Social Networks and the Internet Shrink Our Understanding of the World - Essay Example

Social networks and the internet shrink our understanding of the world Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction Social media has revolutionized the customer experience and created a significant impact on modern globalization. The rise of social media has transformed the way people connect and interact with each other. Moreover, irrespective of the geographical boundaries and differences, the social media helps to link people around the world. According to Zhang and Chen, “the merging of globalization and social media has assisted to shrink the world in to small communicating field”. Despite having many advantages, the social media and internet has several negative impacts that can shrink understanding of the world. At the initial stages, the excitement and hype involved in the development of new technology prevent to outlook the negative consequences. It becomes hard to find any people who are not connected to any forms of social media. The prime purpose of the report is to argue on the statement the internet and the social networks can shrink the people’s understanding of the world. Discussion The emergence of social media is a perfect intermediate for individual to connect with each other via internet. The introduction of social media has completely altered the human relationship dynamics in to new perspective. The pivotal cause of drastic growth of this new technology is the ability of creating user-generated content. The downside of the causal connection in electronic surroundings can shrink the understanding of the world. Recent survey states that, more than 90% of the total world population is some way or another connected to social media and internet (Giuffre, 2013, p.18). This resembles the massive growth of social media has encouraged people to provide power in their hand and can act as a communication tool. Social media has become an inevitable part of human lives as it created a global reach for human beings to share information, knowledge and communicate. In today’s society, routines and daily patterns of internet and social media has become more popular due to the upsurge of number of internet users (Lyron, 2010, p.8). According to Georgetown University, “the rise of social media and internet means that everyone is critic and publisher”. According to Ethan Zuckerman, the enormous amount of information can be acquired from social media and internet but problem arises when people do not necessarily know about the information and knowledge that are required to know about the world (Johnson, 2010, p.78). It is true that, the wider expansion of social media has benefited people to gain knowledge and discover creative works. (Garbutt, 2011, p.33) The arrival of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. has provided power in the hand of people to create hype on any issues. It is only a matter of seconds that people can foster their knowledge. The online activity on social media sites helps people to be completely up to date to the life of other users. The six degree of separation between two individuals is reduced by Facebook to 4.74 (Lawler, 2009, p.12). This resembles the power of social media which at an exceptional scale collapsed the physical distance to be introduced to any other people. The reduction of six degree of separation to four means helps to shrinks the world (Wilson, 2011, p.62). The recent study of Facebook proves that 99.6% of the people who are Facebook users are connected to less than 5 degrees. This proves the fact that social media shrinks the world. The rise of technology is helping to bring people together from diverse places. The rapid change of society has forced people to change ideas faster. The growth of social media and internet has provided opportunity for other business to deliver high level of customer satisfaction and interact with them in a more personal and immediate way (Seargeant, 2014, p.28). Ethan Zuckerman also predicted that the rise of social media could further shrink world. This is due to the fact that web searches are not based on information provided by friends on social media sites. This can create a distraction to the users. As they are abide to search for information, that may be fake or unnecessary (LaRose, 2009, p.21). The increased exposure of technology has upsurge the use of social media sites. Previously, people used to find new things which they are fond of. But now-a-days, the rise of social media sites is rewiring the brain of people to search for information that are not required. This creates a sense of diversion on the mind of social media sites users. Researcher proves the people can get their information from social media sites at any point of time and from anywhere. On a busy day, people tend to open their personal Twitter or Facebook account to keep up to date to the new topics. Users think that social media sites are enough to provide sufficient information knowledge on recent local and global news (Axelord, 2000, p.109). The knowledge gained from social media and internet is not the main issue. The issue arises when most of the population will use social media and would a tiny knowledge about recent range of topics. The enthusiasm of people of reading newspaper and searching of new recent topics will be reduced. People will be more interested on a