Using Social Media in a responsible and careful way

Someone misused my photo on Facebook!
God! My Twitter account was stolen!
What am I supposed to do?
Why are there so many unpleasant and hurtful
remarks on social media?
....
Pu Zhenghao, Group 3
Using
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Content
•
What this magazine can give you
Page 3
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How much do you know about cybercrimes
Page 4
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Steps to change the password of your social media
account
Page 5
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Causes and effects of privacy being divulged
Page 6
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Differences we can make by spreading positive
remarks or ideas rather than negatives ones
Page 7
•
References
Page 8
What this magazine can give you
This mini magazine aims at giving you useful information
about both responsible and safe behaviors on social
media to make you informed. The emerging social media
with their magic power to make people share
information anywhere without waiting, have been
drawing the attention and gained affection of a larger
and larger population. Damian Koh (2011), an author, said
the number of Facebook users in Singapore had been
mare than 1890000 before February, 2011. In 2012,
according to Socialbakers, a website on social marketing,
this number rose up to over 2930000 and was going
through the 3 million mark. As the population explodes,
the social media environment is also getting more and
more complex. Now, on social media, people may not get
so surprised anymore after they see some unpleasant or
hurtful remarks or even after their privacy is put up.
Things such as being a victim of cyber-fraud, however,
are even also not fresh anymore. But the problem is that
people still get angry or hurt by these things.
In this context, we have to
take care when enjoying social
media because it is not so safe
and pleasant as we imagined
after all. Crimes, disrespect for
privacy, unpleasant or hurtful
remarks, such negative things
happen on social media
almost every week, every day,
and even every hour.
Therefore, as undergraduates,
a large and influential part of
the social media population,
we are responsible to use
social media in a proper and
disciplined way, and be also
sensitive and careful about
our own safety online.
(Expository, 261 words)
Want social media
as pure and clean
as the swimming pool?
3
How much do you know about cybercrimes?
According to Debarati Halder & K. Jaishankar (2011), cybercrimes refer to
“offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals
with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim
or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using
modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (Chat rooms,
emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones”. Now, on social
media, it becomes so serious and dangerous a problem that cybercrimes
are threatening every user’s online privacy, money and even safety, where
there are too many people around on the platforms that you do not know
are honest or lying and also too much information that you cannot tell is
true or fake. So they can have thousands of kinds of lies and traps waiting
for you. So it is necessary for you to know the purposes of cybercrimes so
that you may get more aware of them and understand them better. Two
most common types of cybercrimes:
Harassment and stalking
stalking:
Stalkers, known for tracking
people, can directly bother your
privacy, cause psychological harm
to you, or even threaten your
safety after your location is found.
So never tell announce you
locations and personal
information like your address
(Wikipedia – stalking, 2012).
Fraud
Fraud: the most possible situation when you encounter a fraud on social
media is that someone asks you for money or to enter some websites with
virus inside. For example, a criminal can ask you enter a website to see
your high school classmate and pass you virus to steal you social media
account. In this way, he can “borrow” your online family and friends for
some money. This is called identity theft, which is powerful and widely
happens. Therefore, on social media, do not believe every word strangers
say or download anything or enter any website they ask you to unless you
are sure that is safe. If someone asks you for money, you must be 100%
sure if the person asking for money is your friend in real life (Wikipedia –
internet fraud, 2012). (Definition-classification, 350 words)
4
Steps to change the password of your social media
account
Identity theft happens with high frequency on social media. If
your account is stolen, the thing you have to do at once is to
change your password in case that the thief misuses your
account to carry out cyber-crimes. Take Facebook as an
example, there are a few steps to follow to change your
password. If your password has not been changed, the first step
is using your password to log in. Then, search the corners of
the page for “Account Settings” and click it. Next, find the item
“password”, click the “edit” beside it. Finally, you are asked to
type the current password and the new password for twice. If
your password has been already changed, more steps have to
be taken. First, enter the homepage of Facebook, seek “Forget
your password?” and click that. When you signed up your
