Blog Archives

The Impact of Social Media

29/3/2021

My previous article was all about Social Media and I described some of the most used examples. Taking this subject a stage further I wanted to look at the impact that Social Media has had on society. A Google search found an excellent article that is well worth sharing. Although it is from a US site and specifically looks at that country, its messages are equally valid here in the UK and indeed throughout the world.

Illustrated by some excellent graphics it looks at the impact of social media on the following topics:

Why people share information.
Politics.
Society
Commerce.
The world of work.
Training and development.
The challenges of cyberbullying and lack of privacy.
Relationships.

You can read the full article here. The site is based on paid-for courses which you may or may not wish to look at also.

Social Media - Good or Bad?

18/3/2021

The term Social Media is now in common parlance. But what does it actually mean and why has it gained such popularity? A very comprehensive dictionary website called Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/) gives the following definition

“Forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)”

Within this definition we can identify countless contenders for inclusion in the market but probably they all come within the following broad categories (with the better-known examples shown):

Social Networks (Facebook, Linked In)
Bookmarking sites (Pinterest, Flipboard, Pocket, StumbleUpon)
Social News sites (Delicious, Digg, Reddit)
Image Sharing (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Flickr, Pinterest)
Video Hosting (YouTube, Vimeo)
Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook)
Social Discussion Forums (Tripadvisor, Amazon, Trust Pilot)
Sharing Sites (AirBnb, Freecycle, Gumtree)
Like Interest sites (Tindr, Grindr, erotica)

What do they each do?
Let’s look at these in turn, bearing in mind that I have only given the more popular examples among the thousands available.

Social Networks (Facebook, Linked In)
Social networking is all about keeping in touch with friends, relations and work colleagues and being able to share information with them that you think might be of interest. Facebook has actually turned into a catch all site for sharing almost anything from comments, pictures, jokes, web links and - sadly - vitriol. What started as a fairly benign facility has unfortunately become a platform for weirdos, extremists and rabble rousers. But just like libraries, where you don’t have to read a book you don’t want to, there is no written rule that says you have to read every Facebook post that is shared. The trouble is that Facebook manipulates what users will see by the use of algorithms that analyse what you have previously “clicked upon” and presents you with more of the same. Somewhat akin to the library putting all the books they want you to borrow right inside the door. Notwithstanding this major criticism of Facebook, it can if used sensibly be a tremendous way to keep in touch with friends and relatives.

Bookmarking sites (Pinterest, Flipboard, Pocket, StumbleUpon)
We are used to setting bookmarks on web browsers for sites we regularly go to. Bookmarking sites take this one stage further by providing a repository for our sites and pages of interest. These sites can either be private or they can be used for others to see what you are interested in or recommend.

Social News sites (Delicious, Digg, Reddit)
These sites allow you to share news items with friends. Like bookmarking sites, they can and are usually shared with others and such sites are searchable.

Image Sharing (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Flickr, Pinterest)
As the name implies these sites are where you let other people view photographs and images that you have either produced yourself or are passing on from someone else. Of all the social media sites these have probably come in for the most criticism - especially where young people are concerned - as they have been the focus of illegal activity, child abuse and harassment. Some of the sites enable the sharing of short videos most of which it has to be said are of a banal quality!

Video Hosting (YouTube, Vimeo)
More serious video sharing is handled by these sites of which YouTube is by far the most popular. YouTube is a veritable gold mine of anything you want to view and acts as an historical encyclopedia of past and current events. Type in anything in the YouTube search box and you can find a film about it. Try “How to wrap a parcel” or “Sweeping a chimney”or “Musical instruments during WW1”.

Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook)
I have written before about blogs (see my article on blogging). Blogs are sites for would-be authors to write about anything they wish. Blogs can run to many pages and can build up into an archive of articles. (Just like MyTechTips in fact). Often, however, you may have something that you want to say that doesn’t run to or require a long article and for this we have Microblogging sites like Twitter which have limitations on the number of words you can include in any one post.

