Social Media and the Impact in the Society - Essay Example

Social media and the impact in the society Introduction Social networking is a medium used by people globally to communicate or interact with relatives and friends. It is a preferred method of communication by a majority of people since it is easy to use and cheaper than other modes of communication for example long distance calls which are in most cases expensive (Noor & Hendricks, 2012). Social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, My space allow people to exchange knowledge, share messages, communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them, cultural differences and geographical boundaries. Social media sites allows teens to interact easily with one another and as such forge new relationships as this is just an offline extension of the already existing person to person communication. Such relationships are a source of great learning and social opportunities. Sharing similar friends is a way of creating a network of friends or a circle, which eventually creates new bonds. It can also be argued that social media plays a part in increasing the confidence of teenagers since it enhances social confidence enhance social support and also heightens media literacy. Social media aids in diversifying social skills in adolescents therefore enabling them to fit well in a technologically astute social village. The social sites have reduced the world into a much smaller interactive space through globalization. Negative impacts of Social media As much as the use of these social networks makes people feel connected to the larger society, this easy and casual connection through advancing technology can have its downside. Real and unreal relationships According to Noor & Hendricks (2012), social media networking sites make it hard for people to differentiate between the true relationships they build in the real world and the un-meaningful relationships they make through the said networks. People pay much attention to such less meaningful relations therefore weakening the real existing relationships in the world that is real. Social media allows people to have thousands of friends and followers online but the largest percentage of the so called friends are just but strangers. People allow strangers to be part of their social lives neglecting their real friends whom they have known and interacted over the years. Effect on interpersonal skills Social media does not only interfere with peoples social and interpersonal skills but also tends to make existing social behaviors more noticeable. People who live in isolation when offline, that is people who do not physically interact much with those around them, appear to be more isolated by spending a lot of time online. Continued use of these social networks will gradually kill people’s interpersonal skills and the close friendships they have fostered in the real world. These sites were created to enhance communication not to ruin it. Cyber bullying Cyber bullying takes place as people especially kids and teenagers bully one another electronically through social sites such as twitter (Kowalski & Agatston, 2012). It can take the form of a rumor being spread electronically, embarrassing videos, pictures or profiles that are fake. Cyber bullying is meant to embarrass, hurt or ruin the victim’s reputation. Cyber bullies pose as people whom the victim can trust, then learn their secrets only to expose them to the entire network. This can have detrimental effects on teenagers and kids which might lead the victim to have low self esteem and depression. Such malicious acts are common in the social network. Poor productivity There are a number of businesses and commercial enterprises which use social networks to acquire new market and interact with their clients. By relying so much on these sites, the employees might get destructed paying more attention to what people are posting rather than using the site to gain more market. It might lead to less reliable and less productive workforce since most of the time is spent chatting with friends than doing the job they are required to do. Research has shown that almost 2% productivity in the work force is taken up by face book while in Britain 2.2 billion is lost annually as a result of social networking sites (Berger, 2012). Reduced privacy According to Kowalski & Agatston (2012), Social networks allow people to expose their private lives to the public. Some of the most intimate details can be shared with friends and strangers online easily therefore by passing filters a person would employ when discussing private affairs. More worrying is that the contents posted online remain there permanently for public scrutiny. Some of the things posted including videos and pictures could seem fun and harmless at the moment but would portray the person negatively to a potential employer doing a background check or even a prospective spouse who might turn down the offer due to what he or she sees online. People also expose their personal details to others who might be fraudsters therefore putting their security at risk. Conclusion Social media networks are primarily created to enhance communication but as the paper shows, it can have negative effects especially on the youth who are the majority users. It may affect their productivity in school as most of the time is spent online interacting and offering virtual empathy to friends. This mostly affects teenagers who do not have the ability to reason like adults do. Adults are more likely to be careful about exposing their details to the public as compared to teenagers who use such networks in a manner that could have dangerous repercussions. A good example would be when a teenager posts explicit pictures of him or herself on face book. The teenager may get many likes that boosts confidence at the moment but will be rather harmful in the long run as this picture maybe downloaded by somebody with malice who may use it on explicit web pages where it will be hard for the owner to take it down, therefore painting a negative picture as the teenager continues to mature with people judging her on that one incident. This may affect the victim psychologically to an extent of blocking the victim from social events, college or in certain work places. There are also health risks due to activities such as cyber bullying that could have a lasting effect on the kids. Therefore, parents are encouraged to limit the amount of time spent on such social networks for the good of the society. References Noor, A.-D. H. S., & Hendricks, J. A. (2012). Social media: Usage and impact. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books. Berger, A. A. (2012). Media and society: A critical perspective. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kowalski, R. M., Limber, S., & Agatston, P. W. (2012). Cyber bullying: Bullying in the digital age. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Read More