The Big Role Of Social Media In The United States

The Internet has been changing the world since it is created. As a part of new media, social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It has been helped to create a digital global village that 26% of the world’s population is using social media and the number is keep increasing. (Qualman, 2013) This essay will attempt to discuss how has the social media changed the public sphere, mainly focus on the improvement of public participation, social relations and information dissemination. Also Mainland China is taken as an example to show that social media enabling democracy in a developing country. Social media is also being used in good ways to spread information. There are some disadvantages to be analyzed, too. The issues like lack of privacy, social media violence and social media out of control will be discussed in this essay.

In the present culture of the United States, social media has had a major impact in American society. It has a profound influence and intertwined itself in almost every aspect of the average American’s life. It ranges from providing updates of location of a person(s), events, and sharing personal moments. Even different industries are utilizing social media as a platform for communication, information, and sales mediums. One industry, the health care field has seen a rise in the utilization of social media. For instance, an emerging population of physicians are using social media apps such as Snap Chat, Facebook, and YouTube to educate, display surgical, and medical procedures while being performed. In contrast, as there are positive aspects of utilizing social media, a negative trait of social media is invading and exposing individual’s privacy. As of recent, a New York licensed nurse had to surrender her nursing license and sentenced to 3 years of probation for “moral unfitness in the practice (Bowerman, 2016).” She took photos with her phone of two unconscious male patient’s genitalia and shared them with coworkers. This has become an increasing issue and as the utilization of social media in healthcare is increasing, many ethical issues are developing. For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed for the adoption of a national standard for electronic health care transactions and code sets, unique health identifiers,

Although the 2016 presidential election was over one month ago, many people still can’t believe the surprise result. Behind being upset about the result, some populations start to think the role of social media during the election. They aware the power of social media is very strong. But at the same time, only a few of them realize that they live in filter bubbles.

The introduction of media has significantly impacted the way candidates campaign during the United States presidential debate cycles. While mainstream media outlets (i.e. televised newscasts, radio broadcasts) have played an important role in providing live coverage of events in which candidates spoke about their platforms, the purpose of the media was completely altered with the introduction of social media, specifically Twitter. While journalism was meant to be an unbiased practice, Twitter and other social media sites have taken on the role of a biased news source, forever changing presidential elections in the process.

Twitter and Facebook offer a direct route for delivering information to a large audience. Posts on these social media sites are not required to be accurate, and often present little to no factual content. With social media it is very easy to make misinformation appear accurate, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the average user to differentiate between what is and isn't credible. Social media is now used to spread propaganda and intentionally deceive. The spread of false information is not new to politics, in fact, it's been around since its onset. The difference now however is the speed at which fake news can travel. According to Rachel Ehrenberg 90 million Americans use Twitter in a given month and it is estimated that half of all Americans are on Facebook with another 5 million people frequenting other social media sites. As a result, the moment something is posted, it has the potential to be seen by thousands almost instantly. This contributes to misinformation being spread quickly and efficiently.

At no other time has a "like," retweet or generally thoughtless online movement been so intelligent of the condition of American politics. For the likeminded people social media acts as a glue which unite them under one roof of open discussion. They not only want to know what is going around but also want to know the opinions of other likeminded people and why their opinion is correct. Despite the fact that online networking permits individuals to be presented to various political perspectives, individuals have a tendency to be a piece of situations where their political assessments are continually fortified.

There was no warning of the immense tragedy that hit southern Louisiana on Friday, August 12, 2016. A rain that came in harder than most hurricanes that have hit Louisiana. This down poor stayed in the same place for several days and did not stop. Social media had a huge effect on how this tragedy played out. Where help was being sent, who was okay and who was not okay. People resorted to using their phones to check on people and letting people know where help was needed with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, local news stations, and the radio. After everything slowed down and recovery started, everyone stuck together as a community. People posted GoFundMe pages on Facebook, started groups to start going out to neighborhoods to help work on houses also on Facebook, fundraiser concerts were promoted on Instagram. The local news stations showed where to go and what forms to fill out if they needed help with getting started on their homes.

