Social media plays a pivotal role in our lives, from staying in touch via Facebook,
to consuming the latest trending TikTok's! This is all portayed as fun and engaging, allowing
the consumer to stay informed on the latest news and trends. Whilst this is enjoyable, there is
a dark side to social media that most users fail to grab, that is data and privacy.
Scroll down to read an article about some of the most popular social media sites, the positives, negatives, and how
user data is collected for various purpouses. Learn how user privacy is at an all time low and what can be done
to protect a user online.
How Social Is Social Media?
Social media is a vital part of our everyday lives, from the moment we wake up, to the last few seconds before bed.
Society has shifted from newspapers and town criers, to notifications and connections right at our finger tips. It's with
this new power, that society has transformed our everyday social aspects, into social media.
The most popular social media sites as of today are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. YD&PM has focused sections on
these sites, to help the user understand how to keep their data safe and privacy guarded consumed on these platforms.
All platforms have their own identities, with most providing a many-to-many method of communicating. Businesses have used this
so they can create connections with consumers, integrating products and services into the same feed as their social groups.
This is executed in a manner allowing social media platforms can advertise to consumers, without being too intrusive and also generating a revenue source.
Monetisation has become the biggest area of concern for social media sites, as this is how the business are able to generate a profit.
This is done in many ways, the first method is data collection from user accounts. User data is priceless, as business can learn about a users
interests, dislikes, connections and what products they are interested in. The second method is working with businesses to
display products they are interested in then get pushed to the users feed,
displaying items they are likely to purchase due to their user data history. The platform can then take a cut, as the product was advertised on their platform.
Advertising is one of the biggest methods for social media sites to generate a revenue from, this can also be tuned out by using as-blockers, which is what most privacy
concerned users do.
Certain platforms, such as Facebook, will withold identifable information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, but will provide anonymised usage patterns to advertisers,
helping push more content that is likely to appeal to the user. This allows Facebook to be a dominant platform in comparison to its competitors, as it has the largest reach in terms
of e-commerce and will also hold the most data on consumer intersts. More of this can be found in the Facebook artcile.
Social media has evolved to become a freemium service, meaning most basic features are free to the user. Premium memberships are available for those users who desire more features on their
social media accounts. Each major platform will have a dedicated section to this on their sites, but to summarise, some features are locked behind a paywall, features can include ad-free browsing,
profile views, coins and many more.
Want more information? Scroll down to the services section to read more about the most popular social media sites, test yourself and more!
Scroll down to read an article about some of the most popular social media sites, the positives, negatives, and how user data is collected for various purpouses. Learn how user privacy
is at an all time low and what can be done to protect a user online.