Social Review and Discussion Forums (Tripadvisor, Amazon, Trust Pilot)
These sites are fairly self-explanatory and are well known - even by those people who will say they never use social media!

Sharing Sites (AirBnb, Freecycle, Gumtree)
Similarly, sharing sites bring out the best in people by appealing to their altruism and spirit of neighbourliness. They enable us to help out others with items, facilities and so on. Quite a number of Facebook Groups now service this aspect of social sharing.

Like Interest sites (Tindr, Grindr, erotica)
Lastly there are sites that specifically cater for the more unusual and offbeat interests. I leave your imaginations to wander as you wish!

So what’s the harm?
There is no doubt that Social Media in its various forms has achieved global popularity on a scale that could hardly have been imagined just 20 years ago. It has brought people together, shrunk geographical distances and provided a platform for self-expression with a global reach.
What users don’t always understand is that the phenomenon has turned the whole business model of the internet upside down. Users are no longer the customer of the media sites, they are the sites’ very source material. Even though photos, comments, videos etc remain the users’ Intellectual Property (IP), users may not realise that by signing up to the Terms and Conditions of Facebook they implicitly “grant [Facebook] a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on…”.
Users can, of course, restrict the distribution of material to a selected audience by changing their privacy settings. However there is nothing to stop any recipient or reader of a user’s material from re-publishing it without such limitations. The golden rule therefore when posting anything on a social media site is that “what goes onto the internet stays on the internet.”
Unlike newspapers, both printed and online, information on social media is not subject to any checks for veracity or any sanction for inaccuracies. With the national press there is recourse to law in the event of libel, lies and falsehood. At the very least publications can be required to print retractions and corrections. Social media does not have the same constraints and the biggest victim of the internet is truth. Given that (as previously described) social media algorithms tailor what users see according to what they have looked at before, lies and inaccuracies are bound to proliferate. “Truth” becomes what you have been conditioned to believe. Whilst it is true that clear libel expressed online can be challenged in law the social media business is renowned for being fairly loosely regulated. An untruth perpetuated across social media can quickly become an established “fact” and lead to all manner of public outcries and demonstrations.
During the current COVID lockdown, social media has certainly come into its own in enabling people to keep in touch with family and friends. But it has also brought with it new harms related to online harassment, child abuse and viciously cruel rudeness. Young girls especially, concerned about image and fashion have literally been driven to suicide by the cruelty displayed online. Adults are not immune to problems. Every day brings a new press revelation about someone’s life being overturned as a result of something said on social media. They may not themselves even have been the publisher of the material that has got them into trouble. This social media today has a lot to answer for.

So should we stop using it?
Despite the risks inherent in social media today I would argue that the benefits still by far outweigh them. They provide world-wide connectivity, reduce isolation, bring like minds and interests together and serve as a platform for self-expression that would otherwise go unheard or read. They offer a limitless source of entertainment for the casual internet surfer and a readily available solution to everyday problems and difficulties.
However, the onus is on users to recognise the potential dangers and use social media sites carefully and thoughtfully.

Facebook - Harmless?

