Sociological impacts of social media surveillance

Social Media Surveillance
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Given the current advancements in technology, a substantial number of individuals have one or more social media accounts. The social media platforms are considered to be a place where an individual can have fun or gain information regarding certain items. For instance, digital marketing has focused on such platforms as the main medium for passing information. However, surveillance of people's social media activities has changed that perception. Some people consider such surveillance as a way of intruding on a person's privacy. The surveillance team believes that it is a way of cubing bad behavior that might result from the use of such platforms. Therefore, this paper will focus on discussing the sociological, legal, and psychological impacts of social media surveillance as well as the sociological approach as the one with the greatest impact on public perceptions.
Sociological impacts of social media surveillance
Human beings tend to be aware of their environment and everything that goes on around them. Surveillance is bound to occur in every social system. Such surveillance might have both positive and negative impacts on the system. In the case of social media surveillance, a substantial number of individuals don't know about its existence. Besides, other social media users are aware of the fact that their social media activities are being monitored. Such monitoring has resulted in positive sociological impact in that it upholds the norms of the society. Regardless of the advancements in technology, certain patterns in society ought not to be changed. For instance, children should grow up expressing the right morals. Therefore, social media surveillance helps in filtering out bad content, hence imposing a positive sociological impact. For instance, Facebook has an automated feature that detects pornographic material, thus preventing the user from uploading it. It is hard to rule out that children will not access such material. An individual can lie about their age while creating a social media profile (Lee, 2011). Hence, the chances are high that one of the people who could have accessed such material is a minor. Pornographic content ends up messing up the minds of young people, thus making them prone to sexual abuse. Such surveillance has, therefore, done a great job in maintaining the patterns of societal norms.
Besides, the surveillance on a user's browsing history aids in the process of identity creation. Identity creation is highly encouraged by targeted advertising (David & Thom Shanker, 2014). Through such kind of surveillance, social media users can take advantage of digital marketing in advertising their products and having access to items that could have taken them a lot of time to find. Through the browsing industry, organizations can create the identities of individuals, hence, making it easy for them to do targeted advertising. Through the creation of identities, a person can gather the information that would clarify the preferences of the person whose identity has been created (Danniele, 2011). As a result, this makes it easy for society to run business activities. Given the era of digital marketing, a lot of people prefer online shopping than visiting the physical addresses of the shop. The online shopping activity requires an individual to search for the particular item that they intend to shop for. Therefore, this is made easy by the ability of organizations to use people’s browsing histories to create a targeted advertisement. The chances are high that an individual will come across an advertisement related to something that they were browsing. Such is no luck but an indication that social media activities are being watched. Besides, the surveillance has a positive sociological impact since it helps in growing businesses.
Also, the use of automated tools for social media surveillance has resulted in negative sociological impacts. It is the wish of every individual to experience privacy in their environment. Therefore, if someone’s activities on social media platforms end up being monitored, then it deprives them of the freedom that they should have while posting updates. Also, the advancements of surveillance technologies play a substantial role in encouraging social sorting. Such social sorting is brought about by the unplanned gathering and analysis of data. A lot of people in the society advocate for equality in the allocation of resources or passing of information. Therefore, if the surveillance is resulting in privileges and discrimination, it becomes challenging for people to appreciate it. Such technologies would work best in ensuring surveillance if they did not result in such discrimination. Providing privileges on a certain section of the society not only benefits the affected but results in hatred and discrimination. Social media platforms were initially developed as a medium of communication and the sharing of photographs. Changing that purpose is going against the norms of society. People need to feel free while communicating with one another or sharing photos. No one should be worried that their photo or information will be used to bring the effects of discrimination and privilege in society.
Despite that, the filtering of content by websites helps in building people’s behavior; it is a way of denying them the freedom of expression. People join social media platforms for them to express their views without being questioned. Therefore, if a site makes it impossible for a person to express such views, then they would not be interested in using it anymore. Every person has freedom of expression, and social media platforms are one of the best mediums where someone can express such freedom. However, social media surveillance is denying people such freedom.
Legal impacts of social media surveillance
Unlike the traditional methods where human beings could do such surveillance, the advancements in technology have resulted in the creation of automated tools for such purpose. Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, social media developers are able to monitor billions of accounts in real-time. The private and public organizations make use of profiling to determine the distribution of their services among members of the public (Kate, 2016). The legal impact of such an act is the unauthorized use of the social media information provided by people. in most cases, t...