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social media has both positive and negative impacts on society.let me list some; positive ones 1.

meeting people you may not have met outside the social media forums 2.sharing ideas beyond the geographical boundaries-like am doing now. 3. reducing travelling costs , costs of buying books and other references especially if you need a page or two in the whole book and other costs 4.expansion of democratic space.with some gonerments imposing serious mass media ban,social media can offer some outlet 5. you can persuade your pals to maintain peace in your societ throgh the social media 6. if you combine social media and other media ,you can reach more people for purposes of business,education ,health etc. negatives social media can be abused by its users too. for example by invading on peoples privacy.Its not fair for people to discuss anyone on social media platforms without consent.Then there is impersonification . you may not know whether the image i use is my real one-this may encourage the society to be falseful.Social ties like family ones can also weaken as people spend more time connecting to new people.As long as the basic human need to connect is met online,offline friends may not be regarded. hope this can help

I am a therapist for an outpatient chemical dependency clinic and it is my personal belief that the media has a great impact on society. Liquor and cigarettes are legal and advertised daily. Addicts come in for counseling and describe their some of their triggers due to -movies, TV ads, billboard ads, and radio ads- and how the cues are so strong that they find it too difficult to overcome.

http://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_impact_of_social_media_on_society

Social media in our modern civilization


Social media has become this significant part of our modern civilization. It is a defining trait of how integrated our social interactions have become. We credit this achievement to the developments that have made in technology to ingenuity of the visionaries among us, who, in creating social networking platforms, have helped write some of the present occurrences being experienced in the world today.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ - A different world of social networking


With Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks we have become much aware of the world we are living in and this is one of the changes being talked about. Social Networking giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have contributed to create a whole new world where we are free to express our opinion and share it with our friends and peers. This world of social media gives scope to everyone to express and share ideas, thoughts and feelings, who want to be the part of it.

The 5 Impacts

News- Social media has become an important source of news. While the credibility of some sources can clearly be contested, news channels tweet or give updates on significant happenings all over the world. Their availability on social networks makes news more accessible. Additionally, news quickly gets passed around the networks in ways never experienced before. Interaction- Social media has furthered interaction by such a massive scale that is hard not to notice it. It allows people to keep in touch in a more regularly, and sometimes, more intimately, than was ever before because of time and space constraints. People cities or continents apart can keep in touch so effortlessly, creating an opportunity to experience different cultures. Political Landscapes- Social media has enabled greater political awareness and organization, which has in some cases rewritten entire political landscapes. It has particularly played a large part in the Iran elections, and Obamas reelection for a second term as US President, and inspired the political unrests in Egypt. Learning- Social media has also played a large part in fostering literacy. Children who start using the platforms develop early communication skills, and generally become more literate. This is an encouraging trend, and thanks to the huge availability of information, both simplistic and complex on the internet, anyone can become as smart or intelligent as they desire. Marketing- The whole dynamics of marketing have been changed, and rather than investing in mass channels ads, companies are becoming more consumer-centered through interactions made over social media. They are able to understand the needs of the market from the market itself, greatly altering the way marketing has been done in the past.

Here I Conclude
There are so many ways social media has changed the world, and the above five are among the most significant. Up to this point, social media has a firm place in our future, where it is hoped that the capabilities of these interactive platforms will be extended. You can visit my blog ournettalks.com to read useful articles and latest updates on social media.

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Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to find and connect with just about anyone, from a coworker in a neighboring cube to the girl who played Emily in your high school production of "Our Town" thirty years ago. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected to a larger community, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its downside.

A False Sense of Connection


According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.

Cyber-bullying
The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as friends. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people their victims trust, terrorize individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a 2010 CBS News report.

Decreased Productivity
While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty.

Privacy
Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised.

References (4) About the Author


Brian Jung has been writing professionally since 1991. Currently he works as a software developer for University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also contributes reviews and commentary on children's and young adult literature to his own blog, Critique de Mr Chompchomp, and to Guys Lit Wire. Brian holds a Doctor of Philosophy in English from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html

Social networking is a tool used by people all around the world. Its purpose is to promote and aid communication. However, this type of technology might be doing more harm than good. It is not only changing how we communicate, but how we interact with each other in daily life. Sarah Zay, of USA Today, stated that With the rise of websites such as Facebook, social networking may be on the verge of replacing traditional personal interactions for the next generation (1).Traditional interactions will continue to be at risk if we dont realize the effects of our social media. Social networking affects our lives in many ways, including our communication, self- expression, bullying, isolations, friendships, and even our very own sense of humanity.

