Negative and Positive aspects of Social Media on the Internet

This report provides a comparison between the negative and positive aspects of social media on internet, discussing the measures and challenges of security and privacy taken while accessing social media online.

SOCIAL MEDIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Negative and Positive aspects of Social Media on the Internet...................................................3
Challenges and Measures of Security and privacy in Social Media............................................4
Features and application and suitability of Tiktok and LinkedIn for business............................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Social Media can be defined as an internet based technology that allows sharing of
opinions, ideas and information using virtual networks and user built communities. Social media
enables quick communication of content between its users, wherein the content include photos,
videos, personal information, documents etc. (Dollarhide, 2019). This report provides a
comparison between the negative and positive aspects of social media on internet, discussing the
measures and challenges of security and privacy taken while accessing social media online. This
report also provides a detailed comparison of two popular social media applications and features
i.e. TikTok and Linkedin in terms of future business sustainability and further usage of social
media applications as an effective communication tool.
MAIN BODY
Negative and Positive aspects of Social Media on the Internet
As per the view of Kietzmann and et.al., (2011) in its initial stage social media started off
as a web based page or application enabling its users sharing of text message amongst
themselves. In recent times, social media has introduced pervasive and substantial changes to
communication in between communities, organizations, and individuals. These changes have
their own fair share of positive as well as negative impact on the internet. Based on the Global
Digital Report, 2019, it was observed that there was a stable increase in the worldwide users of
social media by 9% year-on-year which in turn helped the growth of the worldwide net (Kemp,
2019). Due to the increasing interest of governments and businesses in social media
communications there is an overall increase in the usage of worldwide internet. Many developed
nations are presently in discussion about a possible inclusion of internet services as one of the
basic elements of human needs. Such discussions have been started as a direct result of attention
capture of users by social media.
As illustrated by Jackson and Ahuja, (2016) internet has now penetrated in the personal
life of its users influencing their thoughts and establishing control over the decisions made by
them. Social media marketing have emerged as a profitable field of employment, with businesses
investing a lot in social media campaigns promoting internet as a necessary tool in the field of
marketing. Social media sites have also provided new opportunities for businesses to increase
their sales online, boosting e-commerce like never before. These sites have introduced a new

field of data mining, wherein user data is used for targeted marketing, leading to starting up of
different organizations dependent on the worldwide web to grow their businesses. The usage of
social media have increased over the period and people which have eased their daily life
activities like education, business, even it is political campaigns, so they think it is possible due
to internet. Social media has also increased the values of internet as almost all the organization,
educational institutions and families have introduced internet in the process of hiring assessment,
targeted on selection of suitable future employee’s online, job search, for providing effective
educational programs. Hence, it can be stated that social media has played a vital role in making
internet services more popular amongst its users, promoting advancements in internet
framework. Social media have enhanced the features and extent of usability of internet. For
instance in past internet was used to exchange only text format of information but with the
advent of social media has changed the ways of sending information (audio, video, images) on
internet which has enhanced the usability of internet in current scenario.
As noted by Puspita and Rohedi, (2018) due to the vast reach of social media amongst its
users, it is very much possible for anyone to spread false information amongst the public. This
may result in a wide shut-downs of internet services by the authorities and possible stay imposed
on internet freedom altogether, by the government. Since there is no check on the content shared
in social media sites by users, there is always a possibility of wrong image portrayal of internet
itself. With the increasing number of social media users, there has always been threat of personal
information leak of users made possible also with the help of worldwide web itself. Social media
platforms have also been a landmine of fraudulent and dangerous traps aiming to harm the users
accessing these sites. The usage of social media sites to trap and harm users has also given a bad
image to internet communities providing user access to social media. The power of social media
to cater to many audiences has also led to the internet become a tool in political polarization and
negative influencing of public. Although, Social media provides its users a chance of self-
presentation and worldwide community building, the risks these platforms offer can also not be
denied. Designed to engage as many users as possible, these sites often become addictive for the
users, declining their medical health, and negatively impacting the image if internet services
altogether. Thus, it is evident that social media possess the power to impact the internet itself,
largely based on its usage by the users.

Challenges and Measures of Security and privacy in Social Media
According to Kumar and Somani, (2018) Security of Social media is very important
which helps to in protect personal data of users who are online. Social media is the platform
which connects whole world together with help of internet to exchange information. This helps
to increase knowledge and provide better opportunities to make decisions. It has been analysed
that social media is facing challenges in providing security to their frequent users. Social media
is becoming a platform to increase business activities. Security issues are generating from the
non-active accounts of users which are operated by hackers to gain all the personal information
and use it for their benefits. Another issue faced in effective security of social media is lack of
understanding of security measures or mistakes made by users which accidentally share very
confidential information in public. This happens due to lack of concentration and skill to focus
on one task. Phishing attacks and Frauds are also a very big problem which is faced in security of
social media accounts. This fraud is done to get all the personal information like bank account
number, passwords from the users with a fake identity.
In opinion of Zhang and Gupta, (2018) social media can be secured by various ways
which can also help the users to protect their information from hackers and frauds and use social
media for positive activities. By setting strong passwords every month which are unique in
nature and include special characters which are very hard to predict helps to provide security.
Security of social media is also enhanced by the help of official announcements to all the
followers about the authenticity of their account in case of any fraud they are not liable.
Avoiding to post personal information like holiday, helps to improve security measures.
As illustrated by Marwick, Fontaine and Boyd, (2017) stalking is very big issue on social
media due to lack of privacy efficiency many users can easily stalk other users to know about
their activities. Harassment is also a problem which is faced in creating privacy of social media
as all users are not as friendly and turn out to be threat as there are many cases in which women
face humiliation on social media due to spreading of personal information by hacking. It also
turns into blackmailing and money extortions from the users to exchange of stolen personal
information of users. In recent innovation, location of users are also be determined on social
media websites which is also a threat to privacy of users and it can also impact their personal life
and threat of life.
Such and Criado, (2016) stated that privacy of social media can be measured by using a

