Free Essay On Social Media Sites Complicate The Notion Of Privacy And Identity

The technological advancement in the present era of human civilization has brought about an enormous rise in the use and impacts of the computer and the internet. The usage of the internet for societal connections is known as ‘expressive internet’- something that comprises of the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The social networking sites have brought about a transformation in the communication among people of the present times. The main issues in regard to communication via social networking sites are that of privacy and identity of the users of the sites.
Privacy is a major issue on social networking sites. The burning question of the hour is to what extent the things that we upload or share on such internet platforms remain private. With the transformation in the nature of inter-personal communication, the users create profiles on the sites and chat with one another. However, all the data is saved and tracked by the website. Thus, what we share hardly remains private in the truest sense of the word. While people live a society, everyone maintains a level of privacy in their personal life. But, in stark contrast to the physical world, the virtual world goes on to delve deep into the lives of the users. Facebook goes to the extent of tracking what the user is browsing apart from pages on the site while being online on his or her Facebook profile.
Some social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook have seen an increase in hacking of profiles. Many people known to me have faced problems of this sort. Several malicious links are posted on the sites, and whenever a user clicks on such links, the entire private data becomes vulnerable. The hackers get hold of the password, and the profile becomes irrecoverable. This vulnerability and lack of security is of primary concern for the gazillion users of social networking sites in the present day. Ironically, the cyber laws in many countries of the world are too weak- something that is of paramount concern to the users of social networking sites.
Construction of identity is a major thing for the users of social networking websites. Identity is what makes people stand out. While there remain several hindrances that people face during face-to-face communication, the virtual realm opens possibilities for the user to construct an identity that is his or her ideal. Innumerable examples are available where people leave no stone unturned to upload their best picture as the display picture of the profile on the site. Filling up information about oneself, a person intends to portray the best of him or her. The absence of bodily interaction raises the opportunity to hide or partly disclose facts about a person. There are many fake profiles on the social networking sites also. Thus, people go on to create a partly different or totally different identity as per their convenience and willingness. I personally know few people who pretend to be of the opposite sex or have many profiles on social networking sites with pseudonyms.
Hence, it would not be wrong to opine that social networking sites make the process of communication more complex, although at an apparent level it seems that they simplify communication among people. None of the users would like to be spied upon or tracked all the time by the websites. The option of construction of identity on the part of the user complicates the scenario of clarity in communication. Nevertheless, there is no looking back in the age of technological revolution as social networking sites have taken over the world like a storm.