Social networks, such as Facebook, were created for the sole purpose of helping individuals communicate. There are many other reasons that these technologies are used, but communication is still the number one. Many people use these networks to talk to their friends in other cities, states, or even other countries. There are many situations that do not allow the use of telephones; this is why social networking is preferable by many. These networks not only allow communication between friends, but allow you to meet new people. Similarities and common friends can create new bonds. This allows ones social circle to expand. If you ask around how people think social networking affects them, many will say that they, Have an expanded circle of social connections, and stay in touch more (PC Magazine Online 2).These networks are becoming the modern way to make friends. These new friends communicate through these networks. However, standard communication is not the only way this social technology is used. On these networking sites, users normally create pages that represent them in some way. They post pictures of themselves and their friends. Their friends comment on these photos. This concept seems simple enough, but its use is very different depending on the age of the user. Adults are known to be more mature about what they post and how they interact online. It is more likely that adults would, Use their profile pictures as a way of casually showing themselves, their family, or possibly a recent trip they took (USA Today 1). Th is is a reasonable way of representing yourself online. Teenagers, however, use this new technology in a way that could be dangerous. In this stage of their lives, they care more about their need to impress their peers than mature reasoning. Teenagers gain popularity through the interesting pictures they post. Comments that are left on their pages mean more to them than actual words. In order to get the results they want, they try to get a reaction from controversial images of themselves. This adolescent ne ed to be cool leads to gross amount of young girls and boys attempting to impress one another by showcasing themselves in mature situations or displaying their physique. For instance, many pictures that teenagers post online reveal underage drinking, smoking, and partying(USA Today 12).

These explicit pictures are very harmful to the user. Posting inappropriate pictures are demeaning and damaging reputations. The self-expression used on these networks should stay age appropriate. Users will receive more respect if they stick to pictures of their last vacation, birthday party, or field trip. With so many teens using social networking, it has become easier to target one another. Cyber bullying is a form of bullying that is only done through the web and other technologies. Social networks make it worse for the victims. Bullying is difficult in person and even harsher over the internet. When cruel comments are posted on an individuals page, anyone can see them. However, on the networks no one is there to witness the attack. This makes it harder for a victim to ask for help. The bully has an easier job insulting the other because there is no threat of getting caught by a close adult. These kinds of social attacks are harmful. All types of bullying are wrong, though cyber bullying might be the worst yet. The victims are vulnerable online and the insults made towards them deadlier because computers mask faces and the majority of insults, threats, and taunting go on

without repercussion. There often is no make-up or apologies, because no one witnesses the harmful effect the words may carry (USA Today 2). Teenagers must understand that bullying is always wrong. It does not matter if the victim cannot see them; it is still immoral and disrespectful. Social sites should be used to communicate with each other but not to torment each other in the comfort of ones own home. With the constant use of these social technologies, less people are communicating in person. Many people are becoming more isolated due to the lack of personal interaction. It is becoming easier to go through life with less personal confrontations and conversations. Many people are becoming used to only conversing through their computer. This trend has continued and lead to an, Interesting number of developing adults that function well in a keyboard setting while failing at human interaction (PC Magazine Online 2). The failing of human interaction is a horrible result of this new technology. Without person-to-person interaction we will lose our language skills and have trouble with public speaking. Normal debates and confrontations will be made more difficult due to the inability to read one anothers body language. This is not healthy for our development because Humans are social animals who need to have regular interaction with others to experience the full benefits of socialization and lead a balanced life (Current Issues 2). This kind of isolation is degrading towards our society because it is necessary to be personable. If we continue to be isolated than all of our communication skills will drop lower than they already are. These new communication sites were made to improve communication, not destroy it. These social networks allow an individual to have thousands of friends. However, th ese supposed friends are really no more than strangers. On these web sites we allow strangers onto our page for petty reasons, such as having the same taste in music or movies. We spend more time with these people online, when we should be spending time with our real life friends that weve known for years. This lack of dedication to our real life friends leads to shallower friendships. Many people care for their Facebook friends, but they dont even know what their lives are like. Many of those people will know what fifteen of their friends had for breakfast, but dont know whether any of them are struggling with major life issues (PC Magazine Online 2). This is a common occurrence in online friendships now. Many dont even realize that they have ruined their other friendships. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we create connections with people who we dont know, or even care about? It all stems from, an underlying fear of being alone. Social networks may form shallow friendships but the connection makes you feel as if you are not alone (Our Media, Ourselves 2). This fear is why we allow ourselves to act against our brains and our hearts. Friendship is about being there for each other and being able to tell each other about important issues. It is not about who comments on Facebook quicker. The constant use of this kind of technology is harmful to us as a whole and to our humanity. When we contact one another through these sites we are limiting ourselves. When you use networks like Facebook, youre representing yourself on a database. Then you live according to that database. You fill in checkmarks saying this is what Im interested in, this is who I am, this is the music I want to hear, and you become a caricature of yourself(University Declares a Week Without Social Media 3).This kind of representation

