Social Media And Its Impact On Society Essay

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, what do they mutually have in common? They are all social media websites. Social Media has become the number one way to communicate with other people from around the world. It has been beneficial and helpful to many, on the contrary harmful to some. People use social networks to catch up with a childhood friend, endorse their business, or develop news faster. Other people use it to steal identities, cyberbully, and abuse others. It has stated that social media’s are “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts” (“social media.”) With this in mind, how has social media influenced

Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.

At this very moment, there are thousands of people worldwide who are retweeting posts on Twitter, liking pictures on Instagram or posting a status on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are few of the many social media platforms that have become prevalent in our society. Because social media applications and websites allow users with easy access to communication with others around the world, individuals all across the globe are able to socially interact on a daily basis. Erving Goffman, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, three of many sociologists who viewed society through the interactionist perspective, would use these daily interactions to make generalizations about society as a whole. The paradigm of symbolic interactionism reaches conclusion about different groups in society, generally by observing everyday social interactions. Accordingly, interactionists would view social media as an aspect of society that consists of constant social interactions that continuously influences and affects individuals and the whole of society.

Social media has become prominent parts of life for many young people today. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as a society becoming more concerned with Facebook "friends" than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives? What will the longterm effects of today 's social media use be? There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs. Social media has both negative and positive effects on society, it is up to the user to decide what impact they want to make. In order to make the right choices, we must dig in and research this topic thoroughly.

Social media is a controversy topic in today’s society. Some people think that social media destroys human interaction and real life human relationships. While others think that social media is a bless to humanity. Social media makes human interaction much more convenient and much faster than real life human interaction, it makes globalization a reality, it gives a chance for introverted people to express themselves, and it also benefit develop international relationships whether its business or social.

In a time where almost everyone owns a smartphone, social media and technology have evolved into a crucial part of daily life. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as a society becoming more concerned with Instagram "followers" than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives? It is worth researching the impact it has on our lives for both users and nonusers. According to a report by Common Sense Media, 75 percent of teenagers in America currently have profiles on social networking sites. There are positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs. The impact social networking sites have, range from politics to mental health. Although it has advantages and drawbacks, it is up to each user to use social sites in moderation with right intentions and exercise caution to online dangers; users decide what impact they want to make.

Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat - all these are called social media and they have a critical impact on the way young people think and interact on a day to day basis. “Virtual Communities” (Lee, 2015) is about the virtual world and how it affects the physical world and the influence it has on the lives of people on a daily basis. “Enhancing Your Body Image” (Donatelle, 2015) is about the influences that media or outside sources have on the way people view their bodies and how people feel about themselves. The main similarity between the two concepts is the influences that virtual communities have on the way people see themselves in the physical world. Enhancing one’s body image and the affects virtual communities have on the physical world are connected in many ways; furthermore, the influences that media has over people and how that can lead into bullying, and how all of it affects the future of an individual.

A single person views so many images daily, whether it’s on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.), on TV, music videos or even the news, that give us out view of people. People don’t tend to notice that social media tends to form an opinion for us especially when it comes to Black people, more specifically Black women. American schools have showed Black women as inferior at all aspects in history, in recent years Black women have been hyper sexualized for their bodies and exploited for their beauty. Black bodies especially that of Black women’s, are the most degraded, attacked, disrespected and devalued of all the races.

Nations around the globe rely on all types of media to address the general population about occurring events or incidents in the country. Countries such as America and China are well known for their excessive use of the media to cover important and none important events around the nation. The general public is affected by the media’s control in many forms, which can include media marketing of consumerism and social media. The Truman Show alludes the society in which compliance is forced, due to the media’s overwhelming control over the general public; and argues that there is no actual media control can be broken free from, because it is a person’s choice to seek their own path to freedom. This theme is illustrated through the symbolism of the characters of Christof, Truman’s Wife Meryl, and Truman. The claim is supported by the articles that include, 13 ways of looking at The Truman Show by Yacowar , Mapping the culture of control by Wise J. Macgregor, and The Staging of 'real-life ' by Kilborn . The central argument that, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” (Wise), is supported in Mapping the culture of control by Wise because the general public want what everyone wants due to their need of fitting in with the so called social norm.

