Communication has been enhanced in the 21st century through the use of the social media. The world has been made a global village through the use of social media. This is because people from different geographical location can connect through the social media. It, therefore, brings us together, making us be in touch with people that are not close to us. Social media has made us concerned with the virtual world and neglected the real world that we exist. We try to connect and be close to the people that we meet on the social media or people that are not close to us compared to those individuals that are near us. Through the social media, it is easy to connect with lost ones. It is easy to track the movement of someone through the posts in social media. How
...ever, social media has played a role in widening the gap between people residing in a given location. People care so much about the virtual world more than the real world around them. For this reason, social media has created rift in connecting people. Does social media connect people?
Social media has played a very great role in bringing us together. Without the social media, it would not be as easy as it is right now to communicate with one another with just the press of a button (Lenhart, et al. 21). The use of social media such as Skype helps in connecting people when they can’t physically see each other. One can see the other person with much ease, the location, and the activity that the person is doing at that particular time. Social media also
allows texting someone. This can be done through Facebook, or any other social media platform gives people the opportunity to be in contact with anyone from any geographical location. However, the use of text messages and Skype has made us less social. For instance, one does not need to call someone or visit to know how they are doing. You can just log into their social media account to now their status.
Social media platforms have made it easy to reach anybody despite the distance between us. It is evident among the majority of the current population that social media has become their addiction and also their hindrance. Through this, social media has a variety of ways of keeping people together despite the geographical location between them. It is very easy to meet old friends and new friends through the social media and remain in touch with them. People do exchange their life event such as marriages or death of someone through the social media platforms such as Facebook. Through this, one can easily connect with the others and get updated on what is happening to those people that are not close to him.
Social media connects people in a very easy way. In addition social media such face book has an application called Check In that uses global positioning system to detect the specific point where someone is.Check In uses geospatial technique called Rasta to determine the exact location of a place. While social media seem to connect us to our loved ones, in truth we are separated farther by the illusion that we are linked together. For several people, it is common for them to
experience connection because they read their friend's updates in social media. However, in reality, these updates and wall posts only work to encourage us not to actually bond in person or by voice because we feel we know them already.
Social media has impacted on how we connect under different cultural basis. It is always a natural human wish to get companionship, share ideas and also compete with each other. Looking at the purposes that the social media serves, it is clear that the websites were designed because people had the wish to culturally interact and to remain connected to their people. These social media platforms have opened up a variety spectrums for the people to fulfill their complex and basic communication needs. Communication is one of the primary purposes for the existence of the social media platforms. People can only get connected to each other through communication.
Therefore, the ability to send private messages through the social media platform helps people to connect with one another Communication makes it easy to connect with people from other cultural groups since they can share ideas and accept the diversity that exists between the people. The ease at which individuals connect through social media platforms has led to over-dependence on social media. Many people depend very much on the digital platform and digital friends. They anticipate too much among one another when they are interacting online. , it should be noted that social media has pushed us away from the physical world and directed people to virtual one. The World without physical interaction and face to face communication. People are worried by what they feel and see via communication
gadget rather than what they feel and touch- What they can have a physical contact. People have been torn away from face to face communication.
Digital communication has undervalued communication. It is in this generation that you will find a group of friends or family members hanging out but each of the team members is busy on their communication devices. They prioritize checking what strangers are tweeting on social media rather than giving time to their friends who they are hanging out with. Technically, the importance of face to face communication has reduced significantly. Social media has become addictive to the extent that they cannot go a day or two without using their phone in to see what is trending. People of this generation have forgotten ways of enjoying life as the life code sets it. But does really make Social Media awful? In my view the answer would be no. I believe it’s just a case of decorum.
Social media groups and hashtags have significantly helped in the establishment of friendship. In this generation, many people meet new friend via social media. People with similar interests find themselves in same groups. It is estimated that in America, nearly 64% of teens who have made new friends say that they met on social media platforms. It is on this social media platform that that person engage their existing friends. Many people find it better to have time with new friends on social media because they find it faster to talk to a variety of individuals at one time (Lenhart, et al. 11). Social media is a critical avenue for making friends stay in touch. Many people have
access to smartphones. The smartphones offer constant access to friends. Many people find it easy to discuss issues in a group WhatsApp or Facebook platform than it is to talk in face to face.
Many people can engage in WhatsApp conversation at once thus saving time for consultation. At the same time, it has lead to degradation in face to face communication. The kind of feedback that one gets from consulting s friend is completely different from the one in social media. In face to face, it is detailed and accurate. It is also dependable. Many authors are in favor that social media keep us connected. In contrary People of this generation spend most of their times indoors, probably alone interacting with strangers who are far away all day instead of living with the ones close to them like family and friends. I see digital communication as cold and inhuman.
Consider a situation where one is given two choices, to hug a friend or tweet a friend. The human choice will be to hug a friend. Hugging gives real satisfaction compared to tweeting where the only thing linking you two is the digital device. Also, people tend to be victims of cyberbullying and being stalked. Some people may use Facebook to create an aggressive action towards someone while in a group discussion. It is also tough to ascertain whether the friend you are connected with is a real on or identity thief (Lenhart, et al. 9). There are many instances of parody accounts and impersonation. This parody accounts can be used to spread propaganda and hatred. The worst thing about social media is that there is a
lot of hate speech. The use of hate speech has more negative impact on people from minorities and individuals who are discriminated. Hate speech is made by people of unknown identities. Social media draws us close, but we have to weigh on what it does to us. How does it help us utilize our time and share affection with our loved ones?
In conclusion social media has been greatly praised due to its advantages in the modern world and has become a basic tool in the society.Although,it has its demerits but it should not be taken as a reason to demonize it.Lets join hands and support the social media to achieve its objectives of making the world become a global village as this is to own advantage.
Reference
- Lenhart, Amanda, et al. "Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. Millennials." Pew Internet & American life project (2010).
