Ah, the glorious world of social networking sites (SNSs) where my photos are always artsy, my family is always happy, and all the people I know are my friends who truly care about what is going on in my life. Right?! Following the thoughts of the mental chasm between real life and online world, SNSs allow people to connect, offering a filtered and limited amount of information to others. Such sites encourage “connectedness”, even if it fosters superficial relations between people who depict themselves as a very partial fragment of who they really are.
It would be hard to defend, from a deontological perspective, the idea that SNSs are wrong in and of themselves. Such sites are simply a virtual setting for socializing. The interactions and conversations that take place, however, can be seen as absolute negatives under certain viewpoints.
image source: http://faqsocial.org/
I will not expand on the topic of companies examining applicants since I have already discussed it in a previous post. It should be noted, though, that it is a major ethical concern in the use of SNSs.
Focusing on the misleading overexposure a person may submit themselves to when they use Facebook, a utilitarian analysis would contrast the costs of unwanted attention, permanence of regretful decisions, and effect on real life relations against the benefits of connectedness, entertainment, and the possible confidence boost obtained from online reaction (don’t we all feel special when we have 18 “likes” under a status update?). However, a deontological approach may take two positions here. As far as freedom of expression is a value to be upheld, SNSs provide a person with a setting to speak up relatively free, and for that reason a person should make use of such possibility as they please. On the other hand, highlighting respect and privacy, a user would be advised by a deontological ethicists to carefully craft their online interactions as a direct expression of themselves that is given to others to use at their discretion. And, at the same time, each user should understand that the information they receive from others must be handled with the same level of care they wish others devoted to their information. In a tangible example, I should not go stalking others, or sharing my friend’s photo if I did not like them doing the same with my photos.