Dangers Of Social Media Essay

Social media can be multifarious and beneficial in numbers ways, allowing people to connect and share ideas, as well as accessing information that would otherwise be difficult or delayed to obtain, such as pre-internet. The internet has grown in a way that perhaps most did not expect; however, this phenomenon has become part of our daily life both positive and negative. Culturally we are hooked on social media; therefore, the information we obtained is usually through news platforms via internet, because social media is so easily accessible, anyone can report false news information.

    In today’s modern time, social media has a huge impact on political environment. How the World Changed Social Media claims, “ Such political activity as there is on social media is usually at a national level and is conducted mainly by supporters…” (Miller 142,143). Social media presents a national level bias. During the last ten years, politics has gained much traction on these sites.  For example, campaigns for national

As time goes on, social networking sites can influence millions of people without thinking about the consequences. Foer wanted the readers to understand the full impact of Facebook by mentioning that “No other company has so precisely boasted about its ability to shape democracy like this-and for good reason. It’s too much power to entrust to a corporation” (75). The author found it peculiar that Facebook wanted to boast about their success, and the amount of influence that they have. Foer meant by “the ability to shape democracy” is Mark Zuckerberg is allowing Facebook to change the Democratic Party and he does not deny this accusation. He is able to reshape democracy due to the excessive use of algorithms. The people controlling the algorithms are allowing it to pick videos or post pictures that could have social pressures which can influence a person to sway from their original stance. Algorithms should be posting videos at random and should pick related videos if the users asks for it; that way, the user knows what they want and it will be their chose if they want to continuing watching the same videos. Facebook could be sneaky and can be inhumane when it comes to human emotions. Resulting in another treacherous scenario because Facebook does not care, “Whether the information is true or concocted, authoritative reporting or conspiratorial opinion, doesn’t really seem to matter much to Facebook. The crowd gets what it wants and deserves” (Foer 76). Foer mentions something that can be tremendously petrifying to the world and it is that Facebook does not care whether or not a piece of news is genuine on their site. The word “concocted” means made up and Facebook does not filter or check out the sources that make up facts that millions of people read. By ignoring their obligation to check out news like a journalist does, they allow the crowd to get what they want, even if it is fabricated.

Mary Harvey, the author of The Role of the News Media, states, “The growth of cable TV, 24-hour news, and Internet blogs has pushed mainstream reporters to be even quicker in breaking stories. This can lead to the publishing or airing of stories without their facts being thoroughly checked” (par. 19). This explains that since anybody can access the Internet and social media, data and information can be released to the public without any research being performed beforehand; resulting in rumors and fallacious statements spreading like wildfire on the Internet. However, my claim of social media being fully protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of the press still holds strong; although speculations and false ideas may surface on the web, there are enough people on the Internet and social media that express opposing ideas that inaccurate information is

The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media websites have affected American elections in many forms. Candidates are now turning their attention to the people on social networks Murse (2015). They 're trying to draw more people like Millennials because they use more technology. These applicants are trying to step up and make a huge difference from the election of 2008. While in the running, the usage of social media is being used to announce what he or she is doing for the presidential campaign. For this reason, candidates, controversy, public opinion, social media and its 21st century media outlets have become the center of the 2016 election (CIO, 2015).

Twitter and Facebook offer a direct route for delivering information to a large audience. Posts on these social media sites are not required to be accurate, and often present little to no factual content. With social media it is very easy to make misinformation appear accurate, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the average user to differentiate between what is and isn't credible. Social media is now used to spread propaganda and intentionally deceive. The spread of false information is not new to politics, in fact, it's been around since its onset. The difference now however is the speed at which fake news can travel. According to Rachel Ehrenberg 90 million Americans use Twitter in a given month and it is estimated that half of all Americans are on Facebook with another 5 million people frequenting other social media sites. As a result, the moment something is posted, it has the potential to be seen by thousands almost instantly. This contributes to misinformation being spread quickly and efficiently.

Like technology, our species has adapted to fit modern times. Through these adaptations, we have begun to communicate through our newly developed technology by means of social media. In today’s society, we are surrounded by sites such as Facebook, Twitter, E-Mail, and various other websites that can often times consume our lives. While social media has plenty of advantages, it also has disadvantages that often times get ignored. As Internet users, it is important to examine these disadvantages and make sure we understand the negative sides to social media.

