Dangers of Social Media

Social media has been around in various forms since the dawn of the internet. First it was blogs, then MySpace, and now Facebook, Instagram, and countless others. Through social media, we can connect to our loved ones around the world and meet other like minded people. Nowadays, a lot of people use it for news and entertainment. Sadly, social media is not as innocuous as it may seem on the surface and we must protect ourselves from the potential dangers we may face when using various social media platforms

First, let’s take a look at what we usually post on our social media accounts. We share personal photos, birthdates, our location, and place of work. All of this information isn’t just stored on your profile, it’s also collected to be used and sold for advertising. At the very least, we are making ourselves vulnerable to malefactors with nefarious intentions, but the danger of individual predators hardly scratches the surface of how your social media profile can be used and abused by various corporations.

Facebook analyzes what each user interacts with the most, whether it’s comments, likes, or shares, and sells that information to various sources to target you and direct your behavior on the internet. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal came about in 2018 when it was discovered that Facebook was selling our information to a British organization called Cambridge Analytica so that they could use it to push conservative-leaning agendas in the United States through the social media platform. Cambridge Analytica’s analysis of the data they bought from Facebook about us was so in depth that they were able to manipulate people using their fear, anger, and paranoia.

This creates an “echo chamber” where your feed is flooded with propaganda that pertains to your specific political leanings and ideologies, ultimately affecting how you formulate opinions and make decisions. This manipulation did not stop at online behavior - they were affecting how people acted in the real world. Though no significant repercussions were brought against any of the parties involved, it shed light on a serious problem we are facing today.

When it comes to hugely important decisions we make like who we want in office in local, state, and the federal government, it’s vital that we have all the information available on the subject that represents all sides of the issue. If we are only given partial information, our opinions are inevitably skewed in one direction, often purposely done by companies like Facebook and the corporations they sell our data to. Most importantly, we have to make sure that the information we are receiving is accurate and true.

Sadly, it’s not just Facebook that is collecting and selling our data unbeknownst to us. Instagram, which was bought by Facebook in 2012, is the preferred platform for most young people today and they employ the same algorithms and tactics that Facebook uses. It’s also important to note that WhatsApp, a messaging service, is owned by Facebook as well. Apps like Snapchat utilize facial recognition technology to provide you with fun filters to play with, but that technology is also collecting, storing, and selling that information.

Pokemon GO, an augmented reality game that was wildly popular when it was released, analyzes and maps the environment you’re currently in using location services and your smartphone camera. Pokemon GO was actually created by Google and companies paid incredible amounts of money to Google to encourage increased foot traffic in their businesses by luring users via rewards in the game itself. For example, placing a rare Pokemon character to catch within the game inside a physical Starbucks greatly increased the chances of the user entering Starbucks and perhaps buying a cup of coffee. Before you post on social media or download a new app, first ask yourself if it’s worth giving up your privacy.

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