The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media On the Society

The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media On the Society

Abstract

Social media can be explained as a platform that allow people to discuss issues and give opinions. Before understanding the aspects that define social media, it is crucial to understand what the platform essentially entails. Social media can be explained as computer tools that allow people to share their thoughts, experiences, ideas, interests, occupations, feelings, and many more. To be precise, the effect of social media usage is twofold, the positive side, and the negative side. In the paper, I will offer an explanation to some aspects that define social media. Essentially, the paper is a description of effects of social media to the society.

Introduction

Social media is a platform that allow the public around the world to discuss various topics and issues and give comments. However, that is all that most people know about social media, only intellectual see the detailed perspective. we all know that social media have anonymous impacts on the society. There are several social media sites that are popular in the web. Through social media, people are now able to communicate and socialize without physical contact. There are social networking sites that give people an opportunity to reconnect with friends and family. Through social media, a significant number of people have been able to make friendships and reconnect with their old friends (In Sarmento, In Tsai, & IGI Global, 2015). However, social media comes with the negative side of it. One of the negative effects being addiction. People have adopted a life where they spend a lot of time in social media sites. Social media has also been regarded harmful to kids considering how people share images videos, and texts that contain aspects of violence, nudity, and other morally negative aspects. In details, the research paper will argue that social media had both negative and positive effects on users.

Literature Review

A while ago, young people had access to media, but all in moderation. Currently, there is an aspect of obsession in social media usage by both young and relatively older people. A wide range of scholars have seen into the topic, some discussing the positive side of it, some negative side, and others both side of the issue. As a result, a wide range of books, articles, internet sources, and periodicals are available on the same. For instance, a research by Michael A. Wiles, Shailendra P. Jain, Saurabh Mishra, and Charles Lindsey have shown that regular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have resulted to high level of stress.

This section will review some of the sources, used to come up with the content of the research paper. “Social media time management tools and tips” is an example of an excellent source of information used to come up with this article. Laura Malita, conducted a research in terms of a survey with 54 students of both genders. In the study, students in various countries aged 13-34 were given a questionnaire to answer questions. In the survey, the author chooses to use students because it is a level when a person’s career is determined.

Popular Social Media Sites

Popular social media sites used today includes; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Other sites also in use though not very popular are; Reddit, Flickr, and Google+. Twitter is considered fast and sometimes furious, but businesses always thrive using the platform (“Social Networking Sites and the Positive Impact they have on the Society”, 2020).

Through twitter, brands are able to craft and hone their voices to the intended audience. LinkedIn is also a common site since 2003. The site host more than 310 million monthly users. In a research about various social media platforms, it was discovered that 44% of LinkedIn users have an income above national median (Mastrodicasa & Metellus, 2013). Alternatively, 50% of American users with a collage degree prefer LinkedIn. Instagram is famous for its ability to offer visual impressions to users, as well as aspiring creativity. Snapchat is the best site if you are targeting on reaching young people. Pinterest was founded in 2010and it has managed to attract more than 322 million users in less than a decade period. Raddit was also founded in 2015 and it has managed to attract more than 430 million users. When in need of social media marketing, the above discussed sites offer such a good impression (“The 7 Biggest Social Media Sites in 2020”, 2020).

Body 1: Positive effects

Communication

Social media is a type of advancement in technology. Social media has brought definite improvements across societies in terms of services such as communication. Social media is a good opportunity for youngsters to stay connected. Social media assist in exchanging useful information. Through social media, people are able to find support to things they may want, a thing which was not possible prior to the social media existence. Youngsters sometimes seek advice and solutions to their problems (Magmanlac, et al., 2018).

Actually, social media is becoming the central part when defining how we communicate especially in the current world. Today, online communities have an influential voice and there are a lot to be extracted when people engage directly with people through social media platforms.

Through social media, the way organizations communicate with their customers have need advanced. With social media platforms, which are indeed effective way of engaging, companies and non-financial organizations are able to have a wider reach. Businesses use social media to advertise (Sharma, 2020). A single post on Instagram brings more customers. According to Trisha Dowerah Baruah, businesses are able to stay competitive with the kind of fast-moving economy we are currently experiencing through social media (Baruah, 2012). By 2009, over 88% businesses were considered successful in blogging. Also, 87% of them were found to be very successful in social networking while more than 80% businesses were successful in using twitter to advertise their businesses. In 2007, only 23% respondent in a research recognized social media implementation, but two years after, more than 40% did (Magmanlac, et al., 2018).

To facilitate better use of social media, understanding the tool would be of much benefit.

While the media consist of a vast range of tools, all platforms shares a common characteristic. One aspect of understanding social media is the element of conversation. This element is based on the fact that is not a one-way broadcast. There is also a need to understand the element of contributions. Social media is based on responses and reactions of people involved (Magmanlac et al., 2018). There is also an element of collaboration which promotes exchange of information between participants (Sharma, 2020). The other element is that of connection which allow people to access information using the internet by just taking a click.

Education

Social Media has brought improvement in the field of education. Young people in high schools can research and handle their homework. Social media has actually served a practical role in determine an extra smile in adolescents as well as adults.

There are certain features of social media, essentially in communication, for instance in the field of education. Schools have been able to achieve a very important feature that comes along with integrating social media, improved communication (Prakapienė, Dalia, and Prakapas, 2016). Through social media, schools are able to communicate their events and activities to the relevant target. Another feature is real time information. Through social media, people are able to give real time information within seconds. Efficient messaging is also achieved when there is social media use in education centers. Social media allows users to generate a list of what can and cannot be sent or posted, creating more efficient messages.

Business

Social media has also played a very crucial role in promoting businesses. Through advertisements, businesses are able to market their products and services to large audience, hence more profit. Social media is a relatively law in terms of pricing when compared to other methods of advertising (Mastrodicasa & Metellus, 2013).

A research-based conclusion has it that social media is a crucial player in the job search process, especially today. Since sites such as Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn were introduced, employer get glimpse of who you are behind what you portray during a job search. For one, social media offers job seekers a golden opportunity to have a better understanding about a company/organization. Job seekers well know the role social media plays in advertising them. In one of a survey by “CareerBuilder,” it was found that 37% of employees make use of social media to screen potential job candidates. That insinuates that companies tend to inspect social media profile of a candidate before offering a position (“70% Of Employers Are Snooping Candidates’ Social Media Profiles | Careerbuilder”).

Through social media, businesses are also able to easily communicate to their esteemed customers. Customers can inquire about their products or services in social media. There are a lot of day to day tasks that are made it easier by social media (Prakapienė, Dalia, and Prakapas, 2016).

Body 2: Negative effects

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a common effect of social media that can be termed to be negative to the society. This issue was one implausible, but it is now a significant problem withing social media use, and the youths are the primary victims. In a research by Paul Benjamin Lowry, Jun Zhang, Chuang Wang, and Mikko Siponen, it was confirmed that there has been a dramatic change regarding social media use (2016). In the same research, it was discovered that as more people adopt the character, the risk at which cyberbullying increases expound. It was discovered that cyberbullying on social media is linked to the cases of depression in teenagers. In an research that meant to analyze various studies on online phenomenon, victimization amongst young people online has been receiving an rise in the level of scrutiny. This was essentially after a series of high-profile suicides amongst teenagers. Teens typically suffer from cases of cyberbullying, but the choose to remain silent (Lowry, Zhang, Wang & Siponen, 2016).

What makes cyberbullying a severe tool in disvaluing social media is the fact that there are several effects of Cyber-Bullying. For instance, cyberbullying results to low self-esteem. People, especially teenagers engaged in such acts withdraw from society and family. Teenagers who have experience instances of cyberbullying has also been reported to avoid work and other essential environments. Social media creates unhealthy behaviors/habits, especially to the youths. The only way to solve such an ill effect of cyberbullying, is to try resolve the issue. Hence, creating awareness and promoting the importance of social media advancement becomes a solution.