account, you left your email address or cellphone number to
Facebook. You can use this to get your account back. Then you
should enter the email address or cellphone number you gave
when you sighed up. Next, there will be a message sent to your
email or cellphone with a link or a code with which you can
enter the password-editing page. At last, enter the passwordediting page and type your new password for twice. Next time
when you are thinking your account is invaded, do change the
password immediately. It can be easily done by this way after
all. (Process, 251 words)
5
Causes and effects of privacy being divulged
There are two reasons why social media are
definitely not a good place to protect privacy,
although the importance of privacy cannot be
ignored for anyone. First, the social media users are
not very highly aware of how dangerous it could be
to put up personal information. When using social
media, many people do not believe what they post
can be used by others in an unfriendly way. Also,
some tend to assume that nobody else is interested
in the content besides their online friends. But the
problem is, based on social media’s magic power,
their privacy can be actually seen by everyone
online without any difficulty just after it is
published. The second reason is that some people
among the large user population are so interested
in such information that they are waiting and
seeking it themselves because they can get benefits
from it or even just want to hurt others. In this way,
in fact, the possibility that your information is
misused is rather high if the information is much
enough since someone is watching you. Even your
“online friends” can be strangers, so can any one of
your friends’ friends. So one rule you had better not
to break is not to mention your real conditions on
social media especially where you are. The effects
after privacy is divulged are terrible. It can badly
hurt people and even kill them. In 2006, an event of
privacy spread shocked people in Singapore. A
seventeen – year old student named Tammy, from
Nanyang Polytechnic, lost her mobile phone. After
the phone was found by someone else, a sexual
video clip of Tammy and her boyfriend was put up
on social media and also sent to others by e-mail. It
spread rapidly and was seen by countless internet
users. As a result, Tammy lost her bravery to live
and chose to suicide (SIR. HOE, 2006). So do be
careful about your own privacy and never invade
others, or some unbearable pains can be produced.
(Cause-effect, 339 words)
6
Differences we can make by spreading positive remarks or ideas
rather than negatives ones
Spreading negative remarks and ideas is too far worse than positive ones.
First, making negative ones makes using social media less pleasant while
positive ones make it more delightful. Who wants to use social media
where there are all impolite, rude or hurtful remarks? Then who does not
want to use them if they are full of warm, encouraging or inspiring ideas?
Second, negative ones are against the harmony of the society thanks to
social media’s speed of information spread while positive ones promote it.
Sometimes when the problems become serious enough, after conflicts
between some particular people or communities accumulate to a high level,
the peace of the society can disappear. Fights or other forms of unrest can
lead the country to a hopeless situation. In addition, some unpleasant
comments like offensive remarks on racial or religious issues, can be very
hurtful to a particular community.
For example, in march this year,
Chinese scholar studying in NUS
named Sun Xu, made disrespectful
remark that “There are more dogs
than people in Singapore”, which
prompted Singaporeans’ rage. Many
Singaporeans thought that Chinese
scholars are not grateful at all, and
even some said Chinese students
should all be sent back to China. At
last his scholarships were stopped
(Chan, 2012)
On the contrary, if on social media users from different communities
can be polite and kind to each, it is very beneficial to the unity of the
society. Third, the improper remarks on social media set a really bad
example of manners on children and teenagers as well, since they are
likely to be affected at their age and to behave impolitely in the
future, while positive ones teach the next generation to be kind and
encouraging. (Compare-contrast, 292 words)
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References
Chan, J. (2012) NUS scholar Sun Xu punished for online remarks . Retrieved from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1191310/1/.html
Halder, D. & Jaishankar, K. (2011). Cyber crime and the Victimization of Women: Laws,
_ Rights, and Regulations. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global.
Koh, D. (2011). Study: Singapore most "evolved" in social media. CNET ASIA.
Retrieved from http://asia.cnet.com/study-singapore-most-evolved-in-social-media_ 62113936.htm
Sir. Hoe. (2006). Singapore Nanyang Polytechnic sex scandal. Retrieved from
___http://sirhoe.blogspot.sg/2006/02/singapore-nanyang-polytechnic-sex.html
Socialbakers. (2012). Singapore Facebook Statistics. Socialbakers. Retrieved from
_ http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/singapore
Wikipedia. (2012). Internet Fraud. Retrieved from
___http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud
Wikipedia. (2012). Stalking. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking