Social Media

There are so many forms of social media, and so many new ones cropping up nearly every day, that it can be hard to keep track of them. They do all share certain characteristics, though.

Social media are designed to allow people to communicate with each other electronically. Usually, the communication takes place between people with similar interests.

Most social media allow for two-way communication. On Twitter, for example, you can post a tweet that your followers and see and they can react to it or not react to it as they choose. Sometimes, we choose to prevent two-way communication. My website, as an example, allows users to leave comments on the pages that they visit. In order to prevent this from happening, I have to turn off "comments."

Most forms of social media allow the user (that's you!) to maintain a certain amount of privacy. If you have an Instagram account, you can make it public or private. If you make your Instagram public, then anyone can see your pictures. If you have a private Instagram, then only the people you approve of can see your pictures. There is nothing to prevent a person from taking a screen shot of your photo with their phone or their computer. There is also nothing that prevents a person from saving a web page. Try it yourself. If you have an instagram account, go to the instagram website, log in, and then right click anywhere on the page. On of the options will be save as webpage. Once you have saved it, you can open it. Even if the person deletes their Instagram account, you have a copy of what was once there.

Check out this Ted Talks video of how permanent social media can be.

Even though most forms of social media that kids your age are involved with are designed for fun, social media can be used for other purposes. Twitter was used in the Middle East by people trying to organize opposition to a dictatorship. YouTube has been used to start careers. Did you know that Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube? If you're a Belieber, you probably already knew that! There are kids your own age who write blogs about topics that are interesting to their peers (fashion is one example and skateboarding is another.) Some of these blogs attract enough readers so that companies will pay money to the blogger for running ads on their blog.

There is also a dark side to social media. Relationships between friends can easily be broken because of a Twitter fight. If you see your friend being attacked on Twitter, you may want to rush to their defense. It doesn't take long for a Twitter fight to get nasty. At some point, it can turn into cyberbullying. If you witness cyberbullying, whether you know the participants or not, stay out of it. Don't be a bystander, though. Report the cyberbullying to a teacher, counselor, or the dean. If one of the bullies is a friend, might they get in trouble? Maybe. But you need to ask yourself a question: do you really want to be friends with a bully?

Because so many children use social media, there are predators who roam cyberspace looking for victims. You need to be sure that you are being smart and protecting yourself. Avoid public social media accounts. Don't approve followers without knowing who they are. I know that kids are often in competition with one another for the highest number of followers, but approving someone you don't know as a follower is asking for trouble. Never post your address, full real name, or what school you attend on social media, even if your account is private. If you post pictures that you took with your phone, be sure that your camera does not have access to your phone's location services. If you don't know how to find out if it does, or you don't know how to turn it off, find out. Just like you shouldn't approve followers who you don't know, you shouldn't be following people you don't know. Some of the users that kids your age follow post material and photos that are inappropriate for children.

Your right to privacy and your reputation are among your most important assets. Do everything you can to protect them. You can learn more about privacy and social media with this second Ted Talks video. The speaker has a difficult-to-understand accent, and he uses a lot of words that you might not understand. You might want to watch this video with a parent. Don't worry, though, because there are no questions on the quiz that are based on this video.

The reason that the Social Media section comes last in the Online Textbook is because you need to put everything together to really understand social media. Once you get how the internet connects things, how nothing every really disappears from the internet, how criminals can use the internet to steal money and identity, and how the digital footprint you leave behind may be used years from now, then you can understand why you need to be careful and mature with your use of social media. It's really pretty simple: if you don't want to have to explain something later, keep it off the internet.