Has Social Media Changed the Meaning of Privacy - Research Paper Example

Number] Has social media changed the meaning of privacy? The increasing popularity of social media has created many benefits for the users as well as issues. The major issue surrounding this phenomenon is the changing concept of privacy. Social media gives people the chance to communicate, interact, and share with friends, family, and people with similar interests across the globe. This has made life easier and enlightened the age of information where ideas and opinions travel as fast as they can. However, it has also brought up many privacy concerns for users which creates problems for them but doesn’t decrease the dependency and use of social media. Thus, social media is changing the mind sets of people and changing the meaning of privacy for people who once valued their privacy more than anything else. The meaning of privacy depends on how each individual perceives it. The literal meaning of privacy is a state of being free from public attention and not being disturbed by others. It is true that no individual has ever perceived privacy in such an intense meaning. Privacy for an individual has meant being free from constant observations, disturbances, or interferences. Every person needs their personal space and their privacy in which they can be themselves and practice their freedom. Every state gives its citizens the right to be left alone if desired. No person is obligated to reveal their location, personal information, or daily activities to anyone until they are willing. This privacy lets people enjoy their freedom, stay calm and peaceful, and gain wisdom. Unfortunately, social media and the enhancing trends have changed the meaning of privacy as it is perceived by individuals (Spinello 43). The internet has been in the society since a long time but the social networking phenomenon is very recent. Historically, an internet user was not required to reveal any of the personal information. It was enough for the user to have an online presence through which he could communicate and exchange information. The websites respected the privacy concerns and personal information was not as openly required as it is today. Often people didn’t even know whether the other person they are talking to over the internet was a girl or a boy. In every sense, privacy was respected and protected which made the internet a secure and positive place (Albarran 154). It is important to note that the meaning of privacy is constantly changing and evolving in the 21st century. In a general context, the notion of privacy has changed sufficiently. The continuous developments taking place in this century have evolved the concept of privacy. As the birth of internet and social media took place and the intense anti-terrorist snooping being carried out, the government and scientists are bound to wreck the traditional expectations of privacy. Many people believe that privacy is the protection of life from the government affairs whereas they fail to realise that our privacy is deeply related to the religious and educational institutions (Spinello 43). In this information age, every individual wants their privacy to be protected physically and electronically. However, everyone wants and demands privacy but in actual, no one strives for it. The desire for privacy ends when an individual decides to share his personal information, thoughts, or photographs on social media. Privacy today is a concept which individuals believe they respect but in reality, they have forgotten themselves. Social networking is a phenomenon that is evolving so quickly that individuals fail to realise how deeply it is affecting our lives and changing our perceptions; both positively and negatively (Albarran 154). Social media has been incorporate as a need in our lives. It serves various purposes such as communication, keeping in touch with old friends, sharing with people living miles away, and exchanging information. Social networking sites have reported more than one billion active users, which show it has something for everyone. Every individual needs social networking sites to keep up-to-date and to demolish the barriers in communication. Business organizations, marketing research, advertising, promotions, and several other corporate activities take place on social networking sites. Events, photographs, locations, pages, groups, and posts make it easier to coordinate and communicate with a large number of people with visual demonstrations (Spinello 43). No one can imagine living without social networking sites nowadays; hence individuals are often seen compromising on their privacy. When we say that privacy is compromised due to the social networking websites, it doesn’t mean that individuals intend to reveal their personal information for people to misuse it. It is rather a phenomenon which is incorporated in our lives. When we enter a social networking site for any purpose such as interacting, keeping in touch, or corporate reasons, we need to give in our basic personal details to the website which are promised to remain private. However, what we fail to realise is that our information is being shared with the website managers, the advertisers, and also the authorized users who we have approved (Hinton 52). Today, social networking has evolved its framework into new forms of interaction, collaboration, exchange, and dialogue. Accessing via Smartphone enables users to automatically enter their location and receive updates of all authorized users. Individuals are getting into fast-flowing conversations and forming online relationships through social media. Every advertiser, website manager, and authorized user can view personal details, locations, relationships, friend’s circles, and education institutions or job places (Zuccato 159). This leaves no privacy for an individual. As much as people want privacy, they are compromising on it themselves by using social media which is otherwise inevitable. Social media is a phenomenon that has changed our lives directly and indirectly; it has also changed the way we think and perceive things around us. It gives us no privacy and we are okay with it. The only way an individual can protect his privacy on a social networking website is by not giving any information at all. No matter what information is given, the website managers can view and not to forget the hackers and criminals who have no difficulties in breaking privacy systems. Due to social media, we are always under constant threat of being exposed and revealed to hackers or criminals causing identity thefts or impersonation. Out automated GPS systems and locators can easily give our access to any person. Much of the information is mostly public such as name, work place, educational institution, and gender (Chapel 9). This means that if we are using the social media, some part of us is always transparent to everyone else. The only way to protect our privacy is to not use social media at all; which is again, impossible in today’s world. Moreover, social media companies do not tend to take the privacy laws seriously as marked by the government investigators. Despite the strict privacy laws, there are breaches taking place and people are facing severe problems due to the leakage of information. Social media companies ignore the privacy laws and act carelessly regarding their privacy policies. They can change their settings often without prior notification to the users. Changed privacy settings may often make information public automatically which is unknown to the users. Users cannot trust the websites as they keep changing their policies without notifying their users. So users in social media are always at risk of being exposed due to the ignorant attitudes of social media companies (Zuccato 159). This ignorance of privacy law regulations does not only create a high risk for users, but it creates major issues. In recent times, privacy issues have caused people to be victimized of fraud, impersonation, and identity theft. The transparency of the social media information can lead to such major issues that can destroy lives. Maybe this is the reason why the younger generation is said to be more depressed, frustrated, and highly likely to commit suicide. No one has privacy in this digital era and social media has played a major role (Chapel 9). Eventually, the meaning of privacy has changed today. We don’t even know whether the future generations will know the meaning of privacy or not as they would be living an open and transparent life. Social media has taken over the minds of individuals which have changed how they viewed communication, dialogue, sharing, and personal privacy (Hinton 52). But for the new generations, as they have been experiencing digitalization since the beginning, there is no meaning for privacy. Privacy would be only when an individual is at his home talking to his family. That is the only time when a person can be private, all other times, he is being watched, observed, and tracked. However, social media has changed the meaning of privacy to a great extent. People would want to have privacy and respected others’ privacy but due to the social media phenomenon, people have forgotten their privacy and rather they enjoy invading others’ privacy through stalking or tracking. An individual is only enjoying privacy when he is sitting alone in a closed room. Other than that, the society has no meaning to privacy due to the unavoidable usage of social networking. Social media changed the beliefs and mind sets of people. Work Cited Albarran, Alan. The Social Media Industries. NY: Routledge, 2013. Print. Chapel, Bill. Finding Meaning. USA: WestBow Press, 2012. Print. Hinton, Sam. Understanding Social Media. UK: SAGE, 2013. Print. Spinello, Richard. Privacy and Social Networking Technology. USA: International Review of Information Ethics, 2011. Print. Zuccato, Albin. The Future of Identity in the Information Society. USA: Springer, 2008. Print. Read More