Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are well-known over the world; they have brought the world and the community closer by allowing people to communicate and connect in real-time. Every day, these social media platforms strive to enhance their systems to make life simpler for their users. It increased work prospects, brought loved ones closer together, and enhanced human contact to new heights (Vanderkaay, 2010). However, most users are unaware of the drawbacks or dangers of social media platforms, and while the good aspects may appear tempting, the drawbacks are considerably worse. Identity theft, cyberbullying, propaganda, biased opinions, and fake news are all risks associated with displaying one’s identity on social media and sharing information (Singh et.al, 2017). This conference paper will discuss why social media platforms are no longer a safe place for exchanging information and exhibiting our identities.

Identity, according to Papacharissi (2010), is a term that may be used to identify a person, or a group of individuals based on their personality traits, attributes, and beliefs. The privacy of a person’s identity is one of the most significant and crucial aspects of their identity, and it has become an increasingly critical component when an individual exposes their identity online. Many social media users utilise their accounts to post or publish photos or videos taken while on vacations, in entertainment venues, or in restaurants (Brusseau, 2019). Particularly when it comes to celebrities or social media influencers who actively share or publish their daily lives on social media, sharing everything from their daily routines to their daily lifestyle, interacting with other fans/users online, and influencing them to adapt and follow their lifestyle/routine (Trepte, 2015).

Taking the above statement into account, most celebrities or social media influencers violate their privacy rights because most of their lifestyle are documented online. Maintaining privacy is challenging because celebrities utilise these platforms to generate income and acquire fame (Synder, 2013). Facebook and other social media platforms take full advantage of this by breaking a user’s right to privacy and entirely disregarding the ethics of a person’s online identity by selling data from their posts on social media to another organization for profit (Brusseau, 2019). An incident happened in early 2018 where Facebook was being accused of selling users’ data online to a company called Cambridge Analytica where they trade data with each other by using users’ data (hobbies, favourite places, travel, fitness), and consequently made around millions of dollars. This was deemed as an unethical act by Facebook and the specific reason for this circumstance was that Facebook had done so without first obtaining the consent of its users and then selling these data to an unknown company. Facebook was later investigated in court for violating the privacy of its users (Kang et al., 2018). From the preceding paragraphs, it is evident and clear that privacy is a fundamental human right and that everyone should exercise extreme caution when maintaining social media accounts, particularly when it comes to posting content online, which is a representation of an individual’s identity. A user may not be aware that their content, photos, and videos are being misused or abused without their consent or knowledge.

Additionally, when it comes to social media identification, there are a variety of risks or dangers to consider before exposing your identity and sharing personal information with the public (Caselli, 2014). One of the most important aspects to consider when revealing an identity online with friends or strangers are that there may be other users who may detest or be opposed to the information that is being uploaded or posted by another user, especially because of the comment section is open to the public. Not only that, but individuals also have the ability to comment on anything they want and can influence others to alter their identity just because they do not approve of it, i.e., they can make remarks, criticise their lifestyle choices, or make fun of users online (Caselli, 2014). On the other hand, cyberbullying is well-known on all social media platforms as it takes many forms and can impact or harm individuals in ways that other users are unaware of (Yildrim et.al, 2019). When using social media platforms, there is also a risk of having personal information and identity stolen, notably for social media influencers who are exposed to all these risks on a routine basis. Users who use social media would set up fake accounts and post the same content as other influencers, then publish it. Users who create fraudulent profiles might euthanize remarks and continue delivering unrelated or irrelevant comments or postings that would be regarded as offensive or inappropriate (Caselli, 2014).

Most social media applications enable users to remark or comment on various topics, post something on their profile or ‘wall’ that everyone who follows or likes them can view (Gil de Ziga, et.al, 2017), and keep each other updated with their lives and opinions. On social media platforms, there are over 3 billion users, with roughly 1 billion of them active every day (Pillar et. al, 2012). Users of social media such as Instagram and Facebook have been able to express nearly any of their thoughts or opinions, with governments such as the United States of America allowing citizens to exercise their rights to free speech. But, having the freedom to speak freely has its disadvantages and downside, particularly on social media. It is because it can lead to or create biased or misleading information or opinions. An example of this can be seen in how some users on Twitter or Facebook exploited the power of social media to spread false and misleading news and information about COVID-19 (Hammad & Alqarni, 2021). Surprisingly, social media has grown widespread with the specific goal of distributing fake news to support their false online advocacy (Olan et al., 2022). An example may be observed in the 2016 presidential election in the US, where former president Donald Trump was accused of electoral fraud. Several charges were made against him for fabricating votes to win the election in 2016 (Carlson, 2020). This generated havoc and destruction in the Internet community between both the Republican and Democratic parties, leading to the scenario, which resulted in strikes and protests against Donald Trump (Guardian, 2020). Also, propaganda can be spread and distributed through social media, and large companies and organizations utilise social media to create social media accounts to propagate propaganda.

