Social Media And Its Impact On Society

People today would be surprised to know that social media has not been around forever. In fact, even more surprising is the realization that people did not really even have or use cell phones almost twenty years ago, and in those days cell phones were only used for calling. We have come a long way. Now, the whole world is in the palm of our hands, or in our cars, or on our wrists. Possibly the greatest thing to come out of this drastic evolution is social media. Social media is where everyone can keep up with family, check in with friends, and share their big time experiences with the rest of the world. However, it has opened up many, many more doors than ever intended, both good and bad. Social media has ironically turned people less social, provided an easy outlet for people to bully and point out insecurities, but also has changed the way we receive important information and news.

Social Media is affecting our society in a negative way. From being the number one cause of divorce, ruining people’s careers, and being a haven for teen suicides, many misfortunes arise due to social media. People may not notice its damaging side effects yet it is slowly but surely proving detrimental to all involved in the game. By taking a step back and maintaining self-control, any human being immersed in the frenzy of social media can enjoy its perks without getting caught up in the whirlwind of unfortunate events.

As we look back over the past few decades, social media has started to evolve more quickly while pulling in people from all different age groups. Even older adults are joining in on Facebook and Instagram to try and fit in with the new norm social media has created. In a world that is so fast paced, it is difficult to not be pulled into the newest trends, as they are advertised almost everywhere. There are even ways to find a romantic partner with apps and websites. The power social media has can be observed all over the world in many different settings. Sadly, this power can be both positive and negative. Though, it may be hard sometimes to see the negative aspects since our society has become so enthralled with social media. First, I

Social media is a variety of platforms provided to the public as a medium for expression and communication. Seemingly, social media could be viewed as a positive contribution to society, but one must consider the underlying effects of society. Many of us don’t take into account the role that social media plays in the way we perceive things, think, and live our lives. Social media plays a critical part in societal norms. “Social norms are rules of conduct that governs interactions among individuals within a reference group. Norm violations can often provoke disapproval and loss of esteem,” (Young, 2007). People seek approval or validation by their peers or other individuals in society; in effect, societal norms are generally abided by many individuals. “People want to be accepted by others in their social environment and often end up conforming to behaviors that they believe the majority holds as appropriate,”(Power, 2011). Often times societal norms create a strong scrutiny of individuals, which in turn can create poor body image, body dissatisfaction, and more. Poor body image and body dissatisfaction can be the basis for development of an eating disorder. “ The best known contributor to both clinical eating disorders and sub clinical cases of disordered eating is negative body image and high body dissatisfaction,”(NEDA). There are various types of eating disorders; “All feature serious disturbances in eating behaviors and weight regulation,” (Eating Disorders: More Than

Social media has consumed our society. 47% of American adults used social networking sites in 2011 like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter; up from 26% in 2008(quoted from procon.org) the aspects of social media both have a positive and negative impact on life. Social networking sites promote interaction with distant family and friends. Social networking sites can demonstrate opportunities to strengthen existing relationships and to develop new friendships as well. The downfall of social media sites prevent less face to face communication. Also, social media has been known to be more likely to spread false, and even potentially dangerous information. Questions come about quite often about social networking sites, and if they are good for our society. As a member of our society social networking can have a positive influence in school, relationships, promoting business, and self-expression. While others may view social media as a negative influence, for me, the issue hinges on how social networking sites are being used and displayed accordingly.

While many people put off and ignore the issue of social media and its downfalls, others say that people should think about how our lives are being affected by this advancement in technology, including, lack of human contact and precious time being lost due to consumption with social media. Social media is currently a highly controversial topic in which numerous people have mixed feelings. Society has typically viewed new advancements in technology as beneficial and a sign of success within their country. But, has it solely caused successful outcomes, or are there downfalls to these advancements?

Technology has evolved over years from a luxurious service to now basic need to the societies globally. Social media offer divergent services and use to billions of peoples, and millions of organizations, companies, and institutions. Social media popularity is ever growing due to its simplicity and easy access. It has brought about a complete overhaul in the way we view and think in our society. The impacts of social media in the society are many, it includes both positive and negative impacts. Writers of articles differ on the extent and types of impacts. Steven Krause differ with Scruton, Steven argues that social media has brought more advantages, while the later in his article ‘hiding behind the screen’ argues that social media has impacted society more negatively.

