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Social Media Today
Social Media Today
Social Media
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SOCIAL MEDIA 2
Social Media
The advancement of technology has brought significant changes albeit its influence and
value in the modern society. Social media is one of the innovations that have gained roots into
the social system, and its effects have become objective and drastic over time. In fact, the kind of
evolution that is happening in our world today cannot be completely defined without including
the aspect of social media. We, therefore, begin by pointing out what social media is, not to
forget all the aspects that it entails. The general understanding of social media is basically as the
introduced groups of online media that serve different purposes. These purposes share various
characteristics, which include participation; whereby social media allows exclusive contributions
and feedbacks from every person who has the interest. We have the characteristic of
conversation, which can be best understood by how social media provides a two-way
conversation. Openness is the other feature, whereby social media allows sharing of information
and ensures that no barriers to quick accessing and use of the content. Lastly, we have
connectedness, which involves the creation of links to other resources, sites as well as people.
Social media has got six forms so far, although this value is subject to change due to
evolution as stated earlier. These include social networks where people create personal web
pages to connect with other people and share their content. Some of the common social networks
commonly used include Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Blogs are the
second form of social media, which can be described as online journals. Forums are the third and
provide areas of online discussions. We also have wikis that provide people with platforms to
add content as well as edit information on them. Podcasts is the other form, which avails audio
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and video files through subscription, and lastly, we have content communities, which organize
and share particular kinds of content. An example of content communities being Flickr, which is
Social media today offers incalculable value to the world. The different forms of social
media have found their way deep into the society harboring millions of users each day. For
instance, Pinterest has about 150 million users, and this number is growing each day gradually
(Wojcik, 2010). Today more than a billion of people have access to the internet whether through
their smartphone or computer. Out of this, about 200 million people use social media in one way
or another (Ting et al. 2016). According to statistics, it can be observed that many people are
connected through social media platform where they interact, share ideas and other activities
Many people especially the younger generation between the ages of 8 to 30 have access
to the internet where they can use it for different activities (Ting et al. 2016). As such, this
privilege of using and gaining access to the internet has allowed a massive spread of social media
users all over the world. Today, even younger children have gained access to the internet where
they can freely access different social media platform. Subsequently, the state of social media
use has been influenced by the increasing availability of smartphones. According to statistics, in
2015 about two-thirds of Americans have a smartphone with a broadband service. From this
population, most of them are the younger generation who uses their phone mostly for social
networking rather than calling or texting. Therefore, the use of social media in the world has
growing steadily due to social media influence such as Facebook and Instagram. Every youth
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and teenager with a smartphone have an Instagram account where they share images and other
interactive content.
Social peer influence is another cause of rapid use of Instagram in the American culture.
Instagram is gaining popularity due to its use and association by famous internet celebrities such
as musicians and movie stars. As such, people are attracted to acquire an Instagram account
The social domain of social media is to share a connection with other people on the same
platform. For instance, tweeting develops a person social skill on how to interact with people
from different background. It is, therefore, healthy to tweet and share with other people on a
social platform such as Twitter as it boosts people's life skills in communication and interaction.
Tweeting gives a person the ability to learn social intelligence such as how to handle different
social classes, such as family, workplace and the entire community. Thus, it is through
interacting with other people developing their social skills. Online people are more likely to
be open, honest, and forthright, revealing personal truths. (Goshgarian, 2014). Stated in the
article five Online Affairs in two and a half Years, it showed how social media has helped people
to be more interactive and open with one another People have benefited from the use of social
network through posting information using tweets, video sharing among other to build a strong
Sharing our life with strangers on social media can be considered useful in boosting
health both physically and mentally. Nevertheless, social interaction site helps keep the brain
shape and relieve stress and other related psychological distress. Therefore, through using social
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sites such as Twitter, Facebook or other social platforms, a person is capable of jolting their
minds and ideas making them active. Additionally, tweeting give them a chance to interact and
share emotional feeling and ideas, that could harm them if they confine such emotions to
themselves. Humans are considered interacting beings, whereby they find comfort in sharing
their knowledge, ideas, and feelings to others. They consider interacting as a way of disposing of
Social media offer a wide platform through which people get to identify new hobbies,
interesting knowledge, skills, talents, and education. Wiki and Google, for example, is full of
ideas, new information and insightful comments that help reshape a person concept of thinking
and operating. It is through social media tweets that gender activist has been able to come forth
and share their grievances. Social network offers the platform to keep in touch with the whole
world. Identify the trending things and information that help widen our concept of thinking.
