Category: Facebook

Regarding the statistics of 2014, 2.2 billion people use Facebook daily. It is also known that at least 10% of them exploit the network as the major news database. However, few users show concerns about the credibility of the acquired information. One can only wonder how many people are subject to the negative influence of fake news. There is a hypothesis that through the use of false information the current President Donald Trump has managed to take his post in the White House. With regards to this matter, Horgan (2017) expressed the following opinion: “whether ‘fake news’ really did swing the election toward Donald Trump – or simply away from Hillary Clinton – has yet to be conclusively determined “ (para. 8). Therefore, the need to distinguish credible sources of information from deceivers makes Facebook a responsible authority in the matters of news delivery.

Groups of Users that Focus on News

Eventually, youth represents a category of Facebook users that are most likely to believe in information authenticity. Due to the inability to make reasonable judgments and think critically, young people consume all the news they find on the network and start sharing it with friends, who often follow their example. In the case with youth, it is of huge importance for the service to double-check the uploaded information since public opinion is usually formed of the knowledge people receive. The resource should do everything possible to “raise awareness about how to think about information critically online” (Horgan, 2017, para. 3). Youths are the future of the nation and, thus, their minds need substantial protection from all forms of deception.

Another issue with Facebook is that some adults may not have time to search through news applications and pick the most credible ones. They, therefore, visit Facebook, for it appears to be the fastest way of information retrieval. Of course, an opportunity to read the latest news by simply clicking a preferred group or community creates plenty of conveniences. However, few users find time to compare data to other resources to be sure that the information they read is official and trustworthy. The wide popularity of Facebook acts as one of its major disadvantages in this case since everyone with vile intentions can spread the word fast and easily using the network. Establishing close cooperation with MediaSmarts is viewed as a good start, but to close the gap, the company needs to partner with a wider range of media literacy organizations (Horgan, 2017).

Lack of Knowledge and Ways to Protect Unaware Users

The need to combat fake news breakers has been discussed by Facebook’s management for a while now. For plenty of users, Facebook remains a preferred source of information regardless of the fact it is subject to a regular fraudster activity. This occurrence is tightly correlated with people’s inability to find a service that is trusted and posts only official information. The need to protect unaware users from false propaganda has forced Facebook to take responding to measures. As an attempt to “rewire the way people spread and consume information,” the company has decided to make the defense reinforcement (Horgan, 2017, para. 15). Thus, if a page is found to be sharing fake stories on a repeated basis, it becomes blocked. The moderators’ team closely monitors for such occurrences.

Blocking false advertisements is, without a doubt, a step forward in fighting the issue. However, the company should not stop at current achievements since fraudsters usually tend to create multiple accounts and continue their activity using an alternative route. The use of warning messages and the enumeration of scammers that have been recently detected would be much to the point in this situation. This kind of measure would disperse opponents’ opinions regarding Facebook’s right to decide which source is credible and which is not, for they would receive direct evidence of an increasing fraudster activity. It is known that the service “began testing a flagging system that alerts users to content that might be misinformation” (Horgan, 2017, para. 23). This means that the company’s thoughts coincide with those of users in the matters of online safety.

Refutation of Opponents’ Opinion

As Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO specialist, once admitted, an in-depth content of fake stories that people read on a whole variety of pages makes them believe that the information is true and, therefore, needs to be shared immediately (Horgan, 2017). The cunning approach fraudsters take to news representation often forces naïve people to stand for abolishing Facebook’s right to ban content. As a refutation of the arguments of those individuals, one can state that a company of that size is obliged to pay close attention to all the activities occupying its traffic. Undoubtedly, the number of program supporters would rise significantly should the company engage some known public figures in their anti-deception campaign.

Fake News and the Sphere of Entertainment

The best way to make one believe the given information is to refer to the sphere that interests him/her most. Users acquire news from a whole variety of sources without bothering what these sources are. It makes particular sense when speaking of the sphere of entertainment. Should one see a picture of a favorite actor, movie, or a game character, a person is about to believe anything that is said in the news. Thus, a fair conclusion arises: people always choose to believe what they want. Naturally, this fact creates additional challenges for online companies to effectively combat fake news.

Conclusion

The problem of fighting fake news has been discussed by Facebook management staff for quite a while. The need to protect unaware users from deceivers’ influence has forced the company to implement strict safety measures. Thus, every page that is suspected of spreading false information becomes blocked, and users receive notification about the fraud activity. Because an adopted policy has proven to be effective in the matters of fake news combating it is suggested that Facebook remains the authority to decide the information authenticity.

Reference

Horgan, C. (2017). The problem with Facebook’s plan to teach you how to read news.Web.

Introduction

Social networks and media provide a range of services enabling businesses to increase their visibility on the Web and thus gain the customers’ loyalty more easily; their initial purpose, however, is instant connectivity among the users. The average Facebook user has around 200-300 friends, which facilitates the creation of the so-called “weak ties” – just the kind of connections that allow people to get easier access to resources (Morgan, 2016).

Benefits aside, repeated conflicts of privacy involving social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have become a serious issue. The present work is, therefore, focused on the privacy policies of Twitter and Facebook. It seeks to build a case on these two networks, compare, analyze, and evaluate their privacy policies. The popularity of the networks, and the fact that they collect so much data, constitute the rationale for choosing Facebook and Twitter as the objects for the present research.

Facebook & Twitter: Overview, Privacy Policies, and Privacy Issues

In this part, an overview of the networks’ usage and policies is presented, along with the issues the users can face, either knowingly or inadvertently.