As an example, a video on Twitter was being released in 2015, claiming that there had been strikes in Syria, and the US was suspected of being complicit in such attacks. Only after several months, the video was being analysed, and authorities discovered that it was a video from Israel, not Syria, dated 2013 (O’Connor, 2019). From these following scenarios and incidents, it can be clearly shown that social media is not a safe place especially when an unknown user shares a video and uses it to accuse or criticise someone else of committing a crime they did not commit. Fake news about internet activism should be strictly controlled or monitored by its creators since it has been shown to inflict harm not only to the country but also to the individuals who support or spread it.

However, there are various advantages to using social media that should be considered. Although social media is a place where privacy issues are on the rise and where a person’s identity may be observed from a variety of perspectives and angles, it has certain advantages in terms of revealing a person’s identity and exchanging data. Users may now associate themselves with other groups, communities, or individuals, thanks to social media (Meikle et.al, 2014). Users have been able to connect and engage with one another through social media, and by exhibiting their identities, they have been able to expand their global network. For instance, LinkedIn allows users to create a profile that includes a brief description of themselves and their credentials to attract other companies or firms interested in a possible candidate for their organization (Johnson et.al, 2020). Consequently, social media has created a framework that allows certain groups of people/individuals to become social media influencers (micro or macro), allowing them to obtain followers or subscribers as well as fame and money, through various social media platforms.

The term “social media influencer” comes from the fact that once an individual has established their identity as a social media influencer, they have the potential to make a difference or influence the decisions of others. This might refer to or relate to influencing purchasing decisions for certain products/items or assisting in the promotion of businesses that are attempting or striving to grow in popularity and fame (Lin et.al, 2019). To illustrate, Kylie Jenner, one of the most popular social media influencers and the youngest billionaire, advertises her beauty products by posting them on Instagram, where it has generated over a million likes in less than 24 hours and over 10,000 orders received per day (Warren et.al, 2020). This has demonstrated the power of an influencer’s message or posts. There are several social media influencers, the majority of whom have turned their lives around by displaying their identities on social media. According to the report by Pulido (2018), when it comes to propagating political issues online, social media has had a detrimental influence. Social media has become a means of communication for not only teenagers or young adults, but for the majority of world leaders (Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Royal Families), to disseminate awareness about political, economical, and social issues. It has allowed messages to be broadcast all over the world and is widely regarded as one of the most effective methods of raising awareness.

After the tragic murder of George Floyd, a young black man who was killed by an unfortunate death due to police brutality, a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration or protest was held online. This demonstration or protest increased awareness of police brutality all over the world and educated citizens across the United States as well as the world (Williamson et. al, 2018).

To summarize, the following conference paper has discussed both the beneficial and downside effects of showing one’s identity on social media, and it has been determined that sharing information can be harmful or damaging. While social media has enabled individuals around the world to connect with one another and increase engagement, it has also been utilised to raise awareness of political and social issues. Identity theft, personal information theft, cyberbullying, false news and political propaganda, and a loss of privacy when keeping an identity online outweigh the benefits of showing identity and sharing information such as political beliefs and other personal data. From the examples and real-life scenarios discussed above, such as social interaction, it is evident that social media has surely made life simpler.

Nevertheless, it cannot be disputed that it has had an impact on users’ online identities; it can be shown that users are unintentionally providing personal information without comprehending the risks they are facing. Teenagers, for example, who are young and have little awareness of the dark side of the web, reveal their identity and information on these platforms for amusement purposes and are misled and duped into sharing their data with unknown companies or scammers who profit from it without their consent. Therefore, social media is no longer a safe place for exchanging information and exhibiting our online identities.

