Social Media and It Affects Our Daily Life - Assignment Example

? How the social media affects our daily life The word social signifies the instinctual needs of the human beings to connect with each other. On the other hand media acts a way to bridge connection amongst them with a jet flow of information exchange. Inculcating both these terms, the social media is the effective use of the technologies to reach out and connect with human beings, generate relationship among them, trust building and in intersecting the confluence of ideas among each other (Safko, 2012, pp. 4-5). Social media has been at its summit with the advancement of technology and the introduction of various popular websites like Face book, twitter, Linked In, You tube etc. have revolutionized the dynamics of social media paradigm to a higher level. Main focus of the paper The main focus of the paper is the rhetorical analysis of the way in which the social media affects our lives. Rhetoric is the way in which we use languages and images to persuade. The media through several endeavors asks the people in many ways to buy something, influence in their own way through several product differentiating strategies and mould the consumers behaviors. Rhetorical analysis of the social media helps the user of the social media to become perfectly informed. At the same time evaluation of the ethical messages can be analyzed in order to test the effect on the common public and the way they affect the society (Bolin Carroll, 2010, p.46). Social media and its features The social media in the present world can be thought to be of a group of online media with the array of primal activities including participation, openness, conversation, and community (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Participation: The social media social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Openness: The nature of social media basically serves as an open platform where the feedback and the participation are widely invited. It also helps in the encouragement in the voting, comments and the sharing of information. The barriers of access to the contents present in the social media platform are minimal (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Conversation: The traditional media is basically concerned with the broadcasting methodology which ensures the content transmission or distribution. But the social media acts as a two-way conversation (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Community: The social media allows the communities to form quickly and communicate effectively where exchange of information along with the sharing of common interests among the people in topics like photography, any political issues, or it may be any TV shows (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Connectedness: One of the fundamental agendas of the social media is the emphasis on the connectedness among the people. They try to maintain this connectedness among the public by connecting to the different websites and pertaining links between various people and valuable resources of the society (Mayfield, 2008, p.6). Current forms of the social media There are some well known widely prevalent forms of social media. They are mainly social networking, blogs, wikis, online encyclopedia, podcasts, Forums, content communities, and micro blogging. The social networking allows people to build personal web pages and subsequently maintain connection and sharing content and communication among the people. Some of the popular social networking sites are Face book, My Space, Twitter. The blogs are usually online journals where any news is almost posted at the first instance. The Wikis are those websites which acts as a communal document or database which permits the people to add the contents or edit the information on them. A widely known wikis is the Wikipedia4 which is an online encyclopedia consisting of over 2 million English language articles. The podcasts are audio and video files which can be accessed by people through subscription mechanisms. A widely existing podcast is the Apple iTunes. This creates an indigenous platform for the fusion of several cultures of the globe. The Forums are also a chief platform of social media. It provides a popular and powerful issue discussion platform in the public domain. The issues may be of any types. It may be personal, political, social, or economic. The content communities play a pivotal role in the organization and the sharing of various kinds of contents. The most popular content communities tend to form around photos, bookmarked links (del.icio.us), and videos. The concept of micro blogging is synonymous to the concept of social networking but the only divergence is that it provides the exchange of small amounts of content distribution through the help of the mobile phone network. The pioneer in this field is the Twitter (Mayfield, 2008, p.6). Social networking and our lives The online sources of media and entertainment ushered in the recent decades act as a highly significant phenomenon for the spreading of the information exchange across the world. Various widespread social networking sites like Face book, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, You tube and many others have stirred up in the society with largely increasing user base. The craze of using the social networking sites first stirred up magnificently among the young people. But recently there has been a quite significant shift in the age group of the people accessing the social networking sites. In an American survey, it was encountered that 79% of the American adults used the social networking sites, nearly half of adults (47%), or 59% of internet users, say they use at least one of the social networking sites. The access of the internet media has been a predominant phenomenon among the young people in the year 2008. In 2010, it was found that the access of the middle aged groups as well as the aged groups increased rapidly. The comparative static diagrammatic representation below makes the picture clearer (Mayfield, 2008, p.5). Fig. 1 (Hampton et al, 2011, p.9) The above diagram shows that the percentage of people of age group 23-25 years of age have been accessing the social networking sites more than the people of other age groups. It shows that the incidence of the social networking access have been the greatest among the youth. Now we will see the results for the year 2010 for different age groups accessing social networking sites. Fig.2 (Hampton et al, 2011, p.9) The above diagram shows the number of access of social networking sites by different age group in the year 2010. The trend shows that the percentage of the aged population in the age range 36-49 and 65+ has increased as compared to 2008. Questions have been raised that whether the wide use of the social networking sites have been imparting a positive or a negative impact on our social life. There has been much debated question regarding the issue that whether the advancement of technologies