Abstract:
Similarly, if we analyze the past two decades we find that social media has completely changed the dynamics of today’s world in almost every walk of life. It has provided a self-expressing platform to the masses including innovative communication and connectivity tools, information and ideas sharing, global news and current affairs as well as propagating political agendas.
On the other hand, social media has laid new foundations for e-commerce, business, politics, education, criticism, debates, and controversies but as far as effects, reliability, trustworthiness, content ownership, and privacy of the use of social media are concerned, they all are debatable. In this article blog, we will discuss all the positive and negative impacts of the use of social media in today’s global world and on the basis of certain facts and figures draw out our conclusion.
Overview:
Social media has emerged as the biggest reality of the day and no one can deny that fact. Today it is the world’s largest employment industry where millions of people are earning their livelihoods. Whereas, social media has brought new opportunities, particularly for third-world and less advanced countries of the world to improve their education and economic growth through fully utilizing social media. It has actually reduced marginalization and opened the doors for inclusiveness in terms of converting this world into a global village.
One of the biggest advantages of social media is the access to quality and advanced education at our fingertips. Today we are able to know about anything within minutes which is indeed something exceptional and phenomenal for all of us. Social media is the biggest platform for human skills development. It is a reality that brings dreams to come true for millions of youth across the globe who believe in it and utilize it properly and effectively.
Similarly, social media is a big threat to the status quo and stereotypes of thinking. It has grounded down several pseudo and false doctrines including challenging their false propaganda and misleading concepts. Though there are some negatives of social media with the passage of time, it will evolve and transform into a positive impact on human life.
Introduction:
Social media as a whole is understood and defined as the combination of certain applications and websites including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. that enables its users to express, share, create and make the content as well as participate in social networking and connectivity through internet. Social media users can have access to different services through web-based applications on desktops, laptops, tablets, and Android smartphones.
Social media
is the biggest platform for connecting and joining people together which is why we
call today’s world a global village. It is mainly dependent on User-Generated
Content (UGC) which is also considered its backbone. On the basis of generated content by the users, they get paid as well. On the other hand, social
media experts have identified the 13 different kinds and types of social media
by which people share their ideas, have their say, get together and express
their feelings and emotions. These 13 types of social media use are given below.
1. Blogs
2. Forums
3. Video Sharing
4. Photo Sharing
5. Social Gaming
6. Social Networks
7. Virtual Worlds,
8. Business Networks
9. Enterprise World of Social Networks
10. Collaborative Project Management
11. Products and Services Review
12. Social Bookmarking, and
13. Micro Blogs.
In today’s world of communication, connectivity, and interaction, social media is not limited to certain groups of individuals only rather different governments, political parties, state institutions, non-governmental organizations, private business owners and professionals are using different social media. Although the use of social media is unlimited and very broad yet in order to compare and contrast its positive as well as negative impacts, let’s go through the following key headings and themes.
Social Media & Education: In the 21st century social media has emerged as the biggest-ever platform for the spread of education across the globe. Whether it is video lectures, blogs, research articles, reports, or reviews, social media provides very detailed and systematic knowledge about any topic in different languages of the world. This is why social media is considered one of the very important platforms for improving teaching, learning, technical, and analytical skills.
In fact, access to social media had reduced the quality education gap between developed and developing countries to a greater extent which is why without using social media, the process of teaching and learning looks incomplete and traditional. Adding to it, due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation that emerged in 2020, the world realized the importance of social media in terms of online e-learning. In fact, the world has found a very significant alternative in terms of digital teaching and learning with the help of various social media applications and software.
Social Media & Business:
Excessive use of social media across the global business industry has diverted its direction towards it. Today social media has become the biggest-ever marketplace for advertisement, e-commerce, trade, and marketing research. Today we find the world’s biggest companies are using social media for advertisement campaigns and new brand launching. Billions of people use social media across the globe which is also providing a platform for earning by various means this is why millions of people are earning their livelihood through social media.
Social Media & World Politics:
Social media has emerged as one of the centre for international, regional, national, and local politics. Today’s diplomacy and foreign affairs of the states heavily rely on social media. Not only that but all the political parties in the world hire social media experts including content writers for propagating their political agendas. Countries and states now a day fight different political and hybrid wars through social media. This means more the advanced you are in using social media the more likely you become able to convince the political world about your viewpoint.
Social Media Users’ Health:
Excessive use of social media is creating severe health-related issues, particularly among teenagers. From sleeping disturbance, emotional effects to eyesight issues, and excessive use of social media has become an addiction for youngsters across the globe. Various research studies have been made in this regard which suggests that 2 to 3 hours of use of social media is enough for non-professionals while for those who opt social media as a profession must work up to 5 or 6 hours daily in order to maintain their health but this all looks impossible as social media addiction is increasing day by day, particularly among females.
Social Media Users’ Privacy:
Social media is heavily criticized due to its digital divide among households, family members, neighbors, lower and poor class, and homeless people. People hardly know about their issues due to the massive use of social media similarly social media is increasing the social gap between rural and urban populations. Grandparents and elderly people who hardly use social media are directly affected by it. This trend however needs to stop and changed instantly.
Social Media Trustworthiness & Reliability:
people heavily rely on the source of information through social media. Mostly social media is considered a reliable source of information and as a result, people trust the information shared through social media; however, it should be kept in mind that you cannot trust and rely 100% on the information provided through social media. Sometimes it happens that misleading information is shared intentionally with users for getting certain political, economic, and pre-planned goals. Particularly unknown and fake accounts create misinformation and share it with social media users therefore you need to be very careful in this regard.
Content Ownership & Biasness:
Most of the time you see trolling, bullying, harassment, and content plagiarism which is very common on different platforms of social media. On the basis of personal biases, people troll and harass others. Although it is quite common now yet there is no proper mechanism to control and deal with certain cyber-crimes with heavy hands. Therefore be very careful, especially sharing your personal and private information on social media platforms.
Social, Cultural & Religious Impacts:
Certain social media applications don’t take adult content seriously rather it is common in their societies and cultures, particularly in highly advanced western societies. However certain religious backgrounds countries take it seriously including banning social media inside their countries. This is a very sensitive and serious issue that needs to be addressed as social media should not be used to hurt people’s social, cultural, and religious sentiments anymore.
Conclusion:
From the above-mentioned facts and realities, we need to understand the importance of society so that we can take maximum advantage of it. Similarly, we need to make it more convenient to reduce any gaps in rural or urban societies including improving social media usage skills among the masses. Social media is the biggest reality and we need to accept it as without recognizing its importance we cannot move along the world. As it is said that do in Rome as the Romans do therefore we need to accept this change and improve our understanding of the world as we are also part of this global village world which is though very small in terms of connectivity yet broader and huge in the diversity of knowledge and information sharing.
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