Social Media 's Impact On Society

Social media sites are very popular throughout the United States. As technology advances, more social media sites advance for those who own a form of electronic device. Social media is a relationship that exists between the individual and the whole wide world. In today’s society, anything someone desires to know can be found on social media. We have several different forms of social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and several more. Since social media was invented young men and women use it to share photos, announce an engagement, birth of a child and high point moments taking place in their lives. For example, at Southern University, we share a lot of events that are taking place around the university on Instagram.

In this article, Malcolm Gladwell argues that in a network were loose ties are prevalent and Hierarchy is just a word, social media could never give what social change will ask for. He starts off by recalling the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement, were groups of dedicated individuals challenged the status quo, with crucially, strategic activism that led to a true revolution. Mr. Gladwell illustrates that there are a few distinctions that show between traditional activism and social media. One being that social media is not a hierarchy, instead it is a network. Secondly, his more compelling argument that social media is built on “Weak –ties” which rarely will lead to the high-risk activism that is needed.

Social media has consumed our society. 47% of American adults used social networking sites in 2011 like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter; up from 26% in 2008(quoted from procon.org) the aspects of social media both have a positive and negative impact on life. Social networking sites promote interaction with distant family and friends. Social networking sites can demonstrate opportunities to strengthen existing relationships and to develop new friendships as well. The downfall of social media sites prevent less face to face communication. Also, social media has been known to be more likely to spread false, and even potentially dangerous information. Questions come about quite often about social networking sites, and if they are good for our society. As a member of our society social networking can have a positive influence in school, relationships, promoting business, and self-expression. While others may view social media as a negative influence, for me, the issue hinges on how social networking sites are being used and displayed accordingly.

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?

Social media is changing our lives in the way we communicate with the others and building relationships. So, People around us seem to be distracted, and they do not communicate with others as it was without using the social media. Also, some of them have become introverted due to the social media.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, our generation had prospered and became remarkably advanced in this world. Furthermore, the greatest journey of innovation would be to, our precious, advanced technology. First, we began with just cell phones, next smartphones, in which, then opened a door to all theses different types of upcoming apps. Few of these apps have become a major key in our society; such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. These apps were as another form of social media. It had opened a whole new world for people twelve and older; enabling them to share and memories, stories, and updates of their lives to their “followers”. Moreover, this way of sharing your life with others had brought in keen, automatic listeners. Which inevitably had also spread awareness like wildfire; the good or bad news. Nonetheless, this form of social media had an immense effect on users’ lives. There were major consequences in social media that had affected our community and relationship. The children of our future were becoming illiterate, a there became a new standard of “love”, and a latest form of addiction. Within our generation of social media, this could be one of the most extensive downfall of the century yet.

The use of social media has increased rapidly within the past decade and still continues to grow as approximately 58% of people claim to use it. According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, Social media is defined as "forms of electronic communication…through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content" (Merriam Webster Online). Most people across the globe have been introduced to some sort of technology with the capabilities of using social media sites and those exposed tend to become captivated by what they have access to, using social media often and depending on it to keep in touch with others. This leads people to ask, "Does social media make the world more disconnected or interconnected?" This is a controversial topic due to the overwhelming use of social media amongst the younger generations and even the older generations as well. This issue in society could potentially dissipate actual physical relationships between people and everyone will become technology-hungry robots. Karl Pilkington once said, "Everyone is living for everyone else now. They 're doing stuff so they can tell other people about it. I don 't get all that social media stuff, I 've always got other things I want to do - odd jobs around the house. No one wants to hear about that." Overall, social media is ultimately making the world more disconnected while fooling people into believing that they are becoming closer to each other.

Social media is defined as websites and applications (app) that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. (Google) Instagram, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Snapchat are just a few of the thousands of social media sites that are used all over the world. Social media are computer mediated technologies that uses Web 2.0 internet based applications that allow the creating and sharing of ideas, thoughts, information, and forms of expression. On these sites, users create personalized profiles for the app or website that are maintained by the organization that connects their social networks to other users within the same organization who usually have similar interests.

I have constantly thought about intimacy amongst couples as a private and a special thing between them, and considered it as a cherished moment to be experienced concerning the two without the interruptions of others. Yet, nowadays, every notion of privacy is becoming blurred with the use of technology, and peoples’ interpretations of what is private and what is public has evolved over time with these new technological developments. The smartphone plays a significant role in changing peoples’ views on their privacy, and having these devices in hand at all times, with unlimited access to the internet, alongside countless applications and free social media platforms available to share their content has made it even easier to forget about the concept of privacy.

In recent years, it 's become rather common to turn on the television, log into Facebook, or use some other form of social networking and see a plethora of breaking news headlines regarding excessive violence used by police officers. The general American populous turn on the news after dinner on a nightly basis, and learn of horrific stories where officers are continuously abusing their authoritative powers. Because of an ever growing role of social media coverage in our lives, we are impressed to believe that police brutality has become a growing trend in our society when in reality, that simply isn 't the case.

With today’s advanced technology of the 21st century, we now have a wide range of access to information through social media. We can now stay updated with current topics and events going on around the world and become educated with just a click, or tap, to a social media application. Many people assume that social media are our friend and that social media is a great thing to have. But, what these people fail to realize is that social media is really our enemy, our foe. Where do I stand with social media? Let’s just say I used to be blinded as much as today’s people are, who are corrupted by the vast trends of social media. Though I may use social media myself, I do not consider it my friend. I consider social media a corruption towards society and a foe, not just towards me, but to the rest of the world.

Technology is used every day in almost every situation and by almost every man, woman, and child. Computers and cellphones have influenced our world staggering ways. The electronic device that we use in our homes, like our clocks, televisions, telephones are used as part of our daily lives. Even on our jobs and in our schools, technology has become resources that we use to make our lives more manageable in ways that we take for granted. But one of the most notable influences on society we encounter in modern time is social media. According to statistics, “the percentage of US population with a social media profile from 2008 to 2017. In 2017, 81 percent of U.S. Americans had a social media profile.” (U.S. Population With A Social Media Profile)

Traditionally, people used the Internet to simply expend content: they read it, they watched it, and they used it to buy products and services. Increasingly, however, people are now utilizing platforms–—such as content sharing sites, blogs, social networking, and wikis–—to create, modify, share, and discuss Internet content. This represents the social media phenomenon, which can now significantly impact how an entire movement is viewed worldwide. It’s difficult to comprehend in this day and age that social media could actually produce something positive and worthwhile, considering so much of the discussions are filled with arguments revolving around race relations, political ideologies, and violence. The social media phenomenon has people “plugged in” to twitter wars between celebrities, the latest political sound bites, and hashtags to use against one another (i.e #BlackLivesMatter vs. #PoliceLivesMatter). Yet, through the issues, there are social media platforms that promote positive expressiveness of one’s self worth and love. In relation to the body, the hashtag #EffYourBeautyStandards has created its own phenomenon within the realm of the internet. In times of body shaming, scrutiny, and being judged based off of a size on the back of a tag, or the color of your skin, or the lack of makeup one refuses to where, this hashtag promotes beauty acceptances and embraces the differences of every person.

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.

Nowadays, a growing number of individuals interact on a larger societal level through social media. Social media, it is a combination of internet-based structures. There is statistic shown that more than 1.8 billion Internet users have accessed social media sites. This suggests a new form of infrastructure has successfully penetrated our everyday life, and influences individuals and communities since then. With social media platforms becoming more functional, users move their daily activities to online environments gradually. This phenomenon has raised a controversial debate on whether social media make users more or less social. In this essay, I will discuss both tendency of social media sociality allegedly with some practical