Social Networks & Privacy
The Internet has for a considerable significant period been the acid test of ‘freedom of speech.’ But at what cost to large numbers of unsuspecting people? Frequently celebrities are the targets of Internet video stings that are expeditiously propagated across the world by means of Internet services like YouTube, whose hyperlinks are effortlessly advertised on social network profiles such as MySpace and Facebook. But nearly as frequently, famous public figures are created by the broadcasting of embarrassing videos of common people, which are then emailed and blogged and thus spread like wildfire to the four corners of the world. The infamy which comes from lots of these videos or pictures being piped through so easily can be deeply upsetting to the personalities who are exploited by their being passed around. But who is to be called to account? A person can’t be held to the responsible merely for passing onward an email or posting a public link to their Facebook profile.
The Internet and social networking sites are simply a more with the times medium by means of which the spread of information has been made more accessible. As luck would have it, or fortunately, making every citizen with access to a computer a qualified journalist with the capacity to reach millions of people the world over. So it is not the social networks that are to be answerable for this invasion of privacy, but the community at large itself. Social culture thrives on the spread of tattle and information sharing. As long as you are not the subject, you have no problems passing on that embarrassing video of a poor boy cavorting around his room pretending to be a rebel soldier from Star Wars (The young man is currently under psychiatric care and has given up school, on the off chance that you were puzzled). Websites such as TMZ.com survive only because of human longing for salacious garbage and celebrity scandal.
In the same way, we must understand the Internet’s limitlessness, and the nonviability of control over its material. In this day and age, one must know that one’s actions could be broadcast instantly. With digital cameras, mobiles with video capability and immediate access to YouTube and Facebook, your actions could be disseminated to your buddies and unknown people alike as it is happening. We need to revisit what is intimate and what is fair game, as it is no more safe to take for granted that everything we do will stay within our control. Modern methods have a trajectory of their own, and the Internet is a typical example something that can easily steer away from its intended use and find many more purposes as long as the masses encourage it.
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