We keep thinking about the use and abuse of social networks, as well as their level of security to protect our privacy. If we had already assumed that if there is something that you do not want to be known, simply do not post it on Facebook, now the social network gives another twist and is capable of discovering traits of our personality through our “likes”. And we cannot help but be shocked that what at first was a tool to find friends and share experiences, has become a kind of “Big Brother” devised by George Orwell in his most psychotic moments.
You are what you like
- With that almost intuitive gesture of “liking” a Facebook post, you are giving away a significant amount of personal information that should remain private. Aspects such as sexual orientation, political ideology, religion, physical health or emotional balance are revealed just by interacting with the “likes” of this social network, you can even find out if you have an addiction, if your parents are separated or your degree of intelligence.
- This is stated by a study from the University of Cambridge, which shows the importance of interacting with the different publications on Facebook to discover the other aspects of our personality. Through the “likes” you can also know if you are an introvert or extrovert, competitive, generous, collaborative, sad, stable, tenacious, intuitive…
- If you’re curious about what your activity on Facebook says about you, you have the perfect tool on the page, where you can see how experts really perceive you. We have no doubt that companies will take very little time to use these types of tools to choose their candidates, so you can reflect on your way of acting on social networks.
Privacy in social networks
- The truth is that this phenomenon of social networks is advancing so fast that we have not even had time to consider the consequences it may have on our privacy. We know that we are losing privacy in favor of a broader and more global relationship with the rest of the people. And while on an individual level we may not mind that our personality is discovered because we have nothing to hide, that public exposure can be used by third parties to harm us.
- The debate on privacy in social networks is still open and pending to cover all those legal loopholes that leave the user in a situation of total defenselessness before certain crimes such as cyberbullying, exotrosion or online fraud. And it is a serious issue that affects more and more people, being especially dangerous for minors.
- In any case, it is also not convenient to fall into a state of generalized psychosis thinking that we are being watched even in our most intimate aspects. Because our “likes” do not always reflect our personality; something that these studies do not have is all those “likes” that we give to the publications of our friends and acquaintances for pure virtual education and that have nothing to do with our interests.