secured devices which have privacy protection and internet virus protection applications to
protect all the information of users. Location feature should also be turned off in order to protect
the privacy of the location where the user is currently. With the help of advanced authentication
technology which to secure login credentials from unknown persons. Virtual private network
helps to secure all the information which users have visited in past and it also secures the data
which is received or sent to other user. With help of secondary email account it helps to provide
privacy of notifications which are revived from work profiles. Every social media sites have
different privacy policies and privacy settings available which every user have to read properly
to understand the threats and modify all the privacy setting to secure their privacy on social
media.
Features and application and suitability of Tiktok and LinkedIn for business
Basis of comparison Tiktok LinkedIn
Features  Tiktok is a video sharing app
that offers its users a plethora of
dialogue and music options to
lip-sync in order to create
creative, entertaining and funny
videos.
 This app allows its users to
interact amongst themselves
simply by liking, following, and
re-sharing content (What is
tiktok? What do you need to
know about the new musical.ly?,
2020).
 Users can use impressive AR
effects with this app to edit their
videos before uploading them to
their personal Tiktok account.
 To allow its users to connect
with each other, this app
 LinkedIn is basically a
social media platform
designed for business
community. Network
Suggestions is used by
professionals to
connect with present
and past colleagues, in
order to increase their
business connections
and built network
within their industry
(Kuligowski, 2019).
 LinkedIn allows their
users to network with
their personal
connections by using
the feature of InMail
Messages but users are

provides each user with a unique
QR code.
 The users are also provided with
additional options such as live
stream, geolocation and duet to
continue their excitement and
interest with the application.
required to avail a paid
membership for
advanced options. This
feature allows to
contact anyone on
LinkedIn without
introduction or any
contact information.
 Users can search for
jobs, hire new
employees for their
businesses, even can
ask for help related to a
particular business
problem.
Applications  TikTok can be majorly used by
independent content creators,
inform broadcasters and social
media marketing professionals
in order to grasp a target
audience and earn monetary
benefits
 LinkedIn can be
effectively used by job
seekers to find a
suitable job. Business
owners to find suitable
employees, as well as
by professionals to
grow their professional
network within an
organization.
Suitability  Providing localized content and
easy content creation and
sharing, this app has gained a lot
of popularity in a short span of
time. Though Tiktok does not
 LinkedIn provides
companies with their
own page that can be
used to display and
share company

focus on competing with other
social media in terms of being a
better marketing media, various
brands have shown interests in
marketing themselves on this
app creating various trends
(Dubrova, 2019). Needless, to
say this app contains the
potential to compete with bigger
social-media platforms
providing an opportunity for
businesses to capture a larger
audience.
information, and goals
with other like minded
investors or
collaborators. This
page can also be used
for the employment of
new workforce by
posting various job
opportunities.
With the comparative study mentioned above, it is evident that any social media platform
markets itself as a better communication tool within its competitors. Considering the case study
of Tiktok and LinkedIn, it can be observed that both the platforms are different in terms of their
applications and features. But the only thing common amongst them both is the purpose of the
applications to form an online society. With a large difference in the target audience of both the
applications it can be observed that both are on the path of a rapid growth. The main reason
behind the success of them both can be linked with the constant need of people to be a part of
some society, with like-minded people sharing the same interests and ideas. This society can be
physical or virtual on nature. Therefore, it can be stated that social media platforms do work as
successful modes of communication between people. These social media platforms also consists
of user made groups used by users themselves as a means of fast communication between
themselves. Also, the newly coined terms of 'viral videos' in the broadcast of every huge media
outlet do confirm the role of social media platforms as dedicated communicators amongst the
public.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that social media platforms have a major impact on internet. The
impacts were found to be of dual nature i.e. both positive and negative, largely based on how the
users actually decide to use various social media platforms and the influence they have. It was

further concluded that social media platforms faced challenges on providing security and privacy
to their users, leading to frequent malware, phishing, and fraudulent attacks. It was also
concluded that these attacks can be easily prevented by the users themselves with the help of
gaining education regarding their account privacy settings and user content posting. With the
help of a comparative study it was further concluded that Tiktok and LinkedIn can be used as
efficient tools for business sustainability. Finally, it was concluded that all the social media
platforms can be considered efficient communication tools in the near future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Jackson, G. and Ahuja, V., 2016. Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing
mix. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice. 17(3). pp.170-186.
Kumar, S. and Somani, V., 2018. Social Media Security Risks, Cyber Threats And Risks
Prevention And Mitigation Techniques. International Journal of Advance Research in
Computer Science and Management. 4(4). pp.125-129.
Marwick, A., Fontaine, C. and Boyd, D., 2017. “Nobody sees it, nobody gets mad”: Social
media, privacy, and personal responsibility among low-SES youth. Social Media+
Society. 3(2). p.2056305117710455.
Puspita, R. H. and Rohedi, D., 2018, February. The impact of internet use for students. In IOP
Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. (Vol. 306, No. 1, p. 012106).
IOP Publishing.
Such, J. M. and Criado, N., 2016. Resolving multi-party privacy conflicts in social media. IEEE
Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. 28(7). pp.1851-1863.
Zhang, Z. and Gupta, B.B., 2018. Social media security and trustworthiness: overview and new
direction. Future Generation Computer Systems. 86. pp.914-925.
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