Social Media And Its Effects On Society

Social media has become deeply embedded as a part of today’s American culture and lifestyles, changing the way people interact and communicate with one another. Americans use social media every day; to not only communicate, but to express themselves. These online media sites and blogs serve as entertainment for its users and give them a sense of a social life if they do not already have one. Some users become so obsessed with their online lives that they lose the ability to successfully communicate with people in real life. Their craving for the use of social media becomes an addiction to where they can spend countless hours on their social sites. Facebook, a popular social media cite, has been proven to cause Facebook Depression, a sickness in which a person is emotionally depressed and in self denial. Studies have shown that sites such as Facebook, are a direct link to an individual’s physical and emotional well being.

You are walking out of the new Star Wars movie, posting about how superb it was, when suddenly you are swooped up and thrown in the back of a vehicle. No one would have thought posting about how you were there earlier would provoke such a situation. After all, social networking is “safe” and “friendly.” Now, social media is defined as “A form of electric communication through which users create online communities to share information,” according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Social networking began in 2004 and has sky-rocketed since, due to its sense of world connectivity in a mere moment. However, with this increase, a growth in seemingly harmless threats has occurred. Users sitting behind a screen are usually unaware of how complex and diminishing social networking can be. Social media may be considered negative for society as it changes what members view as behaviorally normal, increases the risk of cyber-suicide, and reduces the amount of privacy in one’s life.

Addiction, profit and influence usually are not the first words you would expect to come to mind when thinking about the term “social media,” yet with a little digging you will soon realize it could be the perfect description. Social media can be defined as forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages and other content. Most often social media is understood as a positive concept because of the ways it has allowed us to attain cheap and easily accessible knowledge at the end of our fingertips. For example, take the average college student who would rather spend their last $20 at the bar you can conclude that there are superior consequences to abusing too much of a good thing; using social media has its own set of superior consequences.

In today’s day in age almost everyone has some form of social media. Many people have more than one. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter or some other form. We all use it to express and communicate our thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world. Because of this many people do not know how to communicate face to face anymore and many times even hide behind their keyboard. Keller (2013), Quotes Paul Booth an assistant professor of media and cinema studies saying “There has been a shift in the way we communicate; rather than face-to-face interaction, we’re tending to prefer mediated communication,” he says. “We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone”. Other people such as Qualman (2011), believes that using social media to communicate does not have to be such a bad thing. He says that if used properly it can be a very effect tool in the business world. Because social media touches pretty much everyone in some way it is a good strategy for overall success or an organization. There are both positive and negative communication effects on social media. The goal of this paper is to communicate the negative effect of how social media is effecting communication.

Though the importance and dependence of social media in society this meaning has been developed. The third principle of symbolic interactionism is that “meanings can change or be modified through interaction” (Ferris and Stein, 2014, pg. 32). This principle proves that social media does not have to be a negative influence is the dependence and meaning of it in society changed. If society, particularly younger generations, did not place such a heavy importance on social media it would not have the meaning that it does in our society. If social media did not have the importance in society that it does it would not have the power to negatively affect the mental well-being of so many individuals.

Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are web-based activities that provide individuals access to build a public or a semi-public profile within a confined system, connect and find users that they share a connection with as well as view and navigate the list of connections that are made by other participants of the systems (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social media is widely used by young adults contributing to about 84% of the total usage (Smith, 2011). Some of the popular reasons for widespread use of social media are staying in touch with near and dear ones especially with friends and family, making new friends, following famous politicians and celebrities and also in search of potential relationships (Smith, 2011). However as the use of social media becomes more widespread, we cannot help but express concerns over the effects that social media usage may have on our behavior. Over the past couple of decades, research has strongly linked social media usage with negative behavioral outcomes and is known to affect one’s overall well-being. This essay will begin by discussing some of the behavioral issues that result from social media usage, followed by criticisms of this argument. The recommendation will then highlight some ways by which the behavioural problems could be dealt with, acknowledging that self-monitoring and self-regulation are the main ways to tackle the issue.

For many years, the world has heard stories about children and teens who have gone missing or taking their lives because of social media. Some think that social media should be restricted to only allow so much information. Others think that social media is a form of expression that can help teens and businesses grow. By adding restrictions, such as a limit to what information you can share on your profile, the government can help combat prevent identity theft, social media related kidnappings, and reduce cyberbullying even though the opposing side disputes these reasons and stance.

