The short answer to both of those is, yes, but of course this is a blog post so you know i'm going to ramble on about the different side's to social media.
Truth of the matter is, social media itself has changed lives for better and for worse in too many different ways, because we let it.
Such is the case of the teenager who is currently (as this is being typed) being interviewd under police caution for homophobic tweets. This incident alone is almost certain to ruin her career in politics, something she was probably wanting to get into as she was the UK's first youth commisioner. Since she was in the role (to which i still don't see what the point of it was) of course her social media accounts came under scrutiny by people which is where these tweets have been found and of course, the news then followed.
I think when signing upto social media, none of us are aware of what can happen. Such is the case of my online friends Jay and Bryan from the depfox channel. All them years ago, all's they did was upload a simple video to Youtube, yet all these years later they've had tv interviews, speeches at rally's, a film made about them and of course been able to feel the love and respect of people who look up to them. Of course they're different in the way that if they don't like what you say, they may rarely make a comment which is a respectful way of saying "f**k you" but without actually saying that. I think this may be why they're good at social media, they can put their points across over any topic really, and not have too much of a back-lash.... although if we all had a dollar for the death threats and hate mail they get, then i'm sure the recession would be over within a few minutes.
Social media is a risky game that we all play and no longer can we admit that it hasn't changed the way of life for us. These day's, many employment contracts come with statement's that you mustn't post anything defamatory about the company etc... even if you don't use social media, you're held into this contract.
Myself? I've felt both side's of social media. It's gotten me into the news (several times now, which i love since i am abit of a media whore) and of course i've been threatend too, just for simply posting comments about my dislike for certain music artists, or having a different point of view to someone else.
Do i let it bother me? No. For the simple fact that i don't take everything on the internet to heart, if someone was to turn up at my door, it'd be different, but until that happens, i'm pretty safe online.
So what would i advise?
Look, the internet can be a pretty violent place as it is at the best of times. Over the years i've been using it i've seen video's of people throwing dogs off bridges to their death's (remember that one? yeesh! Long story short, they found them and are still serving their sentence i believe), girl's sucking on used tampon's, people shoving several dildo's up their rectum and of course the violent attacks (even people having their head's cut off). Would you honestly like your child to be exposed to that? The answer by most people reading this would be a resounding, no, but yet still i hear of cases of kids as young as 8 being groomed online by pedophiles etc. You see as much as you can put blocks on certain website's for kids not to enter them, there's more sites that pop up almost daily full of vile content that hasn't been blocked by either your own system, or a network provider's system. I personally wouldn't let my child use the internet until they could cope with me using bad language around them (presumably that'd be when they were in high school, moaning about home work, while i'm trying to cook their dinner or something).
I think it's also wise for many parents these days to also know what their child is upto online. Don't be fooled parents, us kids know how to wipe the search history and website's visited log... we know you may learn how to check them in the future! So, how do you get around that?
Spend time with your child actually sat at the computer with them, explain about how there's certain website's you'd rather they didn't visit and why... lay down the rules!!!
As for social media, yourself and for your children... know that what you post can now and may well in the future be seen by the police. Comments which you wouldn't normally make in public, for fear of being over-heard, can be seen by many other people and it can cause problems. While yes, Justin Beiber was found via social media, every single day someone is going through his social media accounts trying to find something he's posted, so they can say what a nasty person he is... even if it's just to sell a few papers, or even better, get him into legal trouble... he's got to be very careful... and so have you!!!
I personally think it's about time we saw some police action online and certainly as a regular twitter user, i've seen the police jump into action over some things that have been said on the website. They can track you down and will pay you a visit if they have to. It doesn't scare me, because i don't take part in stuff they could arrest me for, but if for example i was a huge drug exporter or something like that, i know they'd be working on tracking me down at some point and paying me a visit.
Also remember that what you post can be used against you by your boss even. So if you've had a really horrible day at work, because the fatty next to you ate all your dinner, think twice before you post about that person and how bad it is where you work, because even your boss is watching!
Social media as a whole is there for us to use it to our advantage, but don't be fooled, there's people always waiting to catch us out. Use it to your advantage, not any other way.
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