Overview

Although the users of Facebook can just as well post to Twitter on a daily basis, the outreach of the networks can diversify. Facebook is growing in popularity among the senior population (4% of persons 65 and over are active Facebook users), while Twitter is most commonly utilized by people aged 25-34 (Wolfe, 2016). Other statistical data available on the networks indicate that 15% of all adult population of the U.S. are Twitter users, with 8% of these tweeting/scrolling the network every day (Wolfe, 2016). The fact that Twitter is less advert-ridden than Facebook can explain such user devotion. Other points of distinction concern the websites’ interfaces, basic tools and functions, and privacy policies.

Privacy Policies

By registering their accounts on either Twitter or Facebook, users are forming contracts with these networks. The users are required to accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, the texts of which are provided in full. The users state their consent that some data will be collected from them – mainly what they provide to the networks such as names, passwords, e-mails, and phone numbers. The networks receive the information posted by this user themselves or shared by their friends (e.g., via tagging). The networks claim that the users still own (and are responsible for) all the information they share; however, the right to use the content is granted to the network (Data Policy, 2016; Twitter Privacy Policy, 2016).

Privacy Issues

The “ownership” of the posted and shared data that Facebook and Twitter grant is an issue in itself. For example, Facebook’s statement of rights and responsibilities implies that anyone on the web (search engines and advertisers included) can export and distribute the posts (Data Policy, 2016). In other words, on default settings, a person’s information can be used by other parties without their consent (Luckerson, 2014). In turn, Twitter claims not to pass on the data other than to third-party providers, legal agencies, and aggregated data services (Twitter Privacy Policy, 2016). Apart from the data provided by users, the networks use all IP-related information they can obtain (locations, cookies, etc.), contact information, and phone text messaging (Twitter Privacy Policy, 2016).

Analysis and Evaluation

In this part, the privacy policies of the companies will be analyzed and evaluated by the ease of access and understandability to users, default settings adequacy, and security.

Facebook

Understandability

At Facebook, they evidently value the importance of Terms of Use and Privacy Policy being understandable to the users. This is not to say that the company’s practices are agreeable, but the corresponding sections on the website literally account for every piece of information being used (Steinmetz, 2016). The user can consult the section any time they want and make adjustments.

Default settings

Although the Terms and Policies mentioned above outline practically any interaction, the user has, the default settings make their information open to anyone within the network. To secure one’s account, one needs to undertake a number of steps and adjust the information to their needs. The adjustments may include the groups of users able to see the posted data, tagging options, past posts, contacts, and more (Data Policy, 2016).

Security

Facebook retains the right to preserve all the data shared by the users: posts, tags, likes, private messages, etc., even if the said user deletes their account and/or message history. The Sponsored Story was removed after a scandal arose concerning users’ faces and accounts appearing in adverts without them knowing – but still, the ad platforms Facebook cooperates with can tell the users’ friends where and what for they shop online.

The cookies used to allow the network to keep the dates, time, and URLs that the user browses if these sites have a Facebook plugin (e.g., a “share” button). Users can change the settings and limit the groups of people who can tag them, but Facebook can still use facial recognition to locate users in pictures. Finally, like Twitter, Facebook conceals the frequency and the volume of data it allows legal services to access (Luckerson, 2014). Such a long list of insecure practices speaks of the network as potentially harmful for the users’ privacy.

Twitter

Understandability

Unlike Facebook, Twitter’s Terms, and Policy lack clarity. Experts and observers state that it would be difficult for an average user to get to the bottom of the Policy, which is why they are likely to either skip it or cease using the network whatsoever (Steinmetz, 2015). For instance, Twitter states that it tracks the users’ interactions with links over the services they provide but fail to denote what exactly is meant by each interaction (Steinmetz, 2015).

Default settings

Unlike Facebook, the posts on Twitter can be either public or private. The default settings make every new user’s account public, which means that everyone on the Web can view their posts. While Facebook provides many additional settings to make posts visible only to certain groups of people, Twitter opts for maximum visibility.

Security

As said, a user’s posts on Twitter are searchable by tags and via search engines. Additionally, like Facebook, Twitter can track the users’ browsing by date and time if they browse pages with a “tweet” button. The network claims that the tracking is done for recommendations. For that same purpose, Twitter uses targeted ads, keeps lists of all applications a user has on their smartphone, and, like Facebook, tracks the users’ locations and phone contacts (Twitter Privacy Policy, 2016). Unlike Facebook, however, the presence of adverts is more understandable because of Twitter’s public platform policy, rather than that of a social network. Besides, the company lets its users opt-out of targeted ads and e-mails quite easily.

Conclusions

So far, Twitter has shown itself more sensitive to the users’ privacy concerns. Although the content is visible all over the Web, the users can adjust their experience thanks to the opt-in – opt-out policy Twitter uses. Facebook states its policies and terms more distinctly and covers all aspects of usage. However, the default settings make the accounts quite vulnerable from the start.

Users of both networks have to understand that the best way to protect their privacy on the Internet is to abstain from using it at all (Moran, 2015). When they decide to enjoy the networks, they have to go with the services’ requirements. The security of the networks is, thus, more reliant on the optimizability of the settings and the number of functions than on anything else. At that, Twitter appears to be more advantageous simply because its functions are more limited: unlike Facebook, it has no polls or groups, and the targeted ads only include promoted tweets and accounts, in contrast to Facebook’s banners, videos, and referrals.

Many privacy problems arise because the Terms of Use and Privacy Policies remain unread when a new user decides to join a network. The most obvious recommendation for users, therefore, would be to read the Terms carefully and decide whether they feel the benefits of the networks outweigh the potential hazards. Facebook’s terms are formulated more comprehensibly, although that does not nullify the privacy threat. Rather, it means that Facebook promotes responsible decision-making among the users and provides them with all necessary information to make their network experience at least partially secure.

