It is an age where a person who does not operate a social networking site is seen as uncharacteristic and a mobile device that does not offer facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp seems useless. We are living in a time where the computer has become the middle party in between friends and relationships and so far, it has been handling its job very well. At least, it was not very long ago. People are becoming worried now, about the information that they are sharing online. It is because today, they are dealing with an audience much larger than we are comfortable dealing with. In a situation such as this, the topic of social networking and its benefits and risks is important to be understood. This is because this understanding is very essential for us to be able to deal with the risks associated with this technology. All of these facts, however, do not make social networking any less expedient in our lives.
Discussing facebook as an example, the undeniable fact is the social networking presents us with the opportunity to interact with many of our friends and find even more people online regardless of geographical limits. This technology provides us with an opportunity to chat in private with some of the people in our friends list. The same facility could also be adapted a little to bring together groups of close friends and share basic ideas and interest with one another. In addition, the site even provides us with features where we can also shares pictures and files in these private or group messages.
Some critiques argue that the privacy that we have to compromise over facebook is not worth all of its benefits. They argue that this platform could be used by other people to create accounts and chat with people under false identities. So we have no way to be sure whom we are really talking to. Even the actual accounts created on sound identities suffer from the risk of being hacked into. The same accounts, they fear, could be easily used to exploit people and cause harm to them.
This dilemma, however, is not without a solution. There are actually ways in which we can make sure that the people behind the s are real. We can take a little bit of caution to make sure that the people that we are adding to our friend lists are real and are actually whom they claim to be. The site is also making an effort towards protecting their user privacy. The facebook privacy settings make sure that not more than one account can be created using a single user’s information.
Facebook could also prove as a very useful tool to share information online. A facebook newsfeed is a genius tool which is designed to keep us informed not only about current affairs but also about what goes on in the lives of our friends. People can also post information regarding opportunities for employment and scholarships which their friends could learn and benefit from. What’s wrong with this facility is that it can be misused to post information to offend someone or affect one of more people in a bad way.
Like everything else, this problem is also not without a solution. We all have the option on facebook to delete or hide posts that we do not want to see in our newsfeed. We can also report or block a person who makes a habit out of posting offensive or inappropriate information.
Yet another advantage that facebook offers is that people can create a profile including their birthdays, their work history and their views and ideas for their friends to see and understand them better. The same information could also prove helpful in a person’s career for the same could be designed to impress a current or prospective employer too.
Again, we face a problem that not everyone is comfortable sharing their profile with a very big audience. This information could be seen by strangers and sometimes could also be used to exploit and gain information about another person with the intent of causing harm. Fortunately, this again is a problem that can be taken care of. We have the option to keep whatever information we choose private and limit its audience only to our friends. Also, we know that every time we update our profile picture, it is visible to the entire public. We can restrict this option to make it visible only within our circle of friends.
All in all, facebook is a tool of incredible genius which helps us share information, ideas, and experiences and at the same time stay up to date on all current events. It could be used as a platform to send a message, and it could also promote many businesses. What a problem we have with the technology could be dealt with just with a little bit of effort.
Works Cited
Cabrera, Pauline. Make Your Facebook Profile Picture Private. n.d. 25 February 2016 <http://www.twelveskip.com/tutorials/facebook/667/make-your-facebook-profile-picture-private>.
Electronic Privacy Information Center. Facebook Privacy. n.d. 15 February 2016 <https://epic.org/privacy/facebook/>.
Hubpages. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Facebook. 21 August 2015. <http://hubpages.com/technology/The-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-Facebook>.