Social media has become prominent parts of life for many young people today. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as a society becoming more concerned with Facebook "friends" than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives? What will the longterm effects of today 's social media use be? There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs. Social media has both negative and positive effects on society, it is up to the user to decide what impact they want to make. In order to make the right choices, we must dig in and research this topic thoroughly.

I have constantly thought about intimacy amongst couples as a private and a special thing between them, and considered it as a cherished moment to be experienced concerning the two without the interruptions of others. Yet, nowadays, every notion of privacy is becoming blurred with the use of technology, and peoples’ interpretations of what is private and what is public has evolved over time with these new technological developments. The smartphone plays a significant role in changing peoples’ views on their privacy, and having these devices in hand at all times, with unlimited access to the internet, alongside countless applications and free social media platforms available to share their content has made it even easier to forget about the concept of privacy.

Social media is a very controversial topic, and people constantly argue about whether social media is helpful for teenagers and young adults, or if it is harmful for them. Before I researched and read articles for this essay, I believed that social media was great, and that it was very helpful for people my age. Teenagers and young adults are shown by making positive effects through social media. For example, Brennan Wong created “Pledges for Change.” The fundraiser makes one dollar for every pledge made, and donates this money to different charities, through social media (Sonya). I used to believe that social media was always good because of the constant bombardment of good things about social media, as shown above. I believed that the use of social media was just a quicker and more efficient way to communicate with people. I thought that the only problems one could develop from overusing social media was a lack of sleep at worst, and that the pros of social media outweighed the cons. Now that I have dug deeper into the good and bad effects of social media among teenagers, I can see that many physically and mentally harmful effects can come from overuse of social media.

It is perhaps easier to count the amount of persons who do not have an account on a social media platform. The dawn of social media has carved out a way in which all generations can keep in touch with the world. According to Facebook’s newsroom, Facebook has over 1 billion daily active users. On Instagram, an average of 80 million photos are uploaded daily and approximately 3.5 billion likes. No wonder social media and its networks have opened up numerous avenues for young budding entrepreneurs to get the “word out” and generate business. From Facebook to YouTube, and all in between, entrepreneurs have utilized these platforms to share, like, upload, tweet, re-post numerous activities all in the name of business. Whether it is to create their own page or use their personal profile to sell their business, they have made use of social media and its ability to reach the masses.

With the surging power of technology in the past few years, it is evident that social media usage is becoming an intricate part of human society. In view of this extraordinary social change, many studies have been done to investigate the underlying psychological use of social networking sites. While these studies target user personality traits with usage, the networking companies could also benefit from understanding what the consumer wants in that specific application or website.  These studies are looking at behavioral characteristics such as an escape of loneliness, entertainment purposes, not wanting to feel left out, and many more. Despite being in a virtual world, social media has a great impact in the user’s daily life and affects

The term ‘social media’ has become a broad-term to describe a large number of online systems that serve as a platform for the generation, and distribution of user-generated content. Social media creates a virtual social space, where a large number of users come together and interact with one another. These interactions can be either structured, such as responses that are moderated on blogs, semi-structured, such as a discussion between an extended network on Facebook, or unstructured, such as the anarchial functioning of Twitter.

Social media plays a huge role in distracting us. It can make even the smallest of tasks more complicated. It can distract us from conversations with friends and also when we are performing daily tasks such as driving. Everywhere you look today, there will always be someone paying attention to their phones at all times. The world is so tech-savvy and because of this we begin to see a multitude of people always on their mobile devices when walking down the street, driving down the road, and in church. The world is moving away from physical communication and more towards communication through a signal. There are always advantages to the world communicating using more technology, however it cannot be as effective as face to face communication. If we continue down this road of meaningless communication then we will

Social Media has become a plague in our world today, it’s like a disease that is spread around very quickly, and super-fast. For example, some old family members of mine, who I would have never expected to use social media are now using it, and they have become very good at using it, their black belts of social media if you will. They heard young people talking about it, so it made them wonder “if teenagers are excited about this whole new trend might as well give it a shot, and see how well we do with it ourselves.” But what they don’t know is that social media is good for us for some good reason like keeping up with far relatives, keeping up with the news, and what’s going around the world but once you start using it for other non-good