In his article “How Social Media is Ruining Politics”, Nicolas Carr argues that the media of today is more “encompassing and controlling than ever before. (Carr 1)” Media can be manipulated in a way that allows a candidate to have a perceived excellent reputation. However, it can also provide the candidate with a disadvantage by misrepresenting their ideas. As James Fallows, author of “ Learning to love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media”, points out, “If ideas are misrepresented, it becomes easier to lie. (Fallows 4)” Candidates can easily change the context of their message to make it more appealing on a social media platform. this change causes political issues to become an easily overlooked. He concludes that social media is primarily “used to create a warm emotional connection for a candidate rather than keeping the focus on issues that would help our country.(Carr)” In his article, “Beware of Online Filter Bubbles”, Eli Pariser expresses similar concerns to Carr. He concedes that popular internet mediums like Yahoo and Google “filter search results to fit the needs and intrests of the user. (Pariser)” The websites “filter in what users like and filter out what they dislike. (Pariser)” His concern is that “online media personalization causes important issues to be overlooked easily. (Pariser)” His research provides a

How many Americans use facebook, Instagram and twitter? According to Pew Research Center of Internet, Science and Tech, approximately 74% of Americans either use facebook, Instagram or twitter every day. (Pews research, 2015) Social media has become the new way of networking and communicating versus living in the 1800’s and using telegraph mores codes. However, with change comes positive and negative influences. Social media tends to have a more negative influence on Americans rather than positive because of how media portrays ideal body image, celebrities’ actions, and ultimately giving indirect permission to bullying, which can result in suicide.

The United States of America can be seen as one of the most countries to be tech savvy. Specifically, with social media, which is used as a medium to communicate movements such Black Lives Matter due to the usage of unnecessary force from police used on Black Americans, has made an impact in Iran. Similarly, to the US movement, accusations of fraud during the June 2009 Iranian presidential elections caused protests and many citizens asking for a recount. Many Iranian citizens, however, do not have access to the internet nor any other social media sites so they are not able to access social media to fully understand what events were going on in Iran. Some would say social media did not have a role in the protests held in Iran. My

Within the past several years, it seems as though racial tensions in the United States has made a very prominent reappearance. Social media has played a major part in bringing these events to the forefront of our social conscience. However, this seemingly “shocking” reappearance is anything but. The United States is a country that has such a decided issue with internalized and systematic racism that it seems absurd for so many citizens to be shocked by recent events. Trayvon Martin, John Crawford, Michael Brown, and Oscar Grant are many of the already too many names associated with the unfortunate circumstances. There is an unsettling feeling whenever an injustice that could involve race appears. An underlying fear of the conversation

The reactions we have to certain events and scenarios can be altered by many outside forces. Friends, family and the news can all influence your opinion. But, have you ever considered that something you use everyday could be altering the way you think? Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube all play a crucial role in our perception of things, especially political events, sometimes without us realizing it. Part of the opinion-altering information that social media disperses can come from propaganda advertisements that appear on the websites, but most of it comes from peers and strangers.

The 45th president Donald Trump had a long journey to get to the point he is now and the struggle of American citizens of the United States accepting him. The media is not helpful President Trump is always being denounced, reworded, and despised. Topics that are typically controversial usually about gay rights, women's rights, and racism are always picked out, and used against him and the media feeds off it and then takes the info and feeds it to the citizens. Some journalist that speaks the truth believe Donald Trump did everything right and rightfully won the election. Other American citizens get angry and start violent protests. Our Democracy allows other ways to state your opinion and bring change to the Presidency without violent protests.

“Academic research has consistently found that people who consume more news media have a greater probability of being civically and politically engaged across a variety of measures.” In a generation where everyone’s time and attention is progressively focused on social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, there are still people who seek to appraise the relationship between public engagement and social media use. The media is a very useful tool to get people participating in the world of politics. A lot of us find out about political candidates, rallies, debates, and events through news channels, newspapers, social media, and radio stations. The media has always been critiqued by some but it also gives people the chance to be influenced by their government. Many people will login to their Facebook page and see hundreds of political memes. According to Dictionary.com a meme is “an image that is spread via the internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.” When it comes to political memes, people like to brew jokes about the political candidates they despise and get reactions out of others. People are consistently sharing articles about candidate flaws such as Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 deleted emails or Donald Trump not releasing his tax returns. These things can tremendously affect people altering their

Social media has grown at phenomenal rates over the past decade, with its rise being easily visible in several fields such as publishing, business, and activism, among others. The rise of its use in the field of politics is well known by those who are on and off social media, as a result of increasing number of politicians using this global platform to their maximum advantage.