The Impact of Social Media on Our Lives and the Business World - Coursework Example

The Impact of Social Media on Our Lives and the Business World by The Impact of Social Media on Our Lives and the Business World With the proliferation of social networking sites in the past ten years and with an estimated 845 million users, the world has somehow accepted the idea that the social media has influenced the way of communication among people more than any other mode of communication in history has (Marche, 2012). The social media has influenced the world and has benefited it in countless ways. However, oftentimes these can be classified into just two uses: socialization and business. Although the social media is considered an avenue that breeds depression and other forms of violence and rebellion, it is indeed more useful as a tool for socializing and for marketing one’s business. The social media positively affects people’s and society’s lives. First, the social media is an avenue of support for friends especially those whose friendships developed during adolescence (Burke, Kraut & Marlowe, 2011). Moreover, even if some friends would be far apart in location, there is no way that they would not be able to communicate as long as there are social networking sites. Second, online contact has somehow bridged the gap between ideological and social diversity. It has also fostered ways to build friendships despite geographical barriers. Furthermore, it has bypassed several cultural differences. Now, one can see Africans and Filipinos making friends with Americans and Hispanic people. Third, the social media has also fostered community participation and has since supplemented community gatherings in real life (Stern & Adams, 2010). This is especially true in times of natural disasters when people gather together for a cause in order to facilitate a certain civic or community project. Fourth, social interactions on the Internet have also been correlated with a student’s self-esteem and academic performance (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007). This means that students who interact well with their peers in social networking sites tend to do better at school. Fifth, the social media serves as an “excellent training ground for adolescents [when it comes to] practicing and improving their social skills” (Selfhout et al., 2009). Without the fear of face-to-face communication with others, the social media can indeed provide ways even for the introvert to express himself or herself freely without much judgment as he tends not to show his face in chat rooms. Lastly, the Internet and the social media have also helped people who were depressed, suicidal and sick cope up with their sufferings and hardships (Social Connections via Internet, 2014). With many various support groups which are either religious or medical in nature, help is really certain for all those who seek it. Although there are some pages in the social networking sites that may actually encourage others to keep hurting themselves and perhaps even to kill themselves, one should not underestimate the sheer number of groups and pages on social networking sites dedicated to the improvement of lives by means of religion, medicine and simply friendship or relationships. The social media also has its applications in business. First, it is an avenue for a company to broadcast to a large number of potential customers and clients. With the number of social media users approaching a billion, one can only think of the number of potential customers to whom a particular product or service can be marketed and promoted. This is certainly better than peddling it on the street, advertising it on TV or even putting up a website to promote it. Moreover, if the advertisement or message passes through trusted friends, the success rate of the product promotion is relative to the expended effort in using the social media. Usually the social media makes good use of targeted customers based on the each member’s personal preferences and likes. Through this, the audience for one’s product is more or less tailored and thus, the product is given more focus. Second, the social media has recommended several suggested friends and even similar businesses to the company or to anyone connected with any business. This is often automatic and thus can save precious time searching for people who could become potential customers and business partners. Third, the social media, particularly Facebook, has incorporated Newsfeed into its system in order to somehow update every friend or member about the current status of every other friend. This way, one knows how to easily keep track of one’s fellow networkers in the case of multi-level marketing, and to monitor sales performance as well as employee and overall business performance. Fourth, the social media allows free unrestrained discussion on the products of the business as well as new business ideas (Glibert & Karahalios, 2009). Through this, potential problems are solved and ideas are culled easily from business partners. Fifth, social networking sites can also foster community and civic participation of businessmen of the same business niche and can encourage the production of social capital which is necessary for the growth of business. Nothing could be more efficient in making a particular business announcement than using the social media to do the job. Indeed, without such a vehicle for the promotion of a business, then one can see that it would be much more