Social media can be weird and scary...

Let’s face it, most of society today uses at least one form of social media. Social networking websites have been a growing trend over the past ten years or so. Most people engaged in an online instant messaging forum or had a social networking site such as MySpace, Bebo, etc. Whilst growing up I was part of this movement. I remember after school I’d come home and talk to my friends via MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger now). In later years I also had a MySpace account and yes, even today I have a Facebook account.

However one thing I don’t think people consider when being part of these trends is privacy, I know for a fact from the ages of twelve to nineteen I didn’t. And when you think about it, it is somewhat concerning to think that intimate details about who you are as a person is there for the world to see. So for the past two years the privacy on my Facebook account makes me virtually invisible to those people I don’t know, and to a degree even the ones I do know.

I rarely use social media such as Facebook these days purely because it seems to dull the experience of ACTUAL socialization. I can safely say that I know every single person on my Facebook friends list, which I feel is something not many people can say in today’s world, especially with today’s youth. I have friends who have anywhere between 500-1000 Facebook ‘friends’. Honestly, what is the point of that? Sure back in the days of MSN Messenger I had internet friends I had never met but not to such a large scale. The same thing happens with the photo based social networking app Instagram. It’s no longer a means of socializing with actual friends but a social popularity contest on who can get the most ‘likes’ on a particular photo. Once again I find myself asking ‘what’s the point?’ Do they do this in the name of vanity? Self-validation? Or because all of their friends are doing it?

To conclude social media has been a big part of society of the years and seems as though it will be still in the coming years. However the issue of one’s privacy should be something users take more seriously. Whilst it appears that have condemned social media, mainly Facebook, I will still continue to use it, because the fact is that it is an easy tool I can use to communicate with others that requires no effort on my part. I leave you with this one question to ask yourselves, how many of your Facebook friends do you actually know?