Time Management

Social media has created a challenge to users concerning time management. Most people, be it adults or young ones, have developed the habit of checking their accounts multiple times. For instance, employees waste a significant time in social media. Laura Malita, conducted a research in terms of a survey with 54 students of both genders. In the research question “Does social media have effects on students’ time management?” most participants agreed with it (Malita, 2011). In average, 44% of time is spent in important chores and 37% is spent on social media. Spending 37% of their time means that students they spend a significant amount of time in social media, which is not a positive thing. Precisely, various studies have been conducted to reveal how social media affects students time management. In most of the studies, the anonymous conclusion is that social media steal a lot of precious time (Prakapienė, Dalia, and Prakapas, 2016)

Mental Health

Mental health has also been termed as an issue of concern in social media use. Technology holds the ability to deliberate adolescence and youth in general. However, the advanced part is its effects on their behaviors, habits, and reactions. Also, social media is said to cause constant destructions hence shortened attention span.

There are various ways in which social media affect mental health of its users. According to Sarmento, Anabela, and Tsai, it is such a hard task to forge personal connection with one another when we are glued to ‘rectangular screens’ (2015). Social media is also blamed of distorting the manner in which people remember certain tidbits in their life (Akram and Kumar, 2017). Regarding sleep, mots people are used to using phones too soon before hitting the hay. This behavior makes it hard for them to doze off. Social media has alos been blamed of influencing our attention span. According to Dr Bono, “social media has provided a means of constantly giving into the temptation of instant, easy-access entertainment” (Magmanlac, et al., 2018).

2015

Addiction

Especially to the youth, addiction is a very common and vivid effect that arise from excessive social media use. This relates to how social media has mental health and promote waste of time. A significant number of studies focused on the relationship between social media usage and mental health shows that prolonged use of platforms such as Facebook is directly associated with mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and depression which affects the long-term well-being of the users (Twenge, 2017). social media addiction is also related to lowering self-esteem.

Opposing View

Social media is essentials tool in creating connection between people. How social media creates connection might be important to a group of people, and a loss to another group. A good example is for careers that depends on personal gain, like political career. To be a leader in a certain state, you have to create connection to a large population and hence gain favor in them. Social media have also destroyed careers of people who are portrayed negatively and people ends up losing trust in them. For instance, in U.S. 2016 Presidential election, the batter between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump heavily depended on social media. One had little influence than the other and all was done through platforms such as Twitter.

While social media has been praised for creating advancement in terms of communication, it is also blamed for spreading untrue information. A story from unconfirmed and relevant source has the ability to spread and cause trauma if it is scaring. Another perfect instance is reviews. While reviews are meant to reflect users experience of a certain product, some do not server the purpose appropriately. Instead, fake reviews that heal either praise or derision a business imply a wrong impression to the targeted people, users. There are also cases of unclear and unreliable health information. For instance, many countries are dealing with the issue of coronavirus _ social media makes everything confusing about the health issue.

Through social media, different people end up sharing a common interest and hence becomes friends. Through social media platforms, it is difficult to know who to term stranger as everyone becomes a friend. We have seen many people get to know each other through social media, but they end up being very close friends, physically meeting, or even becoming partners. The danger however arises when is not lucky enough to meet and make friend with the right people. With the difficult in identifying who specifically is a stranger, people end up trusting the wrong people. The result of the scenario is kidnapping, murder, robbery, rape cases, and other immoral practices. In a research by Prakapienė, Dalia, and Prakapas, the author found that there are many such cases registered with the police. In most cases, teenagers who are obsessed about social life are the major victims (2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, social media has both positive and negative effects to the general society. Social media has been a primary tool in determining the way people network. Through social media, being in education, communicating, and conducting businesses have been made easier. On the other hand, addiction, mental health problems, time wastage, and cyberbullying have been realized. Regarding businesses, whereas a growing body of research has examined implicaions of deceptive advertisement that are consumer related, social media has also been found a tool in boosting businesses.  Today, children are growing up surrounded by all forms of technologies. Essentially, children have access to mobile devices, and hence able to access social networking sites. Again, the effect of their usage is twofold, the positive side, and the negative side.

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