lowers us and our humanity. We are known only as what we write on our pages. Our humanity is what lets us be ourselves. We have the right to control what we say and do, We invent ourselves, and we invent our own taste. We decide what friendship means, and furthermore, we intend to make a living because were not subordinate (University Declares a Week without Social Media 3). This is what makes us who we are and communication is a large part of that. If we stop making our own choices than weve lost what it means to live and be human. We should be able to tell each other about ourselves in person and make real friends. These social networks have damaged many things, but they cannot be allowed to harm our humanity. Although many people around the world use social networking, it should only be used as a tool. Social networking aides long distance communication greatly but there must be a stopping point. It cannot become our main form of communication and interaction. There are positives to this new technology but nowhere do these positives outweigh the negatives. If we continue overusing the aid of these sites, then it will keep effecting our communication, self-expression, bullying, isolation, friendship and humanity in negative ways. There is nothing that can substitute for personal interaction. Social networking is the problem and we must eliminate its overuse for the sake of our fut

In modern times, people are interacting in many different ways, some by telephone, some by E-mail and some by chatting networks. Every day, people are using the computer to talk with one another and social networking sites are a big reason for this. Facebook, one of the largest social networks in the world, has been very important in letting people communicate with one another easier. Because society is communicating over the internet, it is much easier to develop and build old and new relationships. But, there are also some negative aspects of talking to people online that you do not know very well. While social networks like Facebook allow people to be more sociable and expand their relationships, this type of communication can have problems related to privacy and safety. Read the following sample and consider buying a research paper from Ultius that is similar.

What is Facebook and Why is it Different?


Facebook is a tool that lets people use and share their information with others easier. Before social networking sites, people talked to each other through mail, phone and face to face meetings. With the huge number of people using computers and the internet today, a lot of them rely on social networking sites to keep up to date with their friends. Since 2004, Facebook has grown from being on one school to having over 200 million people in their network by 2009 (Neuert 1). According to Patricia Greenfield, Facebook is one of many sites that lets people build online profiles, talk to each other privately or publicly and share different types of media like pictures and videos (Greenfield 121). Facebook has also become very popular among people of different age groups. According to Levi Bakers studying, around 65% of teenagers and 35% of grown adults use one social networking site, like Facebook (Baker, 875). This means that people now have more opportunities to share information with not just people close to them. People can also share with others that are far away. Meeting new people that you have never met in person is also possible. People can use Facebook for many different reasons: to meet new people, to talk to people you used to know and to keep up to date with each other. Most people use the service to talk to people they already know and strengthen their relationship. As Rick Nauert put it, the purpose is to reinforce established friendships and form bonds with new friends (Nauert 1). The reason it is so

popular is because when you are keeping up with people, what they are sharing is changing (Nauert 1). It is not like you are seeing the same thing over and over again; instead, new content generated from your friends and connections is being updated constantly. This new content is what draws people in to keep them checking up on their friends. Greenfield stated that Eighty percent of those surveyed reported using the Internet to maintain existing friendship networks. Participants who communicated more often on the Internet felt closer to existing friends than those who did not (Greenfield 126). So, we see that social networking sites like Facebook are allowing people to keep in touch with those around them. People who use sites like these also feel closer to their friends. Since people are closer when communicating online, they are thus more sociable with each other. This is a positive benefit of using Facebook to connect with your friends that are close by.

Facebook Helps us Maintain Weak Ties


Facebook is also helpful in maintaining friendships with people that you are not close to or have little contact with. In an offline setting, we are geographically limited to who we can and cannot see and talk to. This means that even though we have friends in one area, we are not guaranteed to keep up with them if we move. Luckily, With the advent of todays popular social networking sites, video and photo sharing sites, and blogs, adolescents may again connect and interact with people who are not a part of their offline lives (Greenfield 130). While people may come and go in life, there is now an alternative to just losing past relationships. This is possible because Facebook allows a cheap and easy way to still hold on to those relationships (Ellison 1162). A great example is keeping in touch with your high school friends. Since people go to different colleges and move away, it would be difficult to catch up on a regular basis with phone calls every day. But since people can see status updates and pictures, it is much more convenient. In fact, people that use Facebook communicate with people they rarely see 82% of the time (Greenfield 130). This means that those relationships do not have to go away. This example illustrates how Facebook allows people to be more sociable and with people they normally cant be with and to expand their relationship.