References

Data Policy. (2016). Web.

Luckerson, V. (2014). 7 Controversial Ways Facebook Has Used Your Data. Web.

Moran, N. (2015). Consumer Information in the Digital Age. Northridge, CA: California State University, Northridge.

Morgan, J. (2016). Why Every Employee Should Be Building Weak Ties At Work. Web.

Steinmetz, K. (2015). These Companies Have the Best (And Worst) Privacy Policies. Web.

Twitter Privacy Policy. (2016). Web.

Wolfe, L. (2016). Twitter vs. Facebook, Which Is Better? Web.

Nowadays people cannot imagine their lives without social networking. Social networks are everywhere: we like pictures on Instagram, we read the latest tweets on Twitter, and we interact with our friends on Facebook. Most of the people take for granted the fact that people spend eight to ten hours on social networking every day (Antoci, Sabatini, and Sodini 33). Even though social networks have been created to make people interact with each other and fight loneliness, many people agree that social networks actually destruct the real-life conversation and emotions.

It is pretty reasonable to mention that there are two points of view that are opposing each other in the present day – the ones who think that social networking does not harm the human character and those who believe that social networks destroy the human spirit and give a fake feel of happiness (Tufekci 1).

There are four basic needs that every individual has: the need for company and friendliness, the need for security with the purpose of coping with indecision, the need for meaning, and the need for the venture and new experience (Cotterell 14).

There have been numerous researches on this issue, and the researchers have always wanted to identify some things: how their testees felt in general, how anxious and deserted they were, how much they had used Facebook, and how frequently they had had direct communication with others since the prior text message. It has been found that the more people used Facebook in the period flanked by the two texts, the less content they felt—and the more their total level of fulfillment decayed. The data illustrated that Facebook was making them hopeless and gloomy (Konnikova 1).

According to Marche, loneliness is definitely not something that Facebook or Twitter or any of the less important forms of social networking is doing to us. He believes that it is only us, who should take full responsibility for what we do. Casting technology as some ambiguous, impersonal essence of the past making us do something we do not want to do, is a frail explanation. We make choices about how we use our technologies, not vice versa (Marche 1).

Our ubiquitous new technologies trap us into more and more artificial connections at just the same time that they make dodging the chaos of human communication easy. The attractiveness of Facebook, the cause of its influence, is that it allows us to be social while getting us out of the disconcerting reality of the world – the unintentional revelations we make, the awkward moments, and the overall ungainliness of direct interaction. As an alternative, we have the good-looking smoothness of a superficially social engine. Marche explains that Facebook has discovered that a connection is not identical to a pledge and that prompt and absolute connection is no rescue, no permit to a more contented, healthier world or a more open-minded version of civilization.

Sherry Turkle, in her article, is much more unconvinced about the positive effects of online culture. She articulates that today, unconfident in our relations and worried about intimacy, we want technology to find the ways to be in relationships and keep us away from them all at once. Turkle explains that the problematic part of digital confidentiality is that it is eventually imperfect. The bonds we create through the Internet are not, at long last, the bonds that link us, but they are the bonds that worry us. We don’t want to encroach on each other, so as an alternative we continually intrude on each other, but not in the real world (Turkle 19).

Self-presentation on Facebook is incessant, strongly mediated, and influenced by a pretentious indifference that abolishes even the probability of spontaneity. Managing the demonstration of the self has become a permanent occupation for numerous individuals. Turkle finds a noteworthy connection between Facebook use and self-admiration. She writes that Facebook users have advanced levels of overall narcissism and exhibitionism than those who do not use Facebook. She, in fact, argues that Facebook explicitly fulfills the narcissistic person’s need to participate in self-promoting and insincere behavior. There needs to be a profound and thoughtful discussion about appreciating each other – as people, nothing more or less.

To my mind, both authors provided great insight into the impact of Facebook on people’s lives and personality changes. The issue of people living their lives online instead of seeking a direct face-to-face conversation becomes more relevant to every other year. Marche’s and Turkle’s points of view both were consistent and based on the factual data, but the author tends to agree more with the latter opinion.

The propaganda of narcissism has become evident later as more and more people fall for the “selfie” trend and the feeling of self-love is ubiquitous. In fact, in a decade, most of the people would not even want to see each other in real life and feel quite comfortable as they get used to just texting each other. That is truly upsetting, and people should pay attention to the problem that crept up unnoticed to humanity and represents a real threat to character traits.

Works Cited

Antoci, Angelo, Fabio Sabatini, and Mauro Sodini. “Bowling Alone but Tweeting Together: The Evolution of Human Interaction in the Social Networking Era.” Quality & Quantity Qual Quant 48.4 (2013): 1911-927. Web.

Cotterell, John. Social Networks in Youth and Adolescence. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Konnikova, Maria. “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy.” The New Yorker. N.p., 2013. Web.

Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook making us lonely.” The Atlantic 309.4 (2012): 60-69.

Tufekci, Zeynep. “Social Media’s Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company. 2012. Web.

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print.

The connection between scientific and practical activity and morality is one of the conditions for the existence and effective functioning of modern civilization. When conducting research, it is essential to consider several critical ethical constraints that are guidelines for reflecting and regulating people’s behavior. So, it is worth considering how ethical it is for large social platforms like Facebook to conduct experiments on its users without their knowledge.

The article says that such a popular social network as Facebook is experimenting on its users. Research shows that the platform intentionally managed the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users in order to explore emotional contagion through social media (Waldman, 2014). The study examined the impact of positive and negative news feed entries on user posts throughout the day. The author says that Facebook distorted the research standards, exceeding the criteria set out in the federal law and the declarations of human rights (Waldman, 2014). The main component of ethical research is the consent of the party being experimented on, and in this case, this aspect was not observed. In such research, it is necessary to ensure the rights of people, the voluntary nature of their participation, the preventive nature of the presentation of the results, and the warning of possible consequences.

