Social media continues to flow into every facet of our lives because everyone sees that the opportunities and positives greatly outweigh the perceived constraints and negatives. Being able to communicate globally has great value, whether you are an individual or a company reworking your marketing plans. Productivity and cost savings will help push this new media even further into society. Having said that, there are some effects that are not positive, and these privacy concerns, as an example, need to be rationalized and regulated before society loses total control as these technologies keep growing exponentially.
We need to ask the question ” does social media needed to be regulated to protest ourselves or society ? Where should the lines be drawn that show us when it’s appropriate to use social media, and when is it harmful ? What should the penalties be, and how do we assign severity. Should some activities be outright illegal, leaving some to be frowned upon, leaving the rest as acceptable.
A first response might be to equate social media with other, culturally appropriate activities. In this way, we could borrow the social norms from say, driving a car, and “cut and paste” these accepted rules onto social media. Everyone might need to have a licence to text, after registering and passing a test.
An alternative might be to use our current gun laws as the governance model. A background check might be considered, but that’s about it. Using the gun would have huge consequences, but showing it to people ( concealment laws ? ) or just having one available ( in your car or home ) for self defense, would be legal.
As a retired Boomer, my view of social media remains one of mainly an interested bystander. I do not have to use certain media channels that a job might force me to learn, I can pick the advertising medium that I like, and I choose not to have a media assistant, like Amazon’s Alexa. I use my iPhone, but constantly leave it at home. I do use social media to scan the news of the world, play bridge online, play the markets, and connect with friends. I am not building a business, care about search engine optimization, am interested in luring someone into a compromised video, want to bully anyone, or spread “fake news”. So, while I do not use many of the available tools, I am aware of the negative reaches of social media, and still believe that we can and should control it.
Using gun laws as a regulation template, while perhaps useful, seem to me to be too narrow in scope to handle all the social media uses, never mind the political emotion attached to firearms. To contemplate a safe, proven schema instead, using driving laws fits the bill. Cyber bullying could equate to drunk driving, and the same laws could letch over to that type of media activity. Addicted to gaming or online texting ? Speed limit fines could work here, limiting your screen time. Posting inappropriate videos sounds like reckless driving with, resulting in the loss of your accounts, or a ban on usage.
Yes, the adoption of regulations are needed, but let’s not reinvent the wheel if we already have a framework we could graft with little editing. Do you agree ? Might you suggest a different schema, or even have some ideas of how to meld our accepted driving laws onto the social media landscape ? Please put your thoughts in the comments section below, and let’s see if we can start a drive to regulate social media.
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Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
