Social media users adopt safety measures to avoid landing into trouble or to stay away from mischief-makers in the digital universe
Post News Network
From housewives to students and celebrities everyone these days are on social media. Facebook is still the most popular platform for interaction and sharing messages and photos. Users of the site post their photos and day-to-day activities. Although social butterflies earn lots of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ on this platform as reactions to their postings sometimes they are dragged into problems. Orissa Post asks women how safe they are in social media and the virtual world.
“I am an advocate and I know how to keep myself safe in the real world as well as in the digital world. I have accounts in social media sites including Facebook. I am a mother of two grown up children. I post photos with my sons and family members. I also try to upload small photographs. Hackers try to download photographs of beautiful women. But in my case, they will get only small photographs which will, again, become smaller after removing other people from it. Thus, finally they will get a small stamp size photograph which will not satisfy their evil impulse, “said Sangita Majhi from Bhubaneswar.
“Social media sites respect safety of women. Hence they design the sites keeping in view this aspect. But sometimes hackers taste success. I follow all the safety rules provided by the site and post my details and photos at par with these rules. Perhaps that is why I have not faced any problem so far. I never post my phone number on any social media site. If there is an urgent need I put the phone numbers of my male relatives and inform them about it. Thus even if someone gets my phone number they call my relatives, not me. This way I keep myself away from mischief-makers,” said Swapna Sahu from Cuttack.
Shristi Jaiswal is a Plus Three final-year student from Belpahad in Jharsuguda district. She hardly posts pictures on Facebook although she has an account. She hails from a conservative family and adopts measures to stay away from unwanted trouble in digital society. When asked about online safety she said, “Sometimes I post my photos, but I try to post only PDF format photographs which lack clarity. If someone tries to download them he would not get a satisfactory picture. More than that I have limited friends on Facebook and only accept requests from people I know well.”
“I hardly get time for Facebook or social media generally. I am occupied with my job and spend most time at the workplace. Mine is not an online job. In this way I don’t have access to social media sites. Yes, sometimes we are required to send our photos along with biodata when applying for jobs. But unless and until the employer specially seeks for photograph I don’t send. More than that I only send my details to users who I am convinced are genuine. If these measures are adopted I don’t think anybody would land in any unsafe situation in the digital world,” said Sujata Nanda from Puri.