Question

Demerits of social media...?

Answer 1

We have all heard the positive aspects of such websites – they provide complete connectivity, bring people with common interests together, and create a platform to share your life with the rest of the world. However over all this brouhaha, if we ponder over the subject for a while, a few negatives of this new phenomenon come to light. Some key disadvantages of social networking or rather say risks associated with it are highlighted below.

Disadvantage of Social Networking for people

The balance of good and evil in the world needs to be maintained. Naturally when a far reaching medium such as the internet brings us social networking sites that spice up our lives a little, it also attracts the fractious few of society. Some of the things that could lead to potential social disaster are:

The one potential risk of social networking cited most often is that of hacking. Incidents of profiles and accounts being hacked into are commonplace. While this could be restricted to simply playing a practical joke on a friend, it sometimes leads to the more serious misdemeanour of identity theft. This requires a low level of technical skill and is referred to as social engineering. This technique banks upon the psychological aspect of a ‘friend’ connection; the hacker uses common interests, background and professional information (all of which are posted on profiles) to extract sensitive information, like passwords and other details from the targeted individual and use them to create an alternate identity. Just using simple data like date of birth, name and location allows hackers to create fake social security cards, driver’s licenses and ID cards. Almost 15 million Americans are victims, either directly or indirectly, of identity theft.The surprising part is that even though people are adequately aware of the risks, only 40% of them manage their privacy settings (according to a survey conducted by PCWorld). Thus investing some time on securing your account against fraudsters and unknown individuals would prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Another disadvantage of social networks is that it can help create something which does not exist or may not be as good as it is presented. For example, if you go to Amazon and see a product has 100 positive reviews while the other has only 20, you are likely to buy the one with hundred. This is how human psychology. So if 100 people have shared a post, you are likely to share it too while it may actually be a hoax or plain spam. You must have seen those ‘click like and see what happens’ posts on facebook. They get thousands of likes! The same illusion is created for personal lives of people. Just posting happy and party pictures do not mean one is actually happy!

While social media can help people / companies create good image, it can also be used to tranish an image with false claims. A viral social media post talking how a product can cause problems can lead to huge losses to a firm. Till the time the company realises most of the damage is done.

Another potential hazard of putting up pictures and videos on these websites is that they could be used for defamation. Reported cases include girls’ photos being photo-shopped and used in objectionable places. Also instances where people use social networking sites to abuse or defame anonymously are constantly reported. A Telegraphreport outlines a case where cyber bullying was being used by students to intimidate teachers and staff.

People recruited in high security professions like the defence services, national project engineers and scientist face an added disadvantage of hackers misusing any leaked classified information. Any unintended slip of information could have serious ramifications if it falls into the wrong hands. Infact people looking to get close to employees working in highly confidential industries use social media to profile and study them. This is not a movie or a TV serial story no more.

All over the world social media websites are used to get up close and personal without even revealing the true identity. There have been numerous scandals in which people have gone as far as marrying each other and then realizing the truth. These relationships based on false information often lead to serious consequences. There have been so many cases in developing countries where people fall in love over social media website and end up being cheated financially, emotionally and physically.

Health Problems

There is an extensive range of mental and health problems known to be associated with spending too much time on social media. In addition to reducing productivity, creating distractions and increasing burnouts, they can cause some serious medical issues.

It help you....

Answer 2

make the small news as a big news...by saying unnecessary  things..