13/3/2021

When I set up a Facebook Group for our local village community some 18 months ago, I canvassed people's opinion as to their willingness to join the group. Our community is a mixture of all ages so this was quite a useful exercise to gauge opinion. The results are hardly scientific but it is probably fair to say that the younger generation (teens-40) is more disposed to social media than its more senior counterpart. However, a regular comment made was one of concern about the dangers of social media in general and Facebook in particular.
I have often remarked that, in an age when you hear more about data privacy and invasion of personal information and rights than ever before, the majority of people are quite willing to expose themselves (metaphorically but sometimes literally) to world scrutiny. Sadly I feel that this majority does not appreciate quite what happens to their information once they click 'send'.
Firstly, anything they write or 'post' has the potential to be shared instantly around the world. You can quickly delete a post but, unless you are double quick, the chances are that it has already been shared either directly or indirectly and every share leads exponentially to more shares. There is NO WAY of deleting it entirely from the internet. But, even if people are wise to this risk and are still prepared to take a chance, very few are likely to be aware of the mass of other information about them that is automatically captured by social media. This data about you (called metadata) can include anything that Facebook knows about you from the day you joined. This includes all your friends and family, places you have visited, your likes and dislikes, your political and life style choices and so on.
Facebook and other forms of social media - typically Twitter, Google and You Tube - run what are called algorithms; bits of code that analyse all this metadata. The resultant huge databases about social media users are then exploited by advertisers to populate your personal Facebook stream with adverts tailored exclusively to you. This is what pays for 'free' social media.
But it is not just adverts that are a worry. Facebook (and others) use these algorithms to tailor everything that you see on your Facebook 'news feed'. Over time, you will only be presented with items in your feed that particularly play to your personal preferences or views. And how do they know your preferences and views? Easy. They determine these from the groups that you join, the people you follow, the other posts and comments that you 'like' and 'dislike' and so on. Again over time, any contrary view or opinion will be hidden or given far less prominence in material presented in your feed.
You might say 'Well, that's no worse than reading rubbish in the newspapers.' But think about it for a moment. You can choose what papers (and pages/articles) to read and what items to ignore. You can't with Facebook because your news is personally selected for you.
In a very recent book by Roger McNamee called 'Zucked. Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe' (Mark Zuckerberg of course being the CEO of Facebook), these algorithms are called 'filter bubbles'. Now consider that Facebook (with its apps) controls the personal data of nearly 3 Billion people around the world. That is 40% of the world's population of 7.8 Billion. (figures corrected 2021). Now you can see what influence social media has. Have you woken up yet?????

How Safe is Internet Banking?

6/3/2021

If there is one indisputable fact about the past year under the Covid restrictions it is that computers and the internet have truly come into their own. Millions of people have (sometimes reluctantly) had to adapt to life online and, without a doubt, digital life has blossomed. From shopping to keeping in touch with family and friends, the internet has become an essential part of daily life and people have had to learn new skills and ways of coping with the Covid restrictions.

This has been a godsend for some (not least the purveyors of computer equipment and software); a totally new world for many; and quite frightening for others. The situation has highlighted and exacerbated the so-called digital divide; the gap between those who have or can acquire the necessary IT skills and those who either can not or will not adapt. Cost is a major factor and not everyone has the financial wherewithal to take advantage of the online world even if they want to. This digital divide has compounded the problems of isolation - already bad enough because of the restrictions in place.

One particular aspect of daily life that has changed considerably during the pandemic is the world of consumer banking - everyday use of high street banks and ATMs. The use of cash (notes and coins) for everyday needs has dwindled to such an extent that the amount in circulation (but not being used) is considerably greater than normal. Conversely there has been a dramatic increase in electronic payments by credit card, contactless transactions and by online expenditure. The Bank of England published a very interesting report at the end of 2020 called “Cash in the time of Covid”. Click here for an easy and worthwhile read.

The relationship that people now have with their banking and building society institutions has correspondingly moved away from in the branch/over-the- counter transactions to a far greater and necessary reliance on internet banking. Whilst the younger generation are relaxed about adopting online finance the more senior citizens have a lot of anxiety about no longer being able to handle hard currency - money and cheques - as they have been used to. Whilst they have traditionally been happy to put their trust in their high street bank (even though they can not see the money held on their behalf) they have far less confidence in an internet bank that they can’t see. Notwithstanding this, a surprising statistic is that at the end of 2020 some 80% of British people used some form of online banking; whilst over 25% (or 14 million people) have opened an account with a digital (internet only) bank. (See below for an explanation of this new type of bank.) This would tend to indicate that the level of trust in internet banking in this country is very high and this alone is reassuring.

What is Internet Banking?

