Integrated Professional Skills: Social Media Impacts Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the impacts of social media in the digital age. It explores both the positive and negative aspects, including its role in developing connectivity, aiding education, promoting businesses, and assisting government agencies in fighting crime. Conversely, it addresses negative aspects such as increased cyberbullying, hacking, fraud, relationship issues, and health problems. The report also discusses the challenges of security and privacy, such as phishing, identity theft, profile hacking, and brand impersonation, and suggests measures like two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and cautious link-clicking to mitigate these risks. Finally, it compares Facebook and Twitter based on features, functionality, and business applications, highlighting the differences in their approaches to connectivity and communication. Desklib offers a variety of resources including past papers and solved assignments to aid students.

Integrated Professional
Skills in the Digital
Age
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1..............................................................................................................................................3
2..............................................................................................................................................5
3..............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Internet is considered as global computer network that provide huge variety of
information as well as communication facilities. It is determined as consistent of interconnected
networks which use standardized communication protocols. Now a day internet have several
important applications from which social media become one of the mostly used online service
(Aksal, 2015). Social media refers to interactive computer mediated technology which facilities
creation as well as sharing of idea, career, information and forms of expressions through virtual
communication. The main aim of conducting this report is to compare as well as contrast among
positive and negative aspects of social media. It also include challenges and measures related to
security as well as privacy which are necessary to taken while using social media and report will
also include compare between two social media on different basis.
MAIN BODY
1.
Social media considered as websites as well as applications which are designed in order
to allow peoples to share informations, content or any ideas quickly and in real time duration.
According to different people social media is determined as applications that are used in
smartphone or tablet in order to conduct communication or share information. Respective media
have ability to shares opinions, photo, audio, message, event and so on at the real time. In today's
time social media is beneficial for society, company and nation (Baym, 2015). Social media can
be used by a person through web based technology at laptop as well as desktops or user can also
download application on their phone. There are several positive and negative aspects of social
media at the internet, from which some are mentioned below:-
Positive aspects of social media on internet-
 Develop connectivity: It is main positive aspect of social media that it help people or
society in developing connectivity. Through this media people from anywhere can
develop connection with each other effectively by avoiding issues related to location,
culture, time and religion. By social media individual able to share their thought, idea,
plan or any thing to others.
 Help in education: Social media provide numbers of benefits to students as well as
teachers. Through respective source it become very easy to educate from others who are
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professional or experts in specific field. It will also regardless location, education
background and time for education.
 Informations and Updates: By using social media a person can update themselves from
all latest information that are happing around the world. In today's time, television as well
as print media get biased in order to convey true information or message (Ellaway and et.
al., 2015). But by conducting research on social media an individual can get all the true
facts as well as information.
 Help company in promotion: There are different types of social media which are used
by an organisation in order to promote their products and services at world wide level
such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and so on. This is also considered as less
expensive method for promoting goods and services of a company as well as it will also
save time. This is so because through social media by conducting one post firm can reach
to huge numbers of audiences.
 Help government and agencies fight crime: Social media is considered as one of the
most effective source which a can used by government as well as agencies in order to
fight crime. This is so because by using social media platform agencies and government
can easily spy as well as catch criminals for fighting crime around the world wide level.
Negative aspects of social media on internet-
 Increase Cyberbullying: In respect of report published by PewCenter.org now a day
most of the children are becoming victims of cyberbullying from past (10 Advantages
and Disadvantages of Social Media for Society, 2020). This is so because now anyone
can create fake account and do any illegal activities without traced, it shows how easy
any person get bully at internet.
 Hacking account: At social media it is very easy to hack as well as share anyone
personal or private information on internet. This may lead to loss of personal life or
finance because by hacking personal and private information hacker can demand for
anything (Flewitt, Messer and Kucirkova, 2015). Every year there are numbers of
personal data or information are hacked by hacker through social media like Facebook,
LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and so on.
