You go to a party and meet new people you want to keep in
contact with. How will you do that? If this was in the early 2000’s, you would exchange
phone numbers and then call each other however time has moved us forward. We
now are in 2016 where the world we live in is based around social media. There are several media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. What each account has in common is that they all have
the option of people as friends or followers, following what you do online. On Facebook,
you use friend requests to add people, if they accept the request then you can
view each other’s timelines. On Twitter, you are able to follow anyone or have
anyone follow you and see what is posted. On Instagram, you follow people but
have the preference of making your account private so that you can see and
accept who sees your pictures.
This is a wonderful world that we live in as we are all very
connected into each other’s lives. We can see what is happening for people on the
other side of the world with just a click of a button. Social media has created a platform which
allows us to express ourselves through words and pictures. As there are many
benefits to having social media, there are a lot of risks that come from it. Every
social media platform has privacy settings however if used nonchalantly, many problems
can arise. You can have strangers seeing what you are doing, where you are in
the world and what pictures you post. You can have people copying your photos
to make fake accounts. You can have people essentially stalk you online or even
scarier, in real life as a result of seeing what you post. People scam naïve people online, taking their
money. On Facebook and Instagram, you have the option of adding where you are
when the post is uploaded. This is great as people can see where you are but
people know where you are! Possible strangers can track where, see that you’re
not at home and take advantage of that.
There are a lot of ways to avoid any problems that can come
from having an account on any social media platform. On Facebook, you can
choose who sees your post. You have to be careful in who you add as a friend
and who you accept as a friend. If you do not know them, don’t add them. That goes for most social media sites. Being
careful with what you post is a must. Adjusting your privacy settings and
keeping them up to date is something that everyone should do and not take
lightly!
