Risks and dangers of social networks

Risks and dangers of social networks

Social networks are digital spaces for social exchange and entertainment. In them, a diverse number of users share messages, photographs, videos and other types of multimedia material, according to pre-established communication criteria, thus forming a more or less open virtual community.

All social networks are based on the principle of six degrees of separation, which dictates how all human beings are connected in one way or another based on the link we have with a friend, relative or acquaintance, this one with another relative or acquaintance of his, and so on up to the six degrees of deferral.

This same principle, taken to cyberspace, gained prominence since the massification of the Internet and the appearance in 1995 of the site classmates.com, which offered the possibility of connecting with former classmates, university classmates, etc. This is considered the first social network in the history of the Internet.

But social networks have evolved a lot since then, as has the Internet. Smartphones integrated social networks into other aspects of our lives. In fact, the use of these phones goes beyond telephone communications: they are tools for reading, payment, socialization, etc. The possibilities that this technology entails are endless.

Consequently, along with the flourishing of social networks, new risks and dangers also emerged, which we will review separately below, classifying them based on the type of danger that each one entails.

Privacy risks on social networks

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Internet and especially of social networks is the ease with which private or confidential information can be made public or fall into the wrong hands.

From data as simple as location (recorded by a cell phone or any device equipped with a GPS), age, address of our work, school or home, to much more sensitive data such as our credit card number (or our parents'), our telephone number or bank account number, all can be intercepted.

Information theft can be carried out by hackers or unscrupulous users who pretend to be friends, or by intercepting messages intended for third parties. In other cases, information is obtained through fraudulent sales, donation or deceptive offer campaigns.

Something similar happens with intimate material (such as nude photographs or erotic messages), which, although intended for a specific user and not to be freely disclosed, can be made public or sold on pornography sites, without the consent of the person who sent them, believing themselves to be safe in the privacy of a direct message.

The general advice to avoid these situations is to manage private information with an alert criterion: to know that our information can be used for harmful purposes, and that not everyone who uses social networks does so for the same purpose.

Do not accept requests of any kind from strange or mysterious people, nor ever provide sensitive information in response to offers that seem too good to be true. Delete sensitive private information or encrypt it behind secure passwords, which must be renewed from time to time.

In the case of minors, it is necessary to instruct them in this regard and teach them that, although they seem like a safe place, social networks are as dangerous as a lonely street or a square.

Security risks on social networks

Contact on social networks is as unsafe as contact with complete strangers in the street, because profiles are private and we cannot always have access to information about who is on the other side of the screen. Making appointments with strangers and informal financial transactions are risky behaviors on social networks.

A case of special vulnerability is represented by minors, who can see in social networks an environment free of parental supervision to expose themselves voluntarily or involuntarily to the reach of strangers, or access sensitive or illegal material that they later do not know how to handle on their own.

Malware, malicious programs and scammers abound on social networks. A simple way to avoid them is to always apply a rational criterion to the interaction.

For example, if out of the blue a beautiful Thai girl writes to you to tell you that you have been chosen in a contest in which you did not participate, and that you will win a fortune in exchange for revealing your bank details, it is most likely a scam.

Emotional risks in social networks

The impact of social networks on our emotions is a controversial topic and is widely studied today. It has been studied that networks create a kind of addiction, inciting their use through subliminal rewards. The effect that their notifications produce in the brain is known as the “dopamine hit”, similar to what drugs induce in the mind of the addict.

On the other hand, the use of social networks can negatively affect our self-esteem, associated with the competition for group approval. Social networks expose a world of popularity, happiness, intensity or success that rarely corresponds to the real life of their users.

The tacit message is always one of lack: everyone has thousands of friends except you, everyone is very successful except you, everyone is happy except you. The paradoxical effect of this is to depress the user and incite him to compensate for this feeling with frenetic online activity, devoting more life to social networks than to his own real life, and therefore reproducing the cycle of sadness.

On the other hand, the algorithms that govern social networks pursue the greatest possible number of interactions, based on a deep analysis of the data entered by the user: every time we interact with a post on social networks, we are telling the algorithm to show us more similar content.

The long-term effect is an echo chamber, in which we only consume opinions similar to our own and we reinforce the idea that those who are not in our select ring are little less than idiots. Thus, social networks have become a place full of radical opinions and a lot of extremism, in matters of politics, religion and other controversial topics.

The consumption of so-called fake news is also an example of this toxic content, which only contributes to misinforming, spreading rumors or delusional ideas, radicalizing the opinion held on a topic and, in the long run, emotionally impoverishing the most vulnerable users.

Risks of socialization on social networks

Social alienation is another important risk in the use of social networks. There are people whose virtual life is much richer than their real life, or who live a kind of alternate experience (an alter-ego) on social networks.

Thus, crucial aspects of their real life are neglected, such as productivity at work, study, interpersonal relationships in their family, etc. In many cases, social networks should be treated as an addiction, and some professional psychological guidance may be necessary.