is isolating people from their social relationship with the people in the society or are they creating benefits among each other with a wider social relationship with the people. Researchers have researched on the variability between the uses of technologies related to the human attributes like trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement (Hampton et al, 2011, p.9). Rhetorical analysis of social networking and the educational environment-Threat to print literacy The attraction of the social networking acts a puzzle to several people over the age of thirty five. The predominance is found mainly on the faculty of the colleges, universities and educational institutes. Online literacy practices that fall outside the purview of the traditional learning is viewed as threat when the teachers sneak into the classrooms. The teachers often find that the students check their Face book profiles instead of participating in class discussions and activities. Teachers are often found to reveal that the pleasurable experiences with multimedia deviates the student’s engagement with their real work. The usage of the social networking sites within the class room acts as a sort of recreational activity. The students often read the texts on the social networking sites but are often unaware of the rhetorical analysis that they induce while browsing the profiles of other persons (Fife, 2010, p.555). Dependency on digital Interaction Observations stated that apparently very small features like the status (a statement about the whereabouts of a person’s doing or feeling) can offer telling information about the person’s attempts to affect a group of audience. Random statements posted on the walls of other person may jeopardize the actual representation of a person. In a reputed educational institution it was found that server malfunction barred the campus from accessing face book for an evening. The students realize that a large amount of their time is spent in surfing which often hampers schoolwork. The students often carry on their academic works on these networking sites. The students also expressed their difficulties during this involuntary Face book hiatus. David Harten stated that it, “gave us all an interesting perspective into what life might be like if there wasn’t such a great social networking Web site to access that can assist some people in completely avoiding having a social life all together” (Fife, 2010, p.560). Realization of the students stressed their rhetorical analysis on profile features that over dependence on the social networking sites might include an excessive number of friends, many albums of photos, and updates to a person’s status and profile information several times a day. Electronic journals, autobiographies and memorials The profiles of the persons in the social networking sites can share extensive information about a person and that for some people it may be the closest when they come to writing an autobiographies and journals. But often this literacy work comes with fallacies as very often wrong and deceiving and these works ends up in generating works which are really undervalued and misleading. Studying Facebook helps students draw on the implicit skills of rhetorical analysis that they already use to make unambiguous their consciousness of metaphoric concepts. In addition, it helps the students to develop more dangerous posture toward a well-liked literacy they encounter regularly and to be grateful for its complexity. But we have to cope ourselves with these changing digital literacy chalking out policies for curbing out the menaces which leads to waste of time (Fife, 2010, p.560). Hindrance of personal privacy The era of social media with its most significant form, social networking brings with its some menace affecting the life of the people in this tech savvy age. Through the development of the social networking sites once the personal data, image or videos are inserted on the websites, there is little probability in the control of its distribution. It is true that the sites allow provisions for the setting the privacy level within the websites but basically that information is shared on the internet with an unknown web administrator. Anybody’s personal information can be made accessible by their parents, teacher, employer, spouse, criminal, or a marketing company. In a study conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2007 it was revealed that around 66 percent of the teens restrict their online profile by making them private. The results also revealed that 82 percent teens post their first name, followed by the photos of themselves. Studies also explore the picture that the girls are generally pessimistic in finding their physical location. In comparison the boys are found to post information about their real location. Fig.3 (Beye et al, n.d., p.11) The above diagram depicts that the vulnerability of the privacy hindrance from the social networking sites. The bigger the black circles, greater is the threat of privacy leakage. Recent studies also reveal the fact that today several employers look on the online profile of the employees which acts as an added requirement for the employers. As for example, in Chicago, the president of a consulting company to decide check one of the candidate’s Facebook page to check the candidates other angles of his personality. The president of a consulting company in Chicago decided to check one of the candidate’s Face book page, and explored that the candidate has described about his addiction in marijuana, shooting people and obsessive sex. After scrutinizing about this the candidates’ candidature was cancelled. In another case in 13 cabin crew of Virgin Atlantic were expelled from their jobs who posted offensive comments about safety standards of the airline and its passengers on a social networking forum (most probably face book). Similarly in case of British airways investigated the behavior of several employees who described some passengers as “annoying” and “smelly” in Face book. Another research by Gross and Acquisti investigated that among the 4000 face book profile of Carnegie Mellon University several students were exposed to the private information leakage. The demographic information of the users was easily accessible on the face book. It is an emerging issue that the social networking sites are becoming threat to the privacy of the individuals (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 224). Profile hacking Online security consultant Ron Bowles in 2010 kept the world amazed by posting on the web the personal details of around 100 million profiles whose privacy information were not hidden by privacy settings. Again collection of user IDs URLs and all other data of those profiles were available as downloadable file in public domain. The risks of information leakage are becoming a much accelerated phenomenon (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 224). Biological impact of social networking The users of the social networking