Risks of social media on education

Social media are mainly used by teenagers and young adults, it gives them the possibility to create their own profiles such as fan accounts, or even animal accounts, in addition to gaming accounts, etc. Social media within education is positive when they are being used to have fun, communicate with classmates and family, thus they are creating interaction between people. Still, due to this gigantic exposure of our profiles, there are some massive risks that hardly can be ignored. 

The multiple risks of social media within education: 

• They can be exposed to inappropriate content in comments, images or videos. Inappropriate content could be acts of violence or sexual abuse. 

• Cyberbullying since everyone can post some embarrassing in addition to provocative of others. 

• They can be communicating along with delivering personal information with strangers, which then can be used against them. 

• They can be filled by too much-targeted marketing and advertising. 

• Starting social media too early is a risk to the person as it increases their data breaches. 

The importance is not only to know the risks of social media, but it is also to understand how to find a solution, to protect the youngest, and to make social media have less of an impact on the education they deserve. 

Here are some advices to protect the impact of social media on education: 

• Always be aware of others, and treat them correctly to have the same in return. 

• Even at young ages, all the users should be aware of the risks of social media to be alerted. 

• Have a template to send when a stranger sends a message to you, without creating a conflict. 

• Do not let your child share too much of their personal life. 

There are high risks with social media especially their impact on education, as it makes the children have access to any information without the surveillance of their parents. It is crucial for the parents to warn their kids, and to make their use of social media constructive. 

Ambre Bourdoncle.

Are social networks the place of scams 2.0 ?

Social networks are a working platform for influencers, and brands recently started using them to gain benefits. The power of influences is as it’s said to influence. 

With partnerships, celebrities are promoting a product on their accounts and the brand is paying them for that. The more popular the person is, the most expensive they will get paid. Influencers receive the product and are supposed to test it before promoting it. But this is how it has to be, it doesn’t mean that it is always the case. 

A lot of history has come out regarding this subject about paid partnership. Apparently, some influencers recommended a product which is not good quality as it has been said. 

For example in France, the people who are doing the most partnerships are Reality shows celebrities. They all usually promote the same product. They made videos showing how to use the product and the effect is done on other people. Then they give a promo code to have a reduced price on the website when you place an order, which is the best way to influence people to buy. They think they are making a deal, but it’s all designed to happen this way. 

I myself fell in the trap actually. I saw an influencer promoting magnetic eyelashes, after seeing how it was coming out on the video, I wanted to try it myself. Not only was the product absolutely not as it’s shown on the celebrities' social media who tried it on, but the product also arrived 3 months later when it was supposed to take 2 weeks. 

That's why it is considered a threat to people. 

Scams are crazy on social media, not only in this field but it’s also a problem on the appearance. The way people show themselves to be perceived as « Perfect » is a huge debate on social networks and it generates a lot of risks. Which joins the question: « How social networks guide people’s thinking and opinions?"

Noa Bajczman.  

How to protect yourself from social media’s threats.

Social networks are now part of our daily lives more than ever. Do you know a person who doesn't have an Instagram account? Twitter? Facebook ? Snapchat? Personally, I do not know a single person who does not have an account on these social networks. And precisely, these social networks present many threats, and you have to learn and to know how to protect yourself from these threats. 

But what can these threats be seen and how do we know that it is dangerous? Let’s give some famous examples:

• Fake giveaways: A famous example of a fake giveaway is from a couple of years back when a number of pages using famous car brand names ran competitions with prizes of new cars. Many of the pages were created for ‘like farming’ to gather likes and then be sold on to a third party.

• Fake friends or followers: Sometimes people buy followers or make themselves some friends through social media. You can come across psychopaths who want to hurt you and it can end badly.

• Abuse and cyberbullying: Cyberbullying has become a feature of social media usage in the past few years with many organisations and networks actively combatting this form of abuse.

• Identity theft: Criminals and hackers can steal your identity and it can go very far. You might be accused of crimes you didn’t commit. They can steal your bank data. And many other things. 

These are examples of the threats that can happen when you use social media. 

Now, you better learn how to protect yourself from these threats: 

• As your parents said when you were young: never accept some candies from an unknown person. That is to say that you better not talk to someone that you don’t know on social media. 

• Never allow automatic logins and create a unique password! Not too simple! Never give it to anyone and change it frequently. Even your friends may one day betray you… 

• Close old accounts that you don’t use anymore. 

• Be very selective when you accept followers that you don’t know on your account. 

• Think about the thing you are about to post. Watch out to not publish something racist, mean to someone ect… 

• Manage your privacy settings. You better put your account in private than in public. Don’t reveal personal information.

These key factors can help you to protect yourself from social media’s threats. You have to take these really seriously and to always be aware of these threats. 

Constance Markarian.