Social media is becoming increasingly popular amongst all age groups. However, sharing personal information on social media websites does have risks. Do you think that the advantages of social media outweigh the disadvantages? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

The internet has revolutionized the human interaction by introducing various social websites which are becoming popular amongst all the ages, but providing the discrete personal data on these websites can have serious ramifications. In my opinion, I consider that the benefits of improved communication among the population by utilising social media networks outweigh the drawback of interference with the privacy and the confidentiality. Despite the minimal drawbacks below, I believe that the main advantage of social media is a convenient communication between individuals.

In other words

, the world is becoming smaller as people residing in different continents can interact and see each other by overcoming great distances through the various social media applications available on the internet.

For instance

, during my 2 years stay in Liberia located in West Africa, I managed to interact with my family in Pakistan, almost daily by using WhatsApp, which would have been

otherwise

impossible. It is obvious that social networking on the web is bringing people closer and distances would not matter in the today’s modern world. Admittedly, there is a minimal drawback of social websites and it includes an infiltration to the privacy of an individual.

In other words

, information about a person’s location, family details and his interests can be extracted by manipulating the social media accounts.

For instance

, internet banking frauds are on the rise due to the manipulation of the personal data available on the social media.

However

,

this

threat can be overcome by restricting limited personal data sharing on social networks, which can enable us to make use of

this

facility without any imperil to our privacy and confidentiality. In conclusion, I consider that the chief advantage of social media by ensuring convenient and easily accessible communication far outweigh the easily manageable few minor drawbacks. I hope that cyber security awareness can help to combat the drawbacks of social media.