A Proposal on the Negative Implications of Social Networking in the 21st Century - Research Paper Example

A Proposal on the Negative Implications of Social Networking in the 21st Century Introduction The evolution in technology towards digitization has brought a revolution that has led to the development of the social networking. Social media encompasses the interaction of people through virtual communities as well as on networks where they are able to share, exchange, or create ideas and other information. Social media has emerged as one of the most embraced technologies in the recent past. Many features distinguish social media from the older industrial media include the interactive aspects, the ease of use, the frequency of use and the impermanence of many social media transmissions. Despite the benefits that have been brought by social networking, there a myriad of negative outcomes such as cyber bullying, addiction, pornography and reduction in face-to-face social interactions among others. The intention of developing social networking was based on the need to reconnect people. However, this model has changed. The development of computer-aided social networking is quite recent having gained popularity in the first decade of the 21st century. In 1999, Friends Reunited, one of the early online social networks, was developed to facilitate locating former schoolmates in Britain. Facebook became available in 2004 for Harvard students to use and went public in 2006, the same year Twitter was introduced (Curtis, 2013). In order to understand the evils associated with social networking, it is paramount to have an understanding of what social networks are. According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), it is difficult to develop a clear-cut classification of what social networks are because communication technology is evolving so rapidly. However, these researchers were able to formulate six categories based on the richness of social media, its accessibility, and presentation/appearance. These are collaborative projects, blogs or weblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. All these forms of social networks have their associated evils to the society. In the proposed study, the social networks will be placed in perspective in order to get an understanding of the associated evils. Previous research has indicated that social networking has a potential risk, especially to children, though the adults are also affected. Throughout the media, cybercrime has also been reported having been executed through the social networks. The proposed research will attempt to elucidate all the negative implications of social media while drawing recommendations that may help combat these vices. Problem Statement Ethics and wellbeing of the people in the society is a very important aspect that should be considered by everyone. Societal evils lower the quality of life while presenting individuals to harm. In the earlier days, harm was inflicted to individuals mainly physically, however, with the invention of computer technologies, there has been a paradigm. In the modern context, people can efficiently communicate through the social networks and engage in many ways through this virtual mode. Despite the ability to transact positive deeds, malicious individuals, and groups have used social networking as a mode of gaining advantage over others. Such evils have happened not only been directed to individuals but also to businesses and other organizations, including government agencies. In the recent past, media reports have indicated that social networks have become one of the main platforms of executing cybercrime. However, there is limited empirical research that supports this argument. This is based on the view that social networking is a recent technology that is now attracting interest. This forms the basis for developing a research proposal in order to have a study that conclusively draws findings on the negative influence of social media o the society today. In addition, it is also apparent that social networking has not reached its maximum growth, this means that as the networks continue to develop, so are the associated evils; hence, it is likely that social networking evils will have a bigger impact in the society if they are not addressed through research. In order to mitigate a problem, it is important that the problem is clearly understood. The issue of social networks being used unconstructively can be very costly to either individuals or organizations. This cost can be avoided when these negative implications are known and an appropriate mitigation mechanism developed for each one of them. The use of social networks can be very beneficial to organizations and individuals. To maximize on the benefits, there is the need to understand the social networks from the broader perspective; addressing the loopholes that may affect the secure and safe use of social networks. The researchers that have explored the negative effects of social networking in the society today have made various conclusions. This proposal will facilitate in substantiating these studies while establishing the magnitude of the problems. They point at aspects such as reduced individual privacy, isolation, addiction, cyberbullying, identity theft, and reduced productivity among others. All these have a negative connotation to the society hence they need to be addressed and strategies developed for combating them. Despite pointing out some of these implications, the research conducted, most of the researchers have not clearly elucidated the factors that result to them and the strategies that can be adopted to deal with them. Background of Study There has been a tremendous growth in social networking in the recent years. Statistics do not lie. Facebook, for example, has grown to reach upwards of 1.15 billion subscribers all across the world; Twitter and LinkedIn have more that 500 million subscribers each. According to a late 2012 survey by Pew Research, Facebook takes the lead with a 67% command of internet users in the social media industry. Twitter came in a distant second with only 16% command of internet users while Pinterest was third with 15% and Instagram claimed a 13% stake in the market (Duggan and Brenner, 2013). These statistics are an indicator of the continued use of social networking. While the social networks have continued to grow, their effects on the society have been looked through both positive and negative perspectives. It has been noted that one of the adversely affected groups comprises of the teenagers. Teenagers are among the most active and enthusiastic group of people using the new communications technology. The rise of social media among teenagers has been massively on the increase over the past decade, especially because the new mobile gadgets and devices are fully internet enabled. This presents much convenience in the utilization of the social media platforms. Since this technological sector is undergoing rapid innovation, teenagers, naturally, are very enthusiastic and anxious about keeping up with what is trending. It is very difficult to separate technology use from the life of a teenager. This relationship with technology has raised concerns about the effects of social media on them, especially, their academic and social development. Other concerns about teen users of social media raised by educators and parents include psychological consequences, poor academic performance, safety and, privacy (Ahn, 2011). Social networks have completely revolutionized how people relate in modern society. