Social Media Information Technology

Abstract

Social Media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, are universally known and present in parts of the world in today's society. Social media have become such a part of many people daily activities that most couldn't image living without it. It has brought many benefits to us, but also some pitfalls. Facebook monitors how third parties use your personal data, however, they also state they cannot guarantee "that third parties will follow Facebook's privacy policy, if you don't want your privacy violated, then you probably want to reconsider joining Facebook or other social networks. The definition of "privacy" is subjective, however, things like personal information such as name, living and working locations, job, career, education, income, relationship status, contact information, and bank information should be safeguarded at all costs to prevent things like stalking, identity theft, fraud, and other attempts to undermine a person's life. It's not all bad, Facebook has reunited family's, long lost friends, and is helping police officers catch the bad guys, however, like anything, too much can be bad for you.

More recently social media has been known as the tool that facilitated many uprising in Middle Eastern countries. It helped kick start a revolution known as the Arab Spring. Facebook was used to schedule activities such as gatherings to protest, Twitter was used to coordinate an array of events at a moment's notice, and Youtube was used to voice this struggle to the world. Social Media has played a major part in overthrowing governments in countries like Egypt, Libya, and Syria. Once depressed people in these countries relied on state sponsored media for their info but with the rise of social media this is no longer the case. In my paper I will examine the facts on how social media is used and for what purposes. I will examine how it has been a major game changer around the world and decide if social media is a viable tool for society or not.

"Social Media: Information Technology"

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, all social networking websites have exploded in popularity in recent years. Recent events involving child predators and other dangerous individuals using these sites have raised concerns about safety. Some view social networking websites with suspicion because they have limited understanding of what these sites really are or how they work. Used responsibly, social networking sites do not pose a danger or threat to anyone. Social networking has moved far from just meeting people and staying in touch with friends or family. It has brought down and changed governments, it has changed the way some companies does business. This paper will explore some why I believe social networking is a viable tool for society.

Facebook monitors how third parties use your personal data, however, they also state they cannot guarantee "that third parties will follow Facebook's privacy policy) ergo, if you don't want your privacy violated, then you probably want to reconsider joining Facebook or other social networks. The definition of "privacy" is subjective, however, things like personal information such as name, living and working locations, job, career, education, income, relationship status, contact information, and bank information should be safeguarded at all costs to prevent things like stalking, identity theft, fraud, and other attempts to undermine a person's life. While the threat of hacking and online theft programs is very prevalent, there are measures out there that can be used to benefit us and help keep our information private. For example, while the intended consequences of Facebook and online banking are to make our lives easier and more convenient, the unintended consequences are of course the ever evolving ability of computer hackers to steal our privacy information. However, Facebook is jumping on the bandwagon for fear of lawsuits, and is quickly installing a HTTPS to enable its users to connect to social networking with secure and encrypted features. However, Facebook is using this and allowing the user to choose this or not because it will not automatically default to this security feature (Bradley, 2010).

Another concern is protecting user's data from Facebook itself, not other agencies. However, again from an objective point of view, if you do not want your information available to

Facebook, why create the account and post "personal" and "private" information on an online website? This is where we can get into an ethical and pseudo-ethical debate on what is considered "private" when you put it out there in your blog. It's not all bad, Facebook has reunited family's, long lost friends, and is helping police officers catch the bad guys, however, like anything, too much can be bad for you. "There is a growing awareness as well as resentment of the routine practice of recording, analyzing, and communicating information about individuals as they act and transact in the normal course of their commercial and public lives. The information in question is taken into the possession of and used by whomever collects it and from there may be transmitted-usually electronically, usually for a fee or favor-to others-second parties, third parties, fourth parties, and so on (Nissenbaum, 1998). Put in other words, the convenience of our online social networking and availability of information will cause the inconvenience of the following: ""Our revolution will not be in gathering data--don't look for TV cameras in your bedroom--but in analyzing then formation that is already willingly shared (Nissenbaum, 1998)." Explanation: If the information is already in a database or available for wide access, it is hard to argue that it is "private."

In some contexts, the terms "private" and "public" are associated respectively with family and private or intimate relations, while public indicates a civic realm or community outside of the personal one. These contextual and dichotomy of realms in the way of ascertaining what is considered "private," is causing some legal issues and subjective interpretations of what is "private" and "public." "The public/private distinction has sometimes

been taken to reflect differences between appropriate scope of government, as opposed to self-regulation by individuals (DeCrew, 1999). This lack of being able to really understand and

distinguish at our Macro-level of society has created issues with privacy with social networking sites, more popular with Facebook at the moment. Another context and school of thought is the

"means of maintaining