How Do Social Media Affects Our Life and What Effect Does It Have on Our Privacy - Essay Example

HOW DO SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS OUR LIFE AND WHAT EFFECT DOES IT HAVE ON OUR PRIVACY Social media and networking is considered to be an integral and highly valuable part of life of almost every person in the world nowadays. It is rather hard to find a person who has no access to the Internet and has no social network at all. The matter is that modern technologies and Internet connection are included into the life of present-day society deeply and highly. To such extent, it can be argued that social media has a huge and significant affection on the life of every person. It is possible to find out positive and negative ideas due to this question that are under consideration in this paper. Moreover, social media is closely related to the questions of people’s privacy as people leave on the Internet pages a huge amount of private information and private photos. Profitable investigations in the dimension of this question also will be presented. First and foremost, is should be suggested that social media and networking includes a lot of advantages in people’s life; therefore, it performs a positive affection on people. The matter is that social media gives the opportunities to information exchange between people. People sharing different photos from their life with the additional information about this or that event. In such a way people may know about their friends in social networks without straightforward communication, but just with the help of process of watching photos. That is considered to be an easy and pleasant way of sharing information between people. Such way of communication remains to be extremely popular nowadays as people post photos in different social networks every day. Moreover, it should be mentioned that people have a possibility to find other people with the help of social media today. The matter is that there is a huge number of programs that can be helpful in search and identification of a person in the Internet space. Such king of search can be provided with the name, surname and even photo input. Modern programming experiences an extreme progress and searches in the Internet introduce rather wide varieties and methods. It is interesting to demonstrate one modernistic program that gives wider opportunities for identifying people in the social networks. The name of this particular system is PhacePhinder.1 It is important to admit that the aim of this system is to identify people’s faces from a picture in the social network.2 PhacePhinder is a program that is straightforwardly related to the usage of mobile phones and has a strong connection with the mobile networking. The matter is that this system “can identify a face from a picture taken from a mobile phone”.3 In addition, this program can find people with whom the user has some social connections of different types. All the process is function because of the appropriate usage of database “derived from images” that are gathered directly from a social network in which system is launched.4 It is important to suggest that in the construction of this particular program the Facebook has been used as a database.5 In order to try the system in practice a Facebook application has been created. A special permission to the users information particularly photos has been required.6 After the gaining asses the problem of appropriate faces recognition becomes relevant. The investigators perform a few steps for functioning of their idea in the most effective way.7 With the help of special programming formulas the effectiveness of the system PhacePhinder has been improved. The system under consideration includes two options that are most interesting. It is relevant to talk about the identification of the user of the program and the identification of people who are in search of the user. “Knowing Who You Are” and “Knowing Who You Know” are considered to be the two basic options for the PhacePhinder.8 In such a way system is willing to detect people by their photos in every day scenarios. PhacePhinder application is remained to be useful for people who desired to find friends with common tastes and social connections. One more idea that is remained to be interesting is the notion of smart city. A number of different applications that can be helpful for the person in a huge urban territory are under consideration. The notion of smart city is connected with the challenges that are appeared together with the development of cities and the rapid growth of urban area.9 The advantages of smart city applications are remained to be huge as these programs are specially created for the sake of making people’s life in a big city easier and faster.10 Scholars in this sphere explain “smart cities have been likened to living organisms”.11The matter is that the information is concentrated and collected through “sensory receptors”.12 To such extent, the communication infrastructure looks like the nervous systems and “the computing platform” is considered to be the brain”.13 Also, it is admitted that emotions are regarded as a huge part of people’s life; therefore, developers of smart city programs are in need to include this factor to their applications.14 Such idea remains to be highly unusual and interesting that makes the construction of smart city applications popular. It can be admitted that such types of applications are considered to be highly helpful in everyday communication and networking. All of them are constructed for the sake to make people’s existence more comfortable and more convenient. Still, it should be admitted that the issues of people’s privacy are violated to some degree. The matter is that such applications may interrupt the appropriate privacy issues that this or that person regards as individual. To such extent, it is possible to follow some principles in the Internet that are completely easy, but may protect person from the accidents of breach of privacy. The first important idea is leaving footprints or it is better to say accuracy with this issue. The matter is that information footprint “consists of all of the information that you post or that others post about you”15 It is argued about hidden data that is attached to all the post of a person in the Internet. Therefore, it is significant to check the privacy settings in the web page and update them from time to time. The second issue under consideration is anonymity that is remained to be significant. The point is that it is highly hard to be unidentified in social networks. People can post something with no recognition of the consequences of this post. Therefore, it is important to know personal bounds and try not to post in the Internet things that person do not want to present to the public.16 The next important issue is the value of the information. The matter is that any kind of data is considered to be important for somebody and may be used against the user.17To such extent, it is highly important to check the information that user posts and to recognize the consequences that are connected with the suggested data. The next important point under consideration is the accuracy of the private and public information exchange in the Internet. Everyday Internet communication between people may be checked or listened, and some private issues are remained to be public.18 It is essential to be accurate in everyday communication through the Internet and find time for some highly important issues to tell them at the meeting. As for the public information it should be admitted that person loses control under the information together with the sharing it.19 This idea means that people in the social network are willing to use the shared information with different aims. Therefore, the accuracy of the shared information should also be on the highest level. The question of identity should be definitely discussed. The matter is that it is impossible to be sure in the veracity of individualities that you can meet in the internet. To such extent, it is relevant to be aware of suspicious profiles for the sake not to have unpleasant implication in future. It is important to admit that the searching of information is rather important for the Internet space and network communication. It is admitted that “Searching is improving”;20 therefore, it is highly important to monitor the information through the internet and to update the data. The next issue that should be admitted is that online interactions are inseparable from the reality and people cannot escape it. The matter is that all the activities in the Internet have a huge influence on the reality. Moreover, that is considered to be virtual reality and takes a huge part of people’s life. Escaping is remained to be impossible, as modern technologies and fast way of life includes a huge implication of social networking. The last point that is important is that personal privacy is an individual problem of every person. The matter is that private affairs are under the support and control of a person particularly and the level of privacy violation depends from the behavior of the individual in the internet. Taking all facts under consideration, it is relevant to admit that social media and network has a great influence on people’s life and existence. The matter is that social media are included into people’s lives deeply and widely as modern society deal with the internet every day. In addition, it should be mentioned that social media is straightforwardly related to the question of people’s privacy. Today, people need to be aware with the information that they post in the Internet as it may plays against the person. Bibliography Bloess Mark, Kim Heung-Nam, Rawashdeh Majdi, Saddik Abdulmotaleb El. Knowing Who You Are and Who You Know: Harnessing Social Networks to Identify People via Mobile Devices. Advances in Multimedia Modeling: 19th International Conference, Part 1.USA: Springer, 2013. Guthier Benjamin , Abaalkhail Rana , Alharthi Rajwa , Saddik Abdulmotaleb El. The Affect-Aware City. Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory.Canada: University of Ottawa. Ten Principles for Social Media Privacy. International Computer Science Institute, 2013.http://teachingprivacy.com/static/main.html Read More