Risks Associated with the use of Social Media - An Assignment

I had to do a short assignment on three issues associated with social media. And I found some of the different reports I found kinda interesting, so I thought I'd share them in case they were interesting to any of you. Of all the issues that are associated with social networking, these are the three that sprang to mind:

Issue 1 - Privacy

Recently, the advice given on one of the writing lists I subscribe was that writers using Facebook should lock down their friends lists in order to protect the networks of friends and their families. This was as a result of romance writers being targeted by someone with strict moral beliefs who disagreed with what they wrote about. This person used the writers' friends lists to target other writers. This is not an isolated incident. There are numerous cases of writers (and not just romance writers) being stalked.

One article about readers stalking writers states that incidents of writers being stalked or harassed are becoming more common “partly because the internet gives disturbed readers another, potentially unmediated way of connecting with them” (http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jul/12/when-readers-become-stalkers). Another article by Graham Cluley talks about how social media enables stalkers and points out that “stalkers will not only stalk the primary victim, but also those around the victim” (http://grahamcluley.com/2013/09/internet-mobile-social-networks-stalking/). In the world of social media, it is important to protect your privacy by being aware of what you post, what you comment on, and what you leave open for perusal by others. On the internet, nothing is private.

Issue 2 - Accuracy of Reporting ... or Don’t Believe Everything you Read on the Internet

There are a number of reasons you shouldn’t believe everything you read on social media or networking sites:

1.     Email Scams: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779132.html - not necessarily social media, but if you’re a member of a list it could be relevant;

2.     Pressure on Bloggers to Produce: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-you-really-cant-believe-anything-you-read-online/ - and that’s only one of six reasons this guy gives for not believing internet information;

3.     Hoax Stories: http://theweek.com/article/index/253388/friendly-reminder-dont-believe-everything-you-read-on-the-internet;

4.     Dubious Shares and Social Manipulation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd3Dmeocmrw – a vlog by Barnacules Nerdgasm.

Issue 3 - Risk

Closely linked to the privacy concerns above, is the issue of risk. Being part of the social media world makes you more visible to the world at large. Some of the risks include:

1.     Being Stalked:

a.     Whether it’s a writer being stalked by a reader (http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jul/12/when-readers-become-stalkers),

b.    an editor being stalked by a rejected writer (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/14/news/la-jc-literary-agent-assault-twitter-20120914),

c.     a jilted lover, ex-, or a complete stranger doing the stalking (http://grahamcluley.com/2013/09/internet-mobile-social-networks-stalking/).

People are made vulnerable to attack by the information they post on the internet, through no real fault of their own. And stalking isn’t the only risk.

2.     Thieves use Facebook to burglarise homes:

a.     http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/feb/4/burglars-using-facebook-pick-and-case-homes/;

b.    http://www.businessinsider.com.au/burglars-already-using-facebook-places-to-learn-when-its-safe-to-rob-your-home-2010-9;

c.     http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/10/facebook-places-please-rob-me/;

d.    http://blog.gcflearnfree.org/2011/06/28/inviting-thieves-to-rob-your-house/;

e.     http://allfacebook.com/facebook-status-burglary_b12848;

3.     Thieves use social media as a resource for stealing identities:

a.     http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/11/01/identity-theft-times-are-changin/;

b.    http://rt.com/usa/facebook-users-risk-identity-theft-575/;

c.     http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/if-youre-not-careful-you-could-be-the-next-victim-of-identity-fraud-on-facebook/;

d.    http://money.msn.com/identity-theft/how-thieves-will-steal-your-identity-weston.aspx;

e.     http://studentmoneyskills.bankofamerica.com/article/view.asp?articleID=41.

NOTE: Up to 10% of victims of identity theft had their personal details obtained via the internet and/or email in 2010-2011 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

As part of the assignment, I had to say what I thought about all this. And I had trouble defining what I felt, because everything above is really just part of the hazards of life. We use social media as a tool, or a form of recreation and it has its downside. By being aware of that downside, we can better minimise the trouble we can get into, and that's all we can really hope to do in any aspect of life that has inherent risk - driving a car, going for long walks, shopping, visiting a new country or place, or going for a bushwalk. There are horror stories from all these activities, and there are ways to minimise the dangers faced while undertaking them. Being aware such risks exist is only the first step.