On the Detrimental impact of Chain Letters on Social Networks
|

On the Detrimental impact of Chain Letters on Social Networks

Byrichard

In the 90s, people found it fun to share chain letters. At the time, this was something new to many of us, so we found them fun. We received and then passed them on, but over the volume of chain letters become a torrent of spam. The letter is fun the first time you see it. If twenty people forwarded it to 20 more, then we’re speaking about four hundred e-mails. We’re speaking about thousands of letters that have no productive effect on society.


After a while people grew bored with chain letters, so they blocked them, or they told off the people sending those messages. In 2007 or so, when Facebook was still young and moral people started to share chain letters through this network, and at first they’re fun, and we fill them in, and we share that info with friends, and we look forward to them doing the same.


There are two issues with chain letters. The first of these is privacy. By filling in and sharing chain letters, we are providing a lot of personal information that we may not want others to know about us. Polls and other tools were used to gather information to influence elections in a variety of countries.


The second reason for which chain letters are unpleasant is that they produce noise. Social networks easily become very noisy, and it takes constant care and attention to ensure that they do not become too noisy. If you tolerate chain letters once, be assured that you will get twenty more within a few weeks. If you put a stop to them immediately, then you avoid noise.


My reason for using social media is to establish direct connections with individuals, not to fill in silly chain letters. I want to have an exchange of questions of answers. Without questions and answers, I could be reading a book, or a blog. If I devote time to being “as live” I want to interact as if we were conversing.


“If it’s not hurting anyone, then don’t comment on someone else’s conversation.” In the grand scheme of things I used a retweet, which means that I was speaking to my own community, not that person’s. Second, chain letters do harm someone. Me. Social media is not my toilet break from family life. Twitter is my family life, especially during a pandemic.


My message is simple. Don’t spam twitter or other social networks with chain letters. It may look harmless, but it isn’t.

E-mail security

Byrichard

Many people have e-mail accounts and enjoy writing to their friends every day, but little do they know about the dangers of hackers or people who have too much time on their hands. A few weeks ago while I was on the computers it struck me how simple it might be to enter someone’s account. I therefore wondered what methods there were of finding passwords.


Chain letters:


We all receive many forwards, chain letters and so on. Sometimes there are some which are like a form asking many harmless questions about your hobbies, favourite foods etc. and you fill these in without thinking very hard. Some of them even include questions such as “What is your dream vacation spot?” or “What would you buy if you won the lottery?” Notice anything? That’s right! They are the same questions as the ones that e-mail providers suggest for the password hint. By sending out this information, you invite people to attempt a break-in..


Watching people and getting to know them:


Getting to know people is another good way of getting passwords. For example one person’s hint was “Who do I like” and if you know the person, it won’t take too long to figure out the password.


Keeping the browser window open and letting someone else use the computer:


Since I have my own laptop, I am safe from this threat. But many times in the computer room I have seen some people leave the browser window open. This may seem fairly harmles but you’re encouraging someone to use your account to send messages under your name. If it happens to be someone honest using the computer after you, then nothing bad should happen. But if it is someone who is bored, angry or just has a twisted or cruel sense of humour,   then they may insult a person to whom you were writing.  These sorts of pranks can destroy an e-mail friendship without your even knowing why.


To Conclude:


I hope that I have successfully demonstrated that care should be taking in choosing a password and also that you should log out and close Internet Explorer or other browsers before letting someone else use the computer.


safe surfing/ surf’s up/ logging out for now.