Social media is a phenomenal market for illegal drug sales

According to drugabuse.com, many people on Facebook, Twitter and especially Instagram are using pictures and hashtags to sell drugs.

According to drugabuse.com, many people on Facebook, Twitter and especially Instagram are using pictures and hashtags to sell drugs. It may seem like an obvious way to catch drug dealers but more often than not it is the buyer, not the seller, that is affected most with negative consequences.

Here's how simple it is. When a person is looking to buy drugs they look for hastags like "#kush4sale", or usernames such as "ihavedrugs4sale." The buyer gets in contact with the user who usually has pictures of the product available. The buyer and seller usually talk through DM (direct messages) or anonymous apps like Kik.

Like many sellers, they want their money transferred electronically through Paypal or something similar. However, their methods of shipping are pretty standard and options like UPS and FedEx are used. However, the seller will usually only sell large amounts of drugs.

The buyer receives a package with no return address, for obvious reasons, so if the package is intercepted by authorities they often let it go through and arrest the recipient once he or she signs for it.

There's also another issue: If sent through the mail, there is the potential for a federal charge, especially since these dealers only ship large amounts.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/selling-drugs-on-social-media-the-stupidest-people-on-the-internet-vol-1/

Teens, Social Media, and Privacy

Teens are sharing more details about themselves on social media profiles, but few do so publicly; 60% of teen Facebook users keep their profiles private  

Teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-party access to their data;  just 9% say they are “very” concerned

Teen Twitter use has grown significantly: 24% of online teens use Twitter, up from 16% in 2011.

WASHINGTON (May 21, 2013) – Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information. Despite taking these privacy-protective actions, teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data; just 9% say they are “very” concerned.

These are among the new findings from a nationally representative Pew Research Center survey of 802 youth ages 12-17 and their parents that explored technology use. Key findings include:

Teens are sharing more information about themselves on their social media profiles than they did when we last surveyed in 2006:

91% post a photo of themselves, up from 79% in 2006.
71% post their school name, up from 49%.
71% post the city or town where they live, up from 61%.
53% post their email address, up from 29%.
20% post their cell phone number, up from 2%.
60% of teen Facebook users set their Facebook profiles to private (friends only), and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings.

56% of teen Facebook users say it’s “not difficult at all” to manage the privacy controls on their Facebook profile.
33% Facebook-using teens say it’s “not too difficult.”
8% of teen Facebook users say that managing their privacy controls is “somewhat difficult,” while less than 1% describe the process as “very difficult.”
Teens take other steps to shape their reputation, manage their networks, and mask information they don’t want others to see.

59% have deleted or edited something that they posted in the past.
53% have deleted comments from others on their profile or account.
45% have removed their name from photos that have been tagged to identify them.
31% have deleted or deactivated an entire profile or account.

Focus group participants report that they are able to manage their privacy on social media sites, usually by deciding what content to post rather than by managing its dissemination via privacy settings.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/teens-social-media-and-privacy-2/