The article then raises the question of whether the user agreement clauses are sufficient to conduct research without the participants’ consent. Facebook does not receive federal funding for such research, so the investigation could be exempt from the Common Rule (Waldman, 2014). Due to the lack of a formal agreement and the absence of clarity about what legal standards the experiment met, the ethics of the study is being questioned.

Thus, the basic moral principle of respect for the individual’s rights and dignity in the modern ethical model must be observed in any study. It is essential to inform participants about the goals, methods, sources of funding, and any possible outcomes, results, and potential risks of the study and its discomfort. That is why the author doubts the ethics of the research conducted by the Facebook platform, which did not have the consent of users.

Reference

Waldman, K. (2014). Facebook’s Unethical Experiment.Slate. Web.

Introduction

The current paper pertains to a case study related to the social network of Facebook and its privacy policy. The case study explains that the privacy policy and privacy settings on Facebook are such that they considerably violate the privacy of the social network’s users by selling their data to third parties for a variety of purposes, most of which are related to commerce. This topic is important because millions of users utilize the social network in question every day, unknowingly exposing their personal information to third parties which could then use this information against them; thus, the rights to privacy of these users are violated. The paper considers in detail four problems:

1. the ethical issues of Facebook, and the ethical dilemma the case presents;
2. the relationship of the business model of Facebook to privacy;
3. the weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy features and policies,
4. the potential ability to change Facebook’s business model to one that does not violate privacy.

In theory, it is possible to apply the analysis provided in this paper to change the social network in a manner that would make it violate the privacy of its users to a considerably lower degree.

Question 4-13

The company of Facebook operates in a manner which invades the privacy of their users, who post data on Facebook without being aware of the fact that this data is purposefully collected and then sold to a variety of companies and organizations for targeted advertisement and other purposes.

The violation becomes even clearer when the fact that the users are prevented from effectively changing their privacy settings by using an increasingly complex system of such settings and privacy policy of the company, and that even if they change their settings, their data can still be obtained by third individuals if that person’s Facebook friends have shared some such data and their privacy settings are not as strict as those of the user in question.

The provided case presents an ethical dilemma about the situation in which Facebook has to either continue providing free service to its users, but sell their data to the advertisement and other companies to make profits, or to create a fairer and more transparent privacy policy, but lose a considerable part of their profits. However, the company is not going to charge their users for service, as the website states that using the social network is free and always will be (Facebook, n.d.), and it also seems that the company is not planning to lose its profits for the sake of creating a fair privacy policy.

Question 4-14

On the whole, it should be stressed that the business model of Facebook as it is used currently contradicts the privacy of its users (Afuah, 2014). The customers of Facebook include advertisement companies and other agencies who might be interested in gathering data about individuals to purposefully provide them with a tailored advertisement, make decisions about satisfying or denying their requests, and so on. On the whole, the users of Facebook are not its customers; they (and their data) are, in fact, the product which is being sold to the real clientele of the social network in question (Goodson, 2012).

Nevertheless, it might still be possible to better keep the privacy of the users of Facebook by providing them with the ability to adjust their privacy settings and not sharing the information that they wish to remain private with third parties desiring to purchase such information. It would also be possible to include settings that would forbid gathering information about a user from the accounts of their Facebook friends.

However, Facebook would lose a part of profits if they adjusted their policy in such a manner. Thus, in theory, the business model of Facebook can be used in a way that would not violate the privacy of the social network’s users, or at least violate it minimally; leaks of data would probably still be possible. But Facebook does not wish to operate in such a manner and lose a (considerable) part of their profits.

Question 4-15

The privacy policies and features of Facebook have several weaknesses, which, however, appear deliberate rather than unintentional. The case description states that the privacy policy of this social network is composed in a manner which makes it rather difficult to understand and that the privacy features of the website itself make it so that users cannot control which information about them is collected and sold to the third parties; even though the users can adjust their privacy settings, they cannot control, for example, the use of the information about them that is posted by their Facebook friends. This makes the privacy protections of Facebook users very weak.

This weakness has been contributed to by several various factors. The management factors affecting it are probably related to the currently existing in the company interpretation of its business model as such, as the business is aimed at gaining profits from advertising, and targeted advertisement brings more profit than general ads (Afuah, 2014). The organization factors contributing to this weakness are related to the purposeful creation of non-transparent policies so that the users would not be able to protect their data in an efficacious manner if they post it on Facebook. Finally, the technology factors are related to the existing impossibility to protect all the data about users in a social network even in a situation when an effective privacy policy and settings are used by the social network.

Question 4-16

On the whole, it is possible to assume that Facebook is capable of having a successful business model without invading the privacy of its users (Afuah, 2014). Even though the users are the product being sold, it is still possible to “sell” them in a more ethical manner – for example, to simply use non-targeted advertisements on the social network. The fact that Facebook has a vast number of users allows for concluding that the social network would still make considerable profits if they used the website as space for an advertisement that is targeted at users to a minimal degree (for example, according to the region in which the users live).

To make this possible, Facebook should take several measures. These measures include creating a transparent privacy policy, one which any reasonably literate user would be able to understand, and introducing settings which would allow the users to better control what information about them is collected and shared, and which information is not. These steps would be able to significantly increase the degree to which the privacy of the Facebook users is protected, and would still allow the business to gain profits from placing an advertisement on its website because the advertisement would still be viewed by millions of users of the network every day.

References

Afuah, A. (2014). Business model innovation: Concepts, analysis, and cases. New York, NY: Routledge.

