Essay Sample on Social Media Platforms: Increasing Connectivity & User-Generated Content

The recent years have foreseen the popularity of social media platforms conversely increasing connectivity and sharing across the globe. The increased sharing of information has led to the creation of user-generated content. The stored content is subsequently stored and processed, providing users with a tailored profile and social environments. New features introduced by social media platforms have led to the increase of users and sharing of information consequently, creating a detailed profile on users. A user's profile includes; a photo, date of birth, email, telephone, contact number physical location, etc. By using social media, people can find information, collaborate, and communicate with other people fast globally. The increased sharing of information has led to privacy concerns principally because the information available in Social media networks is by default set as public and can be accessed easily. Deductively, the increased use of social media has resulted in the interest to investigate human digital footprint of social media.

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The social media network has largely impacted the younger generation. They have significantly joined the platforms to maintain global connectivity while others have notably integrated their lives with the platforms. For instance; 82% of the 1.62 billion Facebook users are aged between 18-29. Hence; the younger generation plays a significant role in the use and disclosure of information in social media platforms.

Information sharing is a major concern pertaining to social media platforms. Many people using social media networks willingly share their personal information often and lack a clear idea on who has access to that information and how it can be used to violate their personal preferences. Research indicated that younger user of social networks shares their personal information openly and to the public. Hence, the popularity of social platforms and the increased 'voluntary' sharing of personal information has raised privacy concerns on the publicization of personal information. Social networks present users with privacy control setting such as; users can limit the audience or maintain different user profiles. These measures are usually ineffective, and information presented on social networks lack privacy. Information privacy is distorted, including; Pictures, content, and virtually everything that constructs a person's profile.

Facebook is a major social platform, with over 1.65 billion users. Social networks network combines one's personal disclosed information and records it in a digitally persistent manner. The additional features added by Facebook such as Timeline and friendship pages, have increased information sharing conversely raising concern over the privacy of user's information. This document has reviewed the influence and effect of Facebook Friendship Page, and Timeline features to university students' attitude towards interpersonal privacy and content sharing. Additionally, the analysis elaborates the relationships that exist between Facebook features and university students' attitude towards interpersonal privacy and content sharing.

The quantitative analysis of this research involved 313 university students from different universities with the input construct based on the user's experience and usage of Facebook Friendship Page and Timeline feature. Additionally, case studies allowed the user to obtain additional information on the subject of study. The research design applied is descriptive basing on several constructs describing and discussing the level of interpersonal privacy and Facebook feature usage. The data obtained from the questionnaire was used ultimately to provide the research findings and outcomes used to derive conclusion to the research hypothesis and conclusions. The methodology section provided an overview of the research methods, techniques, and instrument utilized for the study as well as insight on the research cognition as well as the intellectual reasoning of the research.

According to the research finding, 80.5 of students using Facebook were aged between 18-20 justifying research on the literature review section that stated; the largest group of people using social media platforms comprises of the young generation. Additionally, In South Africa, the majority of users were females accounting to 57.6% while the males accounted for 42.4%. 42.3% of the total users had 3 to 5 years of experience while 13.8% of the users had used Facebook for less than a year; these results illustrate the high popularity and usage of the platform. The results also indicated that Facebook Timeline feature had a 44.4% suggesting the increased sharing of information on the platform.

Based on information sharing; 32.7% of the respondents updated their profile information, 39.9% uploaded and shared photos, 36% checked and answered messages on their post, 38.7% commented on their friend's post, 28.8% were involved in a chat with friends, while 32.1% of the respondents sometimes managed their posts. This information update increases the amount of information available on a user and can be accessed or search by other users. Additionally, the results deduce that the majority of the students don't update their Facebook status regularly. Moreover, the research indicates that some users don't upload personal information on social platforms. Based on these finding, although the information available on social platforms is susceptible to privacy concerns, social sites don't pose a significant threat to information privacy as anticipated.

Conversely, 29.4% of the users watched other people's profile, 36.7% browsed other users photos, and a majority never tag themselves in uploaded photos. These statistics show that many users don't profile watch other account owners or view other people's profile. This justifies the conclusion deduced that social platforms don't pose a significant threat to information privacy as anticipated.

The students significantly showed interest in utilizing Facebook Friendship pages and Timeline features. Additionally, statistics conclusion illustrated that social platforms don't pose a significant threat to personal privacy of information, moreover, a higher proportion of the respondents agreed with this view. The students were comfortable and happy with the Facebook default setting and unconcerned about information privacy. They were also comfortable with the additional security measure taken by Facebook to improve information privacy. Although, other students also showed the need for an additional privacy control feature that would improve information privacy.

Conclusively, we can deduce from the quantitative and qualitative analyzed data that information presented to social media platforms is not subjected to a significant threat as anticipated.

Recommendations

The conclusion deduces that information uploaded to social media platforms is not subjected to a significant threat, although it is still arguable that information on social media platforms is subjected to privacy concerns. The recommendations below are ways users and social platforms may address privacy issues to ensure the authenticity of the information;

Social media users should avoid uploading personal information that may compromise their privacy.

Users should always check their privacy setting to ensure the authenticity of their audience and make changes where necessary, including limiting access to their information.

Users should also monitor their accounts effectively.

Social platforms should monitor the activity of anonymous users and take appropriate action to prevent disclosure of personal information to the user with wicked intentions.

Social media platforms should ensure users can control their privacy and control access to their information.