How does the consumerist nature of Facebook give teens
a false sense of security with their information?
The internet as a whole is
dedicated to instant gratification. With a few clicks of a button, users can
find any information that they want, communicate with people across the globe,
or make almost any purchase imaginable. The online community has come to expect
speed in addition to ease of access. Amazon.com, one of the biggest and most
recognizable champions of e-commerce, is famous for its fast shipping and
variety of products that it markets. In this world where they not only expect,
but enjoy quick, faceless decision making, consumers make dangerous choices.
How many of us actually read online legalese before “agreeing” to terms of
service? (I should probably do a survey on this—it’d be an interesting statistic
to include in my essay)
People blindly assume that
companies’ best interests are aligned with consumers’ best interests all too
often. After all, businesses are able to sell more when consumers are happy
with business practices, right? Not necessarily; businesses are all about the
profit. They are able to sell more when consumers perceive a need to use a
particular product or service. Advertisements exist to convince people that
they need to consume specific products; that materialism is necessary in order
for them to be successful in society.
Many teens perceive social media
as a need, and in some ways, it is. Facebook is so omnipresent in affluent
societies across the globe that it is almost socially unacceptable to not have
an account. For teens, Facebook and other social media are like banks where
gossip, news, and other social currency are exchanged. Social media is a
relatively new technology, but it is so convenient that it has become a basic
part of social functioning. Sharing information is one of the main purposes of
the internet. It grants individuals the opportunity to impact the community and
it allows people to access knowledge that might otherwise be unobtainable. Yet this
has the potential to go too far. It can be dangerous to have personally
identifying information like home addresses and cell phone numbers available to
the public and many teens do not realize this.
