SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY
Impact of Social Media on Society Technology has come a long ways from its existence till today. In today’s modern world, people are surrounded by technology everywhere. In the present, people are surrounded by disrupting technologies every day. Today innovators are always creating new technologies that will make an impact on the daily lives of millions. Technology has made the lives of many people easier. The influence of technology has made an impact on social media. Social media has impacted the society in many ways. Whether it is the life of an individual to how successful a company is going to be. Social media is not just about tweeting about what you just accomplished or instagraming what food you are about to eat at a very expensive restaurant. Though the government can intervene and remove that status that they have post anything. With social media any person has the ability to be a big deal and can influence others. An individual from Twitter can have a wide range of followers from 100 followers to one million. Thanks to this modern era of technology, it creates an ability for people to be able to connect and network with anyone.
Businesses ability to communicate has changed drastically from the 1990’s to the now modern broadband and fiber optic cable world of today. Back then when the internet was still relatively young, the ways of getting a product out or communicating to the community of a service was included newspaper ads, radio spots or talk show appearances. While a modern communications campaign may still include some or all of the above, there is a brand new factor to take into consideration: the social media chatter of the entire planet.
Today, there are roughly one billion active Facebook users, 343 million Google+ users, 200 million LinkedIn users and 500 million Twitter users. Now, let’s change the word “users” to “influencers.” That’s more than a billion influencers who have the power to help or harm your business goals. Social networking sites spread information faster than any other media. Social media has both the connotations. Positive and negative which depends on the person who is using it. “Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society, they are a challenge to it” (Shirky). Modern society has an abundance of technology and means of communication, such as social media. Technology and social media have transformed our society; however, are all these transformations good? There are many benefits of technology in our society, but technology also has many negative impacts. I believe there is a lot of truth behind this quote and that technology is becoming a challenge to society. We developed technology and social media to ameliorate society, but is it doing the opposite and destroying our society? Social media has quickly risen to power and gained control over the lives of many Americans. According to the Pew Research Center, from 2005 to 2015 the number of young adults using social media increased from 8% to 77%, and the number of young adults using social media increased from 12% to 90% (“Social Media”). Social media accounts have become extremely widespread in America. The majority of Americans in today’s society now use social networking sites. These Americans also visit their social media accounts very frequently. A study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that 22% of teens visit their favorite social media site 10 or more times a day (“The Impact”).
Over the course of the last two decades the use of social media has skyrocketed with over 72% of all online adults, visiting Facebook at least once a month and Facebook adds 500,000 new users every day, that’s 6 new profiles every second. The benefits that social media could have on society has been overlooked and overshadowed by an uneducated view of the medium. Social media has benefited society because it provides immediate help during a crisis, because it can be used to monitor mental health, and because it promotes positive change within countries. Furthermore, social media can have a positive impact on society and ultimately benefit more people than it harms. This is a debated topic because people are still unsure of the consequences of our long-term social media use. It is an important subject because in the article entitled Social networking sites and our lives, from June 2011, “74% of American adults online use social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, as of January 2014, up from 26% in 2008” (Hampton ET AL.). There are arguments for and against this topic with the bulk of the support coming from the increase in the amount of knowledge and information and support networks that have been created. On the other hand people argue that this same platform will lead to time wasted on frivolous activities and impressionable minds open to pedophiles and false information. For modern youth, cell phones and laptops are not just a luxury, but rather a necessity for both work and everyday living. Communicative technology has been an important part of daily life for many people, with the use of different services increasing steadily over time. “Convergence Culture,” Henry Jenkins defines convergence culture as a merging between new and traditional forms of media. Jenkins describes interactive new media as constantly developing, spreading across multiple media platforms. Rapid enhancements in communication technology has led to effortless communication and interaction across the globe; these improvements have led to a greater and constant consumption of new media platforms. In a study by the ICMPA, “Students Addicted to Social Media,” results showed that American students have become addicted to social media. During the study, students reported feeling cut off from the world without their social media device. By in large, human beings have developed a massive dependency on constant communication methods provided by new interactive media. Convergence represents both technological and cultural shifts in American society, changing the way media is produced and consumed. The excess of everything is not good the more the use of social media the more you gets off from the path of achieving goals, attention, health and many more.
