The Internet and social media

In 2016, everyone online is social whether they want to be or not. This is because everyone shares information on some level. You may not be social with actual people, but you’re still communicating with someone or something. The level and willingness of this exposure varies heavily. Kids these days don’t know the damage that social media can cause. Because of their age, they can’t imagine a world without these things. They marvel at the capabilities of it, but don’t see the consequences of an increasingly invasive social media takeover. Am I being paranoid? Yeah, maybe a little bit. Takeover is a strong word, especially when the information on these sites is given willingly. There are over 500 million people on Facebook all engaging in Facebook related actitives constantly. No one seems to mind. The amounts of data collected daily, monthly, yearly, is off the charts. And they are not alone. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, these names have become synonymous with food and water. We mention them even when not using them, and use them even when we shouldn’t be. Yet, Somehow, this is what the people want. even at considerable risk there are those who use social media and manage to keep their lives private. It’s a difficult task today, but one we must master. What’s taking place now is a blending of personas – the digital one that you created for yourself online, and the physical one, which is you in real life. Such a mixture can be dangerous because you are not allowed to be yourself. As we have seen with Stacy Synder, if the personas don’t match, even briefly, that could be the difference between that big promotion or getting fired. One the articles stresses that people need to relearn to forget, and recognize social media is an extension of us, not the definition of us. That’s what I’m afraid kids these days cannot do. There will be a time when they’ll come face to screen with something ancient and embarrassing and irrelevant, yet it will still be an issue.as for the rest of us, we need to choose our modes of communication wisely, and stay in touch with the tangible.