Social-hijacker
Social-hijacker: noun (sō-shŭll-hī-jă-kĕr)
- A person who attempts to sabotage another persons credibility by covertly attacking them through the virtual medium of social media by covertly accessing their personal data.
- A person who leaks real or manufactured gossip over the internet with the intent to create a viral scandal.
- An internet enemy who covertly or deliberately harasses another persons by attacking their posts and online content.
KNOWETH THINE ENEMIES: AND BLOCK THEM ASAP!
The Subtle Art Of Deflecting Social Media Hijacking
Why do people do the things they do? Perhaps the question should be rephrased as, “Why do we let people do the things they do”? For as long as I have maintained a presence in the various diverse social media sites the rumor of social sabotage has lingered in the air. Marriages have been ended, engagements severed, friendships cancelled lovers betrayed all because of the crafty and stealthy manipulation of this virtual medium we call the social media. Certainly social media sites have the potential to do great good bringing valuable information to innumerable audiences around the world essentially bringing people together. But there is a shadier side to social media, an insidious and opportunistic dynamic that has the ability to invade the guarded privacy of individuals and expose it in the most unflattering ways setting circumstances in motion that have the potential to create confusion, unhappiness and just plain drama.
If the pluralistic society is one in which privacy has no place then humanity had better quickly move forward to allow its social awareness and tolerance catch up. It is no coincidence that one of the most popular programs in America is named “Scandal”! Americans thrive on scandal, and it has been said by men far more astute than me that this is because of the puerile nature of the American psyche with respect to human sexuality and a host of other social phenomena germane to the world of mature folk. I would be remiss if did not give some great credibility to this theory. After all I was once a school teacher and I remember the social climate of elementary and middle school children tattling, gossiping, oohing and ahhing at everything that was new and eluded their ability to comprehend. So when I look at the crudely crafted tabloids positioned at both sides of the grocery store check-out counter aisle I shake my head and wonder how in the world such garbage could ever interest any mature adult who actually had a life of their own to manage. Not that Scandal is a bad thing, it is actually merely a sign of the times… For example, America is a nation that is more focused on the race of its elected president than the welfare of its people allowing its penchant for racism to redirect its focus from the greater economic and physical good of its people in order to pursue a wild campaign to defame a man of proven wisdom and ethical fortitude. In the absence of any real “scandal” the media has abandoned all semblance of reality to manufacture (since there is no real dirt to uncover) the wildest accusations exploiting America’s adolescent appetite for rumor, tattling, conjecture, gossip all adding up to the spurious sum of scandal. American’s only learn too well from their teachers, American culture and ultimately become the thing they are cultivated to be.
Zooning into a more personal scale we find ourselves susceptible to the same calculated invasions of our privacy by persons who otherwise have no business in our business. Since we are not international dignitaries or Pop Stars it seems that we should be exempted from being the target of a focused scandal by default but it just is not so. Somebody who may not have a life of their own or whose life is defined by the ruination of another person’s life, (which still adds up to not having a life of their own), is waiting in the shadows for an opportunity to dish the dirt and woe to him who becomes the object of that hollow persons vengeance. Social media sites ironically provide the perfect venue for a targeted revenge plot that might end in scandal. Fortunately there are many ways to deflect social gophers who would tunnel into another person’s life hanging out with the intent of finding and exploiting any and every bit of potential scandal they can put their hands on. There are many ways that social hijackers can be deflected.
1. NEVER POST ANYTHING IN A SOCIAL MEDIA SITE THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO BECOME COMMON KNOWLEDGE
2. SCREEN PEOPLE WHO WILL HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
3. BLOCK PERMISSIONS TO CERTAIN PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT MIGHT BECOME POSTED IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE BY YOURSELF OR OTHERS.
4. CHECK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE FREQUENTLY TO MONITOR ACTIVITY.
5. NEVER POST YOUR ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, OR ANY DATA THAT IDENTITY THIEVES CAN USE TO HACK YOUR ACCOUNTS.
6. NEVER ALLOW STRANGERS ACCESS TO POSTS IDENTIFYING WHO YOU ARE DATING, MARRIED TO OR WHO YOUR CLOSE FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE, PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT PAST AND PRESENT, CHURCH OR OTHER PERSONAL VENUES.
7. NEVER POST INFORMATION LINKING YOURSELF TO PERSONS YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DATING, TO PLACES YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GOING OR TO THINGS YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.
After reading these rules it becomes clear that you almost literally can only present yourself to the public as a completely filtered version of yourself. Being real online is a potential social hazard. It is unfortunate but in the present climate we live in society almost forces an individual to suppress themselves or run the risk that at some unexpected point in time they will become the victim of a social hijacker intent upon ruining their reputation for the sheer lust of revenge... you'll have to ask yourself if indeed you are willing to expose yourself and those you love to that level of risk.
As rule opportunistic hijackers will utilize every resource they can to pry into your life and find out information you never would have imagined they could access and many times you literally handed them the data. Even checking in on Facebook gives social hijackers a window of opportunity to spy on you. I like to use many social media sites and I feel that I can do so and still maintain my privacy. My rule of thumb is to second-guess everything I post and everyone that I come into contact with in cyberspace because at the end of the day you just may not know a predator when you see them, because you may not really see them at all. Predators can hide behind spurious identities and you may never really know who it was who hacked into your life and tried to turn something you may or may not have done into a scandal…
FIN
WRITTEN BY: BIGDADDY BLUES
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