Discuss some of the social and ethical issues raised by living life Essay

Discuss some of the social and ethical issues raised by living life online, especially with regard to personal responsibility and individual rights - Essay Example Also part of the social responsibility of a person living life online is the users right to post pictures and videos of himself or most importantly, of others by tagging them. This is a tool that should not be used lightly as it could be used to harm the social reputation of other people in an instant. (Boyd, Why Youth (Heart) Social Networking Sites...†) It is this particular part of online life that has caused a wave of cyberbullying cases through the irresponsible use of social media profiles and photo tagging opportunities. Due to the egalitarian method by which people interact online, the activity should have promoted camaraderie and greater fairness. Instead, the social networking lifestyle has caused an even greater divide among the public users due to the anonymity of the service.Social networking or online life is not a place where one can expect to develop ethics and virtues such as honesty, openness, and patience. Characteristics which in the real world, help mold th e social consciousness and ethical responsibilty within a person. (Markula Center For Applied Ethics, â€Å"Unavoidable Ethical Questions About Social Networking). All of these instant gratification tools offered by social networking has reduced people and their online interaction to an avatar and a few strokes on the keyboard, thus producing a new generation of highly irresponsible and inconsiderate youth. This is because social networks allow them to act irresponsibly without having to fear repercussions socially because of the difficulty in proving such acts. Ethics is not a consideration because the networking sites do not make them responsible for their actions. It remains an unsupervised world where anything can happen. It is if you prefer to call it, the new wild west waiting to be tamed and brought to a new age of social and ethical