{"id":173,"date":"2019-05-05T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T11:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/?p=173"},"modified":"2019-05-05T20:11:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T12:11:13","slug":"the-risks-of-using-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/2019\/05\/05\/the-risks-of-using-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Individuals are exposed to Social Media Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

                                                  Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recent years, social\nmedia has become a major part of our lives which has greatly impacted and\ninfluenced our ways of socializing both in the real world, as well as in online\ncommunities that are present. With the new and advanced technology Web 2.0,\nsocial media has gained immense popularity and its power has left certain\nlong-lasting effects on people. Nowadays, social networking sites among teens\nhave increased, where they are creating online identities that may be similar\nto themselves or which might completely differ from that of their real life.\nThese sites allow individuals to build relationships, form new and stronger\nbonds, share and gain knowledge, and to connect with the entire world; by\nhaving friends abroad (Boyd, 2007). However, social media sites, are not always\nadvantageous, as it has its wickedness as well. This article will show some of\nthe risks of Facebook such as depression, catfishing and cyberbullying, and the\nrise in identity theft and the impact it has had in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keywords<\/em>:\nSocial Media, Risks, Depression, Catfishing, Cyberbullying, Identity Theft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthe latest technology Web 2.0, it is undeniable that social media has removed\ncommunications barriers and has opened the door to the public, where everybody\nhas a fair chance to voice out and enter in the participatory culture; by\neither chatting, sharing, commenting or posting contents (Jenkins, 2006). In\nthe present society, we are surrounded by social media sites such as Facebook,\nInstagram, Twitter or Snapchat. \u201cFacebook\nis a standout amongst the most famous networking site ever with around 350\nmillion dynamic users\u201d (Valenzuela, 2017). Social\nmedia has now become a part of our society, by changing the social norms and\ncultures (Al-Sharq et al., 2015), and by being a major part in people\u2019s lives,\nespecially for the youths, who make their personal activities as public (Edge,\n2017). Wherever they go, they put their location on Facebook or the food that\nthey are eating, and they even upload their own pictures. According to Mitchell\n(2002), he claimed that \u201csocial networking sites are used by youngsters to get\nengaged in romantic and casual online relationships\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, this has influenced the daily life path of students, as this platform also helps them to create a group chat, where they can have all their group discussions, gossips, and may share pictures, memes, or ideas, and may comment on pictures and tag their friends (Rajeev, 2015). Facebook gives \u201can individual a sense of freedom and identity, where they can express themselves well and boosts up their confidence level, and by cheering them up during hard times\u201d (Nyagah et al., 2015). It allows individuals to connect with their friends, distant relatives or family members. Information can be passed in the nick of time; for example, cyclone warnings, the demission of a parliament member or an accident that has occurred during the day. Amidst all the advantages that social media has, it might surprisingly have negative impacts that could be unrepairable. In this virtual world, people\u2019s real identities are in danger as they are more prone to social media risks, which are affecting their lives. Many teenagers are using social media, especially Facebook, to build stronger personalities and have better social lives (Boyd, 2007), by connecting with people whom they don\u2019t know. However, by making friends with unknown people, some mature teens do not even know that they are exposing themselves to risks. Sharing personal information with strangers is not always a great idea since privacy plays a very important role and is another serious concern in an individual\u2019s life; as they should know to whom they are giving their personal details and whether it will be safe with them or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. INDIVIDUAL\u2019S OBSESSION ON FACEBOOK LEADS TO DEPRESSION<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cFacebook is mainly known as being the medium to express\nopinions, views, and is the platform for sharing; but apart from that, it is\nalso known a medium to reduce distances by making people feel more connected\nand to build new relationships\u201d (Boyd & Elison, 2007). On Facebook, people\ncreate their personal profiles in order to make new friends and to make the\npublic view their profile, allowing them to pass on their judgments. This is\ndone so that the public or their friends understand their opinion on their\npersonal lives (Muise, 2009). While staying online, individuals seek for\nacceptance and to stay connected with their peers all the time, and share all\ntheir personal information. However, if there is no sharing of personal\ninformation, then the outcome would be decreased online interactions, for those\nwho value popularity. A recent research stated that adolescents and emerging\nadults are concerned with highly value popularity, and they are the one who are\nmore prone to disclose information online, in order to continue a conversation\n(Christofides et al., 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nbrutal truth is that some people might be so addicted to likes, that they will\nkeep on posting pictures of themselves, quotes or memes, and will keep on\ncherishing upon hearing the notification sound. They feel important and they\nget dependent on Facebook so much, that getting a \u2018like\u2019 becomes an addiction\nfor them and they require to be validated again and again (Kariou et al., 2016). Moreover, in the past, girls would write in their personal diaries or\ndiscuss it with their friends on the phone to deal with their problems. But\nnowadays, girls use social media, especially Facebook as a primary channel to\nvent their current problems, by posting on their page which is most likely to\nreceive both positive and negative comments; causing an obsession to develop\nthis \u2018problem post\u2019. The requirement of constant engagement, and with\nthe feeling of being validated all the time, has undoubtedly affected social\nand human feelings and has created a factor of self-awareness which may trigger\n\u2018Facebook depression\u2019 in some people. According\nto Kessler (2005), the symptoms of depression develops when an individual spend\nan excessive amount of time on social media sites. Depression is one of the\ninadvertent consequences of excessive social media usage, which might cause\npsychological problems later on. One study conducted by Professor Dr. Joanne\nDavila, discovered that groups of teenage girls who made excessive usage of\nFacebook are exposed to a higher risk for depression and anxiety (Starr et al.,\n2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Furthermore, with offline depression, people who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky Internet sites and blogs for \u2018help\u2019 that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, aggressive and