Selfie is defined as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media. Selfie was the 2013 Oxford Dictionaries word of the year and have great impacts on social media websites across the internet. To this day the world has been caught in this tendency by mocking it or participating it. As selfies get more popular the beauty standard are impossible to reach for ordinary young women. Every individual have different perspective of what self-portrait present. In fact, based on my own experience and the experience of classmate, I cannot deny the boost in confidence level that selfies bring. People, who were often unexpressive and distrustful of their own positive trait in the real world, often finds their worth through selfies.

Living in a century characterized and brimmed by constant technological advances, it is certain that social media has caused great impact within our society. According to different studies conducted by Edison Research, almost 80% of U.S. Americans have a social media profile (see table 1). From a worldwide perspective, 1.96 billion social media users can be estimated; given number is expected to grow to 2.5 billion users by the year 2018. A CMO survey has proven that 90% of young adults (ages 18-29) use social media, such media consumption habits are unlikely to change over time. Considering the great and far-reaching impact of social media marketing, proper regulations should be applied in order to avoid any mistake or negative comment that could have a devastating impact on a business. Having a social media policy will enable the company to regulate social media activities in order to minimize errors that can undermine the company’s reputation which can affect the profitability. Throughout this essay, I will argue the main reasons why it is highly crucial to enforce social media policies in businesses. Various examples of companies that have successfully implemented such policies will be also be mentioned throughout the paper along with companies that failed to implement such techniques; proving that implementing a social media policy is essential for every business entity.

popularity of the internet has brought about social interaction to a level that was never witnessed before. The emergence of social networks has been increasingly popular. Social media network comprises of individuals from varied gender, religious, racial and ethnic affiliations. Primarily, social media networking is meant to foster interaction and sharing of various issues that people encounter in society. Following the functionalist sociological perspective, social media networks are characterized by each individual following another and thus encouraging coaction between individuals through the power of the internet infrastructure.

The technological advancement of the internet has a huge impact on human society. These includes various forms of computer-mediated communication; any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. One leading example is the use of social media platforms. According to dictionary.com, social media are “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts”. As mentioned, the use of social media have a huge impact more on the younger demographics, ranging from young adults, adolescence, to children even. Although, some issues can rise with the use of social media. However in the long run, social media actually does more good than harm in retrospect.

On average, 140 million Tweets are sent per day, which is up from the average of 50 million Tweets sent per day the year before (National Archives). On Instagram, the most followed user, other than the account of Instagram itself, is actress and artist Selena Gomez with over 103 million followers (National Archives). Recent studies show that the average Millennial spends 18 hours a day consuming media in general (National Archives). Suffice to say, the modern world is a highly-connected world involving endless likes, followers, hashtags, and Facebook Live videos. Among the top users are those of today’s generation, or Generation Me. Social Media has become a constant part of everyday life, and as the Millennial Generation begins to approach adulthood and starts becoming more involved in the workforce, the way the world operates will change drastically with the use of new technology and forms of communication. Already, the world of politics has changed into a more social media-friendly status. The increased involvement of millennials in politics and the resulting tactics by politicians has led to the increased use of social media for political purposes due to the increasing use of social media in the millennial generation.

As we entered the digital information age in the 1990’s, many people across the world truly believed that Jan. 1, 2000 would bring the end of the world with it. While this was far from true, the ease of access to information that came with the turn of the century still brought upon unbelievable changes to the world as many people had known it to be. One of the biggest changes is the evolution of advertising from print and TV, to now include audiences across the internet through the use of social media marketing. Social media has truly had an immense impact on companies and the way they advertise their products and their services to their consumers. They are realizing that digital advertising has become one of the most important means of reaching customers in the information age. So important that businesses have had to dramatically increase their social media advertising budgets over time (Zhu & Chen, 2015, para. 1). Despite the importance of social media, the impact of using it has shown businesses that they also need to acquire a better understanding of how to use it to properly engage with customers. Overall, when used correctly and budgeted for, it has become an essential part of the marketing process.