Facebook. (n.d.). Facebook – log in or sign up. Web.

Goodson, S. (2012). If you’re not paying for it, you become the product. Web.

It is imperative to avow that Facebook is amongst the most visited social group sites. Initiate by Mark Zuckerberg in 2003, this site has expanded exponentially in the last few years. Created with the help of fellow students, Facebook was initially used in Harvard University only and later in other colleges. Realizing that the primary activity of Facebook was to make comparison of students using their pictures, the university management ordered for its closure.

Mark was to face disciplinary measures for breaching rights to privacy. Harvard University later dropped any punitive action against Mark. In 2005, facebook rolled out internationally. This was the first step that made it a force in the social network industry. The roll out in high school gave way for corporation to register and finally face book opened up for members of the public to establish accounts. Controversy and uncertainty surrounded facebook from its inception and early years of operation.

Mark’s schoolmates filled a lawsuit disputing his ownership on the basis that he borrowed their ideas, hence contravening the scholar Property Act. The judge ruled in favour of Mark, since agreements regarding this case occurred during the course of a casual chat, in the hostel that they could not constitute a legal contract. The Judge dismissed consequent attempts to bring this case back to court and opted for an out of patio settlement (Philips).

Facebook mainly earns its revenues from advertisements and has become a multimillion company attracting the interest of other corporations in the digital industry. It is evident that facebook has advanced social networking; nonetheless, it has myriads of detrimental aspects in the contemporary society.

The emergence of facebook in 2005 completely transformed the social network scene first in the US and then globally. The exponential growth of facebook was unprecedented and left many people startled. Debate arising from dismissal of the case disputing facebook ownership on basis of technicality, only served to popularise the site.

This social phenomenon has opened new advertising avenues and further reduced the cost of interaction between the global communities, as it charges no fee. In view of the above, facebook users need to be cautious not to be addicted or socially isolated due to prolonged use.

Face book’s inadequate applications have opened doors for contravention of privacy rights with regard to users’ information. Users with ill intentions have used facebook to steal identity of innocent unaware users and utilize it to commit crime. Development of children occurs best when they are in constant communiqué with their parents but facebook has turned this impossible by making young people very dependent on digital media as their core means of communication rather than in person conversations.

Research reveals that most children avoid in person conversations due to prolonged use of online media to communicate. Facebook has no control as to the content communicated on the network, hence it is subject to misuse .Many blogs through which people interact exercise control over the message that users send over the blog, ensuring sanity on those blogs and enforcing discipline. On many incidences, facebook has acted as a platform to spread panic based on unverified information.

Exaggerated news of the rapid spread of swine flu caused a lot of panic and social sites like facebook were at fault for magnifying the spread of the disease. Facebook administration should set up measure to ensure that unscrupulous members do not use their accounts to spread panic, this in effect that innocent users get protection from the infringements. Information is power, with facebook having over 400 million members who created profiles that contain personal details then it has incomprehensible power.

Facebook contains a large amount of user information that is susceptible to misuse. It is dangerous to leave such a large volume of information that contains private details of millions of individuals with an entity that faces minimal regulations like facebook. From analysis done on several accounts, it is possible to tell the sexuality of person based on the friends in facebook, it is; therefore, important to protect personal details (Bankston).

Various consumer protection organisations have aired their concerns over the ease with which a user can illegally gain access to other accounts. Not only does it expose the account holder to manipulation but also infringes on the person’s right to privacy. Face book took some far-reaching measures to prevent infringement of privacy rights.

It rolled out fresh privacy settings, which were supposed to give account holders more control over their data. Prior solitude settings were too complex for the average users of facebook to understand. The new facebook settings were a good start for the administration in the overhaul of its privacy settings. Such settings have integrated novel features that allow a user to limit the people that can view a certain piece that the use has uploaded.

However, the most encouraging thing is that the site has taken up the challenge of ensuring that its users apply these new settings to their accounts (bankston). Though the new settings received a lot of applause, they have not gone without criticism. Most experts think that the developers of these settings have only made the situation dire, as users with ill motives will always find their way round (bankston).Overall, the commitment of facebook to protecting its user’s information is questionable.

Facebook avails to its users, many activities that are fun to be involved in, which include discussions, charting and creation of groups. As a result, facebook users spend extra periods in front of their computers thus eating into time reserved for extra curriculum and social activities (Bozarth 56).Therefore most users are addicted. The young generation that has emerged has been characterised by poor one-on-one conversation, impaired speeches and being self-absorbed. These traits are attributable to the enormous time spent online.

The consequences of long hours spent online are far reaching as most students’ grades have diminished greatly. Many account holders on facebook do not divulge their identity. Such persons are faceless on their account and provide minimal information as to their character, background and perspective on major issues; therefore, most friendship resulting from interaction on facebook have roots in stereotypes. Making friends based on stereotypes is inappropriate as the true personality of the person is undisclosed.

Most young people are oblivious of the dangers of such actions. Facebook opponents have criticised it for not doing enough to eliminate faceless members whose accounts look questionable. As any other credible institution, facebook should thoroughly screen its members.

Proficiency of young people in using media whose background information is unknown has startled many media specialist who have called upon media users to be cautious. Critics have further argued that facebook has resulted in a new form of addiction in children because they on average spend six hours online. Children below eighteen are most affected and many calls have advised facebook to limit its membership to only those above eighteen years. This call has brought to the forefront the social responsibility of face book.

In spite of the many flaws, facebook is definitely a social network phenomenon. It has further opened communication lines amid many people given its membership of over 400 million users (Bozarth 55). It has facilitated this by a feature called friend request. The feature enables the invited users to communicate. Face book further diversified the social scene by challenging the dominance of the traditional social media.

