Reader Response Draft 3

According to the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks” by Emm (2014), Internet security has effects on many aspects in our lives. Many people feel uncomfortable about being monitored by authorities. Since the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, this made us susceptible to threats due to high accessibility of personal data. Emm emphasized that posting on social media has more detrimental effects than simply showing to others, where it sometimes can be used for evidence of unfavorable outcomes. Furthermore, the author believes that in a corporate context, over-sharing can lead to leakage of business information thus posing a threat to organizations’ survival and profitability. However, there are several steps that everyone can take to reduce vulnerability to threats.

Social networks have become the main platforms for many people to interact with each other. Yet there are social problems more influencing and more prominent than data security issues, where Emm (2014) did not address.

Emm talks about risks of manipulating personal data for those who over-shares. Besides chatting, there are many fancy status sharing functions such as checking-in, tagging and liking, have been manipulated and exploited for unlawful or undesired purposes. For example, revealing one’s current location in night club with a group of friend by tagging photos or checking-in locations, making one known to people that he or she is not at home. Some who got to know their home locations would pay a secret visit, resulting in burglaries and even robberies in real life cases. Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement student protest leader Joshua Wong had previously shared his home location, where later many anti-occupation angered individuals surrounded his home and threatened his mother’s safety. As such, Internet data that can be stored indefinitely would be manipulated and therefore, stressing the urgency and importance of protection on personal data by reducing the information shared.

Over-sharing will also jeopardize work confidentiality and sometimes even reliability. Office workers who share their office views will expose their work place location, structures and layouts, revealing to public the internal scenery of offices. This is undesired since many firms are unwilling to impart any impressions other than marketed advertisements to the public. Public might be skeptical about the reliability of a company since sharing in work place does not seem professional at all. Furthermore, many would end a day’s hard work by uploading a photo with their work desk at the background. Some could be unaware of the stack of files and papers behind, where technologies can easily encode the actual information. Hackers only need small pieces of information to access company’s databases and thus resulting in leakage of business information. In all, simple actions such as posting online could have unimaginable potential risks, where they could be leveraged as evidences in resulting in losses. Nevertheless, strict Internet access control and protocol of use of technology could effectively curb sharing in work places by implementing blockade of social networking sites. Yet, the seriousness of undesired outcomes by over-sharing still needs to be emphasized especially in work places.

However, more prominent social problems are found related to over-sharing in social media which became bigger concerns by many families. In order to gain recognition in who we are and what we do, people especially teenager over-share to gain attention from online friends. Greenberg (2013) believes that teens should learn to be in the moment by interacting face-to-face with peers, instead of sharing everything online that could jeopardy their verbal communication skills. If teenagers believe that self-esteem and recognition are gained only by sharing, such wrong world views would lead to potential mental health problems. Klein (2014) mentioned about a girl who committed suicide after getting obsessed with taking selfies, and also cases where increasing number of teenagers engage in drug use and violence, these reflect the outcomes if people over-rely on SNS. Greenberg also believes that online social platforms are exclusive places for users themselves that they have very limited opportunities to interact with others. Over-reliance as a result of over-sharing on online platforms would gradually transform users to become socially awkward since he or she is used to sharing information online instead of in real life.

In all, the author provides an insight of dangers arise from over-sharing. Besides personal and corporate data risks, the society should also be more aware of detrimental social problems that could harm everyone who uses social networks.

734 words 

Emm, D. (2014). The perils of over-sharing in social networks. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david-emm/the-perils-of-over-sharing-in-social-networks_b_5005276.html.

Greenberg, B. (2013, June 20). 8 Problems with Teens and Social Media. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-greenberg/8-problems-with-teens-social-media_b_3472816.html

Klein, S. (2014, May 7). Is Social Media Dependence A Mental Health Issue? Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/social-media-mental-health_n_5268108.html

Reader Response Draft 2

According to the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks” by Emm (2014), Internet security has effects on many aspects in our lives. Many people feel uncomfortable about being monitored by authorities. Since the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, this made us susceptible to threats due to high accessibility of personal data. Posting on social media has more negative effects than just showing to counterparts, where sometimes can be used for evidence of unfavorable outcomes. Also in a corporate context, over-sharing can lead to leakage of business information thus pose a threat to organizations’ survival and profitability. However, there are several steps that everyone can take to reduce vulnerability to threats.

In our daily lives, many depend on the Internet heavily on personal or business purposes. Many fancy functions such as check-in, tagging, and liking that supposedly be social sharing functions have been exploited by people with distorting purposes. For example, revealing your current location in a fancy night club with a group of friend by tagging photos or checking-in locations, making yourself known that you are currently not at home. Some who got to know your home location would pay a secret visit, resulting in burglaries and even robberies in real life cases. I have been warned not to post any photos such as boarding passes and passport at the airport, because that would make everyone who follows me know that I am going overseas and someone can do unfavorable things. Personal safety issue is the main concern for over sharing.

Many of us nowadays, including me, resort to social media to gain recognition in what we do, such as academic, activities and work. It is true that posting such contents online will sometimes jeopardize one’s credibility, work confidentiality and sometimes even reliability. One shall not reveal his or her own life to the extent that it can become evidences that will turn against themselves. Emm (2014) mentioned that “If you post a 'morning after the night before' selfie on your Facebook wall…but what if your boss sees it, thereby discovering why you didn't turn up for work today?”I felt the same like the author because of real life experience of mine that I could not turn up in school the next day after a night’s drinking with friends. I was in a difficult situation as the school had caught me through social media and took disciplinary actions against me. One has to be responsible in what he or she posts online, and try not to make it to turn against them even though for that moment it is glorifying by high number of likes and comments.

