How Social Networks Take Over Lives of People and Organizations - Essay Example

Influence of Growth and development of IT on Human beings Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Influence of Growth and development of IT on Human beings Introduction The coming of IT into the market was followed by so many changes that affected the way we live, the values we held and how we carried out ourselves. There have been a lot of changes in the way that people live or work on the last past five decades. The development of IT has had lot effects in our life. Furthermore, there are two things that are important first, Internet is the biggest resource of information in the whole world; second it has enable people to have interactive communication with each other. Today we have a big number of technological devises that make the way our way of living more modern or easier than before. Moreover, the communication between family members has become easier and there is a lot of ways to stay contact with them if they living in another city. Impact of Information Technology to formation of Groups & Culture differences Evidently the coming of information technology has affected the way we live today. From the life of the students, to the workers in offices and industries and other people; it is evident that they have been affected by information technology. Information technology has led to creation of online groups through the social media where we form groups in these sites and we are able to interact by communicating to each other. Despite the concept of “Quality of life” being elusive; due the fact that we do equate quality of life with having money; this money does not address everything that we want in our lives such as our physical and mental health. With regard to this, we can say that technology has certainly allowed us to be able to increase the quality of our own lives in terms of survival in the technological era where things are no longer done manually. However, on the other side we may not give it full credit due to the negative impacts that it has led to our lives. Today, we have so many groups that have been established through the internet where we are able to communicate with each other and be able to share our ideas. We as the global society have embraced information technology with one voice and this has led to a great change in our cultures. So many of the olden cultures we had faded away as we learnt of how things are done across the borders with respect to new technological changes that has swept the world. Today, our way of life is defined by what we are able to learn from the internet and what by extension we are able to share with our significant others through the social media sites that have really picked shape. Notably, our culture has changed from the type of foods we do consume, the kind of clothes we do put on, the kind of language that we speak, the kind of topic and values that we value among other key areas of life. The coming in of information technology has really influenced how we perceive life and others. We cannot underestimate the power of information technology in the creation of share groups where individuals get to form groups by which they are able to share matters of common interests (Guile & Brian, 1998). The new cultures that have come as a result of information technology include: Culture of communication via Social Media/Internet Today’s application of social media as a communication media by which we communicate with our friends and counterparts across the world is a new culture that is growing up. You pass by a cyber café and you will find many people busy interacting with other people who are far way from where they are. Our continued use of the social media sites has now grown to be a culture that we cannot do without; these social sites have become part and parcel of our every day’s life interaction with other people. In these sites, we have so many groups that have been formed by which the group members can be able to post information to each other and be able to get the response in a short time (Arrington, 2009). A number of scholar's advance that our increased use of social media sites may make us unproductive in our places of work. Organizations are projected to either rise or fall with the power of social media, while others advocate that emphasis of its importance is often overstated, and this brings forth a range of problems that cancels out some of its key benefits. It is evident that the coming in of social media has changed how we work in many organizations. This is because of the fact that social sites have dominated as a communication channel; and thus the influence of social sites cannot be underplayed by any measure. Today, many of us communicate through the social media such as sites, which may include Facebook, twitter, and so on. Corporate organizations with time are gradually embracing the application of social media as a channel for public relation; for it can reach out to wider audiences as compared to other media's. The growth in use of social media has greatly contributed to the expansion of PR (Professional Safety, 2010). Definition & Growth of Social Media to our lives Today: Social media involves the medium that is through interaction among many individuals across the globe, by use of web based and mobile technologies. It involves the use of highly accessible and scalable communication techniques during the communication, and because of this, it has made communication an interactive dialogue. Business organizations may look at social media as a consumer generated media. This is because it is the consumers that the business targets, who use the social media through the social sites such as Facebook. In this age, most consumers use the social media to gather information about certain organizations they are concerned in; this has caused organizations in a bid to reach out and create their own good image, have made effort to load information about their products variety, quality, availability and benefits to social sites. Household’s Culture of Purchasing Goods This is in their effort to create a good image to us as their potential and existing customers. In addition to this, organizations have also invested in social media as a marketing avenue; where they sell goods. We are able to buy goods and services today through online means. The companies that offer goods to us have logged on to the internet and to the social sites where they market the goods that we consume. Today, most of these sites have provisions by which we are able to transact business and thus we are able to purchase as well as sell our goods to the global market. An increased number of business organizations market their products through sites such as twitter and Facebook (Russo, Watkins, Kelly & Chan, 2008). This has even grown with increasing number of users of these sites in this century. No matter how social media may be defined, two things stand out; the use of technology and social interaction. Statistically, a number of collected information may portray how social media is picking shape; for this by extension pull organizations to use this mode of communication to relate with the public, as well as market their products to their target market. Business Culture In the new information technology age that we live in; our culture of how we manage businesses has changed from the initial manual system to the current system we are in. We are able to carry out business transactions online to the point of sale. Our culture of transacting business has changed, you no longer have to meet physically your business partner to be able to do business, but instead it can be done through the internet. Many of the businesses we are directly or indirectly associated with either use the internet and/or the social media sites