Social Media: Yay or Nay

We’ve all been there one time or another. Me, my friends, your friends, almost everyone I know has some sort of social media. With the new on bringing of technology such as cellphones and laptops, social media has become ubiquitous all around the world. It’s a place where you can watch funny videos, talk to your friends and post interesting things whether it be about yourself or just a cool photo. But is social media all it seems to be? With recent discoveries of Facebook’s activity (such as looking at personal information) there has been controversy as to whether or not social media is all that good. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook was asked (on video) if he would like to tell what hotel he stayed in last night and of course he said no. The senator is referring to how Mark would like it if we shared all of his personal information with other people. This really makes me think that social media has some upsides but some really bad downsides. A big downside that I can think of is major social media platforms sharing all of your information with companies just to try to sell you something that they think you’d be interested in. Another downside is that social media can be super distracting and dangerous. With how accessible apps are nowadays it’s easy for somebody to get distracted easily whether it be while they’re driving or distracting them from their job. Apps like Instagram, and Facebook will try to get you hooked by keeping the posts coming and coming and keeping your brain occupied all while they make money from posting ads and tracking your every move. With today’s society as well it is easy for hackers to break into your account and hack your phone. One scam these hackers do is by getting into your account and sending a link with a message that sounds personal such as a video with the words, “look it’s you”. This is exactly the type of stuff that could get somebody tracked and watched in a cyber type of way, which brings me to my next point and that is that social media can be predator central. There are some creepy people on Facebook that will ‘catfish’, send inappropriate pictures, etc. but there seems to be no end in sight. I personally know people that have been cat fished and sent inappropriate pictures by creepy old men that have no idea what type of trauma that can cause people.

Overall social media can be used responsibly but it is very hard to find wholesome content that you would actually like to see rather than being bombarded with ads, creepy predators, and hackers. You should think to yourself whether it is safe or not to share certain information on social media that any body can see. But also be weary that your actions have consequences especially with social media.

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