Month: October 2024

Social Media Demographics

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As of 2023, the top three social media sites were Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

These three are quite similar in content consumed but they are different in ways such as Facebook and Instagram are both more post and short video side of social media while YouTube has focused on more of longer videos since the beginning. However, YouTube has become more and more of a multi-format platform with long videos, shorts, and community posts. People go to YouTube for longer entertainment or Shorts for background noise, information, live shows, movies, and other forms of content for any reason; Facebook and Instagram are both platforms used by consumers for friends, family, celebrities, and even merchandise.

Demographics in its definition is relating to the structure of populations. Demographics in technology refer to the statistical data representing the characteristics of a population in digital marketing. This is a key tool used in any form of marketing to help companies and businesses reach out to the targeted audience for sales and for social platforms, an algorithm is used based on users’ content consumption. These both help platforms and companies keep users and consumers on the platform which continues to grow their user numbers.

A few demographics that stood out to me are men around the ages of 24-35 make up the biggest percentage of users, according to Statista, even though Facebook is stigmatized as an “old-people” site. For YouTube, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Gen Z and Millennials make up over half the global percentage of users. As for Instagram, it was the biggest surprise to see that over half of their global percentage of users are male and for the US, it is 55% female. I thought this was the biggest surprise because Instagram is seen as a platform women mostly go to for inspiration or to post for followers.

During my research, I have found that most users spend around 151 minutes a day. Facebook holds 31 of those minutes in the US (Exploding Topics), YouTube with about 47 (DemandSage), and Instagram with 34 of those minutes. (Backlinko)

Out of the three sites, YouTube is the site that is growing the fastest mainly due to its vast variety of content available to be consumed. YouTube has Shorts, community posts, movies, shows, cartoons/anime, and creator content in forms of Playthroughs, tutorials, education, commentary, and many more. The other platforms do not have the same variety as YouTube since almost all other content creation or platforms use shorter forms of content or specific formats.

Along with my research I have found that most users visit Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram on a smartphone (95%), desktop(90%), and consoles (80%).

 

References:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/#:~:text=Meta%20Platforms%20owns%20four%20of,monthly%20core%20Family%20product%20users.

https://explodingtopics.com/blog/social-media-usage

How Many People Use YouTube (2024 Statistics)

https://backlinko.com/instagram-users#:~:text=Mention%2C%20Social%20Blade-,Average%20Time%20Spent%20on%20Instagram%20per%20Day,per%20month)%20on%20the%20app.

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

Example of phishing

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Phishing attacks are a type of internet piracy where thieves steal personal financial information by posing as reputable companies or government agencies, and individuals can protect themselves by being cautious with unsolicited requests and verifying the authenticity of communications. Phishing attacks have been a persistent cybercrime throughout history, with various notable examples of successful attacks on individuals and corporations, resulting in significant financial losses. Phishing attacks have been successful in various forms, including stealing passwords, installing malware, and impersonating customer service. Phishing attacks can lead to identity theft, financial loss, and damage to one’s reputation. You could receive an email that appears to come from a reputable company that you recognize and do business with, such as your financial institution but could be an internet criminal looking to steal your financial information or identity. You could also be asked to update any information you have on any sites or even governmental information such as your social and could be accidentally giving the phisher your legal information and it would not be your fault as these emails and pages or links could look like the real thing especially with the growth of AI and tools to generate realistic pages and forms. An example of phishing could be in 2007, Swedish bank Nordea lost over 7 million kronor when phishers managed to send fraudulent emails out to bank customers, luring them to install the “haxdoor” Trojan disguised as anti-spam software, which was dubbed the “biggest ever online bank heist” by digital security company McAfee. Nordea customers were hit with phishing emails containing Trojan viruses that installed a keylogger into the victims’ computers and directed them to a fake bank website where hackers intercepted login credentials. While the exact blame can’t be reliably placed, it is worth noting that most customers failed to have a running antivirus installed on their machines. Individuals can protect themselves from phishing attacks by being cautious with unsolicited requests, verifying the authenticity of communications, and never providing personal financial information over the phone or internet unless they initiated the contact. I have been able to keep myself safe as I do not answer unknown numbers, my phone is set to automatically decline unknown numbers, I also ignore texts I do not have the contact information to as I have been phished before with UPS with a text saying my shipping information was input incorrectly for a package I had ordered even though my phone and Google account have my address saved and I have the ability to auto-input my info, but I was still scammed into giving them a dollar or two for the update and “inconvenience fee”. I hope anyone who sees this can use the story and my story as an aid to be vigilant on these internet scammers and phishers.

references:

https://www.occ.gov/topics/consumers-and-communities/consumer-protection/fraud-resources/phishing-attack-prevention.html

https://www.hempsteadny.gov/635/Famous-Phishing-Incidents-from-History#:~:text=The%20Nordea%20Bank%20Incident&text=Dubbed%20the%20%22biggest%20ever%20online,where%20hackers%20intercepted%20login%20credentials.

