The topic I have chosen for the essay is question number five: "How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?"
Social media has become an everyday life necessity from Facebook to Myspace and even Twitter. Even though it may seem as though it is more a teenage/young adult trend, even the oldies are getting into it through their kids and grandchildren. Although social networking may seem like fun and games and a great way to stay in touch with old friends, it can be very dangerous as it is easy for users to conceal their real identity and pretend to be someone else which can sometimes lead to people being stalked, raped or abducted. People are able to easily find out intimate details of ones life just by a click of the mouse.
I believe this topic holds a lot of potential for me to write about and investigate into disastrous stories about misuse of social media. A while ago I saw a story on 60 minutes about a girl who had been chatting to a guy on a social networking site who was actually an elder man pretending to be a young, good looking teenager. As the girl became interested in this "guy", they planned to meet up only for her to be set up and brutally murdered by this man. It is sickening stories like these that need to be heard in order to protect the lives of common social networkers. It is so easy for people to pretend to be someone else behind a computer screen whether it's to get attention, make friends, impress someone or even convince them that you are someone you're not. The internet is a dangerous place and no one should be trusted!
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