Introduction
Ever since the creation of social media, platforms for entertainment, to connect and business related have risen throughout the twenty first century at an alarming rate. The need to be on social media has become addicting with over 3.84 billion users today and more expected as the years fly by. The accessibility of social media to anyone with an internet connection has made it incredibly popular around the world, with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin (Carruth) and many more. Here you can get full information about ethical issues on social media. Despite its many positive aspects, efforts to increase the net profit from consumers through invasion of privacy and deception have led people to doubt the ethical codes that these social media marketing companies hold.
Ethics in Social Media
These ethical codes have been impacted mainly with children/educational environment and marketing companies which affect our daily life. One of the more concerning aspects of social media is how they are affecting children’s morals, an essential part of growing up as well as how markets will cross ethical lines for their own benefit. In our time, social media ethical issues have become an important subject of discussion. Also if extensively researched in many social media essays, you can read them on any educational resource. Researchers say that social media can be linked with narcissism, and that the use of social media can affect decision making and reduce levels of empathy (Morgan, B. 2016). Social media and the very nature of the internet can lead to moral disengagement where a child will act differently and be immoral when speaking to others online due to the fact that they are behind a screen. These behaviors usually lead to cyberbullying which contributes and builds on the negative morals of a child/teenager (Mogan). Reports suggest that 23% of children that use social media have been targeted and 15% have been involved in some kind of cyber bullying however experts say that these levels are nearly quadruple (Simp). Social media has also affected the ethical implications for educators, the usage of cellphones have affected the educators of children in their workplace (Feeney).
Social Media Ethics Examples
Smartphones distract teachers to use social media instead of teaching their students. Some teachers cross ethical lines by taking pictures with their students or of them without parental permission. Lastly, many educators connect with their students or parents on social media which breaks the line of their professional and personal life. Attempts to control this dilemma like Codes like the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (Feeney) have been implicated to reassure educators of how to behave professionally with social media. Explore the ethical violations examples in this article. This code includes to respect a family’s right to privacy, to not interact with students and parents outside the professional environment and to speak only on behalf of an organization when instructed to. Ethics and social media have sparked a lot of discussion in academia. These codes clear up the confusing ethical codes of educators and people hope that they follow them.
Modern digital media requires educators to teach how to be ethically responsible when citing information and using other people’s work. When not done properly this can lead to plagiarism. However others might argue that social media improves one’s development of their morals. It has allowed information to be accessible to all people which allows children to make decisions everyday and understand what is good and what is bad through children’s shows, games and programs. As more users join social media the window for monetary benefit opens, marketing companies take advantage of your addiction, focus on specific audience and breach your personal information for their own benefit crossing all ethical lines to reach their goal. U.S teens spend more than nine hours a day on a media device while an adult spends on average 3 hours (Conick). Marketers and brands have an ethical responsibility but so much can be done, their job is to reach as many people as possible however targeting addictive users and placing ads in specific places crosses the ethical line.
What is an Ethical Concern in Education
However some argue that is is merely an ethical gray area because marketers are using our understanding of addictions and habits and how the brain works and that the science of marketing has just taken a leap forward with understanding how our brain functions when using social media. In recent years the term “lack of privacy” has been mentioned in relation to social media, the stalking, identity theft, personal attacks and misuse of information are some of the threats faced by the users of social media (simpli).
Conclusion
The answer to the question of what is an ethical issue is given below. The individual profiles are turned it and used to appeal and sell the experience to consumers through social media platforms. The unethical aspect lies with whether the marketing actions break the law of terms of privacy of any user of social networks but it is still questionable if companies should be allowed to use patterns and behavior to appeal and provide more advertisements (khan) . However, the positive part is that the consumer might find the material adversited useful which to them might override their invasion of privacy.