Our constant check-ins, hashtags, picture updates and so on seem to make a part of our lives.

Keeping our social media accounts up to date with our whereabouts seems to be the trend now, and even if you find it annoying and as a show-off, well, it is happening! 

The obvious downside to all this is that it makes your life so public that if one wanted to do you some harm, they wouldn’t even have to try much and just keep tabs on your whereabouts online. For this very reason, it is very important to not add unknown people to your accounts. We understand that the more the number of people on your friend lists, the number of reactions you get on your posts and that it boosts your popularity. And, what about its making you a victim as a consequence of your own careless deeds?

Credibility is something which is usually not found on social platforms. It is easy to deceive on multiple levels – post a great picture while your life isn’t so great and it might give someone else a negative feeling about their own self (we do advise you to uninstall these apps if the case is so, reduce the urge by switching off push notifications, keeping a folder in your phone with pictures of your achievements and motivational posters – your own self-esteem must be positive first!), creation of fraud accounts and similar fraud pages, cheating people for their money in various ways, even pretension to be someone behind a screen while this person might as well be a psychopath!

Do remember that once you give your personal details on a public forum, even if you delete your account, the information stays! It is a great thing that Facebook has disabled the feature to download someone else’s photographs, but we live in a world of screenshots and anyone with an ill intention always does find their way. Do not give your bank and identification credentials to untrustworthy sites, and especially not to a stranger on the internet! If you still believe that nobody on this planet means malice, welcome to the real world where deception is the art.

Please don’t open suspicious links, most of them might be spam and a way for hackers to gain access.

Check your privacy settings and adjust them accordingly, change your password frequently and do not make it something too obvious, disable auto-login or the ‘remember password’ options as well to prevent being accessed into without your knowledge. We want to update and stay updated but we often forget about the baggage trace we create on the internet because of it. Surf smart, surf safe!