Positive and Negative Impact of Social Media on Internet

This report discusses the positive and negative impact of social media on the internet, challenges and measures of security and privacy while using social media, and a comparison between social networking sites. It explores the benefits of social media in terms of speedy communication, building relationships, sharing information, and promoting business. It also highlights the negative effects such as addiction, sleep disturbances, depression, and cyberbullying. The report further discusses the challenges and measures of security and privacy risks associated with social media, including ransomware and virus attacks, hacked accounts, fake apps and malicious links, leaving clues for stalkers, and fake offers and schemes. Lastly, it compares the features and applications of Facebook and Instagram for businesses.

Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Comparative analysis of positive and negative impact of social media on internet...................1
Challenges and measures of security and privacy while using social media..............................3
Comparison between Facebook and Instagram...........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social media is website or an application that is used to interact, communicate or share
content quickly and efficiently. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. These
applications can be accessed through smart phones, tablets or computers. Internet is a global
network system connected across the world. Internet and social media provides people with
many opportunities and benefits to empower themselves. This report covers positive and
negative impact of social media on internet, challenges and problems that may arise while using
social media in terms of security and privacy. Also, a comparison between social networking
sites based on its features, application, suitability which can be beneficial to the businesses.
MAIN BODY
Comparative analysis of positive and negative impact of social media on internet
According to Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin (2016), social media or social networking site has
become an integral part of everyone's life which cannot be ignored. Like with everything, social
networking has come with some good things and some bad things which has been discussed
below.
Positive impact of social media on internet
Speedy communication: Most of the time is spent on work and makes it difficult to meet with
the family commitments. But social networking sites have made it easy to communicate when
everyone is familiar with the social media slang. Using social media makes it easy to express
oneself, when it becomes difficult to talk face to face or during telephonic conversation. This has
happened all because of the emergence of internet as without internet this would not have been
possible.
Build relationships: Active application of social networking site have resulted in formation and
building up of relationships. It has helped in getting in touch with the people with whom people
lost touch with time or with no reliable source of communication. So, if social media can help
foster relationship and friendship then some credit needed to be given to internet because of
which this is possible. Without internet, it was not possible to interact and build relations on
social media, also social media won't have emerged.
Sharing information: Social media has helped in getting and sharing information very quickly.
It helps in getting the latest news on real time basis from around the world and also helps in
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sharing the information, news, ideas, opinion on the same with others and start a conversation.
This all because of internet that sharing information has been made so easily and fast.
Promotes business: Social media has become an important part of everyone's life but most
importantly it has helped business in its promotion. To find large audience, social networking
sites is the best platform. Businesses can effectively promotes its products and services which
can target large audience. Internet has made it possible which resulted in expansion of business.
Negative impact of social media on internet
Addiction: According to Baccarella and et.al (2018), it is always suggested that social
networking sites should not be accessed for more than half hour a day but people use it for very
long hours. This has result into addiction. Users are now addicted to social media which has
impacted the users social as well as personal life. Social life here means less communication with
friends and family in the form of face to face communication. Personal life means the mental
health of the user is severely affected. All of this is the result of the internet which is now easily
available to the users.
Sleep: The increasing use of social media has indirectly impacted the sleep of the users. People
usually at night use their smart phones to access social networking sites, surrounded by artificial
lights of phone and laptops. These light disturbs the body mentally and physically which may
result in sleepless nights or other body problems. It is the fault of internet which has resulted in
many problems.
Depression: Nowadays, people feel more depressed by looking at the others posts. This usually
happens when the user sees the posts of others having fun, enjoying their life and having great
experience and starts feeling depressed and anxious about the life. This depression has resulted
in change in behaviour, loneliness and hopelessness because of all these symptoms, internet is
considered to be on fault.
Cyberbullying: The use of social media has given an opportunity to the perpetrators to become
friends with the users easily and after gaining their trust, perpetrators harass and terrorize the
users in front of everyone. These attacks affect the users mentally and may drive them to commit
suicide. This can happen to anyone from kids to adults. These attacks have resulted in reduced
use of internet, especially for kids.
Even after some positive and negative effects, there is one similarity between internet and
social media, that is, purpose of it. Both social media and internet were evolved with the purpose
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to gain information and make life easy. And both meets this purpose. But social media has
number of other features that makes it more preferable to the users.
Challenges and measures of security and privacy while using social media
As per Fuchs (2017), social networking sites are prone to several security risk which have
affected may big corporations. Some important challenges and risks that may be faced while
using social media and the measures to prevent and mitigate those risks are stated below.
