Essay

Social media is an amazing tool for people to use for many purposes, such as resources for school, keeping in touch with friends and family, and being creative.

However, we should be careful on how we use these apps. This essay will cover three lines of enquiry on social media.

1. Public vs Private Account

2. Social media and safety

3. Our responsibility when using social media

Social media accounts have two different settings: public and private accounts. So that we can use social media safely, the best setting to use is private accounts.

Privacy settings help you limit the amount of people that see your posts. When your account is private, the app can always see your posts, but the people that have the app cannot. But keep in mind a private account is never really private because the app can see it and use it, and people can still screenshot whatever you do, take or use for their own purposes.

Social media could be safe, but it depends on how you treat it. Sometimes when you are on social media apps, they will purposely send you notifications. When you make videos, people comment back, and that will make you want to create more content. It makes the app funnier for you and other people, but the people that make the app can look at your account and see information about what you and your likes.

Trolls are people that can be rude, so they tell you things that are not real to make you or other people mad, so you either block them or just ignore them. Oversharing is when you add too much information that should not be shared with random people on the internet, such as car numbers, credit cards, and phone numbers. Make content that does not overshare.

To be responsible on social media, you have to know what you are posting. You do not post anything you are not comfortable with, or overshare. Also you do not download anything anybody sends you, unless you know who sent it to you. Do not download things from random people on the internet. When you are posting stuff, think about what you are posting. Kids are watching it. It is better to make it kid friendly, then no one gets in trouble, the kids don’t get in trouble and you don’t get in trouble.

The action our group would take would be to teach others on how to use social media more effectively and safely. First of all, we should do more research to teach ourselves to be more aware and how to use social media in a more healthy and safe manner. Then we can try to teach our family and friends about social media and how to use it safely. We can also create and post on Youtube, videos showing others on how to use social media safely.

In conclusion, if social media is used more safely and effectively it will not be a bad influence on people. Social media is a great way to express yourself and your ideas. The best way to do this is to be safe and only post or create content that you are comfortable with sharing.

“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn't want plastered on a billboard with your face on it”- Erin Bury