Protect yourself from social networks

History of the development of social networks is not only connected with the development of technology, the use of different services, the emergence of new sites. The question about the impact of social media on society, and how this impact on society and on the particular person positively or negatively is the most important question, that has exist on the all way social media development and it has become really topical in the recent years.

Social networks are an integral part of modern society. Communication in the network replaces the real communication for many people. Social networks are used for work, study, and for entertainment. Through social networks people can find people close to him in the views, interests, can create a group of like-minded people, and can even organize a revolution. Social media has been actively used in different countries for the organization of protest movements. For example, the mass protests against the Putin’s policy were organized in Moscow last year through social networks. In this regard, proponents of social networks is considered it as an essential tool of demographic society.
On the other hand, social networks are accused of that through them many government organizations are trying to manipulate people. There are rumors and misinformations which go through social media. Therefore, social network, as some believe, can be the most powerful propaganda weapon. For example, in an contemporary information war between the West and Russia different social networks are now the main weapon for both of sides.

Social media in the modern world do much broader functions than those they originally performed. From the sites of communication between friends and acquaintances, they became the main communicative channel of a modern society.

However, not all people are equally willing and easy to use social networks. For instance, I am not an avid user of social networks. There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, I am an introvert and therefore I avoid active communication in any form, in particular online.

 

Although, social networks become the preferred alternative to real communications or many introverts, because here they feel more confident and comfortable. But as the social network is still communication inherently something for true introverts, they still are something alien and unappealing. Another reason for my passivity in social networks is the fear that my information may be used in any unacceptable for me ways. There are a lot of examples of this kind of situations.

Using publicly available information about a person obtained from a variety of social networks, where it is registered, you can make a fairly comprehensive portrait of the individual. Many recruitment agencies, service recruitment in their work using the data published in social networks. Photos, revelations in the diaries and live journals, public information on personal pages can often be an obstacle in obtaining the desired position. Social networking sites are used even for criminal purposes. For example, Facebook and other social media are used by criminals to track their victims or to find new victims.

The question arises, how to protect yourself from possible adverse effects of the use of social networks. The main tool for this is your privacy settings.
Many users of social media sites do not take advantage of privacy settings and leave their profiles available for public access.
Social networks create a privacy setting to help prevent getting scammers personal information or information about the status updates of users. On the other hand, the responsibility for the use of these settings and put into a network appropriate content is the individual users deal.
However, an open question is how the networks may use the users information, that hosted in them, and how they are going to protect this information. For example, Facebook recently undergone massive criticism due to changes in its privacy policy. These changes allowed Facebook use personal information of user for different aims, such as advertising. After a wave of harsh criticism the company was forced to go back to the old version of the Privacy Policy. It was a clear confirmation of the fact that many users are very worried about the information they provide on the Internet and for how it can be used.

As with almost any social networking technology can be used both for good and ill. It all depends on the goals and principles of the moral order, who use them.

In this regard, each person using social networks, should understand the risks and maintain critical thinking about information in social networks. We should know how social media work and what can we do for protect yourself from the negative consequences of active social life in social networks. Ultimately, whether or not to use social networks, and how to use it is a private question, but remember about safety is mandatory.