Social Media statistics

15% of Americans have never checked their social networking privacy and security account settings. (National Cyber Security Alliane (NCSA)-MacAfee Online Safety Study, 2011)
69% of social media-using teens think that peers are mostly kind to each other on social networking sites, however, 88% of teens have seen someone be mean or curel to another person on a social networking site. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011)
12% of teens say they witnessed cruel behavior "frequently" on social networking sites. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011)
15% of social media-using teens say they have been the target of online meanness. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011ial
Social Media is now the number one activity on the web
93 % of teen Facebook users share their real name (PEW Research Center, 2013)
92% of teen Facebook users share pictures of themselves (PEW Research Center, 2013)
21% of teen Facebook users share their personal cell phone number (PEW Research Center, 2013)
25% of teen Facebook users share videos of themselves (PEW Reseach Center, 2013)
65% of social media-using teens have had an experience on a social networking site that made them feel good about themselves. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011)
58% of social media-using teens have felt closer to another person because of an experience on a social networking site. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011)
2,332 arrests for Internet sex crimes against minors involved social networking sites (Journal of Adolescent Health, 2010)
Cases involving social networking sites (SNS) were more likely to result in a face-to-face meeting. This was true of 81% of SNS-involved cases and true of 55% of non-SNS cases (Journal of Adolescent Health, 2010)
41% of social media-using teens have experienced at least one negative outcome as a result of using a social networking site. (Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011)
25% have had an experience that led to a face-to-face argument or confrontation.
22% have had an experience that ended their friendship with someone.
13% have had an experience that caused a problem with their parents.
8% have gotten into a physical fight with someone else because of something that happened on a social networking site.
6% have gotten in trouble at school because of an experience on a social networking site.
29% of Internet sex crime relationships were initiated on a social networking site. (Journal of Adolescent Health 27, 2010)
In 26% of online sex crimes against minors, offenders disseminated information and/or picutres of the victim through the victim's personal social networking site. (Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 2010)
33% of of all Internet-initiated sex crimes involved social networking sites. (Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 2010)
26% of Americans say they are sharing more information on social networks today than one year ago. (National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)-MacAfee Online Safety Study, 2011)
24% of Americans say they are not at all confident in their ability to use privacy settings. (National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)-MacAfee Online Safety Study, 2011)
In half of all sex crimes against a minor involving a social networking site, the social networking site was used to initiate the relationship. (Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 2010)
Cases of Internet sex crimes against children involving social networking sites were more likely to result in a face-to-face meeting. This was true of 81% of Internet-initiated crimes involving a social networking site. (Journal of Adolescent Health 27, 2010)
38% of Facebook users in the last year were under the age of 13. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
More than 25% of Facebook users last year were under the age of 10. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
Only 18% of parents with children under 10 on Facebook are actually "friends" with their child on the site. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
62% of parents of teens ages 13-14 are "friends" with their child are Facebook. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
Only 10% of parents of children aged 10 and under had frank talks about appropriate online behavior and threats. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
Of the active adult users of Facebook, 66% reported they did not know privacy controls existed on Facebook and/or they did not know how to use the privacy controls. (Consumer Reports, June 2011)
85% of parents with teenage children ages 13-17 report that their child has a social networking site. (American Osteopathic Association, 2011)
22% of teenagers log on to their facorite social media site more than 10 times a day. (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson and COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA, March 2011)
More than 50% of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day. (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, Kathleen Clark-Pearson and COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA, March 2011)
29% of Internet sex crime relationships were initiated on a social networking site. (Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 2010)
72% of teens have a social networking profile and nearly half (47%) have a public profile viewable by anyone.
Frequently children in 4th-6th grade levels engage in social networking activities. In the process they post personal, potentially exploitable, information about themselves online. Specifically, and within the last school year: 16% posted personal interests online, 15% posted information about their physical activities and 20% gave out their real name. In addition, 5% posted information about their school, 6% posted their home address, 6% posted their phone number and 9% posted pictures of themselves.
Some 23 percent of teen profile creators say it would be "pretty easy" for someone to find out who they are from the information posted to their profile, and 40 percent of teens with profiles online think that it would be hard for someone to find out who they are from their profile, but that they could eventually be found online. Another 36 percent say they think it would be "very difficult" for someone to identify them from their online profile.
 Teens often include the following information on their social networking profiles:

o   Real age (50%)

o   Photos of themselves (62%)

o   City they live in (41%)

o   School name/location (45%)

o   Videos of friends (16%)

o   Videos of themselves (14%)

o   Their cell phone number (14%)

o   Places where they typically go (9%)

59% of teens perceive that public blogs or social networking sites are unsafe.
76% of teens are at least somewhat concerned that posting information publicly could negatively impact future.
 26% of teens know someone something bad has happened to because of information or photos posted online.

http://www.internetsafety101.org/Socialmediastats.htm

Ten scariest hacking statistics

1. Playstation Network

Hacking attacks are no longer isolated to just the computer you use to send emails and browse the web. In April of 2011 the Sony Playstation Network had to shut down for a few days as well as their Qriocity service due to an  “external intrusion” that compromised an estimated 77 million user accounts.

2. Intellectual Property Stolen

In the year 2008 alone there was an estimated $1 Trillion dollars worth of intellectual property stolen due to hackers gaining access to confidential data stored on enterprise systems worldwide. That’s enough to make even Dr. Evil happy.