self-destructive behaviors\u201d (Jacobs, 2014). Feelings may result in both positive and negative way such as joy, happiness, excitement; and pain, hurt, mental and emotional breakdown or crisis in marriage, respectively (Williams, 2012). Emotional breakdown happens when people feel rejected or their posts have not been \u201cliked\u201d, then they feel lost and lonely, as they put it in their mindset that people do not think of them as being important as they are not responding to their posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. FACEBOOK IS GIVING RISE TO CAT-FISHING AND CYBERBULLYING <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cCatfishing\nis the process of befriending strangers online while using a fake or stolen\nidentity\u201d (Harris, 2013). It is a very deceptive act, which has ruined a lot of\nrelationships and the emotions of people. \u201cCatfish is a based off the\ndocumentary film, which showcases illusion of social media connections. For\ninstance, \u201cin one of the episodes of Catfish, the narrator on the show, Nev\nSchulman, went to meet his online love in person for the first time, and he was\nshocked to death by the deception he discovered. The picture of the woman whom\nhe saw on social media was completely different from that of the person in\nreal. Thinking about that, in Nev\u2019s mind, he made his perception about the girl\nthat if she can lie about her appearance, then her whole character would be in\nquestion\u201d (Saedi, 2012). Nev had fallen with someone who has constructed\nherself as a mirage. This is where people create a fake account and fake\nidentities, with different names, photos, and another personal contact. Some\npeople do it because for love, for revenge, to stalk people, and as well as for\ntime pass. Other might do this because of privacy issues, where they are\nrestricted to use Facebook account by their parents or they want to have some\nfun by being another person at the same time, with another fake account. In\naddition, chatting with strangers is not always a good thing. Strangers tend to\nmanipulate the mind of people and are most likely to take out personal\ninformation (O\u2019Keefe, 2002).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Likewise, with identity threat on social media, there is also cyberbullying. \u201cCyberbullying is defined as an aggressive act that is carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him; and which occurs via an electronic method, via the Internet and especially through social media\u201d (Bannink et al., 2014). These people hide their identity, posing as someone else, through false and fake identities to terrorize the victims. These bullying issues leave teenagers with deep mental traumas, where they may have Facebook depression, mental problems, emotional breakdown, where they may even have the tendency to end their lives through suicides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. FACEBOOK IS GIVING RISE TO IDENTITY THEFT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With the\nhigh growth of technology, it has given hackers the opportunity to steal\npersonal information of many victims at once. \u201cIdentity theft is a type of\ncrime, which is associated with the sharing of personal information such as\nname, address, phone number, bank account number and highly confidential data\nsuch as social security numbers\u201d (Marcum, 2014). Identity theft can be done by\nmanipulating people, especially to those who are easily vulnerable such as\nyoung adults and college students because they lack enough knowledge and\nexperience, and where they get easily influenced. One type of identity theft is\nfamily fraud. This consist of hackers taking information from the victim\nrelative\u2019s Facebook page, and get to know where the latter is. Hence, depending\non the information they gathered, they imitate their identity and start\nblackmailing the victim\u2019s relatives and ask them for money (INVISUS,\n2014). Teenagers are most likely to post pictures of themselves while eating\nsomewhere, or while going somewhere, or even when traveling. In doing so, they\nhave opened themselves up for theft. Therefore, they can be attacked anywhere\nat any time, without getting a hint of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A report has stated that around\n83 million profiles from various one billion were not genuine profiles\n(Demange, 2010). People like creating a fake account in order to stalk people\nor to keep their lives in private. For instance, some parents don\u2019t allow their\nchildren to use and create an account on social media sites, due to privacy and\nsecurity concerns. Therefore, these children tend to create a fake account, in\norder for their parents to not get a clue that they are using Facebook. Hence,\nthe children tend to use fake information, which sometimes makes the search\nvery difficult and therefore, they conceal their real identity and start using\nFacebook with a different name, a different personality and a different\nlifestyle; from that of their real and offline lives. However, some people or\neven hackers, tend to create people\u2019s account as theirs and claimed that they\nare the real one. They do so by putting the same name, same picture, and the\nsame information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To\nconclude, Facebook is a good thing as it allows us to remove communication\nbarriers and stay connected with many people. However, Facebook should be used\nin the limit, and people should restrict the information that they give online.\nThey should think well what information should be provided and what should not.\nMany people have lost some of their friendships as they have stopped\ninteracting with people face-to-face. Instead, they rely more on online\ncommunications, rather than offline, where some people are not on Facebook, and\ntheir friends completely forget them, since they are not available online.\nTeenagers especially, should not be exposed too much on Facebook, as they are\nthe one who easily falls into traps and are more vulnerable to dangers.\nTherefore, the responsibilities of parents are to control the usage time of\nsocial media for their children and explain to them the risks of Facebook.\nAlso, with the rise in the number of identity theft and catfishing, people\nshould be very more careful, when chatting to strangers and telling who are\nthey and should not really be interested in meeting them personally; as they\ncould be anyone. In addition, teenagers should not really post everything\nonline, as some things should remain in private and not let everybody know what\nthey are doing and where are they. Hence, people should be very careful online\nand should beware from hackers and from fake accounts. They should also avoid\ncreating fake accounts and instead create their own account to avoid problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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                                                      Abstract In the recent years, social media has become a major part of our lives which has greatly impacted and influenced our ways of socializing both in the real world, as well as in online communities that are present. With the new and advanced technology Web 2.0, social media has gained immense popularity and… Continue reading Individuals are exposed to Social Media Risks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69,70,68,71,67,21],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social","tag-catfishing","tag-cyberbullying","tag-depression","tag-identity-theft","tag-risks","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}