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Fake Identity, Rumors, And Cyberbullying

Decent Essays

Before discussing the problems, arising from the inappropriate use of social media networks, it is helpful to understand what social media are. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010,p.210) define social media as ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0(cumulative changes in the way Web pages are made and used)’. Social networks, based on social media, allow individual (1) public personal information within a bounded system, (2) find people who share a same connection, (3) view other people’s connection (Nicole, 2007). With technology more and more mature, social networks encompass nearly any online activity. However, broad activities and blurred boundaries trigger inappropriate use, leading to many problems. This essay will focus on fake identity, rumors, and cyberbullying.

The first problem is about fake identity. Internet identity is a social identity, established by Internet user. Compared with national identity, Internet identity is more unreliable. A new regulatory filing displays,‘8.7 percent of its 955 million monthly active users worldwide are actually duplicate or false accounts’ (Kelly, 2012). Minority people use fake identities based on professional, security or creative reasons, such as identity not suitable to be disclosed, famous by another name than the real one (Eler, 2012). However, more people are using fake identities for deception.

Fake identity creates a new definition of the word “Catfish”.

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