Just Blame it on Social Media
Who checked their social media accounts today? Don’t lie! I am sure we all did at least once. Like myself, this is probably the first task I do after waking up. I am currently trying to earn an MS degree in Integrated Marketing which means, I am learning digital marketing-related topics daily. Yes, I admit owning up to 20+ social media accounts for both work and personal purposes. I manage many Instagram accounts for different reasons such as community, work, student council, and of course my personal use that shares about my life. I love sharing content related to food, wine, and cute animals.
Social media has become one of the most important elements for almost everyone whose a millennial or Gen Z. To me, I feel like it has become almost a necessity for us. With technology today, it is so common for people of all ages to be social networking virtually. Who still remembers that more than 20 years ago, we were still only using computers to get “socialized”. And before that, people were probably social networking in-person! Can you imagine our parents had to network by physically going to the event? It wasn’t as easy or convenient as how we do this nowadays.
I remember we used to chat using all kinds of instant messaging software such as AOL, MSN, ICQ, Skype, QQ from China, there weren’t really many choices. Oh, and I remember also using social media platforms such as MySpace, Xanga, and Wretch from Taiwan! Oh man, writing this blog really brought back lots of memories for me and it probably also given away my real age. Haha…I am sure many others whose reading this knows exactly what I am talking about.
Well, this is no longer the case. We have so many technologies and social media tools and platforms nowadays it is scary. Google, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Wechat, Tiktok, Amazon, you name it! Social media is typically used for social interaction and access to news and information in today’s society. And these may lead to decision-making. It is a great communication tool with anyone who is locally or internationally that shares and engages in content and information. Some of the top benefits from using social media can be building relations, share your expertise, increase your visibility, educate yourself on the latest news and information, and of course, stay connected anywhere anytime. But as our world evolves quickly, technology brought us many benefits but as well as risks and negative impacts. Lately, I am sure we heard these questions related to how we feel about social media today? Is it time for us to stand up and fight back against the tech giants such as Facebook, and Amazon? We read contents that warned us about protecting ourselves and our private data against social platforms. We read news related to the new bills introduced about the Social Media Regulations. Well, to be fair there are ALWAYS antitrust cases in progress against the tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. In my opinion, I really could care less about things such as banning digital platforms owning subsidiaries that operate on their platform, restriction on the business mergers in the tech sector that competes with other brand’s products or services or even coming up with laws against giving preference to tech giant’s own products on their platforms. What I care the most about is that we must set higher restrictions and laws about privacy data sharing.
Let me ask you a question? How many times a day do you get a call that’s labeled as a scam likely by your phone carrier? I get at least 3…Spam calls are becoming more advanced and technical. You would be surprised how many smart and tech-savvy people are falling into these fraudulent call traps. The volume of spam calls grew by 18% globally in the year 2019. In an annual report done by Truecaller, the Stockholm-based firm said users worldwide received 26 billion spam calls between January and October of 2019. In a separate report, Truecaller estimated that 43 million Americans were scammed last year and lost about $10.5 billion. This data is only in the USA and during this time the US was only the eighth-most-spammed country.
Over the year 2020–2021, Americans lost $29.8 billion to just phone scams. Which is 2 times more than 2019. Nearly, 1 out of 3 Americans says they’ve fallen victim to a phone scam this year. Don’t be surprised, my mom was one of them. She is also a victim of an identity theft incident in the year 2020 but luckily, we caught it in time so the identity theft only used her credit cards but we were warned by the bank that suspicious people are trying to access her bank account. According to a new report from Truecaller. Roughly 59.4 million Americans have lost money to phone scams over the past year.
I hope reading and to see all these data yourself can alert you to pay more attention and be more protective of yourself and your family. Social media is a platform that is designed for you to exposes this information to the public. I mean, when you decided to create that account, you already chose by putting yourself out there. I do understand and agree that it is not right and not legal for these tech giants or social platforms to share or sell your information to others but in the world where we live, there are always 2 sides to stories. I do not agree that these companies have the rights to put you at risk but I still think no matter what, it is your job to protect yourself before filling out the blank profile on these social media platforms, it is up to you to make any decisions. It is why social media make sure you are an adult to operate their platform. They make sure to ask that you are old enough to make the right decisions.
So to conclude, I definitely think that the social media platforms and companies do bear responsibilities for what is used or shared on their platform but the main responsibilities should still come from yourself! We often blame technology for social, political, environmental, educational, and health problems. Humanity has gotten uglier and uglier that caused us to blame everything on others but ourselves but in reality, no one is responsible for your life but yourself.