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of virtual friends at the expense, critics say, of real friends, colleagues, and family. Online acquaintances get to share and interact on aspects that may not be necessarily possible in the real world. There much lack of sincerity and genuine concern expressed by the online community especially due to the informal nature of the social networks. Social media has greatly killed modern relationships in various ways while it has facilitated communication especially for distant family and friends. Statistics have indicated that social media could be very detrimental to the family. According to a research by University of Oxford’s Internet Institute (2013), social media habits hurt families. The research incorporated the use of different social networks by 24,000 married individuals. The research clearly showed that there was some level of dissatisfaction over the use of social media. Couples that confessed use of a number of social platforms have a decreased family satisfaction of up to 14%. Indicating that social media has adversely affected the way husband and wife interacts, an aspect that is likely to affect children too, the report says. Not only are individuals affected by social networking, so are businesses and other organizations. Despite social media having a myriad benefits to businesses, undesirable consequences of their use are also evident. Important roles played by social networks in the businesses world include communication with the customers, leveraging social pressure and advertising. The interaction of many users with the same type of content characterizes social media. The social media platforms have forums where the users can “like,” “comment”, “share” or “report abuse.” All these options give social media users the capacity to debate without having a common basis of agreement. For example, an advertisement through the social media allows the customers to leave comments some of which may paint a bad picture of the product or service hence repelling potential customers. While giving their opinions some individuals may veer off the topic and lose the ability to control their comments. Some malicious individuals will opt to use the platform to propagate hate speech, propaganda, rumors, or any other bad content that may create rivalry with another organization or an individual, or otherwise paint a bad image of the involved organization. Social media are efficient in spreading both bad and good messages. For a business the chances of bad news spreading very fast is highly likely. Information that is erroneously posted and captures the attention of the readers can spread very fast and could easily get viral, cutting across social strata and national borders (Castillo, Jurado & Allen, 2008). This can strip the business of its image and reputation. The customers or the consumers of the information will be less concerned about its authenticity; hence, the organization can take a long time to clear their name. Social interactions are time consuming. In business, any party that is interested with a product or service is labeled a potential customer. Sometimes the ‘potential’ customers engage the marketers online without any interest to buy. This lack of conformity between the will of the marketers and that of the social network users can cost the company so much in terms of man-hours. Because of this, developing a schedule also becomes difficult, due to the unpredictability nature of the people found online. Employee moods and attitudes can affect what they post online through the social media platforms. Humans exhibit different reactions at different times; this can result to an employee making comments that can have a bad reputation to the company. For example, an employee that is stressed, had a bad day, or is angry with someone in the organization may post information that demonstrates his or her anger, disappointment, or dissatisfaction with his or her own organization (Edelstein, 2009). Such information is likely to create a very bad reputation for the organization. The company can face a lawsuit as result of its employees’ behavior online. Employee morale may be reduced as well as bad publicity of the company may ensue through bad online employee behavior. Baker (2011) has pointed out that, more than 55% percent of corporate employees visit social networking sites, hence increasing the chances of ruining the organizational reputation. Aspects of sexual harassment, threats, and bullying can ensue during a normal communication between individuals. Therefore, even if the individual uses their personal accounts they bring a bad reputation to the company. The company may be sued if the employee used the company account to advance such behavior irrespective of the motive. The company’s computer servers have the capacity to process information at a given rate. The introduction of social sites in the picture has increased the amount of work that the servers are supposed to be processing. Due to the bulk of work that is done by the company online programs as well as the emails plus the social networks, the system becomes slow hence, the amount of time that is used to process the employees work is increased (Lane & Coleman, 2012). This reduces the amount of work that each employees can do within a given period. Therefore, the overall productivity of the employees is greatly reduced. This may translate to reduced company profitability. Research Questions In order to remain within the scope of the research, the following research questions are proposed for the study: 1. What are the most prevalent vices that are associated with social media at the personal level? 2. How do social media impact negatively on businesses? 3. What contributes to the negative implications of social media in the society? 4. How can the negative impacts of social be overcome in the contemporary society going forward? Methodology Study Design The proposed study takes a mixed-method approach; it will apply both qualitative and quantitative methods of study. The quantitative study will help elucidate the reasons why social networking presents the challenges that it presents to the society. The approach taken shall be the use of questionnaires as the main research tools. According to Terry (2012), it is apparent that the focus of quantitative research is a group of people with certain patterns in the population. This group may provide important aspects of understanding the parameters under investigation. For example, students in high schools, colleges, and universities can provide a very important study group when seeking to understand the negative implications of social media. On the other hand, the research takes a qualitative perspective in order to understand the beliefs and attitudes of social network users towards the weaknesses that are presented by social media sites. This approach shall use interviews, which will direct the study in order to be able to get the behavior that underlies the use of social media in the contemporary society. Qualitative methods have a higher reliability when an aspect under investigation is dependent on people’s behavior. This is what happens with the use of social networks; hence, this strategy becomes very adequate in laying an understanding of the reasons behind the negative issues that