websites are vulnerable to health risks as they reduce the face to face contact with the people and generate an addiction towards the virtual world of relationships with fulfillment of needs turn out to be their objective. The reports of US internet activity unleashed that the users spends an average of 7 hours a month on Facebook. In the United States about 53 percent of people visit their Facebook profile before waking up from sleep in the morning and 35 percent visit very often in a day. The fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Aric Sigman, states that the “social networking sites have played a significant role in making people become more isolated” (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 224). Genetic alterations can take place with lack of face-to-face contacts. The absence of face to face interaction disturbs the immune reactions, hormonal levels, role of arteries and control mental feat. Fatal diseases like cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia becomes much more exposed. The biological implications of social networking’ published on Biologist reveals since 1987, states that the sharp decline in the face-to-face social interaction have taken place with the rapid increase in the use of electronic media. The reports also analyzed 209 genes and found alteration in them and the DNA also showed high traces of social isolation (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 224). Exaggerated cybercrime The social networking sites have been a hub of cybercrime in the current times. The cybercriminals reap a great advantage to target victims through the social networking platform. A case was found where a person became a serious victim of cybercrime. The person instead of making phone calls updated about the illness of his son on the face book and that he was out of the home for his son’s treatment. The cybercriminals get hold of this information and burgled their home during this time. Crime associated with the social media has almost skyrocketed as much as 7000 percent in some area with instances of social nuisance such as murder, rape, pedophilia, bullying, assault, and burglary. Online dating is another menace which really acts as a solid parameter in increasing the sex racket possibilities (Das et al, n.d., p. 226). A big problem in the restriction of the cybercrime is that there is no actual identity on the cyberspace and the criminals takes the advantage of this. This feeling of anonymous security in the social networking sites encourages people to commit the nuisances in the real world. Sex is a big issue regarding cyber crime in the social media arena. The rate of increase of blackmailing people through use of illicit contents on the internet enhances the cybercrime and the cyber criminals. Social stigma also acts a barrier in revealing these culprits from this deep jeopardized situation. Before the intervention of the investigating agencies the criminal already make severe damage (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 226). Hampering of Work productivity Facilities provided the social networking sites like text chat, video chat, and browsing profiles of people are viewed to entrust negative effect on the productivity of the work in the work place. A study conducted by Nucleus Research, USA with a sample of 237 corporate employees reveal evidences that among 77% of them uses face book during the work hours. Drop in the employee productivity has been around 1.5 %. Portsmouth City Council blocked access to Face book when it investigated and found that around 4500 staffs of the company logged on for 270,000 times a month, and they collectively waste 572 hours in just one month. Companies are adapting stringent policies in order to ban the use of social networking sites in the work place. In the United Kingdom also survey results reveals that in 3500 companies around 233 million hours are lost every month due to time wasting on face book (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 226). Decline in personal relationship The emergence of the social networking site was considered to be serving people all over the world to connect and making new associations. But making new relationships via social media has been potential reasons for damaging the personal relationship and making life miserable. Marital break ups are often posted on these websites and forums and often people are found to post comment on these break ups which is really embarrassing. A survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) reveals Face book is attributed as the main reason behind one out of five divorces in America (Das and Sahoo, 2011, p. 226). Conclusion The development of the social media changes has imparted significant changes on the life of the common people. The social networking sites have emerged as a medium of communication and entertainment among the youth. It has evolved with its pessimistic endeavor and has negatively impacted the lives of the human beings. However its popularity will not reduce in the near future. We have to be cautious and judiciously use the social media platform to draw a distinction between its ethical and unethical usage and wisely use it for developing bonds across the geographical borders. For that reason, stringent measures have to adapt. According to the issues discussed in the paper privacy policy should be made stricter, cautiousness should be triggered while posting personal photos, accepting friendship from strangers. Substitutions of real friends with virtual friends should be made synonymous, cyber laws have to be fortified in a fashion such that the culprits cannot escape at the cost of societal values. Avoidance of social networking in working hours should also be strictly maintained. References Beye, M. Jeckmans, A. Zeckeriya, B. Hartel, P. Lagendijk, R. and Q. Tang (n.d.), Privacy in Online Social Networks, Retrieved on 1 June 2012, from: http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~tangq/snb.pdf Das, B. & J.S. Sahoo (2011) Social Networking Sites – A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life, International Journal of Business and Social Science 2 (14), Retrieved on 1 June 2012, from: http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol._2_No._14;_July_2011/25.pdf Fife, J, M, (2010), Using Face book to Teach Rhetorical Analysis, Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 10 (3), Retrieved on 2nd June 2012, from: http://pedagogy.dukejournals.org/content/10/3/555.full.pdf Hampton, K.N. Goulet, L.S. Rainie, L. and K. Purcell (2009), Social networking sites and our lives, Retrieved on 1 June 2012, from: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2011/PIP%20-%20Social%20networking%20sites%20and%20our%20lives.pdf Safko, L (2012), The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, John Wiley & Sons Mayfield, (2008), What is social media?, Forrester Research 1 (4), Retrieved on 1 June 2012, from: http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf Read More