Influence of social media

Influence of social media

Introduction In the 21^st century, development in mobile technology has led to the emergence of social media making it an integral part of our lives. The power of social media in spreading information, creating communities and growing business cannot be underestimated. These virtual networks are larger, more diverse and do not face restrictions from time or location. According to Venkatesan (Pg. 2), 91% of social media users get access to these social channels using their mobile phones. Social media has evolved to become an important aspect of people’s lives and has opened avenues to limitless opportunities in information technology and communication. These social media networks influence peoples’ lives both positively and negatively. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence on the social media platforms on people and the world. Discussion Positive impacts of social media

1. Social media impact on politics

According to Zuniga et al (Pg. 324), more than 3 billion people use social media each month. This has enabled the visibility of social, ethical, environmental and political ills. Due to this increased visibility, the balances of power have been shifted from the hands of the few to the masses. Social networks, therefore, play increasing roles in electoral politics. Politicians use social media sites to express their opinions and political thoughts hence reaching out to the public. For instance, the U.S. president has on several occasions, used Twitter to convey messages. Social media plays an important role in enabling interaction and discussions among people with similar ideas and marginal views.

2. Impact on the economy

Social media has fueled the economy from the creation of employment, the democratization of information and promotion of brands. Several business organizations have in the past employed social media influencers. Various social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, have also created employment by employing people, for example, Facebook has over 6337 employees and LinkedIn has employed more than 5000 employees (Venkatesan, Pg. 2). Social media has created a quicker form of communication by allowing information, ideas and other content to be shared globally. According to Huang et al (Pg. 248), this has presented opportunities to small and big businesses alike, to obtain a foothold in the market. Such organizations can harness these platforms to promote their products. Social media has driven economic growth by availing new opportunities and bridging the gap between people, brands and businesses.

3. Increasing contacts

Social networks have enabled people to acquire contacts of friends and relatives so as to keep in touch with them. Social networks such as Facebook allow people to connect with anybody and share their personal thoughts on a given subject, their pictures, blogs, and links (Huang et al, Pg. 248). This has made communication interesting. People can easily grow their professional networks by connecting to colleagues, mentors, role models, and other professionals. When these relationships are nurtured, one can easily benefit from them when looking for opportunities or professional guidance (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). These social sites enable people to stay up-to-date with the latest news, information and upcoming events.

4. Product review

Through social media sites, people are able to learn more about a particular product through the reviews posted by other people. These comments and adverts are often liked, shared and further commented upon (Huang et al, Pg. 248). People are able to know about other people opinions about the product thus able to make rational decisions on whether to buy the product or not (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). Through social media networks, businesses can boost their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking (Hansen et al, Pg. 25). The higher a business’ ranking is, the higher the traffic generated to its e-commerce sites leading to increased sales. Businesses can learn about areas of improvement from the reviews it gets concerning its product.

5. Education

Social media networks provide students with opportunities to obtain vital information and get in contact with educative and learning groups. These social network sites contain a wide variety of information with numerous links to other sources of information. Students can therefore find answers to questions and a variety of learning resources thus broadening the learners’ perspectives on different subjects (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). Students can also help students in compiling useful contents for research. These networks also help to build a social credibility for learners by reflecting on their educational backgrounds. The students can build a career by creating a personal mark using social media networks (Bilal, Pg. 2).. Most learning institutions also post about programs and grants on their social media pages. Social media networks enable students to recognize experts in a particular field or subject. This may be useful to students who are looking for opportunities to study abroad in these institutions.

6. Impact of social media on commerce

Businesses can incorporate social media networks to generate perceptiveness, trigger demand, and develop specific product offerings. Several business organizations are therefore incorporating the use of social networks to strengthen knowledge sharing about a particular product (Hansen et al, Pg. 23). These businesses have opened up social media pages for their businesses so as to reach out to new customers, offer customer service and advertise their products. Huang et al (Pg. 248) reveals that these pages avail information on any new products or services that may interest them. Social media networks provide large customer base to businesses conducted via e-commerce and empower customers about the businesses. E-commerce and social media usage are predicted to incorporate in-app payment and bots to instantly answer customer questions (Huang et al, Pg. 248).

