WIELOSTRONNY Projekt Partnerski Szkół
Social networks and privacy debate
On 3rd December our students held a debate about social networking sites and privacy. The task didn’t require much research as such webpages are so popular and almost everyone uses at least one of them.
The world of social networking is constantly developing, new networking sites are created, some extremely successful such as Facebook, some which are quickly forgotten and don’t catch people’s eye for long.
During the debate, students discussed advantages and disadvantages of such websites.
Among good sides there are keeping in touch with friends, developing our hobbies and interests because we are able to communicate with people who have the same passions as ours. We can also express our opinions and share our beliefs on many different topics letting others know our point of view. Many companies also use social networks to promote their products and to find new customers or followers. They also create many useful applications which can help or entertain their users. For example Facebook has over 10 million applications to choose from and that makes it one of the most popular and appealing websites. Among them are also a huge number of games, sports applications, home decorations, cooking recipes and many, many other. It allows us to communicate with people from almost every part of the world, to learn and practice languages.
Among bad sites we could hear about losing privacy, many networks require personal data which people give without the blink of an eye. They do not think of consequences of sharing such information. Because of this thoughtlessness many people are attacked, many people’s identities are stolen. Another point is that people upload photos from holidays, photos of things they bought so that everyone can see and envy, photos of very private spheres of life. All that is the cause of cyberbullying, of hatred expressed in many ways – from non-verbal, written abuse to stalking. Also because of that many people expose themselves, they provoke burglaries, muggings, robberies. Social networking sites are also used by employers. They use them to check their employees, for example to see if they are really ill or just lying. People who have broken the law can also be followed and eventually found if they use social networks. Many crimes are solved thanks to their posts on walls or tweets.
To sum up, social networking sites are great, but only when you use them wisely. You have to know which information can be used against you, which photos are cool and which can bring you trouble. Many sites try to give you a sense of privacy by letting you choose who can see what on your profile. However, this kind of protection is quite easy to be broken by hackers. So if you’re careful you can use them to your own advantage.
