Social Media Use or Abuse

Social Media Use or Abuse:

ABSTRACT

The Internet has a very strong platform that has changed the communication and business transactions. Now, the number of users navigating through the Internet is more than 2.4 billion. This large audience demands social media, online commerce, knowledge sharing, social networks, etc., which grew exponentially over the last few years. This paper provides a review regarding the use of social networks or social media, particularly Facebook as a platform in information sharing.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

                                        

For the past two decades, computer networks have grown at an explosive rate. In a wide range of environments, such networks have become a mission-critical tool. Organizations are building networks with larger scales than ever before and the connectivity with the global Internet has become indispensable. Along with this trend has come an explosion in the use of computer networks as a means of illicit access to computer systems. Transmitted information level is becoming more important especially as interactions that used to only be carried out offline, such as bank and commercial exchanges are now being carried out online in the form of Internet banking and electronic commercial exchanges. The Internet is known as a very powerful platform that changes the way we communicate and perform business transactions in current technology. According to the Internet World Stats (Internet World Stats, 2012) as of June 2012, more than 2.4 billion people and that is over a third of the world’s human population have used the services of the Internet, which is approximately 100 times more people than were using it in 1995. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums and social networking.

2.0 DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

 Social media has become an integral part of modern society. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and have created new ways to socialize and interact. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of information to pages, to pursue common interests and to connect with others. It is also possible to find existing acquaintances, to allow communication among existing groups of people. However, social networking and online profiles contribute to this: giving potential intruders a plethora of sensitive information. In safe reports that more than a quarter of children in Europe have online networking profiles, which can be exposed. However say that their profile is set to “public”, meaning that everyone can see it and many of these display their address and/or phone number.

3.0 SOCIAL MEDIA USE STATISTICS

As of May 2013, with over 1.11 billion people in the world are now on Facebook alone, hence the danger is widespread. As increasing amounts of personal information are surfacing on the Web, it is essential to remain wary of the risks surrounding the ease in which our private details can be accessed.

Statistical results of the usage of Social Networking Site (SNS) by country and age in Europe among children is shown in Figure 1. In Asia, there are more than 250 million Facebook users (Internet World Stats, 2012) and Malaysia constitutes over 5% of its population (Wikipedia, 2013a). In fact, Bernama reports that youth in Malaysia are addicted to social media sites. Some even use Facebook at their workplace, where people who are addicted to Facebook would log on first thing in the morning. In their study presents the results of a nationwide survey on tertiary level students in Malaysia. They state that the respondents spend the most time online for social networking and learning. The results indicate that while the respondents are using SNS for the purpose of informal learning activities, only half (50.3%) use

With regard to the most influential factor that affected the adoption of Facebook among youth in Malaysia, peer pressure was the most influential factor at 50.5%, followed by 27.0% in current trends, 16.5% used for personal interest and only 6.0% were influenced by anonymous invitation. Their results show that people tend to use Facebook because they were persuaded by their peers, who have been using the new media. The use of Facebook enables friends to keep in touch and maintain a friendship, which is one way to stay connected. Students use Facebook for not only social purposes but also educational purposes. However, consistent with previous researches, students mainly used Facebook for social purposes rather than educational purposes. The results also revealed that students use Facebook especially to have fun, to contact friends and to follow photos, videos, events, etc. on Facebook. Facebook is not generally used as a tool to get or to share information about school-related news and to communicate with the teachers, contrary to popular claims suggesting students use Facebook for school-related works. Thus, it can be said that Facebook is rarely used for educational purposes. It appears, therefore, that Facebook fulfills its role as it was intended by its creators: to support social networks. It is also revealed that Facebook is not generally used for meeting new people. In their research, it is suggested that more Facebook use involving contacting an existing friend, a classmate, someone living near them or someone they met socially rather than use involving meeting new people. On the contrary to a study in (Muise et al., 2009), it was revealed in this study that male students spend significantly more time on Facebook than female students. As for the number of friends, male students have significantly more friends on Facebook than female students on the contrary to a study in findings which was suggested female students have significantly more friends on Facebook than male students.

A separate analysis was also conducted to observe the differences between IT and business students in Malaysia. 86% of variances in ‘attitude’ were explained by perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment for IT students compared to 66% for business students. 72% of variances in ‘intention’ were explained by perceived usefulness, attitude and social norm for IT students while 86% of variances in intention were explained by perceived

4.0 IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is no longer a luxury, but now a necessity, however, it is here to stay and keeps growing. How much can we perceive the utilization of this so-called technology, as one cannot imagine to what extent that the user would go and beyond a reasonable doubt in deceiving or preying on other users who are vulnerable? In recent years, there are a lot of cases involving Facebook reported in the Malaysian local newspaper articles published, which some can be regarded as excessive. There are articles on sexual harassments/allegations, cheating (usually for money), characterized by contempt . . . . Thus, there are various issues with regard to this matter, some of which can be mentioned here. In the Berita Harian newspaper article written by (Youb, 2013), political figures are utilizing Facebook and Twitter to promote themselves for the upcoming election. The newspaper reports that a stolen car was found several days after because someone had alerted the authority having seen the owner posted it on her Facebook wall. Girls have even run away from home with male friends and some had also been raped with whom they had just befriended through Facebook. Some have also been blackmailed by seductive strangers when they exchanged nude photographs of themselves or even by their former boyfriends. The most daring act is the sale of firearms, which were made openly via Facebook. Furthermore, social media at times is used to spread lies when it should be used in a constructive way for the betterment of society as well as for spreading knowledge and information. The author believes that the uniqueness of SNS is not in their ability to allow an individual to meet strangers but rather their ability to enable users to shape and make their social networks visible to others. Many SNS members do not necessarily develop a network to meet new people but rather to communicate with people who are already a part of their existing social networks.

5.0 ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Their several challenges exist in social media such as Return-On-Investment problem because of fragmentation; influential factor; and time consummation. While the challenges are said to be onerous, but, somehow there are rewards for penetrating social media effectively i.e. successful bloggers, Twitterers, Facebook users build audiences of like minds and interests, the authors found that users in Malaysia aged between 17- 40 years old used social media more for sharing negatively-oriented information as opposed to the positively-oriented information. Youth in Malaysia seen as more likely to trust social media as a news source, even most of the reports or information disseminated is not true. Those aged under 30 years are now making social media as their primary information access. They seem no

Analysis of the perceptions and reported practices of senior Australian public relations practitioners indicates generally upbeat views on social media and a belief that these new forms and communication media offer opportunities to improve and even transform public relations. However, the question remains whether Facebook is helpful or harmful to the people (user) specifically and society in general. According to a research study conducted by (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011), Facebook use enhances self-esteem by providing multiple opportunities for selective self-presentation through photos and personal details. Another research study by (Gentile et al., 2012) found that participants who spent time on social network sites endorsed more positive self-views. While some research indicates that Facebook has a positive effect on the user other studies suggest that Facebook use is detrimental. A study conducted by (Tazghini & Siedlecki, 2013) found a negative association between self-esteem and Facebook activity. This association was related to actions like untagging undesirable pictures or adding others as friends who they are not familiar with. Similarly, in (PR Newswire, 2012) research indicated that Facebook has a negative impact on self-esteem and body image.

6.0 DISCUSSIONS

The technology and potentially useful tools such as social media give us the upper hand to be at a peak of expansion in today’s digitized world. Thus, we have to keep at par with the development because they are here to stay and no doubt will keep on growing by the years, depending on which side of the fence that you are standing. The social media tools and services can mean a good

thing if you put it up to good use or utilize it. To others, it may do more harm than good and could also mean an invasion of privacy. We have to think and decide wisely on how and what to use social networking as such to maintain a healthy computer user, and hence neither misuse nor abuse.