No one can assume the impact of facebook as business people who are not members are a liability to the trade. Facebook is very trendy amid young people as result opening avenues for advertisers who target young people. The interaction of people on facebook has resulted in cultural exchange (Bozarth 55). Political movements have also used it to spread political messengers. Facebook has become the best means to reach the younger age band.

Facebook’s main targets were young people, High school and University students, as indicated in the first rollout that targeted this group (Philips). Facebook is a very appealing social complex particularly to University students and teenagers. It allows them to exchange ideas on their lives, interest and on school life.

The social state of facebook and the swiftness at which information dispersed makes it fascinating. There is a false notion among the young naive users that their personal details are secure .This is not the case as their private details get exposed to people who gain illicit access.

Scammers use the illegally obtained data to manipulate the purchasing trends of the users to the benefit of certain organisations. Young people spend a lot of time communicating on facebook and some of the comments made on face book are inappropriate. Furthermore, facebook facilitate the promotion of some appalling believes like masonry. Members of these cults form social groups and use them to foster the values of their cults. These groups target susceptible users and use the site as the platform for their recruitment.

It has contributed considerably to the current state of moral degradation. Issues that generate uproar on debate, get a suitable discussion platform on face book. The discussions elicit some awful comments whose moral uprightness is questionable. Innocent young people read such comments daily; the culmination of a prolonged reading of such appalling comment is youthful people with immoral values. Most of these discussions relate to issue like homosexuality and masonry that are controversial in most society.

Mark devised facebook, a site that has come to dictate communal networking in recent years (Philips).From early on, facebook was faced by success and controversy. Popularity among the youth has led to its hasty growth. Lack of privacy seems to be its major undoing as alterations in such settings only resulted in an uproar.

The administration of this site has heeded calls to put in place settings that will protect the users’ details. In absence of proper security settings facebook has served as an avenue to commit crime such as impersonation, spreading panic and manipulation. To counter these acts the administration should overhaul privacy settings in totality to conform to the solitude legislation.

Besides, the administration should exercise discretion over the members eligible to avoid suspicious individuals. Although, facebook has facilitated easier and cheaper communication to many people, users must be cautious about the members they interact with on the net and reserve time for other activities to avoid addiction. Finally, the administration should receive credit for embracing calls to overhaul their privacy settings.

Works Cited

Bankston, Kevin. New privacy changes: The good, the bad and the ugly. 2009. Web.

Bozarth, Jane. Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning .SAN FRANCISCO, CA. John Wiley and sons, 2010. Print.

Philip, Sarah. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. 2007. Web.

Facebook Inc offers a strong potential for modern businesses

Facebook.com is not just the famous company behind the giant social media site whose success story is on the lips of everybody in the contemporary world. The social media site has continued to amass great international recognition from all parts of the world, as one of the leading sites which hold a strong business potential, particularly e-commerce.

The company’s rapid development plan has been a significant facet of its success

Ever since it was launched in 2004, Facebook has undergone rapid developments in its engaging features. With its unique ability to attract great numbers of users daily, from all over the world, Facebook has been well-placed in its entrepreneurship objectives.

Facebook has successfully managed to balance its double engagements in social media sites and the e-commerce trend

With the current boom of e-commerce activities, Facebook has become a target for many online stores, who are aiming to remain high in the advancing e-commerce sector. By placing ads on their website for users to see, Facebook helps business owners from all parts of the world to achieve their potential goals in business (Qualman 2010). This trend has played a key role in shaping modern marketing concepts; for it lets potential business partners and customers know where they can find brands and products of their choice.

Facebook Inc enjoys many strengths and opportunities as a potential business platform

Given the wide range of add-ons, applications, and services offered by Facebook, there is no doubt that the company has already established a strong platform for e-commerce business. Investors and marketers from all parts of the world have taken full advantage of this grand opportunity to ensure their businesses stand out from the pressures of the current competitive business environment (Culnan & Mchugh 2010).

Facebook Inc has been successful in both social and business matters

Facebook has continued to generate huge revenues and profits, and this is enough to justify its potential market valuation, which is estimated to be worth billions of dollars. The company’s recent financial analysis is enough to offer its potential investors a good reason to smile. The company is widely reputed for its excellent corporate performance. Facebook holds a brilliant economical future, considering its rapid user growth, which is observed to be one of the significant facets of the company.

Strong business portfolio and potentiality

The company’s current business portfolio makes sense in the modern business environment. This, coupled with their ability to diversify user engagement levels in current and potential markets, is certain to place the company ahead of its competitors in the technology industry (Plumlee 2010). This way, the company has succeeded in creating a suitable investment platform for both investors and marketers. In that sense, nothing is doubting the company’s potential for business, and that is the reason why I would not hesitate to invest with them.

Reference List

Choi, F & Meek, G 2011, International Accounting: International Edition, 7th Ed, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River.

Culnan, M & Mchugh, P 2010, ‘How large US companies can use Twitter and other social media to gain business value’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 9 no. 4, pp. 243-260.

Plumlee, M 2010, International Financial Reporting Standards, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River.

Qualman, E 2010, Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, Wiley, New York.

Social networks have significantly changed the lives of all humanity. Nowadays, people can send a message that they have bought a new chandelier on WhatsApp, share a photo of it on Instagram, and do not forget to throw off a couple of memes on Facebook. Moreover, all this without seeing their interlocutors in real life. Social networks have many advantages, such as instant communication, the ability to contact people from anywhere in the world, showing their position on a particular issue with likes and comments (Rubin and Beuk 2). However, many do not even think that several negative factors exist behind the beautiful facade of accessible communication.