Over the years the view of marriage has changed. Society has constructed the views of what a marriage should look like and what roles should be played even who should be married. Today’s social media glorifies all aspects of marriage, from prenuptials to annulments as well as overdramatized weddings and divorces. Respect has been lost as there are more and more reports of infidelity and less privacy of family and home life. Marriage was something that was once significant and held in high regards has fallen victim to the social construction of a newly defined meaning. One aspect that has changed marriage is the cohabitation between two individuals. Cohabitation encourages premarital sex. Society accepts cohabitation and

Social media do not simply mean communication, sharing information, and playing games. Social media has also helped businesses increase revenue for the company by contacting customers, and introducing their products and services to consumers. According to the social savior.com (N.D.) in 2013, marketers argue that was important for business for about 86 percent. A year later that number increased to 92 percent. However, social media expansion was important for their business. Internet users in the United States, with an average usage per day, spend 37 minutes per day, while in 2015 Facebook had nearly 1.5 million users. Other sites are growing quickly as well, although not as much as Facebook is. Therefore, it makes the owner company turn its attention to social media more and more because they will benefit enormously from social media. For example, if Facebook has 1.5 million users, and a company will have consumers from advertising on Facebook, than viral marketing as Facebook has users all the time and advertising on social media that will have people to see it more than another (the social savior.com, N.D.).

Social media, also called social networking, is becoming increasingly dangerous to young people in all areas of the world. Social media was created to do great things like connect people with their family and friends, allow individuals to stay in touch with news, and have vast information at their fingertips. However, like most things, social media has drifted from its original purpose and if not used carefully and responsibly can be harmful to mental health. Considering the immense push toward social media it is important to note that the negative impact it has on the mental health of its users is growing exponentially.

Yawn. Post. Tweet. Share. Repeat. Three quarters of eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds say that they reach for their phones immediately upon waking up in the morning (Weisberg). What are they reaching for? The desire to stay on top of what others are doing is a major point in society. Social media is commonly defined by the repetitive collaboration of keeping up with modern technology. Social networking has a negative role in society whether those affected realize it or not. But it is not only millennials who affected by this routine, it is all age groups. Once out of bed, we check our phones 221 times a day—an average of every 4.3 minutes—according to a UK study (Weisberg). Snap Chat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are the Founding Fathers of the digital campaign. “Human character changed on or about December 2010, when everyone, it seemed, started carrying a smartphone” (Mendelson). With a smartphone in hand, people are constantly refreshing, and clicking away to stay updated with what other people are doing. In a recent study by the research firm eMarketer, Americans spend an average of five and a half hours a day with digital media, more than half of that time on mobile devices (Weisberg). This is not only in America: it is a worldwide phenomenon that needs to be stopped.

Every business hears those terms being bandied about every day. They are made to feel less than and that their business will go under if they are not on the cutting edge of whatever is happening in digital. The reality is, there is some truth to it, but not in the way you think.

Do you know anyone who isn’t using any kind of social network? These days social network such as Facebook and Instagram become one of the basic things in our lives. People are trying to share every moment in their life. But there is one thing that some people don’t know, the thing that social media uses our personal information to improve the website and also to sell it to advertisers. These websites are using special algorithms to collect our information also using these algorithms to predict what kind of things we do, such as shopping or contact with other people. In fact, people should know about the benefit and defects of the social network when they use our personal information, and if there are any defects what should they do to improve this problem.

In these days, people cannot imagine perform modern life with any Internet access that allows people being connected through online networks. It is also the cheaper and powerful way adopted for companies to communicate to their clients and expose products by online advertisements. In order to make all World Wide Web available there are companies that storage and release information such as Google, Facebook and many others that provide entertainment, to their users. These social networking websites are accumulating a massive amount of data and they allow data brokers have access to this information. This fact leads to the negative fact that data brokers with no consumer permission use this information to observe their likes, trends and personal interests to offer products to them, such as travels, cars and houses based on their likes. This abusing consumers’ data problem will be solved by start leaving this issue to the web market that will benefit both users and data companies.

In the past, many people were limited to who they were able to interact with, and most online communication occurred through electronic mails. The amount of information exchanged was very limited because many computers were not yet capable of holding vast amounts of data and the speed in which the information was transferred was not fast enough. But with the advance in broadband technology, also came the expansion of communication channels. The thirst for instant communication resulted in the creation of social networks such as Facebook. After its beginning in 2004, Facebook revolutionized the way people interacted with each other online, and gave users the opportunity to directly connect and communicate in a much faster way. Companies can