Social Media and Ethics

Institutional Affiliation
Social media is currently amongst the most sensitive aspects of our daily lives especially considering the increasing technological evolution characterized by the increased availability of gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers that have eased access to the internet and social media platforms. Increased use of social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Myspace and Twitter are also being used by businesses as marketing platforms and channels for immediate dissemination of news (Vallor, 2012). Social media use in organizations is also on the rise, destructing employees from full productivity. Additionally, social media platforms can be used as sources of entertainment and communication amongst strangers. Therefore, the choice of social media and ethics was driven by the increased use of social media and its ethical concerns. Some of the ethical concerns raised by social media use include the spread of disturbing images and videos, the spread of pornographic materials, real-time reporting of events as they occur although the preciseness of this information might sometimes be compromised, and identity theft that might lead to the malicious use of other people’s accounts. .From a business perspective, social media can be used to compromise consumer privacy (Lipschultz, 2016), improper anonymity, and other unethical business activities such as malicious and illegal businesses. Social media use is most common amongst youths and is, therefore, the target audience for the research.

However, other social media users are not exempted. Ethical concerns of social media should be brought to a wider audience as almost everyone is getting involved in social media, either directly or indirectly. Involvement of social media in news reporting, business activities, and interactions between different people is unregulated thus unethical use of social media might cause adverse effects on different and highly sensitive areas such as business operations, employee performance, and social ethics and morality (Queensland Law Society, 2016)
However wide the scope of social media communication might seem, social media use narrows down to everyone as an individual in that social media access is via personal accounts. Therefore, investigating this area is highly sensitive. Investigating the impacts of social media on ethics, therefore, would be based on access to different social network accounts belonging to different people. Additionally, to achieve a more specific perspective, I intend to seek access to various personal social media accounts of different individuals. Access to personal accounts will, however, be done after mutual consent between ourselves and the account owners. The ethical issues of these accounts will then be analyzed according to the type of information shared on personal or group accounts and the frequency in which this information is shared. Additionally, the rate at which individuals share or spread wrong and unethical information will be analyzed, as well as how consistently this happens. However, the collection of information for this research is challenging as it involves the acquisition of private information obtained from personal accounts.
Particular attention is needed in evaluating the ethical perspective of much of social media content and use. The most fundamental aspects of evaluating the ethical stance of social media involvement include privacy, consent, data sharing, and terms of service. Privacy refers to anonymity, confidentiality, or the level of security of personal information (Vinjamuri, 2011). Social media involvement is mostly based on personal accounts, whose access should be restricted, mostly by passwords. Identity is concealed in most social networking sites and platforms. Thus one cannot know the precise nature of an individual as the information available on their profiles might be completely different. This might lead to identity theft and consequential unethical practices. Consent is also a major aspect of access to personal or private social media information. Access to this information should be via mutual consent of the parties involved. However, there has been increased access to people’s or organizations’ social media pages. This unauthorized access might lead to the acquisition of sensitive information that might be used maliciously, hence unethical (Vallor, 2012). Data sharing on social media networks is the most common activity. Data sharing via these networks is mostly unregulated, and the credibility, ethical and moral nature and impact of this information might not be considered before sharing. However, some of this information might include sensitive personal information. Additionally, uncontrolled data sharing in social media networks has led to sharing of unethical information such as pornographic materials, disturbing videos and images, and sharing of personal information without consent (Jayson, 2014).
Focused on the ethical issues involved in social media use, this research is therefore directed towards the achievement of certain objectives. This research is aimed to sensitize individuals on the sensitive nature of information shared via social media networks, and the consequential impacts this information might have to different individuals and companies. For instance, information shared via social media should be honest, clear, precise, and accurate. The information should also be verified to ensure ethical credibility. Unethical information such as pornographic materials, immoral images and videos. Verification of the shared information also ensures that real-time information shared via these networks is reliable (Lipschultz, 2016). Organizations should restrict the employee involvement in social media to ensure productivity. Access to sensitive personal and non-personal information should, however, be regulated to ensure that information shared is relevant, credible, trusted, approved and trusted by the parties involved. Additionally, access to social media platforms should be restricted by age. Additionally, engagement in social media in workplaces should be looked into to ensure ultimate productivity (Jayson, 2014). However, this research project is prone to future questions on social media ethics. One of the questions would be: Is social media, therefore, more destructive than constructive in the manner in which information is shared due to its ethical complications?
Various challenges are imminent in the acquisition of relevant information for the study. Normally, social media use mostly involves the use of personal accounts which possess highly sensitive personal information. As a result, requesting access to personal accounts were the greatest challenge in gathering information. For instance, most people were afraid of malicious use of their information once they revealed their access credentials. Also, most of the personal social network accounts contain private details that most people would not want to disclose. Some of the circumstances most people were afraid of includes malicious use of their accounts or information such as in conducting illegal businesses and spreading bad information. Identity theft was also a major wary of most users. Only a few of the respondents disclosed their social network information, although some did it partially. Therefore, the revelation of personal social network account information is bound to be a major challenge for the research. As a result, the research might target youths as the core source of information since approaching them was a bit easier. College and university students would also be a major, reliable and promising source of information for the study. Various resources would as well be allocated to ensure efficiency of the research process. Some of the primary and most essential resources include finances and time. Sufficient resources would be invested in seeking information from different sources, either via the internet or direct field study. Sufficient time would also be required to engage in direct conversations with various social network users.
References
Jayson, S. (2014). Social media research raises privacy and ethics issues. USA TODAY. Retrieved 6 November 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/08/data-online-behavior-research/5781447/
Lipschultz, J. (2016). The Ethics of Social Media Accuracy. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 November 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-harris-lipschultz/the-ethics-of-social-media_b_7489280.html
Queensland Law Society. (2016). Ethical issues when using social media. Qls.com.au. (2016). Retrieved 6 November 2016, from http://www.qls.com.au/Knowledge_centre/Ethics/Resources/Confidentiality/Confidentiality/Ethical_issues_when_using_social_media
Vallor, S. (2012). Social Networking and Ethics. Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-social-networking/
Vinjamuri, D. (2011). Ethics and the Five Deadly Sins of Social Media. Forbes.com. Retrieved 6 November 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2011/11/03/ethics-and-the-5-deadly-sins-of-social-media/#13c4ae3d37ad