3. Passwords

It takes only 10 minutes to crack a lowercase password that is 6 characters long. Add two extra letters and a few uppercase letters and that number jumps to 3 years. Add just one more character and some numbers and symbols and it will take 44,530 years to crack.

4. Victims

Nearly three quarters, 73 percent, of all Americans have fallen victim to some type of cyber crime. Makes you wonder if that has any effect on the local real estate market?

5. Time is not on your side

There is a 156 day lapse between the time a computer resource is compromised and the time the compromise is detected. That leaves your attacker almost half a year to run amok. The sad part is, using a proven malware solution on all computer resources, including web servers, can reduce the amount of time substantially.

6. Business is booming

In a recent survey it was reported that 90 percent of all businesses suffered some sort of computer hack over the past 12 months and 77 percent of these companies felt that they were successfully attacked several times over the same period of time. Since most attacks are a direct result of a malware infection, small businesses need to have some type of protection in place.

7. Zombies everywhere!

In 2009 the security firm Finjan discovered a bot net run by a Ukranian gang that consisted of over 1.9 million zombie computers. The bot net earned its owners up to $190,000 per day. Talk about an apocalypse!

8. Infected sites

Talk about surfing in shark infested waters… Research estimates that every day more than 30,000 websites are infected with some type of malware; most of them belonging to small businesses. Without proper a proper malware detection and removal solution in place, SMEs run the risk of having their web presence shut down by their hosting company, isp or even removed from Google’s search.

9. Vulnerable sites

Not only do web sites face the threat of malware, but the number of applications that power web 2.0 sites open the door to many vulnerabilities as well. In 2010 the average web site was found to have over 230 serious vulnerabilities. Only 53 percent of these vulnerabilities were dealt with over the course of a year.

10. Who are you?

Over 27 million Americans have fallen victim to identity theft over the past five years. 9 million of them found their identities stolen in the last year alone.

https://www.stopthehacker.com/2012/04/20/ten-scariest-hacking-statistics/

Growth of Social Media spam

Despite the advances in web technology over the past few decades, one of the challenges that users continue to face is spam. A research report published by Microsoft Research back in 2004 showed that the presence of webspam on the internet can be identified through statistical analysis. While studies as this have played an important role in identifying and filtering spam, the growth of such websites and pages continue unabated. Experts attribute this growth to the deficiency in technology that govern the identification and filtering out of such pages. Cheap link building tactics aimed at sprucing up the PageRank of a website are often a major cause for link spam online.

Over the past year, Google has deployed a couple of major algorithmic updates aimed at curtailing this practice. Dubbed the ‘Penguin’, the update was aimed at spammy link and content marketing tactics that has been seen as a major reason for webspam. Given these important changes, the spate of link spam was expected to come down. However, according to Social Media security firm NexGate, the overall level of spam on the internet has continued to rise thanks to its increase in other platforms like social media. In a first of its kind report on social media spam, NexGate reports a 355% increase in what they call ‘social spam’ during the first half of this year. Here are some really interesting takeaways from their report:

Social media apps that are spammy 5%
Spammy social media apps that are brand-owned 20% (that is 1% overall)
Average number of social profiles contacted by a spamming account 23
Number of new spam accounts created 5 out of every 7 new accounts
Most popular social platforms for spammers Facebook & YouTube
Percentage of spam posts that contain a URL 15%
Overall number of spammy social media messages 1 out of every 200

As anybody who frequents websites like Facebook and YouTube may know, the spam on these websites are extremely higher than what may be noticed on other social media websites. NexGate estimates this number to be 100 times more than other social networks. Consequent to this, the number of phishing attacks on Facebook are also higher than any other network – by a factor of 4. Given that a huge percentage of spam are scams aimed at fooling people into divulging their confidential information, the financial repercussions of social media spam are huge. Some estimates point at a revenue loss of close to $200 million just from Facebook.

Given the rise in prominence of social networks like Instagram and Pinterest, it is to be seen how these various companies huddle up with the likes of Facebook to find a way to root out spam from the social media space.

http://techcrunchies.com/growth-of-social-media-spam-statistics-for-2013/

Five crazy ways Social Media Is Changing your brain right now

Social media sites are now used by a third of the planet, and the impact that this relatively new phenomenon is having on culture, both collectively and from country-to-country, is still unknown.
But what about the human brain? What is social media doing to us as individuals?