In his article “How Social Media is Ruining Politics”, Nicolas Carr argues that the media of today is more “encompassing and controlling than ever before. (Carr 1)” Media can be manipulated in a way that allows a candidate to have a perceived excellent reputation. However, it can also provide the candidate with a disadvantage by misrepresenting their ideas. As James Fallows, author of “ Learning to love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media”, points out, “If ideas are misrepresented, it becomes easier to lie. (Fallows 4)” Candidates can easily change the context of their message to make it more appealing on a social media platform. this change causes political issues to become an easily overlooked. He concludes that social media is primarily “used to create a warm emotional connection for a candidate rather than keeping the focus on issues that would help our country.(Carr)” In his article, “Beware of Online Filter Bubbles”, Eli Pariser expresses similar concerns to Carr. He concedes that popular internet mediums like Yahoo and Google “filter search results to fit the needs and intrests of the user. (Pariser)” The websites “filter in what users like and filter out what they dislike. (Pariser)” His concern is that “online media personalization causes important issues to be overlooked easily. (Pariser)” His research provides a

Throughout history, media has played a significant role in how an individual obtains power. The Presidential campaign of Donald Trump utilized specific aspects of modern-day media to ultimately win the election. Although the medium upon which people communicate has changed over time, the message itself has stayed relatively the same. The world’s latest medium however can be seen in the exponential growth of social media as well as news media outlets. Through the use of social media, Trump captured the world’s attention and garnered international headlines.

In particular, the Web enables users to share their ideas and thoughts about politics through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. These users can post their opinions about general politics, share articles with their followers, and write their own opinion articles. Public social networking sites cannot fact check everything their users write and cannot restrict the content their user's post. This creates a chain reaction where users continue the cycle of “see it, like it, repost it.” As a result, this lack of regulations often leads to false or misreported information to be spread and read by other people.  A majority of these readers will repost anything they read that agree with their opinions. Thus, the cycle is continued. These readers are either too gullible and believe anything they read or are simply too lazy to acquire their information from credible sources and repost whatever they see.

Television is one of the most powerful tools of media; however it is quickly being replaced by social media. Social media has become the most important source for news and information the American public relies on, and beyond that, perhaps, the most powerful single influence on the public. People believe what they read on social media as facts. Minutes after Malaysian Airlines flight 17 went down a US defense intelligence analyst

Social media is any website that allows social interaction. Social media is growing rapidly throughout the world. More adults and teenagers are joining sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to interact with friends, family, and strangers. The introduction of social media has changed the world in many ways. It affects each individual in different ways. Today it can be used as a very helpful tool in changing a person’s life, but at the same time cause such conflicts which can negatively impact a person. While there are some negatives associated with social media, the positives in communication all around, has made the world stronger and a better place to live in.

Through the advancing technologies of the modern world, information has become more accessible, interactive, and well distributed. People are able to receive all kinds of information via social media platforms, online blogs, televisions, radios, cell phone apps, magazines, newspapers, and etcetera. Those information help people get a better understanding of the world around them. But due to individuality, different subject matters create different responses and opinions. Political issues in the United States receive lots of attention from all over the world. Media and politics in the U.S. go hand in hand with one another. A study done by Rainie, Smith, Schlozman, Brady, and Verba at Pew Internet Research shows that 60% of the American adult population uses social media sites, and 66% of that population has participated in political activities on social media (2012). With the mass majority of people who are involved in political activities over media, rationalization over political issues can be complicated due to the different sources of information and the views of individuals. Especially during the presidential elections, millions of dollars are spent on campaign ads which many argued that they are considered biased. Nevertheless, it raises the question of whether the media is politically biased or the public is biased over political issues. With the evidence collected from the assimilation effect, hostile media phenomenon, and uses and

In this technologically advanced society, fake news is being widely spread across social media platforms. Since the growing popularity in obtaining news online, a large number of the public prefer to read social media news rather than authentic newspapers. It is apparent that sensational news draws more attention and interest from the audience. According to A December 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that 23 percent of U.S. adults have shared fake news, knowingly or unknowingly, with friends and others. This suggests that sufficient power is given to fake news be spread and influencing the public to some extent. Social networks could be exploited for various intentions with packaged untrue contents. The term fake news refers to inaccurate reports that are generated for gaining attention, misleading or deceiving their readers. The term social media refers to the online communications channels where information is shared. This essay will explain the negative impacts of fake news by focusing on its ability to decrease social media reliability, induce unnecessary fear and disturb political decisions.