Social media is the opposite of privacy. It’s often about sharing yourself with a large amount of people. For many social media users, the goal is to share their personal thoughts and images with as many people as possible. Social media users are encouraged to share their likes, dislikes, ideas, and attempts to be humorous. All of this sharing helps create a sense of community, but it also costs people their privacy (Claypool).
When they think their privacy is being protected, the social media websites might be sharing the user information for profit. Where the user likes to vacation, what movies she likes to watch, and even her grocery list, could be sold to the highest bidder. The people who run social media websites know that they can sell valuable information about what people like and buy, so they design the social media sites to, “draw as much participation and information out of us as possible,” (Claypool).
Most people who use social media know what they’re doing and they’re not overly concerned about their own privacy. They understand that the information they share may not be kept confidential. Lack of privacy is the trade off for using social media, and in some cases, people enjoy sharing private details about themselves online. The generation that has grown up around social media may not even consider privacy when they share online.
Social networking has changed society by connecting people who otherwise wouldn’t be connected. Social networking also makes it easier to keep up with old friends and family who live far away. All of these things are positive, but they come at the cost of personal privacy. Social networking has also changed society by forcing privacy to become less of a priority because people trade their privacy for the sake of participating in a digital community.
Works Cited
Claypoole, Theodore F. "Privacy And Social Media." Business Law Today (2014): 1-4. Business Source Complete. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