Building New Relationships


Facebook can also be great for new relationships as well. Facebook was built around virtual communities such as colleges, clubs and groups. Within these groups, there is a lot of opportunity to meet others that you would not usually have a chance in meeting. The profile is like the ice breaker that lets you take a first look at the persons life. You can see who their friends are, what interests they have and what they are saying everyday via their status update. Basically, the profile page gives a huge amount of personal information about the person to start with (Ellison 1143).One example is people who meet others as potential romantic partners. Greenfield clearly outlined that [students] have been using Facebook to check out people they had met as prospective dates. Uses such as checking out people they have met socially or in class or others who live in their dorm are all ranked relatively highly (131). The writer also stated that 41% of people that they have in their friend list also have meetings in person as opposed to just talking to them online (131). This means that people that meet others using Facebook dont just talk to them online b ut also in person. A last good example is the number of friends that people have online compared to friends we have in real life. For example, for a teen to have 150-300 friends would have been unheard of before social networking (Greenfield 136). Meeting new people is a really easy option when using Facebook. As people form groups and virtual hobbies with others online, they are exposed to their profiles. These profiles start the friending process and then eventually leads to in person interactions.

Overcoming Shy Behavior Via Facebook


Many people struggle with approaching others if they do not know them, leading them never to interact with that person, but social networks such as Facebook could help these problems of

shyness. As mentioned in the article by Michael S. Rosenwald Shy people have difficulty finding topics to talk aboutFacebook gives you a starting point" (Rosenwald 1). This is very true as many people do not know how to start a conversation with someone they do not know; as with social networks, it is as simple as just saying hi, and the conversation will start automatically. While on the other hand, if the person has to go face to face and start a conversation, many times it does not go all that well. This is possible because shy people tend to get the most out of sites like Facebook out of the fact that it is not as socially risky (Baker 876). Greenfield also agreed that participants who felt that online communication was more effective for self-disclosure also reported feeling closer to their offline friends (126). Shy people can feel a lot more easy-going when they are talking to others online. They dont have to worry about making huge mistakes or feeling bad about themselves. Thus, Facebook is a great place if you are shy and want to even talk to people that are around you. Since the fear of making mistakes is not there when they are online, shy people can feel a lot more comfortable. This makes a huge impact on people that are too shy to interact with others. Approaching people through a social network is much easier than having to do it in person, and it is the beginning of having a relationship with that person, since they can start talking by these networks, and then slowly getting to know each other face to face. An example of this would be a teenage kid in school who likes a girl in the lower grade. The kid knows who the girl is, but has never had any type of interaction with her. By becoming friends on Facebook, he can now start a relationship through this media, and start to talk to her through the computer, which will lead him to meet her in school and start a relationship. This is a perfect example of how Facebook is a really good thing for certain people. Without it, these people would not have other good choices in interaction.

Privacy and Safety Concerns


While Facebook gives these great chances to make friends and keep in touch, the problems of privacy and being made fun of are still existent. Just like people pick on each other in person, the internet is another place where this can happen to. We read all the time that kids are made fun of because they are gay or look different. These problems are just the same in the real world like they are online. Greenfields research stated that the findings suggest that students role as victim and perpetrator of bullying in the offline world predicted their role in electronic bullying (128). As mentioned, being on the internet doesnt stop people from being cruel to each other. Anyone can just go on someones group and make jokes about them about anything they want to. In a similar way, if everything is on the internet about you, people you dont want to look at your information can still find ways to see it. Not everyone wants their parents to see them drinking and going out to parties, especially if they are not 21. These problems make Facebook a difficult thing to manage and gives evidence of why it is not such a great communication tool to use. However, Facebook does give you privacy controls over the information that you share. You can really easy just make it so that when people try to find you via search, not everything comes up. Greenfield stated that searches on the Facebook network or on search engines reveal only a users name, the networks they belong to, and their profile picture thumbnail (123). This is a great way to hide information and other stuff that you do not want to give out to random strangers. Facebook gives you the choice and control over what you want to share with others. As a good example, if you have a job and your boss adds you as a friend, you may feel like you have to accept it. But, you may not want your boss to see all the stuff that you do on your free time. So, you can choose to just show to them specifically what you want them to see. This is an easy way to hide stuff that is personal or potentially damaging to you in anyway. This is only possible because for communication forms such as blogs and social networking utilities, users have complete control over the extent to which their entries or profiles are public or private (Greenfield 123). This takes care of most of the privacy and security concerns with other people seeing your profile. With the control that Facebook gives you

over your profile, you do not have to worry about the wrong people seeing what you are doing every day. It does not matter if it is a complete stranger or your own mother, your information that you put up is still your own in terms of control.

