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.

Most girls and women have looked into the mirror and said to themselves, “I wish I could be thinner,” or something along that line. The saying may be clique, but it is true that females of all ages have said to be disapproved of their body. The majority of women living in the United States have negative feelings about the way they look (Gallivan, 2014). The media is usually blamed for having negative effects on females’ identity and body image (Spurr, Berry, Walker 2013, p. 31). After all, the media is always in people’s faces in some way. It seems like the perfect body type is here to stay. The ideal body image is displayed on television, in magazines, social media, altered images, making females disapprove their own bodies.

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.

The more technology advances the more we seem to find different ways to communicate world wide. Daily there are many different types of apps and websites being created to share ideas, photos or feelings. It has changed the lives of many people positively and negatively. Ever since social media grew so did bullying. However there are many places bullying can happen, like in school, outside of school, work, or home. There are two different types of bullying, verbal and physical. It can have a small or big impact, depending on the person. Many people will say that the main causes of bullying today is social media because it allows people to communicate with others not having to be face to face and anonymously making it easier to bully others. Although some may argue that social media causes bullying, the truth is that bullying is actually caused by overexposure of private life, the victim becoming the bully, and lack of supervision .

Americans are slowly being separated from one another through electronics. In fact, most of that is due to the social media that is easily obtainable on devices such as IPhones, Computers, and TV’s. Social media is what keeps people away from family and keeps them from going outside of the house and actually bonding with others. When people choose to connect over social media rather than connecting in person it means they are disconnecting from society and its causing human interaction to steep downwards. People socializing through social media has become a serious problem, and it happens more and more each day as technology continues to advance. Disconnection is caused by social media and technology because the latest devices are so easily obtained and it creates the elimination of human interaction.

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.

Romantic relationships have become super complicated in recent years. The movie He’s Just Not That into You portrays ten people’s perspectives on relationships and dating in the 21st century. This movie was written as interweaving stories that come together in different ways that make a point. People find the world of dating to be complicated and most times confusing. There is always a fear of cheating and falling in love with manipulative people. Social media has also become a huge part of modern dating. Everything from texting to dating websites can influence how people view potential mates. The Facebook status was invented expressly for discovering if someone was single within the first couple seconds of being on the page. You can practically advertise that you’re single to any of you friends in hopes of finding a date. Dating today can be fraught with conflict and miscommunication and is vastly different from the dating world fifty years ago as it now includes a “hookup” culture, a non marriage centered mentality, and the use of modern technology.

The embedded ideas of society in the media regarding physical appearance are simply not realistic despite the fact that they are lusted over and are seen as desirable by a majority. In contemplation for the impractical beliefs that are provoking low self esteem, young people go to life-threatening measures in favor of intimating the exact body specifications due to the negative consequences of social media that the public is not taking into consideration. Being toned and muscular alludes to a hard worker and attractive person whereas, an individual who is overweight, will be condemned for being lazy. In fact, the majority of Americans are overweight. Models represent a small percentage but nonetheless, are looked up as the dominant elite in terms of body and beauty standards. In reality, for the larger part of the population that is

Surrounded by lies, in a world dictated by beauty. One thumbs through a magazine, slowly revoking their innocence. Now with this vision of beauty imbedded within their mind, they strive for it day after day. The idea of how one once thought they were beautiful begins to fade away, as the idealistic beauty takes over. One once was so innocent, so pure now has begun to despise all their imperfections. The media has formed this ideal image of how one should look. These standards have twisted the minds of adolescents, and made them feel less than their true potential. Young girls develop distorted views on their body due to Media’s standard about idealistic beauty.

Social Media: Some say it is taking over our lives one day at a time, while others say today’s generation of children and teens are just the beginning of a technological revolution that will continue to benefit and make our lives easier one day at a time. Through studying the technological benefits as well as more simply growing up in a technological era, the benefits of social media in our everyday lives becomes more and more clear as opposed to being a nuisance to society as some suggest. Social media has proven to be an effective tool in serving and protecting society by providing an outlet for law enforcement to investigate crimes and ultimately get offenders off of the streets. Social media outlets have also proven to be a way to promote a more interactive and easily accessible classroom from any location. With social media readily accessible to almost anyone with access to technology in the world, populations became more informed of the events in their communities, states, countries, and even the world. Through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat numerous social revolutions have been sparked and accelerated in their efforts such as “Black Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter”, and the Egyptian Revolution. Social media, through the benefits to society, the educational system, as well as to the population as a whole, has proven to help society by informing and protecting social media users and nonusers alike.

In pants pockets, in purses or on the hips there is a device that most people do no leave their house without. In this century having a cell phone is almost second nature. While some people still use flip phones, phones that slide, or phones with no internet capability, most of the people in the world have a smart phone. Many of these smartphones come pre-programmed with social media applications. These applications would include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and many more. With the click of a button people can access the newest funny videos, see that some cousin recently got engaged, and follow the rich and famous. This is all made possible through social media. Social media wasn’t as big as it is now. It was unknown territory for many

Social media isn’t just for updating people on what you are doing in your life but it can also be used to help generate sales for your business. This can be done on nearly any platform that you’d use for personal purposes. Social media sites have millions of people on them and they could be your next customers if you seek to gain more exposure through social media. Not only can you have your brand out there to create awareness, you can also run campaigns to create sales, build relationships with customers, gain feedback on your products or services, give promotion details, create loyalty programs, tank higher in search engines, and it can minimize your advertising costs (Adweek). Some of the main social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Yelp.

Today, there are just over 3 billion active internet users. Today using social media is the most common activity of children. People have technology right at the tip of their fingers, which isn’t exactly a good thing. Internet use is changing the way people are living their lives, and causing unhealthy addictions. Social networking sites do have a beneficial effect. They make it easier to keep up with their distant friends and family. However, these sites are preventing real life relationships. Although many people think they need social networking sites to keep up with their friends, networking sites should have a limited access policy, because it discourages too many people from physical interaction, identity theft has become a much bigger issue, and nothing is done about cyber bullying on these sites.

There is a significant change in the way consumers interacted with brand from the traditional marketing arena to the modern times when social media has become a trend and a profitable mode of marketing as it allows consumers to directly engage with brands at their own will which means that that there are high chances of getting genuine customers through engagement. Social Media presents varied and a great number of tools that can not only allow users to engage but also enable brand track the result of their marketing efforts.

Nowadays, Internet and social media plays an important role in our life. You just ask someone such as a child, a teenager, or a old person; you ask a question “Do you know or have facebook?”, and almost people say yes. Following statistic, Facebook has 845 million users at 21st century; Facebook has an appreciable attraction for almost people. Most people have a smartphone in the hand to access social media easily, and it easily helps contact with family, friends, colleagues, and another relatives in anywhere. Additionally, social media includes Facebook, Twitter, or another social facitities that remarkably affect to life of everybody, especially young people. Somebody thinks that social media affects positive aspect to the life of everybody because they think that social media connects a lot people together through social networks, even you do not need face to face each other. The other people think that social media gradually separate in human social interaction, specifically Facebook’s influence. Stephen Marche gave an article with title “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”. I agree with the claim in the article that Facebook also played a part in influencing our lives, but the most important factor that makes us separate from social life is that we are doing it to ourselves.