Twitter hashtags that are trending are used for instance to inform people of serious matter around
the world (Livingston 2015). Nonetheless, social media has created an environment where all the
for information has proven to be healthy for our brain. Moreover, the use of social networks has
provided the opportunity to gain knowledge and increase our productivity at the same time; it has
increased our ability to think and analyze information and ideas (Goshgarian 2014). People who
use the social media like Twitter, Facebook among others are good critical thinkers as they gain
first information from the internet. With our increasing reliance on the internet, our thinking and
Another importance of the interactive social site is that they develop our learning skills
and knowledge. Joining social platforms such as Twitter or Facebook among others give a
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person the opportunity of learning something new. More specifically interacting with new people
or strangers give a person the ability to learn new things from the people they interact. Thus,
social interaction with strangers gives a person the opportunity to discover new hobbies, an area
Social media has become one of the profound marketing tools and has become number
one marketing option for almost all business and companies. Companies are marketing with the
help of videos or better known as blogs in social media, making it easier for their visual
advertisement. Social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
Pinterest have come up with suitable sites that help people to advertise their products and
services at costs; this has made every business to strive hard and use social media as a marketing
tool.
Undoubtedly, social media is a toxic mirror that has infiltrated the society with negative
social vices such as the spread of pornographic content and nude pictures. Most social media
users are abusing this platform by posting unethical material and content. This has significantly
affected the younger generation in society who follow these platforms such as Instagram
accounts. Moreover, the internet as public domain harbors people of diverse backgrounds who
possess different interest and characters. Therefore, most content exposed in social media can be
abusive and pornographic. As such, the society especially children are exposed to irrelevant
content and information due to the lack of social ethics when it comes to using these platforms.
Subsequently, social media is purported to affect the way people communicate and
interact with each other. The main reason for this is that the use of social media platforms has
reduced the person-to-person connection and communication, which hence leads to, mechanized
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lifestyle (Ridgway & Russell 2016). The young population is clued in their social networks for
entertainment and other activities forgetting to interact with the outside world. Furthermore,
there is no room for people to think through challenging tasks to find solutions since people run
towards technology to solve problems, therefore, overlooking other brain engaging methods
(Ridgway & Russell 2016). Consequently, the brain functions have changed since people
multitask a lot and hence changing the way people behave. For instance, it is ubiquitous for
people to send text messages while eating thus lacking intimate contact with eating session.
Teenagers have abused certain social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as
a platform for comparing appearance. This comparison has a severe side effect on their mental
health and results in cases of suicide among the younger generation. For instance, Instagram,
unlike Facebook, provides users with the ability to post their picture with different filters to
increase their beauty. As such, most users especially the teenagers find this appealing to compare
their beauty with their peers and celebrities. Consequently, this has caused severe depression
among adolescents who have low self-esteem. In addition, it has affected their mental stability
since they feel less attractive compared to the images of their peers in Instagram. As a result, the
affected victims resort to social withdrawal and worse commit suicide due to depression and low
self-esteem.
In summation, the use of Social media has become profound in the world today. It has
created an environment where all the information or knowledge we needed to know is available.
This over-dependence on the internet for information has proven to be healthy for our brain.
Moreover, the use of social networks has provided the opportunity to gain knowledge and
increase our productivity at the same time; it has increased our ability to think and analyze
information and ideas. People who use the social media like Twitter, Facebook among others are
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good critical thinkers as they gain first information from the internet. With our increasing
reliance on the internet, our thinking and originality are becoming robust, and learning is taking
place progressively. However, on the contrary, social cultures, skills, and critical thinking are at
risk of social networks innovation. This is because social media has caused the brains of the
the society has exposed the generation to the adverse effect of social networking such as increase
pornography and depression among others. Therefore, it is prudent to conclude that social media
has brought significant values in human life and society. Despite its usefulness in helping ease
life and other attributes, still, social media must be regulated for a better generation to coexist in
the future.
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References
Livingston, S. (2015). Social Media Offers New Routes For Benefits Communications. Business
Insurance, 49(10), 4
Outcomes." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan., pp. 2-
7. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1089/cyber.2015.0433.
Ting, Hiram, et al. (2016). "Intention to Use Instagram by Generation Cohorts: The Perspective
of Developing Markets." Global Business & Management Research, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan.
pp. 43-55.
Wojcik, J. (2010). Social media sites still emerging as benefits tools. Business Insurance, 44(28),
1-1,19.