Cyber Security

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Cybersecurity tools are essential for protecting organizations and individuals from various forms of cyber-attacks and data breaches, and there are numerous tools available to counter specific threats. Cybersecurity is also crucial for businesses to protect sensitive data and prevent long-term implications from cyber threats, and effective planning, implementation, and risk management can help firms assess their businesses’ cybersecurity. also as cybersecurity attacks become in sync with technology growth, they become more and more frequent and harder to see. Attackers can freely access things such as medical records, customer data, intellectual property, sensitive business data, and even infiltration of funds or bank statements. Security compliance tools scan your network, tools, and processes to evaluate them against the requirements of regulatory frameworks. It detects non compliant activities and security failures and notifies system administrators to take corrective actions. Network defense wireless tools are software utilities and techniques designed to secure and protect wireless networks from unauthorized access, attacks, and vulnerabilities. It is required for controlling access to a network, combining both hardware and software to do the job. They help identify and block threats before they can infiltrate a company’s computer network. Firewalls prevent unauthorized users from accessing the company intranet and can be implemented as hardware, software or a hybrid of the two. Encryption tools are designed to protect your data from being stolen, altered, or compromised. They work by scrambling the data into a secret code that can only be unlocked with a unique digital key. With secure encryption, the number of possible cryptographic keys is so vast that it’s nearly impossible for an unauthorized person to guess the correct one. This makes encryption a powerful way to keep your sensitive information safe. A packet sniffer is a tool used to monitor network traffic. It examines the data packets that move between computers on a network or between linked devices. While hackers often use packet sniffers to collect information about a network illegally, they are also used by ISPs, advertisers, and governments. For instance, hackers may use packet sniffing to track your online activities, such as: Streaming activities like watching videos or listening to music. Having cybersecurity is also a benefit for the companies’ productivity as viruses lead to the firm’s downtime by impacting workflows, networks, and functioning, thus bringing the organization to a standstill. Firms can enhance their productivity with improved firewalls, virus scanning, and automated backups. Employees should be trained about email phishing, suspect links, scams, and other suspicious activities to ensure productivity and reduce downtime and violations.

Reference:

https://sprinto.com/blog/best-cybersecurity-tools/

Researching

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The video I found the most relevant to me was a YouTube tutorial about using colored pencils. I am currently in my fundamentals of drawing class that has my class doing colored pencils this week and I haven’t used them in an artistic way since high school. The video was posted in 2020 which is the most recent and decently in depth video I could have found. She goes into detail about layering our pencils and going back over for finer details at the end. She seems very reliable because her channel is focused a lot on art and drawing. She has also been posting art tutorials since 2013 along with the fact that she is also quite detailed in the way she spoke and instructed the viewers on her coloring. She was also speaking slow enough to keep up with and make sure the viewers are following which I found quite nice as it also helps those with hearing disadvantages or those who are neurodivergent and have trouble with retaining information. The only gatekeeping I saw in her video was the editing and speed in which she is coloring but it wasn’t in a way where she was speeding though her video and coloring but more in a way where she was describing her steps and movements through the video. I am also not able to see any dislikes due to YouTube’s new system with dislikes however, the ratio of her views versus likes is very wide as she has nearly 4 million views to her 100 thousand likes which could just be a viewer and user issue with YouTube videos as of late. Despite this though, YouTube pushes videos based on views and not likes regardless so I feel that she must be a helpful tool for artists such as myself. As for the quality of information, I feel like as she went through the video, her descriptions and instructions were very helpful, easy to follow, and wordy enough to be well in depth but not boring or have her seem like she’s rambling. I really liked her video and tutorial and feel like for the next assignment in my drawing class I would absolutely use her videos as a guidance.