Social Network as a Way of Encouraging and Discouraging Communication - Essay Example

Social network as a way of encouraging and discouraging communication Name Date Over the last few decades social networking have changed the world in a rapid pace that no other field of technology ever thought of. It is believed that the idea behind the development of social networking sites was instigated by an email that was first send in 1971. In 1994 first social networking sites were developed. The first site created i.e. theglobe.com gave users great experiences and they start posting personal messages then (Friedrichsen, 2012). They start feeling sense of ownership with social networking sites because they personalize them and could post their own contents. It started growing and users started to hit a million users with Friendster attracting three million users at the time it was developed. Many other social networking sites became established after then, the main ones being MySpace that was developed in 2003, Jaiku, LinkedIn and others. Many tried to replicate MySpace and other sites that were successful but they couldn’t achieve much success. Later face book was launched at Harvard University and it achieved greater success (Payne & Frow, 2013). Social networking has provided an effective way of communication. People find it easy to communicate because these sites allow them to customize their pages. The success of social networking is defined by the number of users using the site and the number of visitors; this will facilitate communication as one individual can reach a million people in just one post (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social workers are celebrated all over the world. They assist in promoting social injustice and fights for inequality across the globe. They are highly respected people in the society. Over the past few decades social working has been enhanced greatly with the invention of the internet. The Internet led to development of social Medias where social workers across the world share information’s, knowledge and experience. Social media also provide a platform for social workers to provide support and deal with some critical matters emerging in the societies (Friedrichsen, 2012). Social media connect people both in professional and other fields. For example in modern days there are workshops arranged whereby social workers together with other social media users and developers converge together to discuss various ways in which social work can be advanced to become more professional and also deliberate on major advantages and disadvantages of using social media (Payne & Frow, 2013). Online communities that have been developed such as being community for social care professionals whereby members joining get a platform to focus and comment on different social issues, especially by commenting on policies and work practice issues (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social network have dramatically overhauled the way people communicate and share information both at local and international levels. It has helped both individuals and organizations in engaging the public by passing over information to them and responding to their comments on social network. It has also made organization to easily reach out to the public in the most efficient ways. Social network is fast growing and therefore is providing both opportunities and challenges to social workers (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social media is credited with bringing opportunity for interactive dialogue, therefore facilitating communication and information sharing. It provides varieties of tools and services. Blogging for example has been the most efficient ways of passing and enlightening public on emerging issues and trend. Twitter is another tool facilitating passing of information especially by politicians (Noor & Hendricks, 2012). Social media is important to social work as it provides a place where professionals in social work come together to learn and work as well as facilitate sharing of knowledge and information. Social media is making social workers work easier by enabling them collaborate and share resources in a cost-effective way (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Communication skills are essential elements for any social worker and social media is providing new way to demonstrate this skills. Social workers have to be very active on social media in order to explore any opportunity that will present itself. They ensure that social media users benefit from the services social workers provide through them. The data shows that there are millions of social media users across the globe, there are 37.4 and 15.5 UK adults who are active on Facebook and twitter respectively. There are over 100 millions twitter users worldwide (Noor & Hendricks, 2012). Social workers have been able to engage service users and support service users. With the help of social media healthcare providers are able to provide information about the patient’s condition to be used by families and friends of the patients. They also provide information on the symptoms of various diseases that alerts the family members on the condition of the patient. The public are also given an opportunity to ask questions online at the comfort of their homes, no appointments required. Mental health workers are the most supported group by social media in dispersing information to family members and friends of mental health patients. Social media platform such as LinkedIn have brought together social workers professionals to share information’s and experiences and discuss issues and mostly challenges in social work (Berkman & D'Ambruoso, 2006). A network for professionals working with vulnerable children and adults is a very essential network as it brings together individuals from social work and health care sector together with academicians (Friedrichsen, 2012). Social networking is helping local authorities’ in delivering of services. Local authorities are using social network to connect with people from their local communities more effectively. However in some local authorities especially in less developed countries have not embraced social media to enable staff connect easily in their respective jurisdictions. Some local authorities use Facebook, twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube to engage in conversations with the residents. They ensure that all staffs are active in social media and they get involved in local conversations (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social media is also important in academic field. Various resources for social work are being provided by various scholars in the field especially with modern online libraries whereby social workers get professors materials and blogging on the subject matter (Friedrichsen, 2012). @Info4Practice is an online page that provides invaluable information for practice and is connecting together social service providers across the globe to be up to date on new developments and researches. Some sites blog on the need to advance research in social networking in order to help the governments in policy making and planning for the opportunities and challenges that social networking will bring with their advancement. Because of increasingly interconnected world service users and carers are able to make the right decision and have control over their personal lives. Social networking has to be explored fully because despite the fact that it has addressed the challenges of communication shortfalls it has not been exploited fully (Scott, 2011). In our daily living we are sometimes hit by tragedies in our homes, which cause disruption in many ways. The efforts made are meant to help bring back to life those affected. Sometimes it is good to look positive even when the whole world seems to be against you. It’s also good to be reminded of the positives when all you are exposed to and everything you read and watch