Essay: Privacy And Security Concerns In Social Networking For Broadcasting & Electronic Media.

Privacy Concerns & User Control

Discuss about the Social Networking for Broadcasting & Electronic Media.

Social networking sites are mainly the podium that is used by the people to create relations with other people. Users use these sites to interact with other people, they can be their friends our may be strangers. Social networking sites have huge impact on the social interactions which may be positive or negative. Many issues have been raised regarding privacy concerns. People who are providing their personal information are more tend to face the privacy issues. Usually women avoid providing their information that reveals methods of get in touch with them and teenagers have created a wall between their private life and the parents. Anything which is used in excess will automatically act as a threat so is in the case of social networking sites hence overuse of it may affect the children and cause depression and anxiety. Now days more and more people are increasing their communication over social networks rather than interpersonal communication. These social networking sites are also affecting the self-identity and people start to behave in a manner that others like. It totally depends on person to person to how they want to project their identity in outside world and how they adapt themselves in social world. These both are accepted form of  identities but one should try to establish their right identity and take care of the privacy issues.

With the advancement of technology in this era social networking has become the part of our day to day life. People from every corner of the world are debating whether the “privacy” can be laid off in the information age or not. It totally depends on the user whether they are concerned about the privacy or not. If they are not concerned about it then they share every kind of details about their lives on social networking sites be it there physical location, photos there personal struggles and triumphs and it has also been suggested by many writers that there are users who are uniquely concerned about the privacy. There are specific steps provided to the user to control the flow of information to various people within their reached network. For example Facebook is the most used social networking website so the “privacy setting” is inbuilt and incorporated in it. 60% of teen population has kept privacy on their profiles so that only friends can see it and 25% have their profile as partially private so that friends and friends of friends can also see it and other 14% people keep their profile as public (Madden, 2012). These social networking sites have become a huge platform for internet users to communicate with their friends and family hence people should be aware about the security and privacy and should also know the steps to secure against spasms. With the rise in number of social networks, privacy issues are also rising so the user has to be more careful and set their accounts on private. Now it has become a challenge to keep social network secure and private. Users who provide their personal information on social network are more likely to face security issues as their accounts can be explored and hacked by others. . The most debated issue is that how genuinely user keeps the privacy isolated. People only talk about the privacy but the main concern amongst public area and private area of social media are still not clear. Privacy plays an important part in social networking as identity theft and online harassment are common where youth is mostly in danger to such crimes. User should take care of their account and should know how to handle their account and to whom they should share their information. It was observed that the young users usually do not hesitate in providing their personal information to strangers and end up involving themselves in crimes. It has been said that with the growth of social media in recent years the privacy issues are left behind (Trenchard, 2013). Thus it is very important for the users to study and follow those privacy policies which are handed to them to have safe and secure online networking. To be a part of social networking site is easy but improper knowledge of these security measures can easily trap hackers (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). Privacy issues can be made clearer by taking the example of Facebook. Users are provided with the options of privacy which include friends, friends of friends and public option so it totally depends on the user whether they want their account to have security or not. Young users are least bothered about their privacy and tend to post as much sensitive information as possible only to gain attention from peer groups. People now days have made it a trend to post about their relationship status and updating selfies but these young users should understand the sensitivity and rather than following the trend they must give priority to the safety and privacy measures. There are some common issues which are faced by the young generations and these are identity theft, hacking and comment controversies.