confront its use. The variables in this research are the negative effects of social networks, which is the dependent variable while the social networks make up the independent variable. Using both the qualitative data as well as the quantitative data, the proposed research will elucidate the negative implications of social media while relating them to some underlying factors. In addition, the data from the two sources will be related in order to construct a meaningful conclusion that will help in placing into perspective the strategies that can be used to reduce the negative effects of social networks. To achieve the goals and the objectives of the research effectively, several steps will be developed. The research will commence with the preliminary activities that will help make a justification of the study. These include a review of the existing literature on this topic. This shall be done extensively and will attempt to incorporate all the peer-reviewed literature related to the negative implications of social media in the society today. Another approach is the interviewing of some of the most common social media users, in this case a consideration of students at various levels will be done. In addition, to get a view of the impact of social networks to an organization, employees from various organizations will be interviewed. Upon establishing these preliminaries, the research will go the development of a conceptual framework that will help focus on the topic. The researcher, based on the preliminary findings from the literature review and the interviews shall develop this framework. The research will then advance to data collection and analysis. Then the findings will be obtained that will guide the revision of the conceptual framework developed after the preliminaries. The research will now be capable of drawing conclusions and recommendations. Finally, the final report shall be developed covering all the aspects of the research. Sample The research will be based a bigger sample for the questionnaires as opposed to the interviews. From ten different institutions, both colleges, universities and high schools, the participants to fill the questionnaires shall be chosen at random from different classes. Each of the ten schools shall have 50 participants. In addition, five organizations shall be chosen at random to have ten of their employees fill the questionnaires from each organization. For the interviews, one member of the management team and a junior employee will be interviewed for each of the organizations. Likewise, in each of the ten schools, one student and one member of the teaching staff will be interviewed. Instrumentation The major instruments that will be used in the collection of the data will be questionnaires as well as recording devices that will facilitate the recording of the interviews. Data Collection The data collected will take both a qualitative and a quantitative approach. Before the data is collected, the participants will be informed on the need to have their views. The interviews shall be conducted among the participants within a period of one week. The interviews will be recorded for further analysis. On the other hand, the questionnaires will be administered to the participants through hard copies due to their accessibility. All the questionnaires will be administered in the same day and collected the same day. Data Analysis Using SPSS, the data collected will be analyzed so that it can be easier to interpret it. The interview data will be analyzed separately from that of the questionnaires. Once the data is obtained, it will therefore be compared for adequate interpretation. The results will then be tabulated, in addition to graphical presentation that will be applied. Limitations of the Study Methodology The use of interviews can present a broad spectrum of ideas, which can present difficulties during the analysis. This reduces the reliability of the data while reducing the internal validity. Another weakness of the study design is that the qualitative approach may present incongruence with the quantitative approach. This reduces the validity of the findings and hence drawing conclusions becomes cumbersome. Another weakness is, the interviews are time consuming and are more difficult in their analysis. This makes the researcher to spend much time in the analysis of data obtained through this approach. The weaknesses associate with social networking may vary from place to place; this means that the prevalence of one aspect may vary with the institution, hence the results presented across the institutions may vary. This method also assumes that institutions chosen are representative hence results can be obtained courtesy of the issues that are addressed by the specific organizations chosen. Resulting Actions This research is geared towards revealing the negative implications of social networking. The focus of most of the literature is on the advantages and the strengths associated with social media. The issue of accompanying weaknesses has been given little attention. Getting to expose the negatives of social networking will give an opportunity to the policy makers to develop strategies that will ensure that the issues are addressed. This research traverses the need to understand the negative implications of social networking to proposing of strategies that can be used to deal with the menace. Organizations too require to understand these implications so that they are able to ensure that social media does act as an impediment to productivity but as a complement to the well-being of an organization. In essence, when the knowledge on the implications of social networking is clearly understood, then it becomes very easy to identify what may be hailing the society in a way that relates to the use of social networks. Therefore, through this understanding, parents, managers, institution heads and other stakeholders will realize the needs in their respective places. The research will also as a build-up to further future research. References Ahn, J. (2011). Social and academic development: current theories and controversies. Retrieved from http://my.stust.edu.tw/sysdata/34/20934/doc/fe197bca6049b834/attach/819812.pdf Baker, D. (2011). Social networking and its effects on companies and their employees. Retrieved from https://www.neumann.edu/academics/divisions/business/journal/Review2011/SocialNetworking.pdf Castillo, J., Jurado, J., & Allen, S. (2008). Assessing the effect of social networks among mexican enterprises: A comparison of dairy processing firms in the state of chihuahua. International Journal of Commerce & Management, 18(4), 331-343.  Curtis, A. (2013). The brief history of social media. Retrieved from http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html Duggan and Brenner (2012). The demographics of social media users. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_SocialMediaUsers.pdf Edelstein, A. (2009). Social networking sites also keep business clued in. Vermont Business Magazine, 37, 44. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/200606591?accountid=45049 Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M (2010). Users of the world unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons (53), 59-68. Lane, M., & Coleman, P. (2012). Technology ease of use through social networking media. Journal of Technology Research, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1022984844?accountid=45049 Read More