Ethical Issue around Social Media - Coursework Example

ETHICAL ISSUE AROUND SOCIAL MEDIA here] of [Due paper Introduction Social media has become an integral partof every individual’s life because of the communication benefits it provides to its users (Gross & Acquisti 2005, p. 71). It not only plays a key role in community building but also it has changed the way people think about developing relationships and doing business. Socializing is one of main needs of every human which is served easily using social media. Many types of social media are available today that help people in communicating with each other. Some of the main examples of social media include social networking websites, such as, Facebook, Twitter, and Orkut. People not only make use of social media to develop new contacts but also to share their thoughts, pictures, and videos. Social media has also played a key role in changing the way people use to communicate with each other. Along with a number of benefits of social media that it provides to its users, it also gives rise to some ethical concerns. In this paper, we will discuss some of main ethical concerns regarding the use of social media. 2. Ethical Concerns Regarding Social Media Social media mainly refers to social networking websites that facilitate people in communicating with each other. For example, Facebook.com is one of the most popular and widely used social networking websites. This site does not restrict any person from joining it. There are no criteria which can stop a person from becoming its regular user. That is the base for all ethical concerns regarding social media as the main intent of the owners of such services is to earn money through increasing the number of users. They have nothing to do with the activities of the users on the website. Although social media provides many communication benefits to people, such as, entertainment facility, increased social interaction with people from different backgrounds, and development of kinship and other relationships, some ethical issues also exist which still need a better and proper solution in order for the website to become a harm-free and productive website for its users. Let us now discuss some of the main ethical concerns associated with an unrestricted and excessive use of social media. 2.1 Reduced family Interactions One of the main ethical issues associated with the use of social media is reduced interactions between family members living under the same roof. Before the advent of such media, family members used to sit together to discuss family matters and other issues. They used to give time to each other because of which the level of bonding between them was comparatively high. But with the advent of social media, people prefer to give more time to their friends on social networking websites than they give to their close family members living with them. The ethical concern here is that parents are becoming more and more alone because children like to spend more time in chatting with their friends on social websites. Even in some cases, both parents and children stay on their computers (mostly on social networking sites) for chatting with friends and sharing their thoughts regarding different social and political issues. The ethical concern does not limit itself to this point, rather extends to the concern related to negative impact of social media on the personality development of children (Maurieni 2012). In order to keep the family system running, parents need to give time to the moral and ethics development of children and children also need to take care of their parents when they get old. However, social media is setting new interests for both parents and children due to which the level of interaction between people living close to each other has come down which is one of the main ethical concerns related to social media. Not only decreased affection for close family members, development of illegal relationships and interactions with strangers are two more ethical concerns associated deeply with the use of social media (Papacharissi 2011, p. 74). 2.2 Threat to Privacy Another ethical concern related to the use of social media is that of increased threat to privacy. Users of social networking websites do not feel any ethical issue in developing relationships with strangers because of lack of awareness. The reality is that poses threat to personal privacy. When a person posts too much personal information on his/her account which is visible for everyone, it may cause problems for him/her at some point (Cohl 2012, p. 39). The problem here is that children usually do not know how dangerous it can be to disclose private family information to strangers particularly in those parts of the world where crime rate is high. Another point in this regard is that some people become so much addicted to the use of social networking websites that they even keep their website accounts/logins open whole day which increases the risk of personal information disclosure as any criminal minded person can explore the account to retrieve personal information of the owner of that account. 2.3 A Way to Deception One of the main ethical concerns related to the use of social media is that it leads to deception. People can create fake accounts on social website which they can use to get private information of others while pretending to be their friends or close family members. Opponents of social media are of the viewpoint that use of such media do not help people in establishing healthy and long lasting relationships because people usually fool each other through fake ids, therefore, they consider it just a waste of time. 2.4 Social Status Promotion Tool People also use social media to show off their social status to others which often makes others feel low raising another ethical concern related to the use of social media. Some people post pictures of their cars, houses, and other assets on their personal accounts which everyone in their list of friends can see that may make some of their relatives and friends feel low. Some people admire their property, where some people feel disadvantaged because they do not have such assets to show off. 2.5 Harm to Legal Relationships While talking about the ethical concerns regarding social media, we must talk about its harmful effects on legal relationships. For example, using social websites, people get the chance of developing illegal relationships based on their personal choice which they are usually deprived of in some particular parts of the world, such as, some Eastern Asian and African countries where women cannot choose their life partners on their own and have to submit to the will of parents. As a result, some women go on to develop friendships with the people of their choice on social websites and hide them from their actual life partners. According to Lin and Huang (2011, p. 420), excessive use of networking websites has a negative effect on relationships. Such relationships obviously are unsafe and very risky for their actual marital relationships. Therefore, it can be said that where social media helps people in developing long-term relationships, it also has the potential to harm legal relationships. 3. Conclusion Summing it up, social media has a direct impact on personal and professional life of a person. It has both positive and negative effects on the lives of people. However, the positive and negative consequences of its use depend mainly on the way a person makes use of such websites. Along with its benefits for users, some ethical concerns also exists which need to be taken care of in order to make it an all-positive communication tool for people. References Cohl, B 2012, Success For Modern Day Families: Working with Dating, Engaged, and Married Couples, Jason Aronson, Maryland. Gross, R & Acquisti, A 2005, Information revelation and privacy in online social networks, WPES 05 Proceedings of the 2005 ACM workshop on Privacy in the electronic society, 71-80. Lin, S & Huang, X 2011, Advances in Computer Science, Environment, Ecoinformatics, and Education, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg. Maurieni, C 2012, Facebook is Deception (Volume One), WSIC Ebooks Ltd., New York. Papacharissi, Z 2011, A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, Routledge, New York. 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