However, I disagree with the author over privacy issues. One could actually set privacy over the content that they are going to share, be it open to public or open to friends only. If one could control the privacy well enough to allow which group of social media friends could see which kind of contents, the risks could be reduced. Also, the author mentioned leakage of business information that could potentially cause profit loss in companies, this might not be the case. Companies’ internet is stricter than those we get to access at home or in public venues. Together with data protection technologies and code of use of technological products, it is actually extremely difficult to leak any business data from the inside. Logging into social networks like Facebook is almost impossible.

In general, this article caters to readers with all kinds of Internet environment. The motive written here is highly desirable by the society, provided that there are many people who do not have Internet safety knowledge. Yet given differences in Internet environment controls, personal usage may not be a huge concern. Therefore, I have a few disagreements with the author but I do think his article will be insightful for many Internet dependents nowadays.


649 words

Emm, D. (2014). The perils of over-sharing in social networks. Retrieved fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david-emm/the-perils-of-over-sharing-in-social-networks_b_5005276.html.

Reader's Response Draft 1

According to the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks” by David Emm (2014), Internet security has effects on many aspects in our lives. Many people feel uncomfortable about being monitored by authorities. Since the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, this made us susceptible to threats due to high accessibility of personal data. Posting on social media has more negative effects than just showing to counterparts, where sometimes can be used for evidence of unfavorable outcomes. Also in a corporate context, over-sharing can lead to leakage of business information thus pose a threat to organizations’ survival and profitability. However, there are several steps that everyone can take to reduce vulnerability to threats.

In our daily lives, many depending on the Internet heavily on personal or business purposes. Many fancy functions such as check-in, tagging, and liking that supposedly be social sharing functions have been exploited by people with distorting purposes. For example, revealing your current location in a fancy night club with a group of friend by tagging photos or checking-in locations, making yourself known that you are currently not at home. Some who get to know your home location would pay a secret visit, resulting in burglaries and even robberies in real life cases. I have been warned not to post any photos such as boarding passes and passport at the airport, because that would make everyone who follows me know that I am going overseas and someone can do unfavorable things. Personal safety issue is the main concern for over sharing.

Many of us nowadays, including me, resort to social media to gain recognition in what we do, such as academic, activities and work. I agree with the author that posting such contents online will sometimes jeopardize one’s credibility, work confidentiality and sometimes even reliability. One should not reveal his or her own life to the extent that it can become evidences that will turn against themselves. Emm mentioned that “If you post a 'morning after the night before' selfie on your Facebook wall…but what if your boss sees it, thereby discovering why you didn't turn up for work today?” I agree with him because of real life experience of mine that I could not turn up in school the next day after a night’s drinking with friends. This made me into a hard situation and I received disciplinary actions from school. One have to be responsible in what he or she posts online, and try not to make it to turn against them even though for that moment it is glorifying by high number of likes and comments.

I do agree with the author to a medium extent, partially due to disagreement with him over privacy issues. One could actually set privacy over the content that they are going to share, be it open to public or open to friends only. If one could control the privacy well enough to allow which group of social media friends could see which kind of contents, the risks could be reduced. Also, the author mentioned leakage of business information that could potentially cause profit loss in companies, this might not be the case. Companies’ internet is stricter than those we get to access at home or in public venues. Together with data protection technologies and code of use of technological products, it is actually extremely difficult to leak any business data from the inside. Don’t even think about logging in to Facebook because the monitoring system in companies’ Internet made it impossible.

In general, this article caters to readers with all kinds of Internet environment. The motive written here is highly desirable by the society, provided that there are many people who do not have Internet safety knowledge. Yet given differences in Internet environment controls, personal usage may not be a huge concern. Therefore, I have a few disagreements with the author but I do think his article will be insightful for many Internet dependents nowadays.

661 words

Summary-The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks

According to the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks” by Emm (2014), Internet security has effects on many aspects in our lives. Many people feel uncomfortable about being monitored by authorities. Since the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, this made us susceptible to threats due to high accessibility of personal data. Posting on social media has more negative effects than just showing to counterparts, where sometimes can be used for evidence of unfavorable outcomes. Also in a corporate context, over-sharing can lead to leakage of business information thus pose a threat to organizations’ survival and profitability. However, there are several steps that everyone can take to reduce vulnerability to threats.

116 words

My English Learning Journey

English has always been the second language of mine. Coming from a family that entirely speaks Cantonese, it is unorthodox in the eyes of many that I put heavy emphasis in English proficiency. I attended international schools in China prior to coming to Singapore for studies in secondary 1. Attending international schools made me at a much higher level than most of the students at same age, since our curriculum were different from normal ones stipulated by the government. I became advantaged in English language, together with several opportunities for me to reassure my English proficiency in participating international English speech competition, I was determined to use English on a higher frequency thus decided to go out of China.

When I came to Singapore, language was not a barrier for me and I could adapt to the environment very easily. Yet, somehow I felt that my language proficiency has reached a bottleneck where I can’t improve my writing skills, vocabulary and expressions despite every possible action done. I felt fed up with English, the sense of superiority that I used to have in China has vanished completely, and I have been having an inferiority in speaking out in front of other people. At the most comfortable level, I could write GP essays easily because they do not require much high level of grammar as compared to narratives or literature. Yet my comfort zone is relatively low standard as compared to others, thus I did not perform well in A-Level GP as well as QET, ending up myself in this course.

I wish to break through my bottleneck by taking this course, I am actually at a tipping point. I am graduating this semester and had already secure a job, yet I am fully aware that I won’t be able to succeed with my current English proficiency and more importantly my inferiority in speaking English. I need to change.