Ethical Use of Social Media

by Aidan Lim

Introduction to Ethical Use of Social Media:

Ethical use of social media is to make sure to take responsibility for their own actions when sharing contents and not be misleading others with ill intent.
Social Media has allowed people to reach others all over the world allowing them to communicate easily and express themselves in many different ways.
Ethical use of social media is a significant topic for discussion because social media is a big part of everyday life and affects how we go throughout the day.

Research and Analysis:

Social media platforms take information such as age and location for demographic targeting. As well as recording the interactions with certain ads to know what the user is interested in.
They will find content or ads that match these interests. Some companies will take information from the user without their knowledge by making them
accept the terms and conditions. Most of these companies use it to advertise, but this information can be leaked and in extreme cases of identity theft.
An example of an ethical dilemma related to privacy is when a user inputs their name and age which the company wants to take advantage of to make a profit.

Companies Profit Off Your Data

Mental Health Impacts:

Social media can negatively impact the people's overall wellbeing by growing anxiety, loneliness, and fear or missing out.
People have become used to comparing themselves with unrealistic expectations. People become more confident hiding behind a screen, which leads to people
leaving harsh comments which can leave people feeling hurt. Social media can be a positive influence due to people being able to
freely express themselves and communicate with others from any place around the world. However the negative effects of social media is that people can
become depressed due to them unable to follow the social expectation. As well as them being isolated from others.
The ethical responsibility of social media platforms when addressing these concerns is to warn users about the dangerous outcome of social
media and make sure to prevent others from sending disrespectful interactions from coming through.

How Social Media Affects User Negatively

Spread of Information:

The role of social media in the dissemination of information is to spread information very quickly. However it is hard to distinguish
between accurate information and false information. People who publish accurate information usually put their own opinion to make the information
somewhat biased. The people like believing false information due to their interest in unrealistic outcomes and how it is detached from reality.
The ethical implications of misinformation and the spread of fake news can be devastating. It can truly convince someone to believe in something that
is not true and offend others. Users can combat these misinformation by checking reliable sites such as official government websites or official
organizations. As well as reporting the misinformation.

There are many fake information in the media

Social Relationships and Community:

Social media can either bring people together even closer or leave them in isolation. It allows unexpected people that would never meet each
other in person to interact with each other. On the other hand when people post pictures of them being with others makes certain people feel left
out and isolated.Respect and empathy is important whenever interacting online since it must be considered that everyone is human and has feelings.
People have to be more understanding with each other. Digital citizenship is a privilege and not given since some people are too irresponsible with it.

People are able to find many common interests

Personal Reflection:

I can apply ethical principles to my online behavior by making sure to be respectful to everyone online and treat them as I would be in real life.
The first step I would take would be to ask myself if this would hurt anyone’s feelings. The second step would be to see if there would be any consequences
to my action. The last step would be to see if I am being truthful and not misleading.I will also be truthful and not be misleading.

Conclusion:

I can summarize that users should be considerate and careful on social media. It can bring many positives such as communication and brings communities closer,
but can also cause groups to fall apart and some things might be leaked that can be sensitive information. The social media users and platforms should be more transparent
with each other and not try to hide any ill intent that they may have. As well as not sharing information that may be private and consider what content is appropriate
for a certain audience.

Documentation:

https://strikesocial.com/blog/how-do-social-media-platforms-handle-and-protect-user-data/
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/science-and-ethics-curing-misinformation/2023-03