Privacy Concerns in the Online World

After watching the TED Talk videos, I am shocked about how little privacy we have in our society. I learned from the videos that in order to be a part of the online world, we must sacrifice some of our privacy. I also discovered that police use automatic license plates to stalk people all around the world, anyone can eavesdrop on your phone calls due to surveillance backdoors, explicit photos of you can be online without knowing, emails aren't actually private, and phone companies take advantage of people's personal data. These issues are extremely concerning for myself, my friends, my family, and people all around the world. 

I am very involved in the online world, so the videos made me very alarmed about how little privacy we have, especially on social media. I have multiple social media apps on my phone that I use on the daily. One of the social media apps I use the most is Instagram. I enjoy posting Instagram photos of myself and my friends, as well as interacting with my followers' posts. Although, I have always kept my Instagram account private because I don't want random people following my account and interacting with my photos. Having my Instagram account on private makes me feel more safe in the social media world because I have the choice to accept or deny every follow request I get.

Even though my Instagram is private, my privacy has still been sacrificed due to allowing over 1,400 followers to access my page. These followers are people I went to high school with, High Point University students, camp friends, relatives, family friends, work friends, and more. I have allowed so many people to follow my account over the years because I share something in common with each and every one of them. Although I have a lot of followers, I am still cautious about who I accept on my page because I don't want to reveal my account to people I don't know or share something in common with. 

My family is very careful when it comes to using social media as well. My mom uses Facebook, so she can interact with her friends and members of our family. My mom enjoys interacting with peoples' photos,  watching funny videos, being a part of Facebook groups, and occasionally posts photos. Although, my mom keeps her account on private, only accepts people she has spoken to on her page, and doesn't post very often. When she posts, she posts pictures of me, my cousins, old family pictures, and get togethers with her friends. Even though my mom's Facebook account is private, like my Instagram account, it is not really private. She has over 200 friends interacting to her posts and posts pictures of me, which takes away my privacy. As long as its a good photo of me, I don't mind making an appearance on my mom's Facebook.

My dad on the other hand doesn't have any personal accounts on social media. He prefers having more privacy online than my mom and I. Although, he often uses my mom's Facebook to watch entertaining videos and snoop on people's Facebook pages. My mom and I always make fun of him for it and ask him why he doesn't have his own Facebook account. He always tells us that he likes keeping a low profile under his name on social media. 

Even though my mom and I have private accounts on social media, our accounts aren't truly private. I learned about how little privacy we have on social media, as well as off social media from the six TED Talk videos I watched. As technology is becoming more advanced over the years, our privacy in society is becoming less private. This is a scary concept that we must learn to accept as we become more reliant on technology in our society.