Social media plays a huge role in many Americans lives day to day. Many use it to keep in touch with old friends and family that’s away, and some use it just to keep up with things that are going on in the world. It gives an insight on what is going on around the world, but in a way, people could only get if they are on social media. With Facebook being one of the most popular social media outlets where people can create profiles to interact with others, comes with problems behind it. Many people are faced with the harsh reality of criticism from users around the world, some of which they may not know.

During the work of the services, tools that affect a person more than others were discovered — likes and a news feed. The article’s author defines these features of social networks as adversely affecting users. The Like button allows users to show interest and belonging to a particular idea quickly. Nevertheless, at the same time, a universal metric is being introduced by which a person can judge the influence, the value of information within the platform, and about themselves (Rubin and Beuk 5). A button created as a simple equivalent of a minimal social action has become a digital currency.

With the creation of likes, the value of the information and personality expressed can now be accurately measured. Thus, the metric of our life that has always been hidden from other people has become publicly available. A new level of frankness could not affect people’s minds; the number of insecurities, anxiety, depression, neuroses among people who could not integrate into the platform increased dramatically (Rubin and Beuk 7). Teenagers trying their best to fit into life receive feedback in the form of likes with which they judge their importance and value. At the same time, the understanding of a person as someone suffers because such complex views that require prolonged reflection are lost in rapidly changing, stimulating information. It is worth noting that “the lower response on social network may make a person feel more dejected and it may validate his/her poor self-esteem” (Srivastava 156). Thus, such information does not receive a proper response in social media and is interpreted as unclaimed, complex, and unnecessary by the end-user.

Social networks have a powerfully negative effect on the subjective well-being of people, their state of self-satisfaction, and their own life. There is another factor that people do not pay attention to: communication on social networks has a fundamentally different emotional coloring (Rubin and Beuk 3). The fact is that people in them are forced to defend their point of view in front of a much wider audience. It includes people with whom they are not familiar in person and with whom they are unlikely to have ever made friends in real life due to too different characters and beliefs. In other words, people form their social circle based on mutual sympathy and shared beliefs in real life. It is impossible to form such a circle in a social network. Therefore, in real life, communication with friends causes positive emotions and increases self-satisfaction and life, but this does not happen on the Internet.

It is important to note that the attitude to someone else’s life in social networks depends on how well the user knows people. The fewer online friends people know personally, the more likely they are to think that life is not as colorful and diverse as theirs. This phenomenon is called compliance bias, which means that clear conclusions about other people’s lives are made based on a limited amount of information from Facebook or Instagram accounts (Rubin and Beuk 20). However, in the case of a familiar person, the user understands that life consists not only of those aspects demonstrated on social networks.

Facebook distorts our perception of reality and how other people live. By visiting a page on a social network, users constantly compare themselves with other people, and since most people prefer to post only positive, this gives them a very wrong perception of reality. Since people on Facebook talk about how they spend weekends, not gray days, that they write about their children’s achievements, and not about their whims, readers quickly get a false sense of a world filled with only bright sides.

Works Cited

Rubin, Eran, and Frederik Beuk. “Emotions and Spillover Effects of Social Networks Affective Well Being.” Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, vol. 33, no. 5, 2021, pp. 1–24, doi:10.4018/joeuc.20210901.oa1.

Srivastava, Kalpana, et al. “Social Media and Mental Health Challenges.” Industrial Psychiatry Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, 2019, pp. 155–59, doi:10.4103/ipj.ipj_154_20.

The first social networking site (SNS) appeared in 1995. However, back then, few people ever imagined that this new form of web interaction and communication would grow to become the largest virtual community in the world.

Today, social networking sites, such as Facebook, Orkut, YouTube, Tagged, Twitter, and MySpace, are some of the most important forms of communication, connecting billions of people from all corners of the world at the click of a mouse. This platform allows for the global sharing of information even in places that are not accessible by mainstream media. As a result of their popularity and ease of accessibility, social networking sites have had a big impact in today’s society.

Facebook

Facebook was created in 2004 and is today the largest SNS, commanding a following of more than 800 million active users found in all parts of the world. The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg together with his three college friends, and although its membership was initially limited to Harvard students, it soon spread to include other students before eventually opening to all persons aged 13 and above (Carlson 23). It has since grown to become the most used SNS by worldwide monthly active users.

Facebook has had a number of social impacts among its users in a number of ways. With its accessibility in most mobile technologies, the site allows friends and persons with mutual interests and beliefs to continuously stay in touch wherever they may be. Although Facebook has been said to be beneficial to its users’ lives, scholars have argued that it may make users to be antisocial since there is no direct communication between them. Besides, some people have claimed that Facebook is a source of disagreements in relationships.

Twitter

Twitter is a SNS and microblogging site based in San Francisco that allows users to post short text-based posts referred to as tweets. The site was developed in July 2006 by Jack Dorsey and has grown to gain global popularity, with more that 300 million users, resulting in more than 300 million tweets and approximately 1.6 billion search requests daily.

Twitter has impacted its users’ social lives in a number of ways, for instance, it allows busy persons to keep in touch with their audience since the tweets are typically short, consisting of 140 characters (D’Monte 8). The site has also been largely to organize protests aimed at governments some of which have had far-reaching effects. Examples include the Egyptian Revolution, Tunisian protests, Iranian election protests and the Syrian protests.

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website founded by 3 ex-PayPal employees in 2005 that allows users to upload, watch, and share videos over the internet. In late 2006, the company was bought by Google and is now headquartered in California. The videos available on the site come from a number of sources, including armature homemade videos, TV clips, music videos, documentaries, classic videos and so on. YouTube has made it possible to view and share motion pictures in a manner not possible previously.