In this video, you will see how Social Media changes our brain daily.

Five more negative effects of Social Media on your brain

Social media is addictive.

Studies show that 63% of Americans log on to Facebook daily, and 40% log on multiple times each day. People use the site for myriad reasons; however, it usually serves, on some level, the same basic purposes: distraction and boredom relief. “Likes” and comments are positive reinforcement for posting information, making it difficult for a person to stop. Researchers have found this so common that they created a scale to measure this addiction: The Berge Facebook Addiction Scale.

Social media gives rise to cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is an enormous concern, especially for adolescents. An organization that aims for internet safety, called Enough is Enough, conducted a survey that found 95% of teenagers who use social media have witnessed cyberbullying, and 33% have been victims themselves.

Social media advertises drug and alcohol use.

A study that explored the relationship between teenagers, social media, and drug use found that 70% of teenagers ages 12 to 17 use social media, and that those who interact with it on a daily basis are five times more likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to use alcohol, and twice as likely to use marijuana. In addition, 40% admitted they had been exposed to pictures of people under the influence via social media, suggesting correlation between the two factors. Although a correlation is all it is, it makes sense that social media would amp up the amount of peer pressure to which teenagers are exposed.

Social media can make us unhappy.

A study from the University of Michigan collected data about Facebook users and how it correlated with their moods. Simply put, they found that the more avid users were overall more unhappy than those who used the site less. Over more time, avid users also reported lower satisfaction in their lives overall.

Social media makes us compare our lives with others’.

Posts on social media many times present an idealized version of what’s happening, what something looks like, or how things are going. This can lead users to constantly compare themselves to others and think less of their own lives. If things are going particularly well for people in your newsfeed and you’re having a rough day, of course this will likely negatively affect your mood. In fact, in 2012 a team of researchers in the UK surveyed users, 53% of whom said social media had changed their behavior; 51% said it was negative behavior because of decline in confidence they felt due to unfair comparisons to others.

http://degreed.com/blog/top-10-ways-social-media-affects-mental-health/

''Is Google Making Us Stupid?'' by Nicholas Carr

   

     Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” discusses how the use of the computer affects our thought process. I think that it is a good subject for discussion. On the one hand, there is no  lack of the information when using the Google. In the age of the modern technologies people can find any information easily or can be occupied with self-education via the Internet. On the other hand, this opportunity to find information easily stops people from using their own knowledge. Nicholas Carr says “If you’re really interested in developing your mind, you should turn off your computer and your cell phone and start thinking. Really thinking. You can Google all the facts you want, but you’ll never Google your way to brilliance.” Nowadays we don't need to memorize information because we always can find it in the Internet and it really makes us stupid. You can easily find answers for your homework in Google instead of doing it by yourself. You can find very well done essays in Google and copy it instead of writing it by yourself, but this easy way won't make you more educated.

Technology is replacing face to face communication

     Experts agree that technology itself is not a bad thing, but the way it is used can be cause for concern. When technology infiltrated the world of communication, it started phasing out personal connections and created a world based on ''likes'' and ''hashtags.'' “It is much easier to communicate and stay in contact with people over the internet,” said senior nursing major Dustin Dy. “It makes people more efficient with their time.” Although some may say these websites have positive effects on our society, there are more negative impacts that should make us think twice about using them. For example, the first chat room was invented at the University of Illinois in 1973. Less than 20 years later, in 1992, the first mobile text message was sent. By 2010, the world was sending about 193,000 texts per second, Gizmodo reported. Just imagine what will happen with our society in the nearest future. A study conducted for online casino Yazino found that one in four people spend more time socializing online, via sites such as Facebook and Twitter, than they do in person. This shift may begin to affect their ability to properly communicate in person with peers.