Challenges and measures of security risk
Ransomware and virus attacks: It involves various malicious softwares that blocks the
access to the computer system until a certain amount of is paid to the hackers or else hackers will
delete all the relevant information from the company's system. Also, there are chances that
hackers may contact the employee of the organization and blackmail them. All these situations
pose a serious threat to the business and which may lead to shutting down of the business. The
best example for this is WannaCry ransomware attack. To control such situation it is advisable to
have high privacy settings for all the social media accounts for individuals and business. Also,
frequent audit of social media account is also very useful which includes modifying the social
media policy of the company, giving social media access rights to those who are responsible and
reliable. Apart from this, it is recommended to regularly back up the important information to
avoid any financial loss in time of crisis.
Hacked accounts: This is a very common problem faced by the users. In this, hackers
continuously follow the user with respect to post and other activities and then tries to access the
account with the help of email id. The most useful option for hackers is the forgot password
option which helps them in getting the account access. Sometimes, users post on special occasion
and that person, especially someone from family which gives hacker access to the other profile
and which can be the answer to one of the security question like what is your mother's name. All
these things leads to the hacking. To prevent such situation users should not provide personal
information which are visible to everyone. It should also set a strong password with special
characters and should change it after some time.
Fake apps and malicious links: As per Mukherjee and et.al (2017), there are many apps
and links which are fake and made with the purpose of targeting users. After downloading such
apps, hackers collects all the personal information of the user. Hackers sometimes uses fake
URLs to hack the system. These URLs are short, mostly like bit.ly, which are highly susceptible
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of hackers. These short URLs trick users to visit these harmful sites. As the user clicks the link
hacker injects virus on the system and steals all the relevant information. To make sure such
situation so not arise it is advisable to never click such link until it is not sure whether it is right
or wrong. Users can hover over the links to see the full URL and if the website is familiar then
user can go ahead otherwise should return to safety.
Leaving clues for stalkers: When a user posts something it becomes public. The more
the user post, the more it becomes vulnerable to risk. The website user subscribe, download apps
and games on social networking sites all contains personal information. Every time the user
surfs, the companies put a invisible mark which are known as cookies. These cookies track the
users activity. To stop these sites from tracking, click on the 'Do Not Track' option. Also, users
should clear the cookies and cache regularly to avoid such problems.
Increasing the chances of theft: People usually post about their holidays like check-in,
going to etc. These posts are made public which makes intruder or thieves aware about the user
recent activity which in turn gives an opportunity to the intruder to enter the house of the user
and carry out robbery. This can be a serious threat. To mitigate such risk, users should never
disclose their location, post photos from the new place. It is advisable that users should post all
the photos after coming back home which reduces the risk of threat.
Fake offers and schemes: Nowadays, users have a tendency to go shopping online, after
which user often sees notification related to the recent searches. Users are tempted to open such
links offering huge discount of which hackers take advantage to enter the system of users. To
mitigate risk users should think twice before clicking any link and avoid participating in online
quizzes and surveys.
Challenges and measures of privacy risk
Social media has helped people interacting and communicating effectively and adding
more friends. But it has also invited the risk of losing privacy. Privacy risk that are faced by the
users are discussed below.
Collecting user activities: According to Fogues and et.al (2015), users mostly provide
their personal information to public through the user profile which are vulnerable to risk as these
informations can be downloaded by the third party which keeps the records the user's activity. It
also tracks the user's online behaviour and profiles visited and IP address used. All these think
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will lead to breach of data. To overcome such situation, users should not provide any personal
information on any social networking sites which can be easily accessed by anyone.
Cyberbullying: It is a form of harassment using electronic means. The most ideal
privacy level is that to connecting and sharing information with only friends and families. In this,
cybercriminals tries to be friended with the user using fake name and tries to gain access to the
information. So to avoid such thing, it is recommended to be first sure before adding any new
friend to the connection.
Disclosing user's identity: Social networking sites encourages user's to share their
profile picture which also creates problem. With the use the latest technologies such as content
based image retrieval, which helps in inspecting and identifying the image details like where it is
taken and which device was used etc. Many people are not aware about the things that may
happen with the images, videos shared by the users. Therefore, it is having the high risk of
exposing user identity and also risk the users whose image is also there. So, user needs to take
measures such as posting fewer pictures and should be having high privacy level settings.
Storing the data transmitted: According to Vitak, Blasiola, Patil and Litt (2015),
mostly users connects to their social networking sites using mobile phones and many users
connect to the internet available to public which are vulnerable to data hacking. Most of these
open network are vulnerable to high degree of risk which results in capturing of transmitted data
by using different sniffing tools. To avoid such situation, it is advisable that users should avoid
using open network while using social networking sites, maintain confidentiality of data etc.
Comparison between Facebook and Instagram
Both Facebook and Instagram are widely used social networking sites. It has millions of
users. So, a comparison has been drawn between both.
Features
Facebook: According to Mazza and Palermo (2018), Facebook has many features that
can add benefit for the businesses. First is business group, now businesses can have its own
group and connect it to the business page. Second is stories, business add stories which can be in
respect to the business itself, products and services, business insights, any offers etc. which can
attract more users to its page. Third is business page polls, which is a great way to get feedback
from the followers. Polls create customer engagement as polls can be given in just one click.
