Social Media: Put The Weapon In The Right Direction
Social media has become an indivisible part from our lives that almost every person living in the urbanized place has multiple social accounts for either working, communicating or entertaining functions.
Common people, including myself, don’t really know how much our information is taken, and what it is used for, despite all the advertising contents have long penetrated into our lives. We now realized that we are constantly observed, studied and calculated; every simple click online could be sold by social media for their commercial purposes, selling our interests or behavior patterns to advertising companies and then they can best target, precisely educating their products to us.
Notably after scandals of social media exposed, especially the one years ago involved Facebook, the most common used social platform in the states, and the violence happened at the beginning of this year after the election campaign, we are now at the moment deciding how social media is going to function in both their commercial popurse and social responsibilities.
I think it is never a time for Big Techs to be forcefully broken up. Instead it is a good time for them to improve. Even though they have kept too much information from us, it will cause more inconvenience for users who rely on these social medias.
I believe certain justified regulations upon social media companies are needed to make sure they use our information properly and responsively in transparent approach. While the extent of such public reinforced regulation always have limits.
In larger extent, I think besides certain government superimposed regulations, social media should also be more self-conscious at managing its contents and functions, to introduce their own controls on behavior and usage.Technology that exploits big data, will increasingly give digital platforms the ability to make sure what happens on their platforms.
Like most traditional media had established quite effective system of regulation from both state law and within the industry, self-regulation is both acceptable as well as accessible. Because too much interference from the government will cause reluctant response from those BigTechs. However, national wide, huge amount of users can not immediately find other alternatives. Thus, we will also promote diversity and inclusiveness in media market, supporting and offering more opportunities for new, as well as more social responsive, companies to grow. It is going to be benefit for both users’ convenience and social safety.
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