     Also the Internet addiction now will be listed as a mental illness with emotional shutdown and lack of concentration. This problem becomes more dangerous, because new generation is Internet addicted from the childhood. Kids ages 8 to 18 spending on average 44.5 hours per week in front of screens, and parents are increasingly concerned that screen time is robbing them of real world experiences. Nearly 23% of kids are addicted to video games. These are the results of a new study of 1,178 U.S. children and teens conducted by Harris Interactive in 2007. As a result, they feel alone, alienated, and have problems making new friends, they turn to invisible strangers in online chat rooms. They may come from families with significant problems, and they cope with their problems by spending time online.

In conclusion, I would like to say that nothing can replace face-to-face conversation and interactions. The Internet addiction is a really big problem of 21th century and people should use the Internet more carefully. 

http://www.statehornet.com/opinion/technology-is-replacing-face-to-face-communication/article_78aa60d8-d570-11e3-ae4d-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/resources/tips/ethics-and-legal/family-internet-addiction-what-can-parents-do
http://college.usatoday.com/2012/10/11/opinion-why-social-media-is-destroying-our-social-skills/

Facebook addiction

Wasting time on the Internet is a growing social issue which is being debated worldwide. Internet Addiction Disorder ruins lives by causing neurological complications, psychological disturbances, and social problems. The main idea of this post is showing statistics data of Facebook addiction.

On this page you will find more Facebook addiction statistics, facts about those who are obsessed with Facebook, information on how often people use Facebook, the average number of hours spent on Facebook per week, and many more Facebook addiction stats that may be very surprising.
http://www.techaddiction.ca/facebook-addiction-statistics.html

Social media: spying in the Internet

During my research I found very interesting articles. The authors of this article talk about spying in the Internet. They say that the US government with assistance from major companies including ''AT&T,'' ''Google'' and ''Facebook'' engaged in massive, illegal spying for millions of Americans since at least 2001. The authors tells that US National Security Agency has illegally obtained information not only about US citizens but and about more than 120 heads of state and governments. Nowadays we know about huge amount of scandals with spying. Perhaps from the mass media you know about the last big scandal with Angela Merkel. German government have started an investigation over tapping of a mobile phone of the chancellor. Ms. Merkel said there is "no basis for trust" to Washington. She said there was no guarantee that Washington would change its intelligence service policy. Also Julian Assange, the chief of the website WikiLeaks, says that Google’s business model is the spy. It makes more than 80 percent of its money by collecting information about people, storing it, building profiles of people to predict their behavior, and then selling those profiles. Of course, everyone knows about former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency who published information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in the social media.The documents leaked by Snowden indicate that the US government has been collecting a record of most calls made within the US, emails, Facebook posts, searches and social media posts and instant messages of an unspecified number of people. Documents from Snowden show that not only NSA but and British GCH has a similar programs.

In conclusion I would like to say that all these actions infringe human and civil rights and freedoms and can increase mistrust and hostility between citizens and government.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/germany-inquiry-nsa-tapping-angela-merkel-phone
http://rt.com/news/188896-assange-google-nsa-spying/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/merkel-sensible-talks-alleged-us-spying-germany-nsa-snoweden

"Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" by Malcolm Gladwell

     Using the Internet has become one of the most important factors in our life today, but nowadays people can't simply click a button to solve all their problems. In the Malcolm Gladwell's article "Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" the author says that social network is not a required element to organize a revolution. Gladwell gives the example and tells us about four African-American college students, who were not given equal opportunity due to their race, and about their protest that began in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960. Gladwell explains that these students were able to make the protest without mobile devices, e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter. This protest was done by spreading words instead of social media and as a result seventy thousand students eventually took part in this protest. Also, the author shows us the kinds of activism and tells us that social media builds a weak ties. The distinction that Gladwell makes between "strong ties" - or strong social relationships versus "weak ties" is that real revolution occurs through the strong ties. Weak ties, like Facebook and Twitter communication, aren't strong enough to get the job done.

     Using social networks to inform people about a problem is the most effective way of spreading information. I personally accede to Gladwell's point of view. With the using of the modern technologies, things can be done much quicker. Social media is playing a key role in uniting people together, but activism does not require technology. Social media makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact. You can collect 50000 of people through a simple click on the button on Facebook. It seems easier and the digits of 50000 look huge, however when 50000 people are united and physically present they make bigger impact than people on Facebook.