Introduction
Ethical use of social media means to use social media to put ethics behind peoples' actions on social media. This could be using social media honestly and not in a harmful way. In contemporary society social media is widely used by many many people. Social media influences these people in many ways, from more simple things such as how people dress to more important things such as changing the way a person thinks or feels. It is almost like a worldwide magazine shelf where all the magazines are free. The ethical use of social media is a significant topic of discussion because there are many many unethical uses of social media that aim to manipulate and harm people. This effect is multiplied by the fact that it is easily accessible by many many people around the world. This shows the magnitude of issue, effecting all sorts of people in all kinds of ways.
Privacy Concerns
One problem is user data. User data is the private information of a user, such as name, phone number, address, and other personal information. Generally the user data that social media platforms have is safeguarded by encryptions and other forms of security measures. This is data that can be used by many people that intend to cause harm and sell information to others. The defenses that social media platforms use do prevent large scale data leaks, but these can be bypassed to harvest information. One of these ways is data mining. Data mining is when you look at a large array of data and find patterns inside the data that can give you the information you want. People can look at your social media account “mine” your personal data from looking at patterns in your activity (Mironov). This can lead to other people using your personal info and allow them to disguise themselves as you. They steal your identity and do all sorts of things such as signing contracts without your knowledge but under your name. Due to this privacy concerns are a big issue on social media and should be addressed.
Mental Health Impacts
Social media also impacts mental health for the users. These impacts can both be positive or negative. There are many examples of there being negative effects on a persons' wellbeing that is associated with social media. Some examples that cause negative effects are cyberbullying, addiction, and social comparison. Cyberbullying is bullying over the internet and social media is where most cyberbullying happens. Just like regular bullying it can deeply affect a persons' mental health, more than the other two examples described. Cyberbullying is so bad that it is now a crime in most places in the US. Addiction is also a big issue. Addicts of social media will constantly seek out instant gratification which will lead to mental health issues down the road (Miller). Social comparison is also a really big issue. This is when people see someone on social media that is very attractive, their body is very built, or is very good at something and the user compares themselves to that person. This causes depression because they compare themselves to something unrealistic. It can also lead to other disorders such as eating disorders because people want to look a certain way. Social media platforms have to address these concerns because they are causing a lot of problems and are affecting the health of thousands of people.
Spread of Information
The spread of information has been multiplied because of social media. This information includes both true and false information. On social media anyone can say whatever they want. Millions of people can spread lots and lots of information a day.This means that a lot of information on social media are not credible because anyone can give information. There are many public figures that user social media and have millions of followers that will listen to what they have to say. This information could get reposted and spread even further across the world and to more people. There are a lot of ethical problems in this because people can spread false information with the intent to harm others. They can also spread misinformation that unintentionally harm others. This misinformation can be combated by users only believing information that is credible. Social media platforms cannot get rid of people that spread misinformation because that is their freedom of speech, but they can warn users about misinformation on their site.
Social Relationships and Community
Social media is also a way for people to connect with others and build relationships. People can see what their friends and people that are related to them are posting. They can connect with new people through mutual friends and mutual interests. Even from across the world they can meet new people and existing friends through social media. Social media can also lead to isolation because people might spend too much time on social media than with people in the real world. This can lead to the damage or destruction of real world relationships. Online you can say whatever you want and this leads to many ethical issues. Digital citizenship is a main issue that needs to be addressed. People are anonymous on social media and can say or post harmful things. This could lead to cyberbullying and other examples of bad digital citizenship. Social media platforms have to do a lot to prevent people from posting harmful things so the best solution is to not post those things at all. Empathy is another ethical dilemma on social media. For one, there are many empathetic people on social media that will try to make a person feel better or support them. But there are also a lot of unempathetic people that will kick someone when they are down and cause further harm.
Personal Thoughts
I personally do not have any social media. The closest thing I have is a Discord account to chat with my friends. In these chats we do joke around and sometimes say mean things to each other. I can apply ethical principles to my behavior by showing restraint and not say mean and hurtful things to my friends when they make a mistake or stupid remark. I can ensure that my future social media use is responsible and respectful of others by being careful with my words.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ethics in social media is a big topic for discussion. Due to the amount of people that use social media ethical use is needed to improve the experience for everyone. People need to stop doing unethical things such as cyberbullying, data mining, and spreading false information. We also need to stop people from getting addicted to social media so they won’t compare themselves to others as much, and neglect real world relationships. Social media users can prevent the spread of false information by only believing information from good sources. There is an app made by social media users called one sec, and it makes the user take a breath and asks the user if they want to open the social media app. This is a really great app and has prevented people from using social media apps and getting addicted to them. Social media platforms can overlook messages to prevent cyberbullying, they can maybe put a limit or warning when people are using it too much to prevent addiction, and review posts to prevent false information as well. One big thing platforms can do is to find some way to deter data miners from obtaining information.
Links to Information and Images
jeffersonhealth
improvado
one sec
Camden County College
Wikimedia Commons
Vecteezy
Freepik
Harvard Health
Very Well Health
Flaticon
Young Scot
