SOCIAL MEDIA

Why Should We Clean Up Social Media?

A challenge to tackle trolls and measures to clean up social media

Why do we love social media?

Most of us are on social media. Not only generation Z but the silent generation, boomers, millennials all love social media.

If this were not so there would not be so many articles suggesting that people should go on a social media holiday and not use it so often. I read several articles on detoxification from social media. I like the media too. I love to see pictures of my friends and what they do but I am not on social media all the time. It is good entertainment for a short while.

My son reacts when his daughter wants to see Instagram or Facebook because he says it is unhealthy for kids. It is very difficult to get them to detox later on.

These are some reasons that social media is loved by people:

#1 Fast connection with the world: Social media helps us in connecting with individuals of similar interests, It provides interesting new avenues matching our interests. Many people are lonely and they find solace and happiness to connect with other people in the world.

#2. Finding and building a community: social media helps in discovering new people with similar interests which brings you together as a group and builds a community for you. It also provides new opportunities for you in terms of networks and jobs.

#3. Marketing and selling products: The companies that sell products need to showcase their products. They can sell the products with fewer costs of advertisement and almost like direct selling. A new job opportunity has been created and a new type of model called influencers advertise the products through their stories. People also get the awareness of these products.

There are three examples I would like to share of a musician and dancer, an influencer, and an old man who have greatly benefitted from the use of social media. I have many examples of people who have made a life and swear by social media.

Musician and dancer.

A friend of mine was very fond of music and dance. She has 80000 followers. She puts up pictures, reels, music, and dance videos for others to see. She feels happy when others appreciate her. She also get live shows by showcasing her art.

Influencer

A young beautiful lady always wanted to look pretty and wear beautiful dresses. She knew that she was beautiful and she applied to some companies that saw her pictures on social media. She got some small advertisements first. Now she has 50000 followers and it is a side hustle for her where she is earning more than her main job. She gets to wear beautiful dresses and look pretty and all she has to do is to hire a professional to take her videos to showcase the products.

Old man

An old man of a silent generation says he cannot go out much but he is able to get a lot of awareness from social media. He also does some scrolling and has found several people from his generation who need friends and he spends a good time with them virtually and does not feel lonely.

Social media has been of great advantage during Covid-19 as people have been in touch with each other to see that everyone is safe and happy.

So many advantages? So many people are happy. Then why should we clean up social media?

Why Should we clean up social media?

We leave many footprints on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook that can affect our lives in the real world, from work to school, to our personal lives. We should be careful what we upload. It should be intentional uploading. Certain information which was important is no longer relevant then it should be deleted.

#1.Bots Bigots and Trolls: Very often when I am with friends and we discuss social media people say beware of bots bigots and trolls before you post anything. They post on the feed conversations that you never had.

“bots” have some harmful objectives. They distort reality very subtly and publicly attack individuals and companies by creating false news. Wrong information can lead to sharing on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

The more the number of shares the more false or unreliable data will do damage to a company about whom the news has been spread. And, the greater the damage for the company.

#2. Privacy issues: There are certain privacy issues that must be considered before posting a picture.

A friend told me that she had thrown a party in her house and posted a picture on Facebook. She captioned it “Spending time with my friends in my home”. A malicious person found the location of the house, made a picture of the house, and he along with some friends came home to blackmail her. She said never post a private picture or you are doomed.

#3. Bullying, damaging reputation, and rape threats: People have reported, social media use, particularly in the adolescent age group, rates of suicide, attempted suicide, and deliberate self-harm have spiked. Cyberbullying particularly in the case of children has been high

What measures are being taken to clean up social media?

Australia has been taking the lead in making self-regulated ‘republics’ of social media more accountable to the public interest., Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced new laws to help clean up “a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls” go around hurting people without consequences.

the new law will vest liability with the person making the comment. If troll cannot be identified, the social media provider will be deemed the publisher and made to pay any payouts arising from defamatory comments on its platform. This is a major change in the “unprecedented liability shield”

It is also introducing new laws whereby trolls have to be unmasked.

BBC news reported Between July and September 2019 YouTube took action on 30.3 million pieces of content of which it found 98.4% before any users flagged and there are Global, YouTube employees 10,000 people in monitoring and removing content, as well as policy development.

What are the learnings about clean up of social media?

The Learnings about cleaning up social media posts by us should be the following

• Privacy settings: We should make our accounts with proper privacy settings and private so we should allow people to enter our accounts only with our permission. From time to time we should review our settings.
• Delete and moderate posts: We should delete any posts that we think are no longer useful for us or will create problems for us at a later date.
• Take care of pictures posted: Provocative pictures should never be posted. Also, we must review our privacy while posting pictures of our homes and ourselves. Once we are on social media we should take double care of ourselves. The bio should be completely professional.
• Chat rooms and dating sites: We should be extremely careful about dating sites and chatrooms as this is where the most vulnerable data can be passed on to others who can misuse it.
• Regulatory measures: Several regulatory measures are taking place in Australia, Germany, the USA, and India, for regulating Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram by governments.

Conclusion.

Life is at a stage where we cannot do without social media even if we want to be out of it.

It is a way of communication and showcasing skills.

My advice is to use precaution and be careful with privacy as far as possible, especially our vulnerable and private data.

©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2022.

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