Sex Offendors and Facebook


Another safety risk that is not such a big deal in the Facebook site is danger of sex offenders. It is an obvious concern that people who are older and not right in the head shouldnt talk to young people and try to engage in sex with them. But as much as people talk about them being a bad problem, the case does not apply in the all online interactions. Bruce Bowers article talked about how it isnt as common for it to happen on sites like MySpace and Facebook. His research found that teens sue of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook did not increase their likelihood of being contacted by a sex offender (Bower 118). This shows that just because the news and other people talk about it being dangerous, does not mean that it is so. Rather than assuming that sex offenders look to kids on Facebook to have sex with them, it is important to look at the facts. Bower argued that adult offenders primarily use instant messages, E-Mail, and chat rooms to meet and develop intimate relationships with adolescent victims (Bower 118). If the internet in general is a dangerous place for kids, it is not ok to assume that it is true for all aspects of it. These types of criminals dont even use Facebook as the main way to do terrible things. Instead, they use other types of communication that is not controlled as much. However, since Facebook is a much more tightly controlled type of space to communicate in, it does not have the same dangers. Lastly, some may argue that social networks could affect people by having fewer face to face relationships, since they can get addicted to talking on the computer and only socializing via internet. This is incorrect since being able to know people faster and easier by these networks will help getting to know more people and will help the social life of that person. Just because you are on the internet and on Facebook does not mean that you are losing interactions with other people. In Greenfields article, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found evidence that went against this. The study reported that 48% of online teens believe that the Internet has improved their relationships with friends and that 61% feel that time online does not take away from time spent with friends (126). This isnt just a fact or statistic, there is evidence for this too . Talking to one another online is easier because we dont have to worry about feeling stupid about sharing personal things. Just like it helps shy kids deal with difficult situations, it helps others too with people they interact with. It may be easier to ask certain questions or have talks online because it takes out the aspect where people can be embarrassed. For help with your own work, consider buying a research paper from Ultius and let us walk you through the process.

Conclusion and Discussion


As we have seen, Facebook is a social networking site that allows people to communicate with each other and expand our relationships, even if the people are close friends, old friends that we dont see as much or new people. However, there are negative parts to it because of the privacy and security risks of other people seeing your information and contacting you. Most people talk to others that are close to them and they see face to face often. Facebook also lets you talk to people that you used to spend time with but moved on in life by going to college or moving to a different place. With mutual interests, groups and friends, you can also meet new people that you are interested in. Their profile gives a lot of information about them to help you get started. Even for shy people, talking to others online makes it much easier. It takes out the pressure and possible embarrassment of making mistakes. Despite this, the risk of privacy and safety are still there. People claim that others can see your profile even if you dont want them to. But, this is not true since Facebook lets yo u control your

information. Also, the problems of sex offenders and danger is not the same on Facebook as it is on chat rooms and text messaging. This makes Facebook a safe place to communicate and share with each other. Lastly, people who talk online instead of face to face dont talk to friends less. Talking online is still communication, just in a different type of way.

Works Cited

Baker, Levi, and Debra Oswald. "Shyness and online social networking service." Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27.7 (2010): 873-889. Sage Publications. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://spr.sagepub.com/content/27/7/873> Bower, Bruce. "Internet Seduction: Online Sex Offenders Prey on At-Risk Teens." Science News 173.8 (2008): 118. JSTOR. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20465238> Ellison, Nicole, Charles Steinfeld, and Cliff Lampe. "The Benefits of Facebook Friends: Social Capital and College Students Use of Online Social Network Sites." Journal of Computer -Mediated Communication 12 (2007): 1143-1168. Print. Greenfield, Patricia, and Kaveri Subrahmanyam. "Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships." The Future of Children 18.1 (2008): 119-146. JSTOR. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20053122> Nauert, Rick. "Relationships on Facebook, Social Networks." Psych Central. University of Kansas, 31 Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. <http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/03/31/relationships-onfacebook-social-networks/5060.html>. Rosenwald, Michale. "Can Facebook Help Overcome Shyness?." Washington Post [Washington DC] 13 Feb. 2011: 1-2. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/from-socialnetworking-to-just-plain-old-social/2011/02/12/ABqR8yF_story.html>

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