7. Impact of social media in the healthcare industry

Various stakeholders including patients, doctors, and healthcare providers use social media networks to analyze the best options of healthcare in the industry (Hawn, Pg. 64). This is because numerous patients, customers, and consumers have access to these social media sites. Health care providers are able to inform the public about the availability of a resource or the arrival of specialist doctors (Hawn, Pg. 64). This makes it easier for patients to keep in touch with communication about health care. Information of importance can be passed on to patients through links to, say, YouTube videos and Facebook posts (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). This information will be able to reach millions of user around the world. Doctors can use social media networks to teach and provide timely and credible education and share research with colleagues and research organizations. According to Hawn (Pg. 64)), doctors can use these platforms to market themselves through blogs. They can also read comments from patients so as to learn about patients’ experiences.

8. Group discussion

People and organizations can engage in group discussions on various topics posted on these social media platforms. Social media sites provide a global platform where one can freely express their views freely without any reservations or biases (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). These platforms can be used to discuss and debate on controversial topics. According to Zuniga et al (Pg. 327), the group discussions also allow users to participate in the subjective discussion thus obtaining useful knowledge on the focused topics. For instance, Twitter and other blogging sites have been increasingly used in political and social activism. Most governments are using social media to engage its citizens and obtain their support, suggestions, and opinions to ensure effective governance.

9. Promotion of noble causes

Social media can be used to create awareness about noble causes such as promoting a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), social welfares and donations for needy people (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). This is because social media can reach a large audience and a diverse group of people over a short period of time. For instance, the use of hashtags on Twitter can be used to highlight the plight of needy people, those affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods (Bilal, Pg. 2). This may appeal to people to offer their support and make their donations or assist the needy. This is a quick way to help such people.

10. Use of social media to fight crime

Governments and security agencies can use social media networks to spy and catch criminals when fighting crime. These agencies use the domination of social media on people lives to obtain incredible amounts of information for the police thus creating online evidence trails and providing witnesses to a crime (Hansen et al, Pg. 24). These networks provide a public reassurance platform where the police can share prevention advice and build trust between them and the public. It also provides a more efficient means for the public to interact with the police by providing anonymous tips, or using photographs and videos to identify missing properties or suspect involved in a crime (Bilal, Pg. 2). Social media analytics can be used to review the huge amount of social media data to discover patterns. It is, therefore, possible to discover trends and monitor threats enabling early preventive policing.

11. Information and updates

Social media are increasingly being used as a source of information (Zuniga et al, Pg. 326). These networks increase the possibilities for how people can send and receive information. They can be used to seek information about circulating information such as; weather updates, health information and political news have enabled people to be updated with the latest happenings from around the world. Hansen et al (Pg. 23) believes that such information can be obtained from dedicated apps on mobile phones almost anywhere making it much easier as compared to televisions and print Media.   Negative impacts of social media

1. Cyberbullying

Most people, especially teenagers, have been often become victims of cyberbullying. This may arise from threats, intimidation messages, and rumors sent to people so as to create discomfort and victimization (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). The anonymity provided by social media networks has been used to perpetrate these Cyberbullying crimes. Bullying has been encouraged by the fact that it’s easier to create a fake account and use it to do anything without being traced or tracked down. Social media sites such as Ask.fm and Twitter have launched new safety efforts so as to curb cyberbullying on their platforms (Bilal, Pg. 2).. Cyberbullying has been linked to depression and loss of self-esteem. Globally, there has been a rise in the number of suicide cases arising from bullying on various social networks.      

2. Hacking

Personal data and private information can be easily accessed by unauthorized people and posted on the internet. Peoples’ private information has been used by hackers in areas without their approval (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). Most of the social media networks require information like birthdays, phone numbers and email addresses. This information has been used by identity thieves to obtain their victim’s personal information (Hansen et al, Pg. 23). Identity theft has led to huge financial losses to individuals especially when they obtain passwords to bank accounts. For instance, several Facebook and Twitter accounts have been hacked into in the past. Every social media is advised to keep their personal data safe and limit the extent to which they socialize with people on these platforms.

3. Addiction

Continuous use of social media can lead to addiction. Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have been rated as being the most addictive (Bilal, Pg. 2).. Though this addiction, most people have developed a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This is an anxiety got when people fear that they are missing out on positive experiences when they fail to access the social media sites (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). This may disturb their everyday routines since they spend endless hours glued to these sites hence addiction. These sites may act as a waste of individual time which could have otherwise been used productively. This is mostly experienced by teenagers since they get extensively get involved in these networks and eventually cut off from society.