Fourth is host party, which is very beneficial to the businesses. As businesses can host a party,
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which refers to an event which helps in engaging target audience. Business can share a live event
which will help in increasing its followers and increase its visibility.
Instagram: As per Mattern (2016), like Facebook, Instagram also has some useful
features that will be beneficial for the businesses. First is video calling the followers, this helps
business to contact its follower if required through video call. For example, a small coaching
institute can contact students to share feedback on projects and share views. Also, businesses can
directly call clients and also can provide proper feedback to the customers. Second is question
sticker, where anything can be asked from the users, For instance, new product or service that
followers would like to see, customer feedback, change that is required etc.
Application
Facebook: As per Jantsch John (2019), Facebook is mainly used for promoting
businesses. Business can have many benefits of Facebook. Firstly, Facebook is a low cost
marketing platform which deals with enterprises having limited budget for marketing. Through
Facebook businesses can promote its products and services, can interact with the customers and
answer the queries. Facebook can help in increasing traffic to the business's website. Also,
businesses can offer attractive deals to its target audience. It can also make users aware of the
latest technologies used by the business and what impact it can have on environment and
practices used by the businesses.
Instagram: As per Driver Saige (2019), Instagram is basically a photo sharing app. From
gathering insights to promoting and selling products, Instagram helps businesses to succeed. For
using this, businesses needs to have an Instagram account, and one of the most useful feature of
it is Instagram stories. These stories are only for 24 hours after which it disappears. Businesses
can add stories about the new product and services, its benefits, differentiating factor from its
competitors etc. Also, businesses can use Piqora, which is a business tool. It provides analytics
and recommendation about when to post next, hashtag, interaction management. It is a paid
service.
Suitability
Facebook: As explained by Fouche Kevin (2019), Facebook is useful for small and
medium businesses. It suitable for businesses only for promoting the business and enhancing its
brand. Facebook provides various insights. It allows businesses to find target audience. It
provides brands to create it own business page and offers variety of tools that can be used while
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creating videos, slide shows etc. Facebook page insights and analytics also provides performance
feedback to the businesses in terms of any improvement is required or is going in the right
direction.
Instagram: It is suitable for clothing brands, gyms, make-up brands, restaurants, hotels
etc. Businesses can effectively use Instagram by uploading photos and videos which are related
to the business. Interacting with other Instagram users which will help in increasing the followers
which will result more consumer reach and more visibility. Businesses can post advertisement in
the form of photo ads, video ads or a carousel ads. Businesses can also sell its product on
Instagram directly by posting about it.
Social media is an excellent platform for enhancing communication. It is beyond
marketing and promotion. Apart from monitoring the conversation about the industry, trends,
competitors, it has increasingly reaching out to its customers to communicate their offers and
provide customer support. Also, customers can also reach out for any queries can can ask
directly. So, it can be said that social media is huge platform for building relation and expanding
communication.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarized from above that social media has become a significant part of
everyone's life. Its usage has the changed the way internet was used earlier. Social media has
both positive and negative impact on internet which cannot be ignored. Apart from this, there are
number of challenges that are needed to be tackled in respect to security and privacy of users
data, along with the measures that can be used to prevent or mitigate those risks. Also, a
comparison between two social networking sites has been drawn based on its features,
application and suitability which are relevant for the businesses. After all the above analysis, it is
clear that social media platform is great source of communication.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baccarella and et.al, 2018. Social media? It's serious! Understanding the dark side of social
media. European Management Journal. 36(4). pp.431-438.
Fogues and et.al, 2015. Open challenges in relationship-based privacy mechanisms for social
network services. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 31(5). pp.350-
370.
Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Mattern, J., 2016. Instagram. ABDO.
Mazza, B. and Palermo, A., 2018. Social media content for business and user engagement on
Facebook. ESSACHESS-Journal for Communication Studies. 11(1). pp.49-73.
Mukherjee and et.al, 2017. Security and privacy in fog computing: Challenges. IEEE Access. 5.
pp.19293-19304.
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N. I. and Ainin, S., 2016. Social media’s impact on organizational
performance and entrepreneurial orientation in organizations. Management Decision.
Vitak, J., Blasiola, S., Patil, S. and Litt, E., 2015. Balancing audience and privacy tensions on
social network sites: Strategies of highly engaged users. International Journal of
Communication. 9. p.20.
Online
Driver Saige, 2019. Instagram for Business: Everything You Need to Know. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7662-instagram-business-guide.html>.
Fouche Kevin, 2019. Twitter Vs Facebook Vs Instagram Vs LinkedIn: Which is Right for You?
[Online]. Available Through:<https://blog.pixelfish.com.au/twitter-vs-facebook-vs-
instagram-vs-linkedin>.
Jantsch John, 2019. Top 10 Business Applications for Facebook. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://ducttapemarketing.com/top-10-business-applications-for-facebook/>.
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