Wrath of Social Media?

I remember how I succumb to the thought joining Facebook. I failed to recall who (more than one person I think) influence me to do so. The good (or bad) thing is, Facebook had made it difficult for you to find out when did you join them (either you dig your email for the verification email or you will have to scroll through ages to find that very first post in Facebook). I remembered how I find Facebook a nuisance, when everyone starts talking about it when it first ‘arrives’ into Singapore. I simply ignore the topic of ‘Facebook’ each time it was brought up amongst my friends. It pretty much got my turned off, especially when I don’t even know what it was. In my mind, simply, I thought “Facebook? Face + Book?! Who the hell thought of such weird website!?” Little did I know about the infamous and rich history behind it. Having said that, I wasn’t totally clueless about it, all thanks to Friendster back then. Friendster ‘was’ the competitor back then. Perhaps my perceived mind back then made me feel stupid to own two accounts, two social media accounts to be specific. There and then, it’s obvious Friendster is still the in thing. Proof here -> (http://www.rockyfu.com/blog/social-networking-singapore/).

I remembered before all the ‘Fs’ (Facebook, Friendster), a very popular social medium has already existed, popularly known as either blogger or blogspot, which then came livejournal etc. Those were seen a having a private or public diary to share your thoughts openly or privately. It connects you to unspecified people in that case. Somehow, it was a popular thing back then. Long gone were the days where you wrote your daily entry or secret love notes on that hard covered, scented book with handwriting nicer than those appearing on computer screens. I began blogging back in 2003. It was more like an input of daily happenings which even till now, I can be seen disgusted by and at my writing when I look back at past entries.

That’s not the point. We have seen how social media impact our life and as I’m writing, it has already impacted on us so much that it intrudes privacy. Remember how social media warn us of its dangers when virus starts appearing on the so call ‘walls’ of Friendster and one click will send malwares, spyware and whatever wares into your CPU, causing significant damages. As technology speed up, we saw the dangers still looming around, evolving day after day. From minor issues such as writing unprofessionally (usage of Singlish or broken English) to spamming to major issues such as invasion of personal privacy to fraud involving credit cards or money.

No one can deny how social media has caused us to disappoint our English teachers. From ‘ur’ to wassup’, from ‘tml’ to ‘luv’, I couldn’t go on any further. Who would know what the hell if ROFL? And can anyone tell me what ‘casa’ means? LOL. Oops. Perhaps that’s the language that made social media distinctive. Afterall, it makes the whole atmosphere casual and comfortable. It’s funny how we communicate as well. Connection between people was made easier than before. A click and you’ll be connected with friends you lost contact for decades. A click and you’ll find yourself some hot date (at least some thought to be so). Hidden behind this convenience are the dangers some would probably not know.

Stealing becomes easier than ever. If we can trace name, family history, home address, mobile number from anywhere and everywhere from the web, what makes you think stealing credit card details or important private passwords is going to be more difficult than any of those?

Also, if you think social media are fun, wait till you see how it was used against you. I personally was a victim based on my previous entry on being stalked. Imagine a scenario of your photo being taken without your knowledge and posted online, shared among hundreds or thousands other and you became the infamous person overnight. Heard of stories how new-born celebrities often get their history digged and literally ruin their stardom as soon as it rise. Be careful what you write on that net, be it political, religion, sexual preference etc. More often than not, we are not aware what others can find about us. Check this website (www.123people.com) which actually runs a conclusive search on the net of the possible person you might be searching for, if not for the privacy settings of the social media now, I probably would have hundreds of my photos appearing on that website.

Even though there exist the privacy barrier than stands in the way between us and whoever, we literally have no control on our data or personal information. Ever wondered how you received weird SMS or email from companies or advertisers you’ve never seen or contacted before? There you go, the wonders of sharing. Undisputedly, everything becomes very social over these social medium, which is if you allow it. We can friends hundreds or even thousands of friends. Strangers can become friends, friends can become good friends, and not surprisingly, good friends can become enemies. ‘Friending’ became dead simple and encouraged. It has become a thing of quantity over quality. I’ve seen people or friend’s profile that has 5 digit numbers of friends. Impressive. Back in my mind, I pondered ‘do you really have that many friends?’

Social Media consumed so much time per day from many people nowadays, even I’m a victim of it. As we people, young teens and adults especially, became frequent internet users, social media wasn’t spared, up till a point where it became part and parcel of our everyday lives (http://www.viralvideomy.com/?p=430). I remembered how I tell myself not to get addicted to it, fearing that I would treat that as the world to me, I fear so much so that I almost joined the Anti-Facebook campaign which forces Facebook users to quit Facebook due to its invasion of privacy, Let’s put in simply, social media has reach to a point of ‘The World is Watching You’. We’ve seen how a 12 year old girl known strangers over Friendster and had sex with each and every one of the guys she met at least once (http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_625794.html). At such a young and tender age, social media are seen as a ‘knife’ to end their life earlier to many parents out there. To young Adults like me, it’s more of connecting myself with some of my closer friends and to kill time. Unfortunately, I had my unlucky share of being ‘abuse’ due to some unnecessary people around. Social media has been so popularly used by companies and advertisers to connect themselves to the world that it serve a good purpose for them.

I’m pretty sure when social media such as Facebook and Twitter started out, it’s never their intention to harm the community or society but instead to engage people around, making more friends. However, it works the same as Casino. When it serves as a beneficial purpose, there bound to be backfire and subsequence undesirable consequences. In my opinion, there’s no right or wrong way to express ourselves socially and associate such social media to our lives and work, but we ought to do it adequately, depending on our time and tolerance, privacy and most important, the image we want to project to whoever we want to. For better or for worse, though, we have to accept that we all exist in this new world of communications and most of us will have to learn this new language.