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Sociology and Internet

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Background
Due to the rapid advancement of the information technology, the World Wide Web (WWW) has now become a multifunctional tool. People can get lots of things done through the Internet, chatting with friends through MSN, shopping on Amarzon.com, settling the credit card bill, making new friends through the Facebook, reading newspaper on appledaily.com, etc. Besides, when we want to search for information, we can simply “Google” it, and we get what we want. It is no doubt that the Internet has greatly sped up the flow of information.
In Hong Kong, the popularization of the Internet leads to the formation of different forums, for example Uwants.com, Discuss.com, forum.hkgolden.com, etc. The forums have provided a platform for people …show more content…

Effects of Disclosing other’s Privacy
Privacy refers to the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means being considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information. In addition, Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security, in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.
Since netizens deem that their freedom of speech is valued over other’s personal privacy, the phenomenon of publicizing privacy prevails on the Internet. However, this behavior poses harmful effects on the real society.

First, disclosure of personal privacy has a profound effect on victims and their surrounding people’s life. Some people deliberately post others’ personal information without their consents on open place, such as forum and Facebook. This information may include embarrassing photos, address and phone number. They will then suffer psychologically from daily harassment in real life. For example, the victims would receive

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