difficult to market the product by other means since the social media is admittedly even more viral than the TV or than any website. Sixth, the social networking service can actually help build a trusting relationship among members of the same business and company. If the members of one company continue to interact through the social networking sites, they can immediately deal with a problem and brainstorm on the solutions fast online. Seventh, the social media is also a vehicle by which one can build his reputation in the field of business or commerce, or in the particular company where he belongs (Zuñiga et al., 2012). This means that one can actually not only promote his own business online but also himself, and his achievements and qualifications. Eighth, and lastly, any weak ties that exist between two business partners or between a client and a businessman are usually remedied by the social media. In fact, this is achieved through frequency of contact, intimacy between the two people, duration of the association, as well as provision of reciprocal services (Haythornthwaite, 2002). This means that as long as there is continued interaction among businessmen, then business ties will forever be strengthened and relationships will be strongly built and maintained. Besides, by browsing through the profile of a fellow business partner, one can also somehow see the human side of this person and it should therefore encourage and foster a deeper relationship or friendship between the two people. More importantly, it would be a great help to a business if two people completely trust each other. One of the social media networking sites, Instagram, is actually positively affecting entrepreneurs as well as small businesses in the world. One of the advantages of the social media, particularly Instagram, to small businesses and entrepreneurs is that they use the service in order to market their homemade or home-generated products. In fact, there are even many women entrepreneurs who manage online stores through the social media in order to study the flow of referrals of customers for their businesses. In fact, 88% of marketers and entrepreneurs consider the social media essential for their businesses. The social media sites, which includes Instagram, actually serve as the avenues by which small entrepreneurs can generate income as well as to become physically closer to their customers and clients as well as to their families, especially if the business is family-owned or has been a legacy of one’s ancestors in the family. Moreover, the creation of an SMBB, or Social Media Based Business, is actually less expensive than the creation and maintenance of an online website that is professionally licensed. Moreover, it would be much more expensive if it is an actual bricks and mortar store that should be put up. Furthermore, when it comes to successful small businesses that succeed through the social media, some of the qualifications include good marketing strategies and efficient customer service (Alghamdi & Reilly, 2014). Other benefits of Instagram to its entrepreneur users include this service’s ability to present one’s products and services in many creative ways. Instagram also helps one post the latest photos about one’s business. Moreover, Instagram can help one update his friends and contacts about the latest promotions regarding one’s business (Interesting Benefits of Instagram, 2014). Lastly, Instagram can also make good use of a video feature for one’s personal and business use and naturally for the enhancement of one’s video presentations (Mincher, 2013). In short, as long as one uses the social media, particularly Instagram, in the promotion of one’s business, then nothing could actually ever go wrong and that the particular business is always expected to reach the maximum number of potential customers. Nevertheless, despite all the advantages of the social media in terms of individual social life and business, one argument against the social media is the depression, disunity, lack of concern and other negative things that it brings. According to Burke et al. (2011), people who use the social media usually get addicted to it and thus miss a lot of work. The use of the social media is also known to bring about “depressive and socially anxious feelings” and the absence of long-term awards as well as a decrease in long-term gratification (Selfhout et al., 2009). Moreover, the social media is also believed not to improve social relations and camaraderie, and that for one to be able to become happy, he should really go out and socialize or talk on the phone. Furthermore, such connections are “broader but shallower” (Marche, 2012). So-called “instant and absolute” which are prevalent in the social media actually bring about “unprecedented alienation” (Marche, 2012). In fact, with around 845 users of social networking sites in 2012, and with around $3.7 billion in generated revenue, the claim is still that “the more connected we become, the lonelier we are” (Marche, 2012). Thus, according to these claims, the social media in fact drives its users more into loneliness than it makes them happy. Somehow, another negative impact of the social media on people is that somehow it gathers like-minded negative people who belong to one group and then allow them to speak freely and give their subjective opinion on the same topic. Most of these negative topics could actually translate as rebellion, sedition or the cultivation of hatred towards a particular group