Social Media as a Tool of Surveillance and Gaze - Essay Example

While due to the contemporary developments, social surveillance refers to a range of inspiring insights, encompassing the security domain by objectively reviewing the importance of varying surveillance devices, besides considering the social implications and the diverse aspects of defense.

Positive impacts of Social Media as a surveillance tool

Particularly, the social-Networking Sites (SNS) permit participants to regularly, communicate or exchange with their relatives and friends regardless of distance. Hence given the exceptional participant figures, programs such as MySpace and Twitter represent key targets for security personnel in search of crime-related intelligence (Andrejivic 2005, pp.479-497). However, for the public, the possibility of accessing civic services and funds resourcefully serves as a justification of the SNS and the collective surveillance incentives.  Moreover, the progressive advancement of social media has increasingly served as a basis for human empowerment in various ways. The Internet categorically enhances involvement in political activities, permits individuals to cost-effectively share their ideologies, as well as to instantly, store data.

Furthermore, the Central Intelligent Agency (CIA) often relies on the SNS to offer surveillance services given its conservatory and interactive potential. Studies also indicate that most people often rely on social media to make new friends.

As reported by Andrejivic (2005, pp.479-497), participatory surveillance has the potentiality to act as a tool for monitoring companionship by reviewing the data shared by different users online. Social media also entails the idea of exchanging personal details with others. Consequently, the idea of sharing ought not to be despised, since the private data that individuals share reveals a stage of communication that does not predominantly need revelation.