Impact of Social Media Essay

social media vices. The hindrance to this revolution is the unavailability of electricity and internet in a vast portion of the third world countries.

Social media can be used to reduce the cost of marketing within the society. Individuals in the society are able to sell their products by marketing them through a wide geographical area at reduced costs. Small businesses are therefore able to benefit from an affordable and available channel of marketing. Individuals are also able to collect information useful in improving there businesses.
This essay’s sole purpose is to explain the importance of social media to this tech-savvy generation and unveil its adversity to curb the negative impacts it may bear for society.

Social media has been around since 1999 when the first social media site was first seen. However, it climaxed in 2006 with Facebook and Twitter. In this era and age, close to every literate individual owns a mobile artifact with internet access and manages a social media account or has access to a social media site. According to research, 75% of adults use the internet on a regular basis with 65% accessing social media sites at least once daily. As a result, the audience to this essay has slightly over average knowledge of this topic.

Research Question

How has social media helped solve and create problems in countries outside the US?

The question will aid in finding solutions to social media problems by increasing awareness on the changes arising from increased use of social media in the society. However, when shared with the much older generation including parents and relatives, the social media has caused various problems such as a platform for cyber bullying, reduction

of interpersonal interaction, the spread of pornographic material, and youth addiction to their gadgets. These sources are of variant age groups and share few ideals. Also, they use the internet on a daily basis thus are relevant. The one challenge the essay poses is biased since I own accounts on various social media sites thus will show bias on the sites’ pros and less objectivity about their adversities in comparison to if I did not have any association with them at all.

What Is Social Media?

Social media is a collection of internet dependent applications and websites through which folks create online communities, ties, and friendship to facilitate the creation and sharing of information, personal messages, and ideas and other content or take part in social networking with the help of mobile communication artifacts with disregard for geographic location.

There are various forms of social media. Applications and websites that support forums, social bookmarking, microblogging, social networking and wikis are among the various kinds of social media.

Microblogging is the art of writing short posts frequently and posting them on a microblogging platform. This art has become a very popular communication tool in the internet world. The authors of these various messages post about their lives, discuss current issues and share various ideologies. These sites are important sources of information on people’s sentiments and opinions (Pak et al., 1320). Microblog platforms include; Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, et cetera. Twitter launched in October 2006 is microblog platform that has grown and still is growing exponentially.

Forums are online discussions sites in which people hold conversations and exchange views about a similar topic or idea. These forums are also known as conferences or

newsrooms. The messages in this form of social media are often longer and not one sentence and are usually archived. Examples of online message boards include; Mumsnet, Teachers Connect, SK-Gaming, FIFA, et cetera.

Social bookmarking is an online service user employ in annotating, adding, editing, and sharing links to online documents then store these links using social bookmarking sites. Examples of sites users employ in social bookmarking are Pinterest, Google.com bookmarks, Examiner, Tumblr, et cetera.
Wikis are websites that allow collaborative addition, deletion and revision of all its website content directly from the browser by its users. These users determine its content structure too. These Wikis are written with the help of wiki markup language and is edited using a rich-text editor. Examples of Wikis are AboutUs.com which focuses on internet directory, Advocatespedia.com, Familypedia, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia et cetera.

Social networking is the act of using various applications and committed websites to find individuals with similar interests as you and intermingle with these individuals. Social networking can ensue for business, social or both purposes. Examples of social networking sites that people have embraced in the society include; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Classmates.com et cetera

All the above kinds constitute the network that interconnects people globally with a social, political or economic purpose that is social media.

Problem Solution Aspect of Social Media

Despite being a way to connect people of various backgrounds and from different geographic locations, Social media can be used by business people and other proffessionals as a problem-solving tool.

Back in the day, before the computer and internet era, communication was solely through telephones and mail. These mediums were inconsistent and highly unreliable. Furthermore, the mediums were limited to specific people.

With the need of constant and detailed communication, social media provides this means to communicate with its servers and accounts are remotely accessible allowing for distant communication and even mass communication. This solves communication problems especially for countries outside the US where access to other means of communication can be expensive or impossible altogether (2013).

In the third world countries, there are various natural calamities and disasters that occur on a daily basis. The world being a vast expanse of land can render knowledge of such occurrences challenging (Maron). There are also various organizations that live to be of assistance in such trying times. Social media can promote such organizations and run noble causes to assist the affected populations through hyping donations and contributions towards such causes (Vandeveld).

The social media is also a crime fighting tool. Some countries employ the mass following of various social media sites to flush out wanted criminals. This is achievable by the posting of the wanted criminal’s photo and requesting the assistance and collaboration of the public with the police to bring the felon to justice (Purvis).

