Impact of Social Media Technologies - Essay Example

Impact of social media technologies Name Institution Abstract The internet has brought forth a revolution in the way people across the globe act, relate and conduct their affairs. Before the introduction of the internet technology, life still went forth albeit a little dull. With the advent of internet technology, a lot of innovations came to life. The basic and most popular form of innovation that will form the main discussion of this paper is the invention of social media and networking through the social media. The paper will show that through the social media, the system of communication has become revolutionalized over the years. The effect that the social media has had upon us runs deep, spanning from impact in politics, religion, social interactions among other avenues. This paper explores these parameters and evaluates the extent to which the social media has impacted into the society. Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Introduction 3 Impact of social media on politics 4 Impact of social media in business 5 Impact of social media in academics 6 Impact of social media on socialization 6 The ugly side of the social media impact 6 Conclusion 7 Reference 7 Introduction The way people communicate today has been largely influenced by the power of technology (Evans & Krauthammer, 2011, p.311). People have been able to reach out to other people living or staying many miles apart through the power of social media. Many would argue that the telephone, which came before the internet could in a similar manner accomplish this fete. That is true but the social media has all the strengths that telephones have and none of their weaknesses. For instance, to be able to talk to a person in another continent through a phone conversation, one would need to know the number of the recipient. Using one of the social media platforms that are in existent today, one is given the power to interact with other people from across the globe. According to Safranek (2012, p. 1), the largest social media platforms that are in existent in the world today are Facebook and twitter. Facebook commanded a user presence of over 850 million users by the March of the year 2012 (Safranek, 2012, p. 1). Amongst this number, 161 million users are deemed to be active and in the USA alone. The Facebook platform was created by a Harvard university drop out Mark Zuckerberg mainly as a tool through which students could relate to each other and exchange ideas in the campus. Later however, the demand for the services that this site was giving started spreading to other people as the capability and the potential to network people was identified. Once the platform was a success in the United States, it went viral and the whole world embraced it. Today it would be difficult for people to imagine life without Facebook. The same success story applies to a close competitor of Facebook, Twitter, which also commands a huge presence in the social media market with a figure of around 300 million users by the march of year 2012 (Safranek, 2012, p. 1). And this interaction has led to quite a number of changes in the way we think and do our activities. This paper takes an illumination into the impact of the social media over various parameters in peoples’ lives such as politics, business, academics and socialization. Impact of social media on politics Perhaps this is one field where the hugest impact of the power of the social media has been felt. And once understands how the political system works, one would be able to understand the relationship and the connection of the social media and politics. The political system relies on the power of the masses; the power of numbers. The larger the capacity to gather people in one area for a certain political agenda, the better. And this is the power that the social media has. The social media has the capacity to bring people together for a particular political cause within a very short period of time. Through the usage of the social media, people who previously did not have an avenue to raise their concerns and give their opinions now get the chance to share their opinions with others (Dimitrova, 2013, p. 2). One of the best examples of how the social media has been used to create an impact politically would be through the case of the Arab spring of the year 2011. The widespread revolutions, mass protests, strikes, chaos, demonstrations and destructions that were present in over twelve nations across the Asian countries were sparked by the social media. People used the social media to spread propaganda, deliver news and share their opinions. They also planned for demonstrations and other social activities through the same platform. And that is how the Arab spring came into being. Facebook and Twitter were the primary social media platforms that were used in these areas to fuel these acts. From the example, it can be seen that social media have made it possible for people to even change regimes by coming together on a single platform; they are capable of making their voices heard in unison. Impact of social media in business Business growth and development in many nations of the world today especially in the recent years could attribute this to the growth, power and influence of the social media. There have been upsurges of businesses in the world that rely heavily on the use of internet and the social media as an advertising tool. Many of these social sites attract millions of people every second. The traffic that flows through these sites of a daily basis is overwhelming. As a result of this, many business people have tried to harness this power to create more awareness about their products. They can also be able to follow and anticipate what people want as the feedback is prompt and immediate. Impact of social media in academics Academic is also one of the major areas in which the social media has had much impact upon. Considering that the majority of users of these sites are youthful in nature, it is then evident that the major impact would be felt here. Students engage each other throughout the world on academic subjects. They form online discussion platforms through the use of the social media and discuss matters related to academics. Many lecturers across the globe have also decided to adopt the use of social media to give lectures to their students. For those students who take course in a distant learning mode, the lecturers offer to give them videos through online social network platforms. The social networks and social media have taken the art of learning to a completely new scale (Mozee, 2012. p.1). Impact of social media on socialization The original idea behind the creation of social sites was and still is to give people the capacity to socialize with each other in whatever capacities they so wished. And people have embraced this wholesomely. Many unions have been created through the power of social media. For instance, there has been an explosion of online dating sites that have contributed to a certain scale the unison between people who had not known each other before. There have been records and scores of people of different ethnic and racial origins who have been bought together through the social media to start and have thriving relationships. The ugly side of the social media impact Like two sides to a coin, the impact of the social media is also felt in its adversity. Mostly due to its lack of checks and restrictions, the sites have been used by people to spread rumours and propaganda that is meant to divide the people along tribal, racial and even religious lines. These sites are also the hub for pornography. Many of the youth today are exposed to scenes of sex and violence through these social sites. This exposure has resulted into heightened cases of sexual immorality in the community. Conclusion The social media has been shown as having a huge impact on some of the most important tenets of or livelihood. From the discussion, the impact of the social media has been observed to spread across politics, business, academics and the socialization grounds. Basically, people have been able to understand the power that these social media presents and have been able to harness and use the social media in a variety of ways. It has also been observed that the social media has also been successfully used in the negative way to bring about chaos and unrest in the community. Also, the growth and exposure of pornography to the many youth around the world through the social sites have become very rampant. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the usage of the social media is one of the greatest inventions of this generation and should be utilized in such a manner that it brings positive change to the community at large. Reference Dimitrova, D, V, 2013, ‘The Effects of Social Media on Political Participation and Candidate Image Evaluations in the 2012 Iowa Caucuses’, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-9: doi:10.1177/0002764213489011. Evans, P & Krauthammer, M, 2011, ‘Exploring the Use of Social Media to Measure Journal Article Impact’, AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings 2011,Vol. 1, No.1, pp.374–381. Mozee, S, 2012, ‘The Impact of Social Media use on Academic Performance at one Urban University: A Pilot Study’, Online journal of rural and urban research, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-10. Safranek, R, 2012, ‘ The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change’ ProQuest journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-14. Read More