About Social Media Censorship - Free Essay Example

In the last two centuries communication has drastically changed. The internet has opened many doors. Everyone is able to communicate with whoever they want to and whenever they want to whether near or far. Nobody has to pay for long distance calls anymore, everything can be done over the internet, which brings me to my topic social media censorship. Due to social media people all over the world have access to other peoplers social media. Some even go to the length of creating fake accounts and voice whatever they feel like even if itrs wrong. They would never say that face to face. Social media gives them the upper hand to hide behind a screen. Once their posting is out there it can never be taken back. Further research must be done to prevent harmful and unethical postings. One might call it dictatorship, but others call it protection not only for adults but especially for children. While the First Amendment gives us freedom of speech, the government should control social media by legalizing social media censorship to prevent other from hurting innocent people and keeping our children safe, since everybody has access to the internet, perpetrators have a secret way of being harmful tow ards their victims without taking responsibility for their actions while hiding behind their screen, children are affected by it as well and do not realize how it can negatively affect their future, and social media tracks our every move without our knowledge or permission. Social media is an umbrella term that is being referred to all online communities. It encourages communication between users and it also gives them the change to develop and interact with an enormous range of online content. Social media has affected our life in every step of the way. Its not only affecting us outside of the home but within our own four walls as well. It prevents face-to-face communication, alters childrenrs brain while also being exposed to predators. Children go online and think everyone is telling them the truth while yet lying through their teeth. Social media gives a platform of fake news and fake lives. You can basically post whatever you want yet no one would know whether itrs true or not. Facebook and Instagram are known to be online platforms where people post the perfect moment yet while they are broken on the inside. It gives them sense of still having the perfect life they can present to others. Since mobile devices control most of the globe, everyone has easier access to social media, where they can connect anywhere and anytime. A study by New York Times Consumer Insight Group reveals the reasons and a statistic why people share their information on social media. Instead of social media being a handy to stay in contact with family and friends, itrs impacting our society. It controls and shapes culture, education, businesses, politics, and everything else. For example, Wikipedia is known as a site where everyone can post things without being verified for accuracy. That site was banned as a research site from many businesses including schools. It is also said to say when you google kids shows such as Blues Clues instead of getting just the kids shows, the search engines pull up pornography. This should never happen; our children should never be thrown into the hands of the big bad wolf also known as the freedom of social media, especially since most schools use chrome books for education instead of actual school books. Even though the chrome books are an amazing invention, the internet access should be minimized to only educational information that goes hand in hand with the rules of the school. About 68% of all internet users are using the Facebook platform (Gramlich, 2018). Since they are feeding off interactions between users, they become more powerful as they continue to grow. For example, if you google a pizza place eventually you will be getting advertisements on the social media site about that pizza place or similar ones. Social media is tracking your every move. Even though people bring an awareness to the issues of social media, it seems like most of the users arent taking it seriously. More and more people are sharing their personal information that they would have never shared before, without realizing that once itrs posted it stays in the cloud even if they delete it of their electronics. Most users arent aware that recruiter make their hiring decision based on the information they find on social media, especially Facebook since its one of the most popular platforms. Social media works as walking talking resume, it also works as a free advertisement for businesses. I strongly believe that the government needs to get involved and legalize censorship in social media. Social media should not decide what can be posted on their platform and what cant. Just like in the case of Alex Jones who created fake new sites on social media and once they were under fire, they banned him from their platform. Alex Jones has been doing it for many years. The social medias went as far as removing his sites from the search engine. You literally have to know the full URL to be able to get to his sites. It was ok for social media to have him on their sites because he had a lot of followers and thatrs what attracted more users but once they were negatively affected by it, they banned him. We should have freedom of speech but to the point that it is facts and not lies. The information that gets posted online should be run through a department that makes sure not falsified information is being posted for the world to see. This should also be included in the protection of our children. There should be an online standard set that if it does cause red flags it cant be posted. So many children use the social media to hide behind the screen and cyberbullying other children (Byrne, 2018). The suicide in children has drastically increased due to cyberbullying. And a lot of parents are not aware of whatrs going in until its too late. My child was a victim of cyberbullying but because of my IT background I was able to trace every step of that bully and report to the police. If I would not have done all my diligent homework, I would not have been successful to stop it and that bully would have continued to spread roomers online about my child. Since there was another child who fell into the traps of the bully, we wanted to make sure that the child who caused all that hurt had to take responsibility for her actions. I believe this would have never happened if we had better control over social media since a big number of parents dont do their job and parent their children accordingly. Social media needs to be given restrictions in regards of following users online. We should not worry whether our privacy is being violated or not. Even though everyone can go online it should not give everyone the right to follow us and publish advertisements on our site without our approval. If I, as a user of these platforms want to post something that I enjoy and its according to the censorship I should be able to do that on my terms. If they dont get stopped now who knows how much further, they will go. As we can see it in the discovery channel with Microsoft. Bill Gates invented Microsoft and created a monopoly where other developers had no chance to stand against him. It went as far as him facing a Monopoly lawsuit. Social media is an amazing tool if used right. It not only gives us more job opportunities, but it also gives us the chance to communicate with loved ones who are spread out through the entire world. While it is an amazing tool to use, we need to realize how dangerous it can be. The users are just like little children who need someone to watch over them to make sure they are doing the right thing, and no one can hurt them. Not everyone understands how it works, not because they dont want to but because it can come very complex and boring to a point. Most companies make their hiring decisions based on what they find online which leads to a lot of great people not being hired just because they made a mistake posting things online, they would never say or show at their employment. Social medias act now as resumes which can either make you or break you and thatrs why I believe social media censorship should be legalized. Another very popular social media platform which is considered as a professional network is LinkeIn. This site is important for any users who want to stand out in their profession. This site also allows people to create and market their own brand, and employers search for potential employees.