4. Reputation

Social media can ruin a person’s reputation from the content they post on these social sites. These posts may be interpreted by several audiences differently (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). When such posts are misunderstood, they may present a wrong impression about the person hence forming a bad reputation about him (Bilal, Pg. 2).. False stories and rumors spreading in these sites may reach a large number of people, hence spreading the false impression about a person to the public.

5. Health issues

Excessive use of social media brings about a disruption in a persons’ daily routine. It makes people lazy hence leading to obesity (Bilal, Pg. 2)..  This shows how these social media networks negatively impact on the health of the users. It is difficult to tell the credibility of information about healthcare obtained from social networking sites, therefore, exposing users to risks associated with misleading information. When social media networks are used in healthcare, great care should be taken to ensure the credibility of the sources and compliance standards are adhered to.

6. Depression and anxiety

Studies have shown that spending too much time on social media networking sites has effects on persons’ mood and emotion (Bilal, Pg. 2).. People who spend much time on these sites report poor mental health with symptoms of anxiety and depression (Vishwanath, Pg. 87). These conditions arise from various aspects of social media usage such as unrealistic expectations of life and friendships, and a lack of self-esteem due to a negative body image.

7. Lack of privacy

Social media makes an individual’s life more transparent. People may be forced to reveal and share their thoughts and privacy information. Social media networks make use of mobile applications and location-based services (Hansen et al, Pg. 23). This allows the user to check in at all their current locations. This information is revealed to all the people the user is connected with on the particular social media network and can be used by people to track the user’s whereabouts (Vishwanath, Pg. 87).

8. Unhealthy sleep patterns.

Spending too much time on social media has a negative effect on the quality of peoples sleep. According to Bilal (Pg. 1), anxiety and depression got from social media sites may be a cause of insomnia to some social media users. These situations may affect peoples’ productivity and general body health.

9. Promotion of drugs and alcohol

Social media networks obtain various types of contents from diverse sources (Bilal, Pg. 2). Some of these contents may come from drug users who share their views and videos on these platforms. This may influence others to follow these trends thus getting into alcohol and drug abuse.

10. Fraud and scams

Despite the positive aspects of social media, it has been used by scammers and fraudsters to take advantage of people and obtain financial gains (Hansen et al, Pg. 23). Several people have been scammed through social media sites. This arises due to the lack of credibility on the source of information.     Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the advantages of social media outweigh the disadvantages of such platforms. Social media is and continues to be an integral part of peoples’ lives due to the numerous functionalities these sites have. However, it is advisable to employ strict caution when interacting with these platforms so as not to fall victim to the negative implications arising from social media usage.  Work cited Ahmad, Bilal. “10 Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Media For Society – “. Techmaish.Com, 2018, https://www.techmaish.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-       social-media-for-society/. Accessed 6 Dec 2018 Gil de Zúñiga, Homero, Nakwon Jung, and Sebastián Valenzuela. “Social media use for news      and individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation.” Journal of        Computer-Mediated Communication 17.3 (2012): 319-336. Hansen, Derek L., Ben Shneiderman, and Marc A. Smith. Analyzing social media networks with   NodeXL: Insights from a connected world. Morgan Kaufmann, 2010. Hawn, Carleen. “Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: how Twitter, Facebook, and        other social media are reshaping health care.” Health affairs 28.2 (2009): 361-368.. “How Does Social Media Influence The Economy?”. Forbes.Com, 2018,             https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/08/02/how-does-social-media-influence-the-       economy/. Accessed 6 Dec 2018. Huang, Zhao, and Morad Benyoucef. “From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at       design features.” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 12.4 (2013): 246-259. Hudson, Simon, et al. “The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand                    relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing       behaviors.” International Journal of Research in Marketing 33.1 (2016): 27-41. “Influence Of Social Media In Day-To-Day Life”. Latest Technology Blogs | NDOT, 2018,             https://www.ndot.in/blog/influence-social-media-day-to-day-life.html. Accessed 6 Dec     2018 Vishwanath, Arun. “Habitual Facebook use and its impact on getting deceived on social   media.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20.1 (2014): 83-98. Zhukova, Anya. “7 Negative Effects Of Social Media On People And Users”. Makeuseof, 2018,             https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/. Accessed 6 Dec 2018..