Social Media and Its Impact on Society
Social media accordingly refers to online communication channels granted to public-based interaction, input, collaboration, and content-sharing. Indeed, applications and internet sites dedicated to microblogging, forums, social bookmarking, social marketing, and wiki are amid diverse forms of networking. Social media is rising an essential part of livelihood and it is undertaken through applications proliferations and done on communal sites too.
The Negative Implications of Social Media
Various traditional social media entailed shared aspects such as a commentary platform for users. In commerce, social media is applied to market goods, facilitating interaction between producers and consumers, fostering new business, and promoting brands. However, social media is considered to have a huge number of negative implications toward society as compared to its advantages (Laroche 1755).
Time Wastage
For instance, lots of individuals particularly youths are wasting more time on social media than in utilizing available time on developing themselves. Evidently, Andrew Keen’s article, ‘Sharing Is a Trap’ has confirmed that within the 21st century, members of the community are greatly staying on social media as it is compared to before. Keen is condemning social networking for making become more self-absorbed and he disputes that media sites are not helping the community. Observably, a majority of individuals have been addicted to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube among various sites though they are not economically benefiting from the contents they receive from these platforms. In his argument, Keen has added that most of the social media users are largely concerned with having more followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook rather than advancing their interaction skills and face-face communications (Keen 425).
Deterioration of Privacy
Social media is moreover viewed to deteriorate the privacy of the posted contents. The majority of site owners have not managed to come up with a way of restricting unintended users from accessing critical information from the owners, hence making this platform emerge as unsafe as far as privacy issues are concerned. For example, Keen says that the aspect of sharing lots of personal information on social media can lead to cyberbullying, stalking, theft of identity, and it can also damage someone’s reputation (Keen 426). Based on this information, people need to keep specific information about their lives secretive so as to hinder chances of being violated by strangers.
Online-Offline Pressures
Social media is also causing online-offline pressures. Many individuals are enjoying entertainment similar to the way they take pleasure in online buying. On the other hand, various couples have broken up because of victimization emanating from comments posted online. For example, a person can get caught up keeping up with a former lover in conversations. Indeed, social media is not the best place for sensitive individuals since lots of negative contents are always posted on these pages. However, the owners of these sites are not concerned with the contents put on their platforms hence making it hard for the user to decide the best websites to visit (Laroche 1758).
Contrasting Views on Social Media
On the other hand, Jeff Jarvis has also offered his view concerning social media in his context, ‘Get Over It’. In this book, Jarvis has provided a story where he shared some information on social media and he received lots of support from viewers who helped him to achieve his dreams. However, this author has not offered ways into which people can deduce realistic and idealistic posts from different individuals. Jeff appears to be slightly biased by inscribing information about sharing information on social media instead of focusing on the counterargument (Jarvis 430). On my views, it is not guaranteed that we can get accurate information from social media since most individuals will tend to talk more of things that are in their favor rather than speaking information in its initial status. Because individuals will always put lots of exaggeration on posted stuff, social media appears to subject community in deceptive living. Also, the likes and comments on a given post do not exactly reflect people’s attitude (Laroche 1765).
The Negative Effects of Social Media
Facilitating Laziness
Additionally, social media is also facilitating laziness in the community. The majority of the conversations and interactions on this platform are done during working hours, hence making people unproductive since they tend to quit doing their activities and start chatting. In diverse scenarios, users tend to discuss topics and ideas which are not benefiting them since they get in touch just to pass time. Moreover, social media is depleting emotional connection since it is hard to determine someone’s sentiments through chats (Keen 427).
In Conclusion
While summing up, social media is comprised of combined online communication arenas arranged for public-based contact, contribution, cooperation, and content-sharing. However, the application of this platform is leading to negative implications for the users and also to the community at large. Some of the unenthusiastic aspects of social media include time wastage, depletion of privacy, facilitating laziness, leading to the exaggeration of information, depleting physical and emotional connection during the conversation, and causing online-offline pressures. In confirmation, Keen has indicated that social media is affecting members of the community in a negative way and hence its usage disadvantages are outweighing its benefits (Keen 426). In conclusion, people should be cautious while using social media since it can lead to unimaginable negative implications on someone’s life.
Works Cited
Jarvis, Jeff. Public parts: How sharing in the digital age improves the way we work and live. Simon and Schuster, 2011. Utica.
Keen, Andrew. “Your Life Torn Open, Essay 1: Sharing Is a Trap.” Wired. February 3 (2011). Abington- Themes.
Laroche, Michel, et al. “The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty.” Computers in Human Behavior 28.5 (2012): 1755-1767.