of people. Thus, the social media then becomes the vehicle for the promotion and advocacy of racial discrimination, homophobia, gender discrimination and other negative things that foster hatred and suffering (Marche, 2012). These counter arguments regarding the negative things that are brought about by the social media are actually true and that many people may have actually either become lonely or more rebellious from the use of social networking sites. Many people may have also actually found people who encouraged them to do suicide, murder or many other negative things with the social media. However, the mere fact that these negative things happen does not exactly negate the claim that positive things indeed do happen too. Moreover, the social media has increased in the volume of its users not necessarily because of these negative people who want to do violence and incite rebellion but because of people who socialize with others and use the social media for the promotion of their businesses. Moreover, the fact that more and more people are getting into the social media in order to promote their businesses somehow becomes the reason for why most people use such vehicles of business promotion. In order for the businesses to grow and for their advertisements to reach the greatest number of possible potential clients, the social media becomes the answer to this. Furthermore, in order to socialize, meet new friends, and keep in touch with old friends, nothing could be more useful than the social networking sites. Certainly, there are more people who do these things compared to those who instigate rebellion. Besides, being lonely and depressed, if this is what some people believe the social media indeed does bring about, are actually a matter of personal differences and personal choice. A lonely person can decide whether or not the social media can remedy his loneliness by associating with happy people or increase it by looking for other sad, lonely, depressed and even suicidal people. It is therefore a matter of personal circumstances, yet nobody would disagree with the idea that certainly the majority of people would use Facebook and the social media for the purpose of making themselves happier. Rebellion and racial discrimination are also a matter of personal choice. Although admittedly some social networking sites would foster hatred and racial discrimination, it does not change the fact that most groups in these social networking sites actually have good and practical intentions – for socialization, sharing of good ideas, and for the promotion of their businesses. Besides, if these millions of users of social networking sites were evil and violent, then with such number of violent users, the world would have already ended in another world war or these social networking sites would have already been destroyed. The social media has indeed influenced us in countless ways that can be summed up to personal social satisfaction as well as the promotion and marketing of one’s business. There are indeed negative things about the social media such that it can be a means of spreading social ills like gender and racial discrimination as well as violence and hatred. The social media can also become a means by which one can indirectly feel lonely and depressed as only shallow relationships may indeed be built through social networking sites. Nevertheless, these negative things about the social media cannot underestimate the fact that more users are indeed using it for the good reasons – for socialization, maintaining friendships, and marketing their businesses, and generally to promote oneself. One can therefore not underestimate the practical benefits and the necessity of the social media compared to the negative things that are basically associated with it. REFERENCES Alghamdi, E. & Reilly, D. (2013). Social Media Based Business in Saudi Arabia. Dalhousie Computer Science In-House Conference (DCSI), 1-3. Burke, M., Kraut, R. & Marlow, C. (2011). Social capital on facebook: differentiating uses and users. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 571-580. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C. & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. Gilbert, E. & Karahalios, K. (2009). Predicting Tie Strength with Social Media. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-9. Haythornthwaite, C. (2002). Strong, Weak, and Latent Ties and the Impact of New Media. The Information Society, 18, 385-401. “Interesting Benefits of Instagram for Small Business.” (2014). Wish Pond, viewed 22 Mar 2014, Marche, S. (2012) . Is Facebook Making Us Lonely. Retrieved from the Atlantic magazine: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/ Mincher, S. “5 Ways to Conquer Instagram For Your Small Business.” (2013). Digital Sherpa, viewed 22 Mar 2014, Selfhout, M. H. W., Branje, S. J. T., Delsing, M., ter Bogt, T. F. M. & Meeus W. H. J. (2009). Different Types of Internet use, depression, and social anxiety: The role of friendship shared. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 819-853. Social Connections Via Internet.” (2013). YouTube.com, viewed 22 Mar 2014, Stern, M. J. & Adams, A. E. (2010). Do Rural Residents Really Use the Internet to Build Social Capital? An Empirical Investigation. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(9), 1389-1422. Zuñiga, H. G., Jung, N. & Valenzuela, S. (2012). Social Media Use for News and Individuals’ Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 319-336. Read More