One of the popular functions in social media is the sharing function. Facebook, for instance, the sharing button is one of the most highly used functions to share other members post such as images, graphic, status, quotes, video, event, page and everything that available for sharing on Facebook.
This function is very useful in so many ways. Thanks to the "Viral" Factor, Industrial sector, Entertainment, Education, Activist, Organizations, Individual and many more can benefit from this function to introduce new product, campaign, knowledge and awareness effectively. One simple post can reach up to a million shares in a matter of minutes, translated into various languages and shared across countries. If this function is fully utilized in a good manner, you will have endless lists of good things you can achieve with this single function. This has inspired the social media term of "sharing is caring".
However, each technology comes in "package", apart from the benefit, it also has disadvantages. This is caused by the weakness of the technology itself, the lack of user’s knowledge as well as users who are using the technology with bad intention. These weaknesses are very difficult to control. Take for example, during the earthquakes at Mount Kinabalu Sabah on June 2015, posts and pictures begin to spread immediately after the first tremor. At first the shared post and image is very helpful in giving early information about the incident to the public and also to those involved in the rescue efforts. But not long after that, pictures and stories shared were edited and diverted causing anxiety and confusion to the community. It became worst and some are very offensive, especially to the families of the victims. Other examples are defamation, fraud discrimination, hatred and more. "Sharing is caring" but if it makes another person become a victim, I don't think it is caring anymore.
Therefore we have to be rational when using the sharing function in social media( Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram or forum). Make sure that what we share is authentic, beneficial and not oppressing others. Take time to think deeply before sharing, share what you really want to share and be responsible with what you share because in social media "sharing is not necessarily caring".
By:Tim Leary Thadius
