What you need to know about social media
Social Media Misconceptions – There are several misconceptions about social media that many people might have believed until now.
Social media has become a big part of many people’s lives in this modern generation. Through social media, people can share anything online and connect with everyone in different parts of the globe. With these platforms using the internet, there are inevitably some misconceptions.
Some believe that whatever you pose online, social media owns it. Based on a video from Mental Floss, as long as you are the original creator, you still hold the copyright of any content you post on social media.
However, you have limited control over what you post on social media like photos and videos because it could be grabbed by others and used depending on their choice.
With the advent of social media, being a social media influencer became a trend. It is easier now for more people to be known around the world and this can be a source of income already. However, it is a misconception that all influencers are wealthy. What they earn depends on the number of followers they have on social media.
Another misconception is that social media sites sell your data to advertisers. The truth is that social media sites are selling space for advertisers for targeted ads aimed at a certain demographic of web users.
It is also a misconception that only young people use social media. Years ago, about two decades past, this belief might be true but now more older people are using these platforms. In a 2021 Pew Survey, it was found that more people in the US ages 18 to 64 were using social media.
“Social media is free”? No, it’s not. You may think that you are not paying anything when you sign up for different social media platforms but actually, you are paying and it is in the form of your time and attention. This means that social media sites get billions of dollars of ad revenue.
One misconception also is that we don’t know how social media affects kids. A 2019 study published in Jama Psychiatry stated that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are prone to mental health issues.
Some people may believe that opting out of social media protects your privacy. When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified in Congress in 2018, he admitted to collecting information on people who never signed up on the platform.
Social media indeed has a lot of uses but sometimes these platforms are being used by people to gain something out of deception like pyramid schemes.