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University of North Dakota Cyber Risk Prevention
Social media has become a popular platform for college students to interact with each
other on the internet since the last decade, especially with the popularization of hand-held
technologies. Hand-held devices have become a great aspect of modern life, it greatly changed
the behavior, attitude, and priority of modern people. And people are also spending way too
much time on smartphones in a way that human interactions become secondary.
An article regarding people’s use of social media from the Business Insider stated, “Today
social dominates users’ attention. Nearly 20% of total time spent online in the US across both
desktop and mobile devices is on social platforms. Facebook, alone, makes up 14% of total time
spent online, according to comScore” (Adler). Adler confirms that social media is a huge reason
why people use their phone so much, also it conveys that how social media has changed the
traditional way of socializing.
With the fast-growing social media applications such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat,
and Twitter etc. making their way to younger generations of users, college adolescents tend to be
the most loyal users of these applications, as supported, “Over 90% of college students use social
media” (Morgan, Snelson, & Elsion-Bowers). However, many college students do not realize the
risk involved in their use of social media, and it makes them exceptionally vulnerable to potential
harms.
Cyberbullying, one of the most infamous risk of using social media, is very common
among its younger users. Unlike traditional bullying, “Cybervictimization was more strongly
associated with suicide ideation (OR, 3.12; 95% CI, 2.40-4.05) than traditional bullying
victimization (OR, 2.16; 95% CI, 2.05-2.28)” (Gini & Espelage). Because of the anonymity of
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netizens on social media, adolescents who are naturally prone to participating in bullying, can
become more abetted in committing cyberbullying.
A very common medium for cyberbullying is through social media, where the adolescents
network with each other beside daily interactions. With the spread of smartphones, adolescents
now have much easier access to social media, which leave then more exposed to the problem of
cyber bullying, “Cyberbullying, defined as an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group
or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who
cannot easily defend him or herself, occurs over electronic media such as social media (Smith et
al., 2008, p. 1). Through such social media, cyberbullies are able to target their potential victims
anonymously using pseudo usernames and profile pictures, leaving the victims helpless and
unable to defend themselves (Slonje & Smith, 2008)” (Cheng).
The use of alcohol and the conduct of other risky behaviors are not uncommon among
college students, and these behaviors are very often posted on social media by college students.
The posts of alcohol drinking are often glamorized and normalized which promotes and
influence the peer pressure in terms of the use of alcohol. “Alcohol displays on social media
have been associated with myriad alcohol-related behaviors and negative outcomes. For
example, college students who viewed a profile with alcohol content reported greater perceived
peer norms of alcohol use than those who viewed a profile without alcohol-related content (d =
0.61), lending support to social norms theory as a framework to explain links between social
media use and risky behaviors” (Fournier).
Social media is normalizing the attitudes toward underage drinking among college
students. It leads to an underage drinking norm which makes more adolescents curious of
consuming alcohol, as supported, “Higher attention to (e.g., intentions to share) and more
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positive attitudes toward alcohol-related status updates on Facebook were related to higher
intentions to consume alcohol (d = 0.75; Alhabash, McAlister, Quilliam, Richards, & Lou,
2015), a finding that lends further support to the social norms theory explanation of the
connection between depictions of alcohol use on social media and individual alcohol
use”(Groth).
College students should also have more awareness of their online privacy status, as the
flow of internet information become more accessible to the public than ever before. College
students should be aware of the contents they choose to post, because these posts might backfire
on them when they apply for their future jobs. An article called “The Risks of Pre-employment
Social Media Screening” written by Gregory M. Saylin and Tyson C. Horrocks concludes that
while increasing number of states are banning employers’ unlimited access to job applicants’