seems focused on the negatives. With the help of social media we are able to get help and motivations from all regions of the world; one can also learn ways to cope with these challenges through the social media. With social media, most of solutions to our problem are just a click away from us. They are with us in our mobile phones or computers (Berkman & D'Ambruoso, 2006). When earthquake for example affect some parts of the world, social media will pass the information through tweets and Facebook whereby information is shared to help the affected communities. Many will be sharing phone numbers and addresses of the hospitals where the victims are rushed to and they are called upon to go and donate the blood. Through the social media many are welcoming displaced families to offer accommodation at their homes. Social media is offering best response to a disaster of any nature that can strike at any time. Many used social media and phones to connect with friends and loved ones, they also share inspiring stories and motivational words to help the affected cope with eh situation (Yates & Partridge, 2015). The response to disasters that have happened in the recent past and happening today is a perfect example of how people are willing to go an extra mile to help the affected individuals and families in times of disaster with the help of social media. The same social media response was seen in the wake of Haiti earthquake, tsunami in Japan and small tsunamis that often hit some states in America. As social media advance so is the response to tragedies, it helps in reaching out to the affected and breathing some sense of hope to them (Yates & Partridge, 2015). Social networking has opened many new channels of communication. When a student with hearing impairment was chased out of school due to his inability, he quickly took to the social media to express his frustration, another well wisher who was pastor from a local church responded by buying for him hearing aid, he was able to resume his studies. It was impossible for both the student and the pastor to meet if it was not for the social media. Many people respond to social media calls for help and it is no longer necessary that you ought to know someone personally in order to get help but currently we just have to be connected with those people via social media. When a celebrity tweet about any issue that is affecting any society or local community the response will force the authorities concerned to respond with immediate effect (Scott, 2011; Hootsuite, 2013). In Africa, a local chief was able to tweet in response to a cattle robbery incident, twitting helped him to reach locals that were connected with him in social media. The response was huge and all the residents in the location were in pursuit and alert of the incident. The raiders with the help of social media were stopped and taken to a police station. The same chief has used twitter to alert the residents on any criminal incident happening in that location. This is another classical example of the things made possible with the help of social network that would have not been possible (Omanga, 2015). Social network also help in sharing hope and courage. Whenever major disease survivors create video blogs of how they were able to fight the disease, they become source of inspiration and hope to those suffering from diseases like cancer and others. Some small cancer survivors have often been inspiration to millions by attracting even closer to 50 million vies on YouTube. A villager in remote village in china can be able to share his story with someone in the remote village of Brazil. Social media is truly making impossible become possible in communication sector, it has basically reduced the world into a global village (Mansfield, 2012). Social media may not necessarily be helpful in communication. Research that have been done showed that social media my discourage people from expressing themselves especially on thorny issues both online and even when offline. When people were asked about their willingness to discuss controversial opinions on social media, majority said they would prefer discussing them in public forums, in conference rooms and in hotel rooms with friends rather than taking it to social media (Mansfield, 2012). The only exception where people preferred posting on social media is when they are sure that their followers and friends agree with their opinions, this is a clear proof that many issues that are controversial are not being expressed because of fear of backlash (Mansfield, 2012). There is a story of a lady who was chatting with her mum the whole day and she expressed happiness. It found out later that the following day the lady attempted suicide and revelations showed that she was depressed for that whole week. It therefore showed that the only communication that is real and can be trusted is the authentic one because it is only by listening to someone’s tones and a look in their eyes that tells it all. Non-verbal communication can never be trusted because in several occasions it is deceiving (Hootsuite, 2013). Sometimes, social media should not be trusted to communicate real issues because it is more deceptive than is real. Some individuals can take after of the media to spread some deceptive information. There is a great contraction with regard to social media because even though we appear to be more connected we are equally more disconnected too (Mansfield, 2012). We are communicating at a very faster pace with the help of social media. But the question is, are we really sending any message? Conclusion Social networking has revolutionized the communication sector in a very short time. It has successfully provided the people with a way of communication. People find it easy to communicate because these sites allow them to personalize their pages. Social networking success is defined by the number of users using the site and people new to the site, this in extend will facilitate communication as one individual can reach a million people in just one post. Social media may not necessarily be helpful in communication. Research that have been done showed that social media my discourage people from expressing themselves especially on thorny issues both online and even when offline. When people were asked about their willingness to discuss controversial opinions on social media, majority said they would prefer discussing them in public forums, in conference rooms and in hotel rooms with friends rather than taking it to social media. The only authentic communication is looking at someone’s eyes and listening to their tones. References Abraham, A., Hassanien, A. E., & Snášel, V. (2010). Computational social network analysis: Trends, tools and research advances. Dordrecht. Berkman, B., & D'Ambruoso, S. (2006). Handbook of social work in health and aging. New York: Oxford University Press. Friedrichsen, M. (2012). Handbook of Social Media Management: Value Chain and Business Models in Changing Media Markets. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Hootsuite, (2013). 6 Ways Social Media Helps People Help People, obtained from http://blog.hootsuite.com/6-ways-social-helps-people/ Mansfield, H. (2012). Social media for social good: A how-to guide for nonprofits. New York: McGraw-Hill. Noor, A.-D. H. S., & Hendricks, J. A. (2012). Social media: Usage and impact. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books. Omanga, D. (January 05, 2015). Chieftaincy in the Social Media Space: Community Policing in a Twitter Convened Baraza. Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, 4, 1.) Payne, A., & Frow, P. (2013). Strategic customer management: Integrating relationship marketing and CRM. Scott, D. M. (2011). The new rules of marketing & PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Yates, C., & Partridge, H. (January 01, 2015). Citizens and social media in times of natural disaster: Exploring information experience. Information Research, 20, 1.) Read More

