Pros and Cons of Social Network Essay

According to Tynan (2005, p. 72), 70% of online drug users atomic consequence 18 concerned about their online concealment. umteen users of fond ne tworking sites much(prenominal) as Facebook and chirp complain about how these sites do non keep back the appropriate settings to prevent online little terrors such as individualism theft and the usurpation of retirement. They believe that it is the responsibility of affable networking sites to protect users silence. However, users often forget how willing they atomic number 18 when it comes to widening intimate details and randomness of their lives on these sites.This willingness to give out their in the flesh(predicate) tuition invites the online retirement troubles that users often complain about. With all(prenominal) these randomness exposed to hackers, indistinguishability thieves be given a chiliad light to tap into users educationbase when users decide to get around their knowledge online. Thus, we git say that the users of complaisant networking sites atomic number 18 the biggest threat to their admit online privacy and eludings of individualism thefts. There are trine main reasons wherefore multitude learn to stop their own(prenominal) knowledge on neighborly networking sites.Firstly, people use well-disposed networking sites to connect, and to do so, they have to reveal someoneal information about themselves. As Andrews, L. (2011, p. 2) has said, amicable networking has enormous benefits, jockstraping us perplex in touch with people from our pasts and introducing us to people who share our interests. These information includes their name, age, metropolis they are staying in, company or rail they belong to and etc. The information they go away will help long-lost friends connect with them, help them make new friends with common interests and perhaps even help them find a love interest.Another reason why people remove to reveal information about them selves is to create identity. This identity is the likes of the information sheet of how the user is like. Users susceptibility even want to brook their either thought and actions even places they have been to, it becomes a part of their life to log on to social networking sites and post their current billet (Andrews, 2011). Writing about the groups and activities a person is involved in for ensample, tells friends and people approximately him what are his interests and helps people to understand him better. Lastly, people reveal personal information to assemble access to certain websites.These include gambling sites and articles beard by social networking websites, and they often pass along for the users personal information. Users great power find it worth it to reveal their information in order to enjoy the pleasure provided by these sites. Thus, they strengthiness decide that since their information will be kept confidential, it is fail-safe to provide their per sonal details without a second thought. It is unders withald that people make to reveal their personal information online in exchange for the benefits of using social networking sites. However, they might want to think twice subsequently hearing what dangers they are putting themselves in.Users should be aware of how they are putting their cyberspace privacy at risk when they reveal personal information about themselves in that respect are three major threats that users should be wary of. First of all, there is there is the threat of cyber swashing. Cyber bullying is a unspoilt problem among teenagers and it might cause moral illnesses such as depression to the dupe. It merchant ship happen when a bully gets fuddle of the content a user stick on on the net income. Unlike normal bullying, where the victim raft escape home to safety, the victim keister get bullied even at home as it happens on the Internet.The bully can even get shit of the victims home call up or ph one number if the victim had posted it online. One of the most storied cases of online bullying is the Star Wars Kid, Ghyslain Raza, whose homemade video of him fighting with a wee light sabre was leaked and had to a greater extent than 15 million downloads. He had been so touched that he was admitted into a child psychiatric ward (Johnson, 2004). We can see from this case study how badly cyber bullying can affect a victim, and this started from a post that the victim had not expected would be leaked.All of these threats occur because people guide to post their details on the social networking sites. While social networking sites are growing, more people are online than ever onward and this includes the bad guys on the net (Viega, 2009). Thus, we have to be even more detailed about the threats that we might face online. separate than that, users should also beware identity theft. identity theft is the use of one persons personal information to pluck fraud or other crimes (Co lumbia University Press, n. d. ).This can happen to users who reveal too overmuch information on the Internet for an identity thief to pose as him or her. As Waldrop, B. (2011) has said, A case of identity theft can be as serious as having your entire depone account to be wiped out. This can be a very serious threat and users should beware of it. Finally, there is the lack of privacy online. The thing about social networking websites is that it has the shortest entropy intimacy and was even rated by The retreat Blog as the second biggest online privacy threat in 2011.With a pallid data link, it is easy for even non-users of social networking sites to hack into a users database and gain access to what the user has posted. In fact, Mark Zukerberg, the founder of Facebook himself had hacked into the email accounts of two Harvard Crimson reporters using data obtained from TheFacebook. coms logs (Carlson, 2010). This shows how information is easily accessed on social networking s ites. People often believe that it is the responsibility of social networking websites to safeguard its users privacy.However, here are some of the reasons why users have a major role to play in protecting their own online privacy. Firstly, social networking sites can only protect their users to a throttle extent. Social networking sites have really weak data links and they have too many users to be able to realize care of all of them. Facebook for example, would be the third largest nation in the world if it were a country (Andrews, 2011, p. 1). We can think Facebook as the government and its privacy settings as the law. In a real country, there would be people breakageing rules despite wise(p) the laws.A weak data link is like Facebooks version of a weak police force, being uneffective to prevent data from being stolen. Hence, users cannot choose to rely solely on social networking sites to protect their privacy. Secondly, it is the users responsibility to provide his or her loved ones. slightly of a users information such as home number or spoken language is shared with his or her non-user family members. Thus, revealing information as such might bring harm to the family. An example would be if a burglar decides to break in to a users house, whose address he found on the Internet.If a social networking site user had revealed his address and phone number online, all the burglar has to do is to type in phone number or address in Google Search and it will call for him to the users home (Tynan, 2005). Finally, it is all-important(prenominal) that users are aware of what harm information they post can bring. This is so as the information that had been posted cannot be interpreted back. Even if the user had used the outstrip services to get all of his data removed, the information can be reinstalled at bottom a short period of season (Andrews, 2011).Hence, users are considered the biggest threat to their own online privacy as they are the ones who hav e a final say on what information they choose to post on the Internet. As mentioned in Cocoons 2011 hark of the Top 10 Internet hiding threats, the weakest link in the privacy chain could be the users themselves. Everything that Internet users do online leaves a digital footprint from search engine tastes to browsing patterns and social interactions. Therefore, users should be accountable for what they choose to do on the Internet, as they will never know who is observation and what online privacy threats awaits them.While enjoying the benefits that social networking websites provide them with, they should also be aware of the threats they are facing and learn to protect their own privacy. I strongly believe that the scoop up way to do so is for users to leaping the amount of intimate information they reveal online. Privacy settings on social networking sites might help but only to a certain extent and it is better to be safe then sorry. All in all, users should understand th at while they are check the amount the intimate information of themselves online, they are also protecting themselves from their greatest Internet privacy enemy- themselves.