The Importance Of Ethics In Social Media Networks

The Importance of Ethics in Social Media Networks


Introduction

In the recent decades, we have been witness of a big technological revolution. It has caused a deeply and truly transformation in the way of perceiving the wolrd. The arrival of new information and communication systems has opened a whole range of possibilities for individuals, companies, institutions and government: new waysof doing business, more and better informed citizens, new relations between individuals, new education system that involving new teaching methodologies, marketing campaigns more focus on the real needs of consumers, extensive news coverage, thanks to new technology reaches all corners of the world.

We have to recognize that all these significant changes caused by new technology, undoubtedlycontribute to the progress, modernization and development of peoples. However, as Marshall McLuhan argued, ¨the dominant médium in a given time relatively shaped the way we perceived and understood the world around¨ For This reason, we cannot understand a given technological experience without studying its social setting.



Moreover, with the new technological uses and the changes caused,appear new ethical and moral issues that must be treated in order to defend human values and preserve the basic ethical and moral principles on which society establishes and sustains.

The goal of this paper is twofold. First to be aware the impact that the social networks are causing in society and their deeply consequences. Secondly, to understand the need to establish a ethical and moralframework that regulate and control its use and allow to have behavior patterns to ensure the responsible exercise of the people.

The social network´s impact

Within a decade the so-called Web 2.0 has been installed in the modern society’s life, dominating all areas and changing behavior patterns. With social networks has created a cultural phenomenon of a scope unimaginable a few years ago. Notonly they are used by people, but also by big companies, organizations and even political and public institutions with the aim of promoting products and services, recruit supports, ideological influence or change consumer behavior, etc.

It’s true that each society has integrated this new technology in different ways, depending on the culture and its values. However, without a doubt, the socialnetworks have produced a significantly social change in daily life in all societies. For instance, in the way of communication and interact with others; nowadays, the users have an active participation, not only they can access all the information, but also provides content via chats, emails, posts, blogs, tweets, etc. The social network sites provide a dynamic platform, which enables discussions,sharing information, organisation of events, etc.

It’s obvious that social networking has been a high success (in just four years, had generated more than 50 millions users. Facebook went from 200 to 250 million registered users in just three months. by late 2009, Facebook had reached 300 million users). However, I venture to say that its impact could be a consequence of cultural trends thatwere already suggesting in modern societies. At this point, we can speak from a Heidegger’s perspective, according to that mass culture in which we live subordinate us to consumerism and hedonism, in response to the capitalist logic that dominates current contemporary societies.

Thus, we find a need to “see” and “be seen”, to be in the public arenas to consume and “be consumed” as announced bythe Polish sociologist Z. Baumann in his “Globalization: the human consequences”.

In social networks we can find numerous examples of this thought: millions of users share information daily about their thoughts, ideas, experiences, pictures and videos, relying on a virtual space accessible to everyone that nowadays don’t have enough security to protect the personal privacy. Today, we have the...