Do you like me? 

I have a growing frustration with Social media, and the values that society has put on the ‘like’ system. The like system basically determines how many people like your photo’s, your views, your taste in music etc.. Basically determining how popular you are on the Internet. The like system is most popular on “Facebook” but has been around a lot longer, Bebo was the first time I encountered it, with hearts that you could give to people. The more heart’s somebody had, the more “loved” they were. The like system also exists on sites such as YouTube, Tumbler, and instagram and many more. The thing that really annoys me about the whole “like system” is the values that a lot of people place on it, the extents in which people will go to only to get a “like” and the way, that for some people it has become more important then being genuinely liked in reality.

The dangers of the Like button!

Apart from a supersized ego, or inflation of your supersized ego, the like button has a few dangers to it. Not many people are aware of the fact that once you like, a company’s page they instantly have access to you, and your information, and you can be invited to events, sent mails etc… The danger is, by simply liking something you are “cyber exposing” yourself to complete and utter strangers. Another extremely interesting thing I have discovered via a Progressive Media article is that the like button is going to become even more public.  The like button in the near future will  share everything you ‘like’ publically on your newsfeed, and page, it will include a headline, small description, and a photo with a link of what you liked. This is an attempt to drive more traffic to outside websites. Imagine how this will effect you “liking” things in the future, would you make a conscious effort now to only “like” things that you believe are more socially acceptable, would you take longer deciding weather to like somebody’s profile picture? Or somebody’s status's.  The idea of having cyber footprints has become a lot more realistic now that even the things you ‘like’ can be monitored and observed, and complete strangers have more of an opportunity to observe your private life.

Why should this even be a problem though? We’re all in charge of your own identity’s we’re all responsible right? Unfortunately, that statement is far from true. Teenagers and young children are now growing up, on the Internet. If you think about it, when we were younger, cell phones were the hot commodities, and if you had one, you could play snake, and text your friends. Now children and teenagers, can go online, share photos of themselves, share personal information, and give updates on where they are and what they are doing. Children and teenagers are being given the responsibility of controlling their presence on the Internet, and aren’t even aware of it.

From paying more attention to my Face book newsfeed alone I was able to make observations on what people are posting and liking.

Teenagers are quite happily posting photos of them smoking drugs, drinking alcohol, or even posting sexual photo’s and comments. I am not against Facebook, I’m against how it’s being used, and the fact that people aren’t aware of the actual dangers, to putting yourself out there in that way.

Source: Tumblr

source: Instagram @harrmoney.

Source: Face book (under 16)