quick check on social media sites (Jones, 2010, p.69). The mentality of people is changing and getting narrow rather than deepening. The knowledge of people on whole world is getting narrower from day by day. The real challenge of the rise of digital era is to maintain the depth of understanding of the world. The homogenous view of shared network all over the world is making people to become little sound bites (Jue, 2009, p.81). Previously over the course of a century, the internet is regarded as an obscure network. In fact the idea of having a personal computer is viewed by many people as a dream. People hardly believed that internet used play such a pivotal role. In this time of globalization and advancement of technology, internet and social media is far from obscure and regarded as a centre of attraction for individuals, businesses and government all over the world (Leskovec, 2008, p.98). The rise of internet is regarded by many people as a hope for exposure of challenging ideas and expansion of new mental horizons. But now it is viewed as a restriction from people’s personal prejudices. Day by day, the increased in the time of people interaction is filtering the information to create a detailed portrait. The filtering of the world is creating a negative impact on people. People are now received filtered information rather than receiving total background information (Dunston, 2011, p.52). The expose of people to look for challenging ideas and searching for new information is reducing. People using social networking sites or internet are more inclined towards viewing the interest of other people rather than providing broader image of the world. The information gather are becoming much narrower. It is true to advance of technology has amplified the potential of human beings. Social media and internet has become hub for many people to share their views and gain their knowledge. The people’s understanding of the world is diminishing because there is a considerable reduction on the time of exploring. Previously, people used to explore to find new ideas and gain new knowledge that may not have been found before. Now people tend to think that information provided on internet and social networking sites are enough to understand about the world. The true fact is that information elaborated on single topic which may not be any serious case or valuable issue. The attention of people inclines towards the non-valuable topic. A considerable amount of effort must be put to broaden the scope of people through the use of social media and internet (Green, 2010, p.59). Otherwise, there is always a danger of creating a world with blinkered view. It is fine to gain knowledge and keep up to date to daily news by using Facebook and Twitter but there is always a danger of negligence to enhance the depth of understanding. The gatherings of information for readymade opinion will not do any favour of understanding the authenticity of information topics and issues. Therefore, it can be stated that the rise of social media and internet has changed the way of individual interaction, but it can also be noticed that the focus of people is getting much of narrower instead of getting broader (Moore, 2007, p.41). Conclusion This can be concluded that the emergence of internet and social media shrink the knowledge of people on understanding of the world. The information received from social networking sites provides data based on the other friends liking. In earlier days, the introduction of new technology required the help of experts and used to be more intensive. Progressively over the period of time, the advancement and development of new technology does not require the help of expertise in technological background. Internet shrinks distance and time to simplify the complex industry process. It can also help to provide effective collaboration communication. Regardless of the benefits, social media and internet can make the understanding of the world narrower. The increased personal connectivity will reduce the amount of diversification of information gathered. The depth of understanding of the world has become a real challenge for the globalization and technological advancement era. Any further research on issues will not create any harm rather it would enhance the knowledge of individual. References Axelord, R., 2000. Harnessing Complexity. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Dunston, D., 2011. Nanovation. New York: Springer. Garbutt, G., 2011. Contemporary world fiction. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Giuffre, K., 2013. Communities and Networks. London: Routledge. Green, T., 2010. Martial arts of the world. London: Kogan Page. Johnson, P., 2010. Second life, media, and the other society. London: Routledge. Jones, M., 2010. Power of informal networks. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Jue, A., 2009. Social Media at Work. London: Routledge. LaRose, R., 2009. Media now, 2010 Update. London: Kogan Page. Lawler, E., 2009. Social commitments in a depersonalized world. New York: Springer. Leskovec, J., 2008. Dynamics of large networks. London: Sage. Lyron, J., 2010. The shrink from planet job. London: Sage. Moore, D., 2007. Professional rich internet applications. London: Routledge. Seargeant, P., 2014. The language of social media. New Jersey: Pearson. Wilson, Y., 2011. The art of networking. London: Sage. Read More