Ethics and Social Media

In this course, Dr. Dennen was very good about being clear that if anyone was uncomfortable using a certain social media platform that accommodations could be arranged.

At first, this didn't fully make sense to me, but it makes sense as I consider it more.

I have several friends that don't have Facebook accounts because of the way that the company has handled their information in the past. Consequently, they don't have Instagram because Facebook owns Instagram.

I have friends that won't touch Twitter because, as the legends say, Twitter can be a revolving door of toxicity and misinformation. 

Some people won't touch Snapchat because of the data breach that showed that the "deleted" photos aren't as deleted as users were led to believe.

Others stay away from YouTube because they were willing to allow anti-LGBTQIQA+ advertisements to appear on channels that are explicitly made for a pro-LGBT+ audience. 

My point is that every social media platform has dirt on it that could warrant one to boycott it. That said, I guess you could use the same logic and apply it to our food, technology, and other goods. It is near-impossible to be an ethical consumer in the modern era (especially as a broke grad student). 

Is there any way that we can hold tech companies that run Web 2.0 tools accountable? Boycotting rarely feels like it has a large enough impact, and, considering that social movements tend to start on social media, we run into a difficult roadblock when trying to organize people across the country. 

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