to carry out some of the functions they perform or have the potential to use the internet to run their core functions. These statistics portray how social media has taken shape to influence many business organizations, through influencing people. It is important to note that social media takes many different forms; these may include weblogs, internet forums, social blogs, video, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, rating, photographs or pictures and bookmarking. These sites are frequently visited by the public, and this is the reason why organizations use them as avenues for communication and interaction among the staff. A number of organizations have an otherwise thought about using social media to communicate to others (Vorvorean, 2009). Relationship/Family Cultures Today we can establish love relationships as well as marriages through the use of internet and social media sites. The internet has led to us getting the access to online dating services that are offered by a number of online groups and/or organizations. Initially, if I had to be in a love relationship, it demanded that I have to physically make provisions by looking for a partner within my vicinity. This is however not the case today; for we can be able to date online as well as make provisions to marry the person you dated online. The olden culture of dating only a partner that you have physical access to have been challenged through the coming of online dating services; that are of benefit to a number of us who may not get partners through person to person interaction (Hempel, 2009). We as the family unit, can live far part but still communicate and interact with each other through the internet and the existing social media sites. Members of our families can live far way but still communicate with each other through the internet from the various places they are. I am a witness of several people who for a long period were single only to successfully find their mates through online dating services. Significantly, a number of us who did not have problems in the past today are finding mates who are closer to their ideals. Online groups are evidently increasing in this information technological era. The increased development of IT has influenced the possibility of increased groups today. We have millions of online groups particularly with regard to the social media sites. Facebook, in which most of us have logged in, has many groups depending on the interests of the members. Groups may include political groups, social groups, spiritual groups and academic groups among others. The increased use of IT has led us to increase the time we spent of the internet and other social media sites such as facebook, you tube, twitter, may space among others. Today, we are interested in learning about what is happening across the borders and this has led us to be involved in the use of the interest and its related services. The internet has given the provision for many groups through chat groups as well as the provision for other specific groups by which the members can be able to interact and share information with each other. Today as we live and work in diverse organizations; there are so many changes in our organizations and our working behavior that has come as a result of the increased use of information technologies. There are a number of changes in the way we live or work today. The changes are inclined either to the positive aspects that are beneficial to us or the negative effects that are destructive to us (Josephson & Susan, 1996). The positive effect we may experience may include: The positive effects to us may include: it has facilitated the growth of business in our community for instance, increased efficiency of money transactions or stock marketing. This has led to the economy of the country and/or the city will grow faster, in addition to allowing us to be able to shop online; which is easier and convenient (Coman & Paun, 2010). With the coming up of new technologies and innovations; information technology is increasingly being used in many companies. The information technology is an increasingly interesting platform used by developers as well as workers to perform their functions. Many organizations today have employed information technologies in their processes of production as well as selling of the products to the target markets. Additionally, the organizations use these technologies to communicate with their clients and customers. Computer based technology and information systems have a greater utility to the organizations for they are able to make the working processes of the organizations be efficient. For instance we as workers use the web for browsing, and/or sending or receiving e-mails, games or even sharing multimedia files with others. Organizations use systems where data has to pass through a set of complicated networks and soft-wares. Information technology and its related technologies such as social media come with some negative effect that may include: Security Threats; a number of the information technology systems that are used for communication and interactions may be hacked by wrong people. Secondly, we have cultural Invasion; whereby many cultures have crept into the society and this has led to a new wave of culture. Our way of life today is different due to the impact of globalization which is backed greatly by information technology. Finally, Information flooding has caused a wait of time and resources (Burns, 2008). Conclusion Information technology has really changed our lives today through its impact to our cultures and the things we do every day. In today’s age, most processes are done over the internet as opposed to the past where things were done manually. We can say in conclusion, that the development of IT had brought to the human some negative and positive effect. Most people didn’t accept it at the beginning, but when they did so after finding it very helpful they got to understand how important it is to them and have embraced the technologies as part and way of their lives. In almost every aspect of today’s life; information technology is being applied. Despite, the challenges and the problems of the information technology to us; we can say that the its coming has been timely for it has made us progress in terms of increasing our efficiency in communicating with other people. References Arrington , M. (2009). Social networking: Will Facebook overtake Myspace in the U.S. in 2009? Retrieved April 04, 2011, from http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/13/social-networking-will-facebook-overtake-myspace-in-the-us-in-2009/ Burns, K. (2008). The Misuse of IT &Social Media: Reactions to and Important Lesson. London: Cengage Publishers. Coman, C. & Paun, M. (2010). The image of the public institutions and new technologies. Romanian Journal of Journalism & Communication, 5(4), 45-53. Guile, R. & Brian, J. (1998). Technology in services: policies for growth, trade, and employment. Ottawa: National Academies Press. Josephson, J. & Susan, G. (1996). Computation, Philosophy, and Technology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Hempel , J. ( 2009). How Facebook is taking over our lives of people and organizations. Fortune, March 11, 2009. Retrieved March 04, 2011, from http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/16/technology/hempel_facebook.fortune/ Professional Safety. (2010). Managing Your Online Reputation. Retrieved March 04, 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5618/is_201001/ai_n49420700/ Russo, A., Watkins, J., Kelly, L., & Chan, S.(2008). Participatory Communication with Social Media. Curator, 51(1), 21 - 32. Vorvorean, M. (2009). Perceptions of Corporations on Facebook: An An anlaysis of Facebook Social Norms. Journal of New Communications Researhc, 4(1), 67-83. Read More