Every other country out there is made of various ethnic communities and comprises of different religious backgrounds. This difference can be grounds for communal rifts that can spark off civil wars or tribal clashes. Social media is neutral ground for these variances in tribes, race, religion, et cetera as it forges a connection and offers a platform to discuss related issues despite the differences. Thus, social media can stop civil wars before they even begin (Kayla).
Social media has a major role in the education of both elderly and the youth. Social forums and other social

media kinds are educative since people with various education levels and skills get to associate and share concerning a particular topic. You can follow educated people for further insight or ask questions that will be answered and educate you further from the online brainstorm. Teachers can also employ the instant messaging feature of the social media sites to facilitate classroom discussions (Sullivan).

Social media is also considered a marketing tool. These social media sites get messages in front of masses of people from various geographical locations about an upcoming event or brand a commodity to the target market. The social media keeps individuals up to date on happenings all around the world. Other forms of media may be biased in that they may ignore news from certain avenues and post what they deem necessary. However, with social media, you can conduct researches and attain the correct up to date information.

Problem Causing Aspect of Social Media

Social media is a harbor for cyber bullies. Without the rule of law online, numerous people are creating fake accounts and terrorizing innocent and unsuspecting vulnerable web users. With the knowledge that they can perpetrate anything and get away with it .they get the motivation to send threats, intimidation messages and spin rumors and broadcast them. These actions make the victims uncomfortable and can lead to fatal results such as suicide or unleash chaos on a peaceful society.

Hacking is the major downside of social media. “Hacktivists” steal private data, financial data or business secrets and paste them online. This step harms the individuals hacked. Some hackers go as far as identity theft which at times can prove costly or publicize private conversation

with an aim to mar the image of the hacking victim and affect their personal and public lives. Some social media sites have individuals who idealize drug abuse as well as alcohol intake. Some of these social figures also portray ill behaviors and at times post explicit images of themselves. Some of the followers they have will pick up these negative attributes and glamorize them too resulting in the deterioration of values in society.

Time wasting is a key factor to consider in this matter. Most users, especially teenagers, spend too much time online following up on stories that are of minimal educational value. This trend pulls them away from key factors such as studying. With such a trend, the education will suffer a dent. For the working class, some of the time spent on social media sites is during work hours. With most of these visits being non-work related it reduces output thus the companies incurring losses.

Social media access and use are making the world population less social and more aggressive (Holland 240).With the idea of having a vast following as online friends, many users tend to pull away from interaction with people in immediate proximity. Nowadays, it is considered normal to gang up against a single user online. Comments and answers to online posts are becoming blunt by the day when compared to if the conversation was being held face to face. These onslaughts are an abuse of the freedom of speech and expression. Since there is no fear of consequence, the users carry out whatever actions they deem fit (Claywell).

Reputations can be built or destroyed on social media. In some cases, falsified stories

can be formulated and spread all across social media. Such a move can ruin the reputation of a party victimized by the falsified story. This effect applies even to presidential aspirants, businesses, and so many more institutions (Bensinger & Chang).

Some social media sites are party to the corruption of values of underage children by the availing of pornographic materials and inappropriate content. Social media sites are accessible remotely from any mobile device with internet access. This makes such inappropriate material accessible to underage children. These children may choose to follow through and experiment what they see online.

Conclusion

The social media is a platform bringing together web users of varying social, economic, political, and religious backgrounds. From the research, it is evident that Social media has its perks and limitations. Furthermore, social media is an almost unavoidable part of our lives. However, the user is the sole determinant of what happens to him or her online. It is advisable for all users to take the necessary precaution of their personal data and protect their privacy at all costs. How we treat others also is of prime importance with an emphasis on being responsible for our actions.

Works Cited

1. Gregory, Mark A, and David Glance. Security and the Networked Society. Cham: Imprint: Springer, 2013. Internet resource.
   Holland, Patricia. The television handbook. Psychology Press, 2000.
2. Pak, Alexander, and Patrick Paroubek. “Twitter as a Corpus for Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining.” LREc. Vol. 10. 2010.
3. O’keeffe, Gwenn Schurgin, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson. “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.” The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families, 2011, pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.
4. Bensinger, Ken, and Andrea Chang. “Social Media: More Hindrance Than Help?
   

– The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.” The Portland Press Herald Maine Sunday Telegram Social Media More Hindrance than Help Comments, 2013, www.pressherald.com/2013/04/20/social-media-more-hindrance-than-help_2013-04-21/.