References:

Brusseau, J. (2019). Ethics of identity in the time of Big Data. First Monday. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i5.9624

Carlson, M. (2018). Fake news as an informational moral panic: The symbolic deviancy of social media during the 2016 US presidential election. Information, Communication & Society, 23(3), 374–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2018.1505934

Caselli, I. (2014). Taking down the critics: Is Ecuador’s government silencing social media users? Index on Censorship, 43(3), 79–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306422014548146

Hammad, M. A., & Alqarni, T. M. (2021). Psychosocial effects of social media on the Saudi society during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248811

Gil de Zúñiga, H., Diehl, T., Huber, B., & Liu, J. (2017). Personality traits and social media use in 20 countries: How personality relates to frequency of social media use, social media news use, and social media use for social interaction. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(9), 540–552. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0295

Guardian News and Media. (2020, November 10). Trump’s vote fraud claims go viral on social media despite curbs. The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/trumps-vote-claims-go-viral-on-social-media-despite-curbs?ref=upstract.com&curator=upstract.com

Jerôme, B., & Jerôme-Speziari, V. (2016). State-level forecasts for the 2016 US presidential elections: Political economy model predicts Hillary Clinton victory. PS: Political Science & Politics, 49(04), 680–686. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096516001311

Johnson, M. A., & Leo, C. (2020). The inefficacy of LinkedIn? A latent change model and experimental test of using LinkedIn for Job Search. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(11), 1262–1280. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000491

Kang, C., Hsu, T., Roose, K., Singer, N., & Rosenberg, M. (2018, April 11). Mark Zuckerberg testimony: Day 2 brings tougher questioning. The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/us/politics/zuckerberg-facebook-cambridge-analytica.html

Lin, M.-H., Vijayalakshmi, A., & Laczniak, R. (2019). Toward an understanding of parental views and actions on social media influencers targeted at adolescents: The roles of parents’ social media use and empowerment. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02664

Meikle, G. (2014). Book Review: José van Dijck, The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, Sam Hinton and Larissa Hjorth, Understanding Social Media and Jeremy Hunsinger and Theresa Senft (eds), The Social Media Handbook. Media, Culture & Society, 36(7), 1057–1060. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443714544861

O’Connor, C., & Weatherall, J. O. (2019). The social media propaganda problem is worse than you think. Issues in Science and Technology, 36(1), 30-32. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/social-media-propaganda-problem-is-worse-than-you/docview/2452126840/se-2?accountid=10382

Olan, F., Jayawickrama, U., Arakpogun, E. O., Suklan, J., & Liu, S. (2022). Fake news on social media: The impact on society. Information Systems Frontiers. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-022-10242-z

Papacharissi, Z. (Ed.). (2010). A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites. Taylor & Francis Group.

Piller, F., Vossen, A., & Ihl, C. (2012). From social media to social product development: The impact of social media on co-creation of Innovation. Die Unternehmung, 66(1), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.5771/0042-059x-2012-1-7

Pulido, C. M., Redondo-Sama, G., Sordé-Martí, T., & Flecha, R. (2018). Social Impact in social media: A new method to evaluate the social impact of research. PLOS ONE, 13(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203117

Singh, G., Singh, M., & Singh, P. (2017). Social Media Marketing: The New Revolution in Business Engagement. Journal of Marketing Vistas, 7(2), 29-40. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/social-media-marketing-new-revolution-business/docview/2234977521/se-2?accountid=10382

Snyder, E. M. (2013). An analysis of NCAA Division 1 student-athlete social media use, privacy management, and perceptions of social media policies (Order No. 3579767). Available from ProQuest One Academic. (1513317906). https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/analysis-ncaa-division-1-student-athlete-social/docview/1513317906/se-2?accountid=10382

Trepte, S. (2015). Social Media, Privacy, and Self-Disclosure: The Turbulence Caused by Social Media’s Affordances. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578681

Warren, K. (2020, August 10). Kylie Jenner just turned 23 years old – and she’s already worth $900 million. take a look at how the Mogul built her empire. Business Insider. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-does-kylie-jenner-make-money-2018-7

Williamson, V., Trump, K.-S., & Einstein, K. L. (2018). Black lives matter: Evidence that police-caused deaths predict protest activity. Perspectives on Politics, 16(2), 400–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592717004273

Vanderkaay, S. (2010). The Social Media Evolution. The Canadian Architect, 55(4), 39-40. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/social-media-evolution/docview/356900296/se-2?accountid=10382

Yildirim, A., Celikten, M., Desiatov, T., & Lodatko, Y. (2019). The analysis of teachers’ cyber bullying, cyber victimization, and cyberbullying sensitivity based on various variables. European Journal of Educational Research, 8(4), 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.8.4.102