In today’s world, social media has been the norm for people with various platforms, sites and apps to connect with others globally. Many have taken a love for these opportunities of communication since they all represent social media. It has formed a deeper psychological connection that has been implanted in the hearts and minds of many who use it, therefore encouraging them to use it daily.
Despite this, social media can have their pros and cons, which is very important for all of those who are heavily invested on the internet or social media. If they are not aware of this, it can be potentially dangerous to them and others as well.
MAKING FRIENDS ONLINE
Making friends and getting to know people is something very important in our daily lives. Of course this is implemented to social media because it involves forms of socialization even if they’re not face to face or physical.
Does this excuse the way we express ourselves and divulge certain information that is important to our lives in some way? Would you tell a stranger exactly where you live, who you are and your relatives, and all of your secrets that are kept hidden in your mind? The best guess would most certainly be that you wouldn’t.
Despite social media being a wonderful way for people to communicate and socialize, it can also be a tool for certain characters that lurk in the internet to manipulate and commit crimes. How they manipulate people exactly? For some, it’s quite easy; all it takes is one person who is willing to tell them important information such as their address, their identity and so on. This gives them the incentive to find out more on who you are, and possibly have abilities whereby they can even hack your bank account with enough personal information!
Sometimes, you may be attached to someone on the internet because you have gotten to know them well and a bond of trust may arise, not so? You may feel like you can trust this person because they “behave” or said certain things for a while. Is this really the case? Can this person really be trustworthy and not wearing a “mask” to lure you into releasing secret information for the sake of theft and crime? It is possible, but there is also a chance that the person might be a genuine, trust-worthy character. It is said to be very confusing for some internet users.
SAFEGUARD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Therefore, it is very important to safeguard your personal information when entering the internet or social media; you never know exactly who you are communicating with. It can be anyone, no matter how many special words or claims they give since that can be faked as well. Knowing what lies beyond the person talking to you will always remain unknown, that’s why you should always prepare for the worse to happen and know who to trust or not. Most importantly, it is rather best that you should never divulge your important personal information on the internet at all.
CYBERCRIME
Cyber hacking or criminals trying to steal your information is not the only reason to why you should safeguard your information from social media. You have to look out for not only them, but other people as well who may take advantage of the information you give out! Just like anywhere else, there might be haters or bullies who might go around picking on people because they’re easy to target behind a screen in order to say horrible statements and remarks against others. It only becomes easier for them to do so based on the amount of information you give them or give out to the public.
This unfortunately has a much bigger impact on the youth today. They highly invest their time and energy on social media which can cause them to be at a vulnerability of giving away their personal information to those who might manipulate or take advantage of it. Of course, they may be young but at the same time they must be informed that there might be dangerous people who pose as friendly characters.
This is how predators pick and choose their targets in many cases today; they use the internet or social media to get in contact with children; to pose as them in order to trick them – which can be terrifying! This must be prevented by everyone being properly informed and aware that the usage of the internet should always be taken into careful consideration.
CATFISHING
There is a term called “Catfishing” which is the act of someone being under a fake online persona or ‘mask’ to bait someone into a relationship; making them fall in love with the person. This way, the person can possibly look for an easy opportunity to get the quickest access of money they can get – from the person who is ‘in love’ in the first place.
Overtime, as you get to meet more people, you may have more and more experience in knowing how to handle certain characters on the internet. That can be very good once you know what you’re doing! Even if you surround yourself with people who seem to have good intentions, always observe and look out for what they say – some things might have more than one meaning! If they never asked you questions that might require you to give very personal information, sometimes it can be as simple as to how you look like or wanting your photo…Don’t do it at all! For this particular situation, it is always best to be safe than sorry.
Therefore, in conclusion, it is important to keep private personal information about yourself off the internet when dwelling on social media, or any platform that involves the world wide web – you never know who is out there; tracking you down with possible viruses, hacking, monitoring and more! Always try to think twice about what you should say to the person online, you never know who is behind the screen and what they are thinking about.
