Social Media and Personal Relationships - Essay Example

Social Media and Personal Relationships of Social Media and Personal Relationships Social media is one of the most important innovations to have come out during the twentieth century. In the twenty first century there has been a greater expansion of this field. This has led to a radical reconfiguration of personal relationships in the world. The manner in which people can communicate with each other has changed to a great extent. This also means that the kind of relationships that are built between people has also changed to a great extent. People have taken to living parts of their lives on the virtual plane. There are however, points where the real and the virtual overlap and there are significant real changes that the social media can effect in the society. There are at the same time, political and economic reasons for the use of social media in the society that one is a part of. All of this has a significant bearing on the kind of personal relations that are built in society at this point of time. The kind of personal relations that are built over economic and political reasons have in some cases, not been made and in some cases, these relations have had greater reasons to flourish and grow. Thus, the issue of social relations within society is one that needs to be looked at in an analytical fashion as it is an extremely complex issue. Different aspects of the issue need to be dealt with in great detail as they are all vital to an understanding of it. The essay shall look at different aspects of social media and the different effects that it has on personal relationships. This shall be done through an exploration of the ethics of social media and the uses that it is put through. The virtues that Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein ask for in an employment of social media may be an interesting beginning point. The viewpoint of ethics shall be taken as an overarching framework that shall support the theories that shall then be created. The authors articulate the virtues of humility and professionalism as two of the main ones to carry forward the use of social media in the public domain (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). This would then enable a larger understanding of the role that social media can play in the society that exists today. Such a framework of ethics is especially important in a scenario where there is a world where multiculturalism is an important part. In such an environment, it is important that there are many ways in which people from all over the world are able to understand the methods that are used by one another at least at the virtual plane that social media exists at. This is then an important part of the entire enterprise of social media and its use by people of a particular organization. The paper shall look at the ethics of politicization of media and the role of social media within this. It shall also look at how personal relationships are affected by all of this. Relationships between customers and sellers have been fast changing as a result of social media. In traditional approaches to the ways in which customers and the people who used to sell commodities and services interacted, there would often be a system that would enable consumers to talk to the managers of their companies and the managers would then be able to talk to the consumers. This would be different in a modern setup as the consumers are able to talk to each other through social networking sites (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). They are able to communicate with each other the problems that they may face in dealing with the managers of a company. This would alter the paradigms of the relationships between the consumers and the managers of the company. Apart from this, it would also alter the paradigms of the relationships between the different consumers of the same product. This would then need to adhere to certain norms of ethics to lead to a constructive process. Rules of professionalism need to be adhered to even in such circumstances. If not, there would be no productive purpose that is served by the social media that one sees around oneself. Social media, according to Zheng Xiang and Ulrike Gretzel, also constitute a major source of revenue for the people who seek to travel to various destinations. Such people can then access information regarding the places that they wish to travel to online, from social media (2010). There are plenty of such websites that are willing to provide information free of cost to people who wish to access it. This then becomes a point where several people from different parts of the globe can converge and possibly even, through an exchange of information regarding places, build persona relationships. This can then point towards a situation where people from different parts of the world can form bonds merely on the basis of knowledge. One then sees the importance of knowledge and an ethical and honest use of it within the space of social media for it to be constructive for it users across the world. This then points to the use of ethics within the success that social media is supposed to reap in the building of persona relationships in the world. Political relations between people too form a part of the matrix of personal relations that people form amongst themselves in the society. This then points to the role that social media plays in the creation of political relationships between people. Clay Shirky talks of the different roles that are played by forms of social media in creating new forms of political relationships in the world. Shirky attributes the development of political awareness to a certain extent to social media and the different forms of it (2011). This then points to the role that social networking sites like facebook and twitter have played in bringing people closer and in sending messages when there has been a great deal of censorship on other forms of communication. There is also the aspect of politicians coming closer to their communities through such forms of social media. This aspect of the social media, for it to be even viable, needs to be operated using the greatest form of professionalism as it would need to escape the censors that are set up for it by the governments that it seeks to subvert. One can thus see that social networking sites and other forms of social media can be the greatest tools in the hands of mankind for the development of alliances and personal relationships among the unlikeliest of people. This can however, happen, only if there is a certain amount of ethical understanding between the user and the provider of the service. Both need to be accountable and hold on to values of honesty and accountability. This would then go a long way in ensuring the trust between the two parties who are building a partnership. These may be so in the case of business relationships and also in the case of other relationships that may then go on to develop into personal ones. Such relationships can bring the unlikeliest of people close together into alliances that may then create large companies or topple regimes through collective action. This then is probably the greatest contribution that social media has made to the world. It has been able to bring people closer together and has been able to build lasting personal relationships among them, provided a code of ethics is adhered to. Works Cited Kaplan, Andreas M.; Haenlein, Michael. (2010). “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”. Business Horizons 53: 1. Retrieved 22 Feb, 2013, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681309001232 Mangold, W. Glynn; Faulds, David J. (2009). “Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix”. Business Horizons 52: 4. Retrieved 22 Feb, 2013, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681309000329 Xiang, Zheng; Gretzel, Ulrike. (2010). “Role of social media in online travel information search”. Tourism Management 31:2. Retrieved 22 Feb, 2013, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517709000387 Shirky, Clay. (2011). “The Political Power of Social Media”. Foreign Affairs 90: 28. 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