Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

August 5, 2009

How Safe Are You? Privacy and Risks in Social Networks

It is true that social media platforms can suck your time like a vampire turning you into an ethereal zombie wandering in the post-Internet’s waste land. Furthermore, they have the power to expose you to the pleasures of experiencing a thousand and one nights of pain and to bring you ridicule by your ex or even spin your moral compass so fast that it might stunt your emotional growth that of a whole generation. Still, those are problems for later decades and a different generation.

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How social media allows you to experience pain anytime

For the rest of us, using social media networks bears some serious risks to our lives, and no I’m not talking about that “life” where you went broke playing Texas Hold’em and you would have to wait 24 hours before you can carry on with your addiction. I’m talking about risks that would directly impact your financial, legal, or health and might cause irreparable damage to any or all of those.

Honestly, all joking aside, how much time do you spend thinking about the repercussions of anything you do on social networks?

How about that new friend that you recently added and perhaps are falling for ? Is she really a girl ? Or is she just seeking her 15 seconds of e-fame ?

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May 12, 2009

Are Social Media Users Schizophrenic?

What defines a schizophrenic? How can we correlate social media to loss of identity? And would it be rational to declare that many social media users suffer from schizophrenia? Finally, is schizophrenia always negative?

Multiple Personality Disorder

I can safely assume that we all agree that there exists many types of social media users online, males and females, at varying ages, roaming social media outlets for various reasons, at different times and with multiple goals and intentions. Moreover, the changing habits of social media users seem to have a very peculiar side that I think is worth discussing and evaluating in a later post since “many people view social media as a waste of time while others expect them to be some kind of promised land for self promotion. Both groups will never use social media to their fullest potential. The truth lies of course somewhere in between.”

Whether you are a student, businessman, social media lover, super user, skeptic, time waster and so on, in my opinion, the truth of the matter remains that many social media users have one thing in common: a slight discrete schizophrenic tendency!

We all know, for a fact, that many people are just infatuated with and even more crazy about social media but is that, in return, making them a little bit crazy themselves? I am not talking about the infamous psychos who murder, steal, stalk and threaten national security through social media usage, I am talking about a less threatening yet more mysterious kind of mental state resulting in loss of identity!

Well, here is what I think…

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