Online communities that have been developed such as being community for social care professionals whereby members joining get a platform to focus and comment on different social issues, especially by commenting on policies and work practice issues (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social network have dramatically overhauled the way people communicate and share information both at local and international levels. It has helped both individuals and organizations in engaging the public by passing over information to them and responding to their comments on social network.

It has also made organization to easily reach out to the public in the most efficient ways. Social network is fast growing and therefore is providing both opportunities and challenges to social workers (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Social media is credited with bringing opportunity for interactive dialogue, therefore facilitating communication and information sharing. It provides varieties of tools and services. Blogging for example has been the most efficient ways of passing and enlightening public on emerging issues and trend.

Twitter is another tool facilitating passing of information especially by politicians (Noor & Hendricks, 2012). Social media is important to social work as it provides a place where professionals in social work come together to learn and work as well as facilitate sharing of knowledge and information. Social media is making social workers work easier by enabling them collaborate and share resources in a cost-effective way (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010). Communication skills are essential elements for any social worker and social media is providing new way to demonstrate this skills.

Social workers have to be very active on social media in order to explore any opportunity that will present itself. They ensure that social media users benefit from the services social workers provide through them. The data shows that there are millions of social media users across the globe, there are 37.4 and 15.5 UK adults who are active on Facebook and twitter respectively. There are over 100 millions twitter users worldwide (Noor & Hendricks, 2012). Social workers have been able to engage service users and support service users.

With the help of social media healthcare providers are able to provide information about the patient’s condition to be used by families and friends of the patients. They also provide information on the symptoms of various diseases that alerts the family members on the condition of the patient. The public are also given an opportunity to ask questions online at the comfort of their homes, no appointments required. Mental health workers are the most supported group by social media in dispersing information to family members and friends of mental health patients.

Social media platform such as LinkedIn have brought together social workers professionals to share information’s and experiences and discuss issues and mostly challenges in social work (Berkman & D'Ambruoso, 2006). A network for professionals working with vulnerable children and adults is a very essential network as it brings together individuals from social work and health care sector together with academicians (Friedrichsen, 2012). Social networking is helping local authorities’ in delivering of services.

Local authorities are using social network to connect with people from their local communities more effectively. However in some local authorities especially in less developed countries have not embraced social media to enable staff connect easily in their respective jurisdictions. Some local authorities use Facebook, twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube to engage in conversations with the residents. They ensure that all staffs are active in social media and they get involved in local conversations (Abraham, Hassanien & Snášel, 2010).

Social media is also important in academic field. Various resources for social work are being provided by various scholars in the field especially with modern online libraries whereby social workers get professors materials and blogging on the subject matter (Friedrichsen, 2012).

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