Social media is a very powerful means of freedom of speech and expression, especially for voiceless people. It’s a collaborative identity creation where posts by different individuals come together to create a dynamic and evolving identity and user profiles are informed by both the users and their connections.
Many treat social media accounts as a social vent, casually updating statuses and posting photos online with a little expectation of how friends and followers will feel about your social vent. However, your online actions could seriously limit educational, personal or professional prospects in future.
The downside of Social Media
The rise of unlawful activities from all sections of society including individuals, corporations and political leaders, has laid foundation stones to thoughts of censoring social media under the pretext of safety.
Users are giving personal information on social platforms and keep track of interactions used on their sites and save them for later use i.e. every behavioural aspect of the individual is being monitored documented and harvested for probable commercial use.
Companies steal private words, actions, conversations, photos and make them public without context and without compassion.
How to remove indecent images you have noticed
* Google: Click on Settings – Select Search Help – Expand Troubleshoot and Request Removals – Click on Remove Information from Google
* Twitter: Fill out the following address. https://support.twitter.com/form/private_information.
* Facebook: Click on the photo / video to expand it – Click on the ellipsis (…) or drop down on the top right – Click on “I don’t like this photo” or “Report this Post” – Choose relevant option i.e. “I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook”
* YouTube: Below the YouTube player click on More button – Highlight and click the Report button in the drop down menu – Click the reason for flagging that best fits for violation within the video – Provide any other details that may help the review team make their final decision.
Top 10 social media etiquettes
1. Marching towards Likes: Don’t decide where to eat based on what would look nice on social media. Don’t buy an outfit for Social Media Posting. Don’t stress yourself at the gym for a video to be posted on social media.
2. Sense of Humour Isn’t Universal – What could be humour to you may not be humour to others, So expressions on social media have to be carefully done.
3. Notifications: It is highly recommended that you log off all your social media applications when not in use, else notifications feed on your smartphone not only leads to addiction but also distractions.
4. Toxic accounts: Following accounts that post things you may perceive as negative will increase the chances of you having a negative experience on social media.
5. Competition: We have to deal with enough competition in our real lives already and we shouldn’t really need more of it in the online world. Please remember your followers/likes aren’t a reflection of you as a personality.
6. Consent: It should be treated the same way both offline and online.
7. Your personality: It is both a reflection of how you want others to see you and also how others see you based on your social media activity.
8. Disconnect with bullies: You could have someone who doesn’t like you on social media and that’s absolutely alright, ensure you disconnect with them instead of connecting and getting a negative comment.
9. Virtual Life: Don’t get so lost in the virtual world that you neglect yourself and your loved ones. Just as an example you could have 100 likes on your birthday and only one friend joining you at your home giving you a warm hug.
10. Logging: Use Laptops for logging in to social media accounts instead of smartphones as it reduces the possibility of addiction.
Ten tips for using social media safely
1. Block cookies and configure privacy settings for social media platforms to control information sharing
2. Surf only websites that have HTTPS:// (Padlock Symbol)
3. Protect your location online
4. Use a complex password with a capital letter and special characters. Also, set up Two-Step Verification for all logins (2FA)
5. Don’t leak location while viewing or uploading images
6. Expand short links to prevent malicious attacks
7. Use end-to-end encryption messengers
8. Never share sensitive information on social media platforms. (Financial, Login Credentials, Organisation and Personal Information) as your identity could be compromised.
9. Only connect with people that you know and trust in real life. If required you may lock your profiles.
10. Consent should be treated the same way for all offline and online Interactions.
(The author is the founder of End Now Foundation)
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