 Increase fraud and scams: By using social media rate of fraud as well as scams get
increased because through it hacker can hack account and access wall personal or private
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information. Through that they can conduct scams and fraud such as forwarding wrong
chain letter, cash grabs and so on.
 Cheating and relationship issues: In today's time many people are using social media
for creating their relationship or propose or marry with each other (Goldie, 2016). This
can turn to wrong decision several time because at social media people are showing fake
or incorrect information through which they are developing fake feeling in respect of
others.
 Develop health issues: Excess use of social media also lead to negative impact on the
health of a person. Like exercise is considered as key to lose weight but in today's time
mostly people are using social media which make them lazy. This will lead to health
issues such as eye sight weak, obesity, laziness and many more.
These are some of the major positive as well as negative aspect of social media on
internet. So it is essential for society to use social media in limit in order to avoid its negative
aspect.
2.
In today's time social media is considered as one the mostly used media for conducting
communication. There are several social media which a person can used such as Gmail,
WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and many more (Grand-Clement
and et. al., 2017). While using this a person may go through several challenges related to security
as well as privacy for which they can take numbers of measures, from which some major are
given below:-
Challenges of security and privacy of social media services-
 Phishing: This is considered as main challenge which is faced by a company due to
social media. According to which hacker creates face social media account which look
similar to actual profile of firm (Gretter and Yadav, 2016). Through that they attract
customers toward them and steal their confidential data or informations. It is happen
mostly with retail company website because at that customer's share their personal details
including bank or credit card informations.
 Identify theft or data leakage: In 2012 there are around 12 million people who faced
challenge related to security and privacy of data at social media because their personal
information are theft for conducting fraud activities. This will result to loss of $21 billion
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at United Kingdom (PRIVACY, SECURITY & HEALTH RISKS OF SOCIAL MEDIA &
HOW TO PREVENT THOSE, 2020). According to this challenge an individual personal
or private information get theft for conducting wrongful activities.
 Profile hacking: It is considered as most common challenge related to security and
privacy at the social media services. In this issue hacker hacked social media account of a
person and for them it is not a hard task they can just do it in minutes. In respect of this
hacker crack passwords of social media user and steal all person information in order to
conduct some illegal activity or sell it to others.
 Fake offers and schemes: Now a day people are attracted to do shopping through e
commerce platform or online media (Jacobs, Amuta and Jeon, 2017). While using social
media there are several e commerce advertisement come and a person tempted to click on
that link. These links are generally fake copy all person or private information within
minutes and that information may used by illegal person for conducting wrongful
activities.
 Brand impersonation: According to this company face challenge related to brand
impersonation because mostly hackers promote false things about company by using
duplicate account of firm. In respect of this sometime hacker send wrong messages to
customers which directly harm to brand image and name.
Measures take for avoiding issues related to security and privacy at social media-
 Use two factor authentication: In order to avoid challenges related to security and
privacy at social media company must use TFA i.e. Two factor authentication because it
help in additional level for security. In respect of this company need to provide additional
information along with the users username and password.
 Set strong password: It is essential for every individual and company to always set
strong password because it is consider as key to avoid hacking of social media at primary
level. In order to set strong password a person must need to use combination of numbers,
alphabets and symbol. This is so because these types of passwords are hard to identify
and hack.
 Don't accept requests of unknown profile: In order to avoid situation of hacking a
person should not accept requests of unknown profile because that might be from scam or
fraud account. Along with this, if an individual is not sure about any profile then he/ she
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can check its background through Golookup tool, this tool is currently only available
from United state citizens.
 Think twice before clicking any link: Now a day there are several malicious links are
present at social media which may lead to cyber crime or frauds (Keengwe, 2015). It is so
because that might lead to unwanted viruses as well as it may also develop links to
achieve address of social media user who click on specific link. These might lead to
devastating as well as undesirable issues.
