Social media takes up about 50 percent of my life. From the morning I wake up I’m preoccupied with never ending constantly updating Twitter feeds, Facebook friend requests, and Tango emails alerting me that it’s time to renew my passcode. My phone is the gateway to the World Wide Web. Without it, I would be like a bat without its wings. These minute notifications inform me 24 hours a day keeping me interacting with what’s going on in the world. Social media serves as a platform where I can share ideas and connect with my friends.
Some positive outlooks of social media are such things as keeping friends and relationships, reducing communication barriers, and opening opportunities for businesses. Social media helps keep friends and relationships by keeping you and your peers connected in a convent way. In recent years, for instance, children have been able to reconnect with birth parents who gave them up for adoption. The possibility of that happening by doing that the old fashion way would require a lot of time, dedication, hope, and research. Omegle is a perfect example of keeping personal relationships present via social media. Strangers can know what life is like on your side of the world through what you tell them in chat rooms.
Social media also enables our voices to be heard by a wide variety of social media users. The ability to share your opinion with others through Like pages and Groups on Facebook allows users to tune into their interests and express their views. The Occupy Wall Street page informed users as to where their next meetings would be held and their main objective hoping they could stop the way political officials used money in New York. These pages brought together people with similar interests to share their opinions and input ideas on certain topics.
Businesses use the internet for many reasons. Businesses try to influence the public through techniques like: to entertain, to inform, to publish, to recruit, to do research, to sell, to support, and to train. If these techniques are used properly, businesses can get the outcome they intended to get from the demographic they are trying to reach. Target advertises products to the public hoping to increase sales. The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) uses the internet to publish articles that inform their readers with local and worldly news. SnagAJob tries to recruit unemployed citizens for jobs in their local area. Youtube has billions of videos uploaded daily, mostly for entertainment. Social media is a platform that enables businesses to impact the public with their goods and services.
Social media is often seen as being good, but it actually has its bad side. Isolation, lowered productivity, and addiction are some of the prime examples of its negative effects. Since every one can be found on social media sites, there is longer a reason to go out and connect with others the way people had to thousands of years before our time. People don’t put in an effort to have real conversations. It’s also been known that users create false identities and lose their sense of self. Catfish: The Show demonstrates this very well. Men and women meet up over the internet and become interested in each other resulting in a kind of cyber relationship. When the show’s host finally brings together the couple they are normally disappointed in the other because they aren’t what they seemed to be via the web.
Businesses use social media to connect with their clients but employees get wrapped up in their social media accounts rather than actually doing their work. This means no work is being done and the company is paying workers to do absolutely nothing. To try and stop this from happening, businesses use applications that are supposed to disable the ability to be distracted by these sites. The ability of these apps is still in question. There are still ways to get around the blocked sites.
Finally, one can become addicted to social media. Users feel obligated to check their Twitter for messages and post statuses on Facebook. This phenomenon can actually be seen at my school. Students are constantly told to put their phones away during class but it never works. I actually find myself doing this. Sometimes I even think I hear my phone beep alerting me of a message. Come to find out, I’m hallucinating! This proves that users are overly dependent on the social media sites and apps they use.
Nationally and globally social media was recently used for Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign. Users expressed their opinions on whether they thought Obamacare would be a good or bad addition to our current health care plan. Social media brought together voters of the same interests to support candidates and get answers to some of today’s hot button issues like abortion, gay marriages, and the death penalty. When African children were being used as soldiers and forced to raid and kill villages, videos were put on Youtube showing the world that people needed to get involved and stop it. Kony 2012 was then born. Social media informs the public to worldly issues to try and help suffering families hoping to get people out of poverty and stop world hunger.
Businesses are known to use your likes and dislikes on Facebook to post advertisements on the side bar. They are trying to tempt users to buy or use their product through using your cookies from previously viewed sites. Sneaky but it works. For example, I’m from Pittsburgh, PA so I was naturally brought up to like the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ve seen Steelers propaganda pop up on my site bar when I’m emailing back friends telling me that I should purchase a Troy Polomalu jersey for cheap on a discount site. It sounds inviting and easy but that’s how they trick you.
I personally think social media is a great vehicle in small doses. With enough control, you can use social media without becoming addicted to it. Just learn how to turn off your phone or iPod sometimes and you can get all your work done. I think Social media has opened a lot of doors for users and is a good addition to the internet. Know your limits and social media can do a lot of good rather than harm.
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