Ethics In The Social Media

Ethics is the ability to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. With the use of social media, the term privacy and ethics is not brought up very often as the internet is a “free market”. This is why crimes like cyber bullying, hacking, privacy infringements and personal defamation has been on a rise from the last 5 to 10 years. According to a study done in a Canadian university, the undergraduate students being examined, it was found that with certain types of social media (for example Facebook) promoted shallow thinking which results in mental and moral “shallowness” if it was used too frequently. The students being studied showed that the ones who texted or those who used social media were less likely to reflect and placed less importance on moral life goals.

Everybody has a right to hide their personal lives away from others. Today, social media is the prime source of information about anyone. People who use social media tend to be more concerned about their physical appearance or going out, partying and having fun than helping other people or being honest. Some people in fact choose to use false information about themselves on social media to hide their true identity (some call this catfishing). When you look at someone’s Instagram per say, you would assume that it “the truth”. Professor and researcher Johnathan D’Angelo argued that it can make one question their values especially if one keeps getting exposure to something, it will make it appear more normative, which in turn may challenge your values. This will pose an issue to the teenagers and young adults. For example, they were taught that doing drug and underage drinking is wrong and dangerous, but they are bombarded with pictures of young people drinking, taking drugs and having fun online. It is difficult, getting exposed to scenarios (like stated) but not seeing the consequences. For example, a teenage would see the someone drinking and getting drunk but not see the after effects like crashing a car, being arrested or the day after, waking up with a hangover.

Social media does not capture the “ups and downs” in life. Schlozman states that it would make sense being that the teenagers and young adults would get confused by the nice pictures posted to Instagram or videos on snapchat with the real everyday life, and what it really is; even it contradicts their everyday values that were taught and raised with, for example drink and drug abuse being immoral. Teenagers and young adults are dynamically trying to form their own identities by copying what they see and hear around them According to Logan Anisette, an author, he believes that morally shallow people are more drawn to a higher rate of the use of social media. He also states that the use of social media does affect everyone in some way, different kinds of people with all sorts of values. Steve Schlozman, a Harvard University professor and a psychiatrist states that children of today do not grasp the solidity of statements online. They do not understand that even deleted comments can live on in comments, memories and screenshots.