Security Issues & Privacy Policies

Social media creates a very effective impression on the public engagement. Its main purpose is to inspire the new age group and to educate the public with the advancement of technologies. To create an effective public engagement it is very important to have the purpose behind it which should be well planned and organized then at last suitable action should be taken to achieve the desired purpose. As we have entered into the social media we intentionally join several communities and groups to have public relation and perspectives of different users. It is believed that public engagement through social media is only an effort to repair certain meanings and upend others (Motion and Leitch, 2016). But some scientists in contrast to this approach have stated that these public engagements build a relationship and helps in management process (Ferguson, et.al, 2000). There are few prototypes given that are “management adjustive, discourse engagement and normative or ethical issues” which enlightens the public engagement in social media, (Heath, 2010). There are many risks that a user has to face. Sometimes some people steal others identity and misuse them for certain purpose and teens  especially the girls who are not mature enough tend to make mistakes as they are very active on social networks and are exposed to sexual slayers as they make contact with the victims and locate them geographically. Usually  people do not feel safe on Facebook regarding their privacy hence they are quitting Facebook. Because of these fears on social media there are some tactics that can be adopted to prevent such fears. Users have to be careful in providing information online and self-awareness should be there. Even by maintaining and changing their information time to time will also help in safeguarding privacy. As the number of students is snowballing in using social network so schools and institutions should provide them information about the security and privacy measures that has to be followed. Authentication strength vary from site to site so user should always use strong authentication and access control by using a strong password which will reduce the risk of threats. Further a user can also use bonus authentication factors which include e mail verification through captchas and phone number. By keeping your work and personal presence separate will also help in maintaining privacy as employer can also access the work email account ( Lawrence and Rintel, 2013). Encryption also pays an important role in safety measures as it is the process of encoding information so that only the user can read it. There are many service stations that offer this connection such as Facebook, twitter and Gmail. Now it is our duty to use these connections by just installing “HTTPS Everywhere” and increase our privacy measures. Keeping aside the issues of privacy and securities these social network and technology have made connections and communication much easier than before.

Public Engagement on Social Media

The presence of users on social media turns out to be both stressful and entertaining depending on how we maintain our presence. Few sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have become so mandatory in our social and professional lives that we forget our actual self-identity and shape ourselves to become one idealized digital version. Earlier there was a positive influence on self-identities and now it is turning out to be negative (Taylor, 2012). Media messages and the trending culture have influenced people so much that they think about their peers or other groups before doing anything on social media. There is a theory named “Social Networking Theory that says that people who are surrounded and are more close to each other tend to have the same characteristics, ethics and social status (Kadushin, 2012). By developing our self-awareness, by evaluating our beliefs, emotion and performance from the past experience we can achieve our self-identities. By taking an appropriate feedback from social, academic, and physical life we can also shape our self-identities. As we are living in a social world, feedback from it is very important in progress of our self-identities. People who are more intensely occupied in the popular culture and media are influenced by the external forces. Social media has moved our thoughts from expressing our self-identities toward making facades as they think what others will think of themselves and behave accordingly to that. The more we spend our time on social networking sites more we make our online self-presentations in order to participate.  Social media has grown over the years from a small web page to full mass communication network where a user can get each and every information about themselves within a minute (Digital Market Ramblings, 2016). People now days are spending more time on online sites rather than offline which directly means that socialization mainly occurs on computer or phone screens (Pew Research Internet Project, 2013). Beside this negative influence on self-identity there was a scientist who argued in favor of it and said that expressing thoughts on internet is a way to build a close bond with people and maintaining it (Tosun, 2010). Our social identity in social media is mainly based on the way we behave and how we take actions online. Generally people are conscious about their online image so they conduct themselves in a way they want to be perceived by others. Because of the expansion of social world over the decade from families, friends, and schools to an almost limitless universe there has been an inconsistent influence on our self-identities as compared to the earlier generations. The overall effect of networking on individual welfare is significantly negative.

Risks and Precautions for Users

Conclusion

Now it is concluded from the above stated facts that although there are positive effects of social networking in managing privacy and having a public engagement but the negative effects of social networking outweigh the positive effects. Sharing too much personal information on internet may create an opening for cyber bullies who misuse information and create issues that harm the individual. By avoiding few mistakes privacy can be very well managed and it should be a major concern for every individual. Theft identity, online harassment, misuse of pictures and information are some issues that are faced by an individual especially teenagers and women. Internet has influenced young people and transformed their lives in a negative way. No intercommunication between people is left rather people are shifting towards social world for communication which is effecting the self-identity of an individual. People have started thinking about others and behave in a way how others like them. They are basically losing their own personality and self-identity and are becoming a digital version in social world. Hence self-identities and public persona of individual both have changed and issues regarding privacy have been increased.

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