Social Media And Its Impact On Society

As we all know, social media has a tremendous impact on society and has affected in some way our daily life, relationships, and/or business. Every day, people around the world access famous social media network sites such as facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and so on to find out about other people, others might use social networking to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, or even meet their spouse. The excessive use of social media websites might bring negative effects; while for other people, it might bring satisfaction or positive effects. Technological advancements such as the internet, have given us the opportunity to connect with other people anytime and anywhere in the world. Pretty much all around the world, everyone has access to the World Wide Web via a desktop computer or smart phones. The fact is that no matter our current location or destination we might go, social media will always be following us as long as we have that direct connection. The main focus of this paper is to identify the good and bad of social media, and the current and future problems it will bring.

While many people put off and ignore the issue of social media and its downfalls, others say that people should think about how our lives are being affected by this advancement in technology, including, lack of human contact and precious time being lost due to consumption with social media. Social media is currently a highly controversial topic in which numerous people have mixed feelings. Society has typically viewed new advancements in technology as beneficial and a sign of success within their country. But, has it solely caused successful outcomes, or are there downfalls to these advancements?

The term “catfishing” is a slang term used more frequently in the United States. Catfishing refers to creating false identities and fake profiles to defraud a victim.

Since we as a society are currently living in the age known as the Technological Revolution, chances are that in some form or fashion you are aware of and have been exposed to social media. Well, imagine a world where the use of social media became more structured and used to improve education as opposed to just being used for keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing pictures, and seeing how many likes you can get per post. According to the Business Insider Intelligence Report of 2014, social media is now the top Internet activity in the world, Americans’ specifically “spend more time on social media than any other major Internet activity, including email” (Business Insider). Considering this information, it is obvious that social media plays a vital role and impacts the lives of our nation on a daily basis. Some argue that its impact can be negative and a distraction to the educational experience of the younger generation. Regardless of your personal opinion, what if educators were to work with the use of social media for educational purposes. Since it is highly used, it would not only gain the learner’s interest but also would reach more people at large. Therefore, we should learn to better utilize social media in a more constructive educational manner.

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.

When most individuals hear the term social media they instantly think of Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social networks we use today. Social media didn’t start with computers; however, social media dates back as early as 1792 with the telegraph explain Hendricks (2013). Social media started to spike in the early 1950’s when the phone became popular. Between the 50’s and the 90’s, many social media ideas were brought to life but eventually died; Border states most of these focused around a “Bulletin Board System”.

Back in the day, if two people were to have a falling out most of the time the problem would be solved either by confrontation or they would stop talking to each other. As times have evolved, so has the way that we communicate our emotions to others. Over the last decade, social media has started to become more prominent and important in everyday life so that people can keep in contact with each other from many miles away. Unfortunately, will new ways of communication comes new ways of trying to hurt other people. Almost every single person in the 21st century is connected to the internet one way or another and has at least one social media account. Although it is true that being connected to the web can help people all over the world to

Many people leap at this chance and create a persona they expect will grant them fame. There are also those who create a digital identity for malicious purposes. Others choose to represent themselves as they really exist, creating a digital identity that matches reality.

In a few years our generation will be looking back on our youth saying “Social media is one of the biggest leaps made in our culture”. Social media has advanced the way communication is achieved through the way society shares knowledge. We are able to talk to anyone anytime just through a simple text or a Facebook message. We are able to communicate through technology in fast, simple ways knowing what everyone is up too through their never-ending tweets and posts. Though all the things may be true there is a bigger issue at hand, and this is causing great travesty. Social media is destroying communication and intamicy on a face-to-face level.

The art of social media, as of today, can be described as engaging, educational, and for some, addicting. For most people, social media is a convenient way to keep in touch with friends, family, and following celebrities by being able to receive constant notifications and alerts through the social site. Most can access these sites through computers, or more efficiently on a mobile device. It is also no secret that thanks to said devices, the public is easily able to have access to the latest trends, taking professional grade photos, or updating personal statuses. The technology today is only getting better, but how far could it possibly go? The rate at which social media is evolving, let alone technological advances, have not even began to

Social media provides an outlet that reflects our lives online. It is changing the way we relate to others and how we think about ourselves. Users of social media have created for themselves a social footprint. This footprint marks where they are and where they have been online. Their lifestream is now recorded in the timeline of their social networks. Participants in social media now have a digital identity, which shows their activity with a time and date stamp in reverse chronological order. The users social brand is created by any online interactions that have been created by leaving information (Solomon, 2015).

When social media first became a popular business tool for networking, building brands, and establishing authority and credibility, many people networked haphazardly. Their approach was akin to throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what would stick. The goal was to connect with as many people as possible with the hope that some of those relationships might be fruitful. Sadly, some people still use social media this way.

What kind of world could possibly exist without some form of a Facebook, a Twitter, or an Instagram? Perhaps, it would be a world so unjust; people would actually have to call all of their five hundred and twenty-nine best friends by phone. So that they may share with them, the stale bread with one slice of turkey meat sandwich, they bought during lunch! Social media websites like, Facebook or Twitter are portals to information and communication. It has provided new and exciting opportunities for people all around the world to be able to connect with each other more easily than ever before. It has also helped businesses to flourish, and provides just about every answer to a sought out question. The internet superhighway so to speak, has created an excessive need. And as a result, it has become such a craze, that the sophisticated computers used to access the internet, now play a major role in everyone’s life; including children. Many gaming systems, cellular phones, and other electronics readily made available to children all have the potential to easily access the internet. Ever thought about what effects might such a craze have on children? For instance, could the excess of internet use with social media in particular, pose any implications onto children? The excessive partaking in social media amongst children- inhibits their productivity, interferes with the development of their social skills, and desensitizes their outlooks.

The term ‘social media’ has become a broad-term to describe a large number of online systems that serve as a platform for the generation, and distribution of user-generated content. Social media creates a virtual social space, where a large number of users come together and interact with one another. These interactions can be either structured, such as responses that are moderated on blogs, semi-structured, such as a discussion between an extended network on Facebook, or unstructured, such as the anarchial functioning of Twitter.

Social media is said to be the cornerstone for communications between everyone in the world. Social media refers to the interaction among individuals in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in cyber communities and networks. Social media sites negatively affect society by destroying an individual’s ability for independent thinking; consequently, these sites should be banned. There are many psychological effects, constant distraction social media provides for people, and the risk of sexual harassment/ cyber bullying.