimes the problems overtake the benefits of technology. This closely relates to the social media and all the resulting problems. Primarily, there is the safety concern, as the information used in the social networks can be used by the advertisement websites.
Even though there are safeguards that try to prevent personal information from being shared with other institutions and sites, there are still some was that information gets out. “Twitter” has been one of the sited networks that is widely used by people. People add their posts as soon as they can. Another issue is that people who share information online cannot really control who can access their web page and browse their personal information.
Many have compromised themselves in the workplace and home. This leads to many concerns, but people are still not aware of the security issues. The unfortunate part is that people do not pay attention to the growing problem and continue using the social networks. It has become so popular that individuals feel to be required to upgrade their social status and produce information that can be acknowledged by others.
An aticle titled “How To: Recover from a Social Media PR Disaster” talks about people worrying about theit status and posts they have made. One of the poits made is that “It’s hard to tell the whole story in a post and it’s hard to talk to your entire audience in just one tweet” (Sniderman, 2011).
This is very true, as people are unable to respond properly to posts and might not get the whole picture. Very often, people will succumb to the pressure and join the majority, as no one wants to be outside the circle and be seen as an outsider. This will result in unwanted comments.
Even though there are several layers of security and people are warned about the harms of personal information leaking, organizations are the ones that are using the private information to own advantage.
The development of social networks and the use of internet have made communication between people a form of social status. People focus on the way their “Twitter” page looks, they pay great attention to the amount of pictures they post, number of responses that they receive to certain posts and comments about their status. The need to go out and do things became not needed.
The interaction between people has come down to words on web pages and comments in relation to behavior of others. It is also cheaper and more practical to live in the word of computers, where there is no need to go out, spend money in bars, different attractions and games that involve physical participation of the person and others. Also, it is very time consuming, so people simply have no time to go out and enjoy nature and the company of others.
The constant checking for the replies and posts of others, especially if there is an extreme amount of friends, takes up a lot of time. Very often people add individuals to the category of “friends” through other people. They do not really know the person or are familiar with their individual personality. The only way they “know” them, is by pictures on their page and comments on their “wall”.
The social networks have put a major dent into the society. The private information and the communication itself has become a public occurrence where people put their lives out on the public viewing without any concern for security or privacy. Even though technology has helped people in a lot of ways, a person must realize its drawbacks and balance the use of technology with the physical interaction with others.
The balance must be kept for technology to be helpful instead of detrimental. It is important to keep in mind that technology is not always error proof, thus reliability is a relative concept. There are many examples that show how technology has proven to be a negative influence on society, but people still continue its use.
A major concern can be observed through the posts and the type pf shared information. This might endanger the security of the personal information and is one of the most important things that a person has. People must become aware of the growing problem and use as much care as possible to protect their well being and individuality. A person’s reputation is very hard to deserve but is rather easy to mar by a simple comment on the “wall”.
Reference
Sniderman, Z. (2011). How To: Recover from a Social Media PR Disaster.