Letter To The Perils Of Social Media

Letter to the Editor on the Perils of Social Media
DeVry University

Letter to the Editor on the Perils of Social Media
I’m writing in response to Steve Olenski’s New York Times Bestseller On The Perils Of Social Media featured in Forbes online blog published by CMO Network. It is an insightful and statistically disturbing review of how the negative effects of social media may wreak havoc on society. From my perspective as a social media user and a retired combat veteran, I feel I can put these effects into perspective for the minds that lack situational awarness. As the article suggest humans have a tendency to act irrational and uncivilized under the false pretense of safety provided by social media; the documented outcomes of
Furthermore, society feels compelled to communicate primarily through social media i.e. Facebook, twitter, and text, which in return removes the emotion or meaning that would normally be perceived through context and body language. This ultimately hinders the communication process and leaves emotionally charged or potentially risky conversations open to personal interpretation weather it be positive or negative. According to Olenski’s article and a study that was led by Joseph Grenny, 2013, “nearly 4 in 5 people are seeing increased incivility on social media, and 2 in 5 have unfriended or blocked family, friends or coworkers as a result.” Additionally, “76 percent of respondents have witnessed an argument on social media, 88 percent believe people are less polite on social media than in person and 1 in 5 reduced in-person contact with someone over a cyber fight.” (Olenski, S., 2013) Unfortunately, social media has evolved into a phenomenon that isolates and baselessly divides society, as humans align themselves as targets by senselessly posting without
Situational awareness may be applied to every facet of our lives including social media. It is important to think before posting anything to a network, as these posts are permanent and for viewing pleasure of any and all. Who honestly believes that your social media account is private? The very second that you agree to the terms and conditions of a network you’re giving them the necessary permissions to monitor you’re post, this is just one of many ways that your activities are monitored. Not to mention the unscrupulous minds that has the means to access data at anytime to hurt or intimidate others.
Secondly, my research suggest that by utilizing social media with little regard to the outcome or response we’re opening ourselves up to potentially negative effects i.e. job loss, financial burden, and/or negative perception. According to McCullaugh, J., 2014 73% of online adults are utilizing social media, 1 in 4 worldwide, which is approximately two billion people worldwide that represent the social media audience. As a private individual that prefers to stay at home, I find these statistics