Social media has changed the way people live their lives, but many traps and pits that can lead people into a sticky situation online. Users must be aware of how much and what they consume because it can be easy to get sucked into constantly living on social media platforms.
Social media works in a way that was meant to draw a person in and feed him with topics and content that he likes. For example, if a person consumes sports on Twitter, Instagram or Youtube, basically their entire feed will then be sports related. All platforms are designed to keep a person interested and to get clicks for advertisers. It is fiscally genius for social media to work this way; however, it is dangerous for the human brain of the user.
“I am always aware of how much social media I consume, and I try to monitor that by checking my screen time often and making sure the number is going down,” said Seamus Devol, senior.
When social media overtakes a person’s life, they start to overthink everything that they do and stress about other people’s view of themselves. One example may be snapchats can become overstressed and less confident. “Snapmap” feature where an individual can see where his friends are basically at all times if they choose to show their location. This can lead to many different problems, one being high stress, and sometimes even domestic abuse.
Online users must try to avoid giving out important personal information that could easily be exposed. One big tip that technology experts give is to not use the same passwords across all accounts on different platforms. This is a common mistake that people make, and therefore, if one of their accounts gets hacked the hacker can probably easily get into other accounts on other platforms and even find personal information.
Overall, the most important idea when using social media is protecting yourself. Obviously, a person can make reckless comments without anyone seeing his face, so a lot of people are emboldened when it comes to online banter. However, it is easy to track some of this information down if anyone ever really wanted to see what was posted on an individual’s accounts. Using your judgement and thinking before posting is a great way to keep in line on the internet.