Prior thoughts:
Before researching about this topic I thought that social media was not 100% safe, as anyone can create a fake identity/ account to cat-fish anyone they like. I thought that cat-fishing would be common on social networking and online dating sites and from thinking this I thought that most people on social media would have been cat-fished ever since social networking came out. My opinions why people would have done it is to either want revenge, being lonely/bored, just wanting to cause trouble or wanting people's money, but one of the main reasons I thought people did it is because they are not confident in who they are, so they pretend to be someone they are not. People who get cat-fished may reply out of curiosity or to just want to talk to someone or for other reasons. I thought that after replying to someone you don't know, it could perhaps lead to consequences.
Research:
After making a survey on this topic, I found that 91% had not been cat-fished, while 8% had been cat-fished. The consequences from this for some of the people were: "I lost trust in everyone" "I blocked them" "I got bullied for asking people for nudes". Those responses were the main ones that showed up from the survey.
I then asked how safe do you think it is to message people you don't know on social media, 1 being not safe at all and 5 being safe. The top answer being 1, with 22 people thinking that it was not safe.
My next question was have you ever cat-fished someone on social media? 8 out of 69 people had and their responses for the consequences were: "heart broken" "I felt kinda bad after" "we found out some valuable goss" "nothing bad, was just having a bit of fun. I made sure I didn't say anything bad."
From doing this survey I found that not as many people had been cat-fished to what I thought, as only 8% of people had. This to me shows that social media isn't that bad a place, but you should still be aware of situations like this.
Suggestions if you are being cat-fished:
Suggestions show, if you are being cat-fished do not give any personal information away, don't send them money, ask to video chat them (you will have your answer too if they are making a fake identity or not) you can even just block them, report the account if you think it is a cat-fishing account and can tell by obvious reasons, or you could just not reply. This then means you won't be stuck in a situation you don't want to be in or could lead to consequences.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think that there can be cat-fishers out there on social media who can ruin a person's life. But I don't think there are as many as what people think. I think that currently social media is a much safer place than what it used to be. From research, I found stories about people who had been cat-fished but were not recent stories. I think it is better knowing who you are messaging for safety than messaging someone you don't know as this person just could be a cat-fisher. I also think that after people do cat-fish people they feel bad.
I then asked how safe do you think it is to message people you don't know on social media, 1 being not safe at all and 5 being safe. The top answer being 1, with 22 people thinking that it was not safe.
My next question was have you ever cat-fished someone on social media? 8 out of 69 people had and their responses for the consequences were: "heart broken" "I felt kinda bad after" "we found out some valuable goss" "nothing bad, was just having a bit of fun. I made sure I didn't say anything bad."
From doing this survey I found that not as many people had been cat-fished to what I thought, as only 8% of people had. This to me shows that social media isn't that bad a place, but you should still be aware of situations like this.
Suggestions if you are being cat-fished:
Suggestions show, if you are being cat-fished do not give any personal information away, don't send them money, ask to video chat them (you will have your answer too if they are making a fake identity or not) you can even just block them, report the account if you think it is a cat-fishing account and can tell by obvious reasons, or you could just not reply. This then means you won't be stuck in a situation you don't want to be in or could lead to consequences.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think that there can be cat-fishers out there on social media who can ruin a person's life. But I don't think there are as many as what people think. I think that currently social media is a much safer place than what it used to be. From research, I found stories about people who had been cat-fished but were not recent stories. I think it is better knowing who you are messaging for safety than messaging someone you don't know as this person just could be a cat-fisher. I also think that after people do cat-fish people they feel bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment