Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter to support the view that the use of social networking platform (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) brings harm to people. Social networking platform is a platform to let users all around the world to share their stories and views. Some posts are hilarious, and some are about political views. People interact with each other on this cyber-platform.
First, I think that social networking platform is neutral. It is a tool for humans to use. However, humans have MISUSED this useful tool, which brings harm to people all around the world. What is the most important freedom a person should own? Privacy! Many platform users accidentally post personal information online without knowing it. For example, last year, a person called Apple (a fake name is used here to protect his privacy) booked a ticket to Taipei online. He posted his online ticket on a social networking platform. Unluckily, his friend, Banana (a fake name is used here) saw the online ticket which has much personal information on it. Banana went online and found that he could delete the booking online by using the information. So he decided to prank Apple by deleting Apple’s booked flight. However, he never saw that Apple’s trip to Taipei was actually an important business trip! At last, Apple was so surprised when he saw that his booking had been deleted and occupied by another person. Apple couldn’t reach Taipei on time and was fired by his boss. Banana felt so horrible for what he had done, so he apologized to Apple in a public post. Luckily, Apple’s boss saw that post and forgave Apple and reminded Apple not to post any personal information online. This is a real story and it surprised people all around the world. However, cases of being hacked and posting personal information only decreased by only 1.758%. This shows that users still keep posting unnecessary and personal information on social platforms. Therefore, I think that the use of social networking platforms brings harm to people in terms of the invasion of privacy unless everyone promises that they would check every single post carefully before they post it (which is probably impossible).
Moreover, the problem of cyber-bullying has become more and more serious over the years, as tagging a person is very easy. Bullies have started to create private account as a tool to post students’ embarrassing photos, using foul words to laugh at them. Since sharing a post is so easy, cyber-bullies can bully others online anywhere they want. They just have to send rude messages to people that they hate and it can break a person’s heart. When a person blocks a bully, the bully would just open a new account and continue to bully him. Have you ever tried to trust a person and share with him one of your darkest secrets? And after a day, he posts all of your secrets publicly to everyone and make you feel embarrassed that you want to kill that person, but you cannot do anything to delete those posts? The worst part is that person forces you not to tell the teacher or else he would post more secrets to the world. Sometimes, you don’t even know who sent you those messages and you would feel so lost, so depressed, while everyone laughs at you.
Besides, addiction to social networking platform is also a serious problem. I am NOT trying to stereotype, but from my observation, teenage girls are more addicted to these platforms than teenage boys. There are many teenage girls who post everything on their account. They post their cereal, pencil case and even what they are studying. They would give up on their studies (only remembering to post everything happening to them.) Once people are so addicted to something, they would give up everything to satisfy their desire, which may cause disastrous consequences, like wasting a huge amount of money and time on that thing.
Many people think that using social networking platform can deepen their relationship with others and get closer. However, they wouldn’t meet each other, but only communicate by using Facebook, Instagram. They cannot see their facial expressions, which affects their relationship. They may not even know each other’s true personality, which would not deepen relationship.
Last but not least, I would like to summarize my view by three letters ,“CAP”. ‘C’ means cyber-bullying. ‘A’ means addiction. ‘P’ means privacy. Due to “CAP”, the use of social networking platform brings harm to people.
Yours faithfully
Ryan So