Reader Response assignment (Final Draft) of “The perils of over-sharing in social networks” by David Emm

In “The perils of over-sharing in social networks” (2014), David Emm mentions that the internet has become a part of our everyday lives for convenience. With the increasing use of internet through smartphones and tablets, negative consequences have also appeared via sharing information on social media. Information shared could be personal or even company’s information. One example the author mentioned was about if someone shares about going for a holiday, it could potentially attract a burglar to break into the house during the duration of travel. Oversharing of information may reveal too much about oneself, hence attracting cybercriminals to commit crimes or internet users to hurt others based on the information one shared. I agree that oversharing on social media will result in revealing too much information about oneself to a large extent, but I also think there are other dangers of oversharing which are even more serious than what the author mentions, such as online shaming and bullying.

In an article by Emily Crane (2014) “Bare feet on the back of your seat, half-naked passengers and urine in the sink: The social media photo campaign shaming inconsiderate airline passengers”, there are pictures of people doing things which may be considered unsightly and unhygienic by most people. By showing people on the article on a news site read by many internet users every day, the purpose is to shame the people in the photos. Online shaming by sharing pictures of what people did may seem entertaining to us, but it may potentially ruin the shamed person’s life. In an article by Laura Hudson (2013) “Why You Should Think Twice Before Shaming Anyone on Social Media”, the author mentions that shaming has become something the internet can be good at doing. She adds that shaming could destroy lives and livelihoods, and could be a “weapon of mass reputation destruction”, with examples such as amplified bullying and slander. The example Laura shared was that a lady shared on social media the behaviour of two men she saw and felt disgusted by them. This eventually led to one of the men losing his job and was verbally assaulted online by internet users because of a post which that lady shared being seen by internet users. This is an example of a negative consequence due to oversharing on the internet besides committing crimes.

In the same article by Laura, it is shown that internet speech by internet users may include racism and sexism. These are usually seen on social media platforms like tweets from twitter and posts from Facebook. Internet users could be shamers online, or they could be shamed online by other internet users for their offensive posts. Sharing too much personal opinions online may be a form of oversharing. Laura said that “internet speech can be cruder and crueller than our real-life interactions” as people speak bluntly online as compared to face-to-face interactions. Therefore people may express themselves in a cruder and more explicit manner online as compared to how they will express themselves in real-life, thus people may get harsher comments in online bullying than in real-life.

People who are also using the internet may make use of the information we shared online to their advantage against us or others through criminal means. It was also mentioned that what we share on the internet could potentially ruin others’ or one’s life through cyberbullying or online shaming. Also we need to be careful of what we share and comment online to avoid sharing racism and sexism contents which may result in more shaming and bullying. Therefore, we need to be aware of what we share and/or do online so as not to compromise our own security and to harm others.

Sources:

Emm, D. (2014, March 21). The perils of over-sharing in social networks. Huffpost Tech.

Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david-emm/the-perils-of-over- sharing-in-social-networks_b_5005276.html

Emily Crane (2014, September 17). Bare feet on the back of your seat, half-naked passengers and urine in the sink: The social media photo campaign shaming inconsiderate airline passengers. MailOnline. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2758792/From-feet-seat-stripping-check-latest-social-media-trend-shames-airline-passengers.html

Laura Hudson (2013, July 24). Why You Should Think Twice Before Shaming Anyone on Social Media. WIRED. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2013/07/ap_argshaming/