Social media has come of age - but the ethics need to catch up

Social media has come of age because you can use it freely without being a nerd or necessarily having any idea how it works. The change has happened subtly over the last few years. It was not so long ago that you had to have specialist help or knowledge to get any new technology to work. Facebook, myspace, twitter, bebo all let you sign up and start interacting within a few minutes. And this is across devices from computers to tablets to phones to book readers. The average phone has more computing power today than my desktop pc of ten years ago.

Furthermore the expectation today is that any device or system will work as soon as you take it out of the box and charge the battery or plug it in.


The result is people are enjoying technology without knowing anything about it. We have reached the stage identified in the following two quotations:

"tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring"  Clay Shirky

"any sufficiently advanced technology should be indistinguishable from magic"  Arthur C Clarke

We don't often reflect on what we are doing because we don't need to. It works, and for the most part workd effortlessly. But I think we should sometimes stand back and look at what we are doing and think about possible unintended consequences.

Social media could be bad thing if you never read all the small print when, for example, you sign up to facebook. (Does anyone?) Do you know what you are allowing them to do with your data?

It can be a bad thing if you move effortlessly into a new social media experience and fail to consider who the technology is allowing you to connect with - are your comments just going to a friend or are you broadcasting to the world?

The increased ease of use has not been accompanied by an increase in an awareness of the ethical and privacy issues relating to the sharing and interaction that is now possible. We are lazy and the ease of communicating and our enthusiasm for "talking" with our friends can blind us to ensuring that we are only speaking to our intended audience. Which parts of life do we want to keep private and what information are we happy for our employer, customers and neighbours know?