 Avoid participate in survey or questionnaire: It is some people habit that they want to
take participation on every entertaining activities like survey or questionnaire as they may
get prize, jackpot and so on. But these survey or questionnaire links might be fake that
copy person detail of a person and further use it for fraudulent activities.
3.
There are several types of social media platforms available around the world that help
society in conducting communication in effective manner. The selection of social media channel
is based on its usage, feature and applications. Moreover there are also numbers of social media
which are used by a business for the purpose of sustainability such as Facebook, Instagram,
Printerest, Snap chat, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Yelp and many more (McKnight and
et. al., 2016). The comparison among the two mostly used social media by a business for
sustainability are given below:-
Comparison between Facebook and Twitter-
Basis of comparison Facebook Twitter
Meaning
Facebook is considered as
social connectivity platform
which connects an
organization with a huge group
of people at a particular time.
It is considered as social
connectivity web platform
which a company can used in
order to post as well as read
short messages.
Basic feature
It is a determined as typical
social networking media,
whose basic feature is to
maintain profile and stay
This can be used by a company
in order to conduct micro
blogging characteristics.
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connected with audiences.
Founded in It is founded in 2004. It is introduced in 2006.
Founded by Founder of this platform is
Mark Zuckerberg.
It is introduced by Jack Dorsey.
Headquarter
Head office of Facebook is
located at Menlo, California,
USA.
Its headquarter is located at San
Francisco, California, USA.
Audiences Here audiences are known as
friends.
At this application audiences are
know as followers.
Instant messaging
In this company may conduct
instant messaging to their
audiences.
At Twitter there is no option of
instant messaging for a
company.
Content characters
At this social media platform
company may use unlimited
content characters.
At respective social media
platform a firm can only use
maximum 140 characters
(Difference Between Facebook
and Twitter, 2020).
Lifespan of content
At respective social media
platform status posting is
evergreen.
In respect of Twitter
engagement is of short term
because of regular updates.
Focuses on According to this company
will focus on social graph.
In this an organisation will
focuses on interest graph.
Feature of game playing
In this feature of gaming is
available due to which more
audiences are attracted toward
it (Mihalcea, 2017).
At Twitter there is no gaming
feature is available due to which
it have limited ratio of numbers
of audiences.
How to express views
In respective platform a person
can express their feeling
In Twitter an individual can
share their feeling by using
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toward company through like,
comment and share.
replay, retweet and favourite
options.
By comparing Facebook and Twitter on the basis of their feature, application, Lifespan of
content and many other aspects it can be determined that for a company sustainability Facebook
social media can be appropriate because through it firm able to attain several benefits. For
example it help in attracting more and more customers, developing effective communication
with audiences. Along with this it also lead to open interaction with audiences which help
company in decision making process because through interaction management able to
understand customers requirement and need (Tømte and et. al., 2015). On the other hand, twitter
as a social media also plays an effective role for a company because through it they able to
attract professional audiences as compare to Facebook. In addition to this it can be determined
that Social media site can be used as a communication tool because through it company can
effectively interact with their audiences as well as it will also help management in developing
proper decision. Moreover through social media a firm can communicate about their plans,
products, services, facilities and discounts to their customers by positing on it.
CONCLUSION
By above discussed point it can be summarised that in today's time use of social media
get increased which have both negative as well as positive aspects. Positive aspects of social
media are it develop connectivity, help in education, promoting company offerings, aid
government and agencies fight crime and many more. On the other hand negative aspects of
social media are it lead to increase in cyberbullying, hacking account, increase fraud and scams
and so on. Along with this, there are several challenges faced by an individual due to privacy and
security at social media such as data leakage, hacking, spam profiles and so on. So it is essential
for an individual to adopt different measures in order to avoid or overcome challenges related to
social media. There are also several social media platform which a person or an organisation can
adopt such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and so on. These all social media are
different from each other in respect of features, application and other aspects. So the usage of
these social media is based on required of a person.
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