Ethics of Social Networking

This week we have a discussion on the topic of "Social Networking" in Syracuse blackboard. Some of us have touched some ethical points of SN but most of the issues raised are other perspectives. In this week posting I would like to emphasize on "Ethics of Social Networking" which our youngsters should be well educated, no matter who they will be in Social Networking chain, providers or users. We can't avoid social networking but we can make it a better place for us and our next generation. While you talk about social networking and its ethics, it becomes hard to ignore the following perspectives -

1. Rights Perspective Social networking is a medium to get connected with the world and at many times it becomes difficult to estimate the amount of privacy required. Regardless of the fact that no one conceives his presence on a social network as his personal space, majority of people find their prospective employees by perusing their profiles. At such times it becomes hard for the users to exercise complete control over the images and personal information made available online.
2. Utilitarian Perspective The social networking technology that allows you to get connected with others and sometimes form meaningful relationships also includes some of the illegal and unethical  activities like hacking and posting of threatening online messages that highlight possible harms of this service. For this reason, the social networks are now considered as a way of cyber-bullying and online-predation to attack the interest of a utilitarian. Thus, it becomes difficult to maintain a balance between the two as any limitations on one, restricts you to access the other.
3. Fairness Perspective There is a common belief that social networking websites are very useful in maintaining egalitarianism. You can never find out the gender, race, age and other personality traits of a person while interacting with them online. This disembodied feature of social networking groups offers fairness and allows everybody to cater their needs without any restrictions or limitations.
4. Common Good Perspective Social networking can help you improve your social life and expand your social groups. A large number of people access social networking applications to get connected with people and share their media files and interests, while there are some people who might have different perspectives behind joining these sites. In this case it becomes difficult to find out the common good in this context, since there are no online social communities formed for betterment of the society and promoting common good of the users.

This calls you to develop a new and improved privacy concept which can help you prioritize nuanced control over your personal and confidential information.

  

References :

Social Networking: Legal Ethics and Lawyer Liability Considerations

Ethics Of Social Networking