For two reasons this article is not a tutorial on internet banking:
Firstly there are so many different banks and finance houses and no two are likely to operate in exactly the same way. Therefore it is best to visit the web site of the bank you are with or proposing to use and follow their guidance and instructions for signing up for internet banking. Naturally, I will not make any recommendations about which bank or type of account to select. Similarly, none of the links I provide in this article constitute any kind of endorsement.
Secondly there are many other sites that give detailed guidance on internet banking in general and I can do no better than to offer some links to trusted sites that tell you all you need to know. I have selected a few that I can recommend with the proviso always that I am not responsible for the content of external sites.
It is important to understand that there is a major difference between banks and finance houses that have both a physical (high street) presence and internet access, and others that are designated “Internet Only”. The latter can often be attractive because they sometimes offer higher interest rates and benefits purely because they do not have the overheads of premises and staff. Be careful before opting just for attractive offers.
Similarly online banking can be conducted on a range of devices - on computers, on laptops and tablets and on mobile phones. Many banks have a special app you can download to use on phones and tablets.

Recommended Links

There is a wealth of information on the internet about online banking and I only show below a few of what I think are sites of a more general nature (not related to a particular bank or service) and those which are aimed at the older generation. Never forget that you can use Google (or other search engine) to narrow down your questions. At the end of this selection of links I will also highlight some key golden rules to follow to keep yourself (and your money) safe.

Age UK has a very informative and helpful site that covers most of what you need to know - including how to start the process if you are new to it. See their advice by clicking their logo here

Digital Unite is a company I have worked with before and am still associated with and it covers practically every subject to do with the internet and Information Technology. Click on their logo below to see their article Introduction to Online Banking.

Money Advice Service
The Government sponsored Money and Advice centre has a lot of free information about internet banking on its comprehensive site which can be viewed by clicking on their logo here

Saga similarly offers some practical tips for older readers here

Money UK
Lastly a valuable resource is the Money UK website which covers all things to do with money but has a detailed section on internet banking. Click on its logo here to find the article about how internet banking works.

Some Golden Rules for Staying Safe
Internet Banking is remarkably safe considering the number of scare stories that one reads about daily. That is not to say that standards across the industry are necessarily the same. Which magazine conducts an annual survey to assess the security of internet banking. Its latest report (September 2020) compares 16 banks and building societies. Read it here Don’t be too downhearted if your own bank does not compare well because you need to remember that the survey is conducted rigorously to quite demanding security standards, carried out by cyber security experts attempting to break the web sites' defences.
Of all the risks surrounding internet banking (and indeed use of the internet in general) perhaps one of the greatest is the individual user. Human failings, carelessness and failure to observe basic caution account for more cases of lost money and data than the common risks. At all times one needs to stay aware and alive to all the risks. Just as you would not (should not) leave the house unoccupied without securing it or walk down the street with a handbag open or a wallet on show, neither should you feel you are safe just because you are sitting comfortably at your computer or device. So please adopt basic internet safety behaviour at all times especially where money is concerned.

There are some particular things to watch out for:

Always ensure you use strong passwords.
Never disclose your passwords to anyone else.
Remember that Banks will NEVER ask you for your password.
Beware of any email purporting to be from your bank or building society and never follow a “click-through” in an email. Always visit the site yourself and log on in the usual way, not by following an email link.
Whenever possible avoid conducting secure business in public or on open (free) wifi services such as in cafes and hotels.
If you are using an app on a mobile device use your mobile data service not open wifi.
When in public, maintain your privacy and watch out for what is called “shoulder-surfing” by someone else.
Always ensure that the banking site you are visiting has https:// and the padlock symbol in its internet address. This denotes it is a secure site.
Always check your bank statements.
Where offered, sign up for paperless statements. Paper statements are much easier to intercept and misuse.
Always log off from your internet banking site when you have finished. (The more reputable sites will do this automatically but don’t assume it will be done).
Lastly, something you can do safely is let someone know your Bank, Sort Code and Account name if they are going to pay you. However, make sure you know who you are dealing with first.

Summary
Internet banking is safe and very convenient provided you stay alert and follow the basic rules outlined above and as instructed by your bank.

Author

Alan Pollard
Retired computer professional now in my 70s but still passionate about computers, the internet and information technology in general.
All views my own unless otherwise stated.

My Tech Tips

The Impact of Social Media

Social Media - Good or Bad?

Facebook - Harmless?

How Safe is Internet Banking?

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