Occurrences in all parts of the world are shared throughout the world and this elicits awareness and also allows for public debate on the issue. For instance, the Arab Spring activists have frequently used videos to show how government forces oppressed and even killed innocent civilians thereby making the whole world aware of the ongoings in these countries.

Conclusion

SNSs have taken virtual interaction to another level, enabling people from all corners of the world to meet on a single platform and share information of interest. The success of these sites can be attributed to their global presence, fast penetration of the internet, and their availability on mobile devices. SNSs have had a large social impact among users owing to the ease of information sharing and the ease with such information can be accessed.

Works Cited

Carlson, Nicholas. “At Last — The Full Story Of How Facebook Was Founded.” Business Insider 5 Mar. 2010: 23. Print.

D’Monte, Leslie. “Swine flu’s tweet tweet causes online flutter. “ Business Standard, 29 Apr. 2009: 8. Print.

Facebook

Facebook is rightfully considered one of the most popular active social networks to date. According to statistics, approximately one-third of the world uses the Facebook platform (SRD, 2022). It would be correct to say that Facebook does not have a single, universal goal; instead, the digital platform offers users a range of opportunities for virtual leisure. The social network allows users to communicate with other users, view news feeds and leave comments, express their opinions through emoji reactions, watch videos and follow third-party links to primary sources as one of the historically first features, communication with other users is realized through a system of embedded chats, which are accessible from all electronic devices, whether computer, smartphone, or tablet. However, working from mobile devices requires installing a separate application, Messenger, which solves the functions directly only of communication. In other words, it gives many possibilities depending on the user’s interests, needs, and mood.

I use the Facebook platform almost every day because it makes tremendous digital sense. Facebook makes it easy to interact with the virtual field and allows us to connect with people and keep up with news from around the world, which is the main reason. However, Facebook is linked to privacy scandals; the platform uses personal user data and possibly overhears it for personal marketing purposes (BBC, 2018). This is a critical issue that the company must publicly address to increase user trust.

Twitter

Twitter is another extremely popular social network widely associated with political statements. Twitter helps connect people from around the planet, read and comment on news, use an advanced tagging system, and follow external links. Twitter is actively used by 290.5 million users every month, which is growing (SRD, 2022). One of the most frequently used features of this platform is speaking publicly, which politicians and media personalities use. The embedded communication system is based on comments to specific tweets (posts) and retweets, through which each user can express his or her opinion and support the discussion.

I do not use this platform very often because it is less convenient than Facebook. However, I often hear about Twitter in the news and other social networks, as many politicians speak out there. Also, the logic of this social network does not seem very convenient to me because the tagging system can be confusing. Among Twitter’s fundamental problems are the small number of posted text tweets (only 280 characters) and many toxic users (Fernyhough, 2021). In addition, Twitter is often accused of political propaganda and bots to promote tags in the rankings.

Snapchat

Another type of social network is Snapchat, which is mainly used to apply filters and effects to the face. The platform has up to 300 million daily users (SRD, 2022). Snapchat is more of a synthesis of entertainment features and face-to-face chats with friends, but it does little to address the need to learn new things, read the news or find helpful information. Nonetheless, Snapchat is very much about bringing people together, as the format of instant photos and videos to share allows you to stay online almost around the clock and respond quickly to messages. Snapchat has a built-in chat system in which each user can exchange text or audio-visual messages whenever he or she wants. However, Snapchat is not available (or at least not convenient) to use in a desktop version, which contradicts the idea of the app’s mobility.

I use Snapchat every time I want to have fun with filters because many of them are fun and make me laugh. In contrast, other effects make photos and videos more appealing, increasing my interest in Snapchat. However, I rarely use this platform to communicate with friends. Some of the main problems with this network include the possibility of sexual, psychological abuse by inadequate users and cyberbullying (SS, 2019). In addition, this platform forces teens to use facial plastic filters, which can catalyze issues of not accepting one’s body.

Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks at the moment. Specifically, approximately 1/8th of the world’s population is registered on Instagram (Iqbal, 2022). This social network allows you to post audiovisual content in a feed or short Stories format, which is one of the main functions of this platform. Since 2012, when Meta (Facebook) bought Instagram, the social network’s functionality has grown significantly (Shead, 2019). This includes using filters and effects, recommendation feeds, chats, and video calls. The logic of communication within the platform is based on the latter because users can correspond in personal chats or groups and call each other or communicate in live broadcasts. The platform is straightforward to use on the phone, but it can also be used (in a limited way).

Like 1/8 of the world, I actively use Instagram because I see it as a grand synthesis of features, entertaining and informative content, and communication with friends and acquaintances. Instagram also helps me grow my business, although I do not use it for that purpose yet. However, Instagram, as a Meta product, has data privacy issues. In addition, users are virtually immune to cyberbullying (PZ, n.d.). Finally, like Snapchat, Instagram can create a culture of not accepting one’s appearance, which creates psychological trauma in teenagers.

References

BBC. (2018). Facebook’s data-sharing deals exposed. BBC. Web.

Fernyhough, E. (2021). 3 major problems with Twitter. Medium. Web.

Iqbal, M. Instagram revenue and usage statistics (2022). Business of Apps. Web.

PZ. (n.d.). Instagram – what are the issues? Parent Zone. Web.

Shead, S. (2019). Facebook owns the four most downloaded apps of the decade. BBC News. Web.

SRD. (2022) Countries with the most Facebook users 2021. Statista. Web.

SRD. (2022). Twitter: Number of worldwide users 2019-2024. Statista. Web.

SRD. (2022). Daily active users of Snapchat 2014-2021. Statista. Web.

SS. (2019). Negative effects of Snapchat for teens. Smart Social. Web.