Reader's Response Draft 1,

In 'When Worlds Collide': Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9), Rothbard claimed that the 'inherent paradox' of social media as 'social minefield' is due to the fact that 'social media has so many amazing opportunities to connect, to enhance relationships and to build new relationships.' I agree that social media does offer many opportunities to allow people to communicate and socialise via means of social networking sites such Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You get to use the functions from the websites to start a group chat, sharing images about your life, catching up on your favourite celebrities, international news and more.

However, the nature of social media being widespread and possibly 'anonymous', such opportunities may be abused and taken advantage by people. These people are the ones who intend to make use of social media to prey on people who are seemingly 'weaker' on the Internet. For instance, there is an increase in number of criminal cases committed online in 2014, just in Singapore alone (Singapore Police Force, 2014). Therefore, I do not agree with Rothbard (2014) that social media is all about being able to make new friends, interacting with people online. These are just the benefits that social media can offer rather than looking at the big picture where the problems cannot be ignored.

The issue of creditability of the content posted on social media has always been a problem for readers because it is almost impossible to have articles that is completely unbiased. The writers' own perceptions, stereotypes and other inducing factors can alter the views of the writers, which results in articles that leaned towards a certain stand. There are also articles that does not report facts but rather speculate false information for various purposes, such as gaining more readers, to get more earnings when people click on the site. During the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines jet, MH370, there are websites claiming that it has been found where in fact, there was no news about the jet (Peptone, 2014). Many people believed what the articles wrote was true and even shared the websites on their own social networking sites until the Malaysian government came out to prove it otherwise. Not only does it affect the victim's families and friends by lifting their hopes up, it also causes suspicion around users online for being an accomplice by sharing false information online. 

Ever since the rise of social media, we have seen more occurrences of terrorist groups making use of it to spread propaganda and public threats. As mentioned before, creditability is a problem and precisely because most users online cannot differentiate between true and false, terrorist groups are able to tackle through this loophole. The infamous Al-Qaeda is known to make use of media strategies as means to achieve his ideals (Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, 2007). There are also other terrorist groups that use social media to induce fear and pressure on the public and governments. The recent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) events on beheading of the two Japanese and burning of the Jordanian pilot, saw the ISIS uploading the videos online for the government and public to view it. (MailOnline, 2015). Therefore, social media can also be a tool for terrorism as long as creditability is still an issue.

On the personal level, social media does improve relationships between people online. However, on the global scale, there are many more possible problems arising from the use of social media that may affect our daily lives. The lack of credible sources causes suspicion and unhappiness among people along with use of social media by the terrorists; it is definitely more difficult than ever to make use of social media to interact especially it is not as easy as it used to be. Rothbard's (2014) idea of a paradox is merely just a sweeping statement by relating social media on a personal level. Instead, a more comprehensive understanding of the ways social media can affect a person would be needed.

References: 

Singapore Police Force | Statistics | Annual Crime Brief 2015. (2015, January 29). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.spf.gov.sg/stats/crimebrief2015.html

Pepitone, J. (2014, March 9). Social Media Spread False Reports of Safe Landing. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/social-media-spread-false-reports-safe-landing-n48081

Al Qaeda: Propaganda and Media Strategy. (2007). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.itac.gc.ca/pblctns/pdf/2007-2-eng.pdf

Hall, J., Robinson, J., Wyke, T., Cockroft, S., & Williams, D. (2015, February 4). Jordan executes ISIS jihadists: Female suicide bomber among two put to death in dawn hangings in retaliation for terrorists releasing video of pilot being torched to death in cage. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2938199/Burned-alive-cage-ISIS-release-video-claiming-horrifying-murder-captured-Jordanian-pilot.html