For the last decade and a half social media has been a significant instrument in the communication and media sector all around the world. It has proven to be vital for the different societies that are all over the world. The way in which social media connects people has had a more significant effect similar to how music and sports have been able to connect people around the world. The globalization effect is what has enabled the success of social media; it has allowed people to talk and share about the different issues that affect each of them in their daily lives. These issues range from political, economic, social, gender, race and others. Most of the social media sites have enabled these issues to be shared across the globe.
The social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other mainstream sites have created a platform that has enabled people to create awareness on the right things and also the bad things that are ongoing in the society. One of the most important things that social media does is that it enables the sharing of knowledge and information all around. In 2011, the world witnessed the power that social media has during the Arab Spring, and this led to a wave of change in governance in most Arab states (Kaul, 2012).
The Effect of Social Media on other Forms of Media
In all honesty, not all forms of communication have been able to thrive under the social media generation. In an age where everyone is regularly checking for updates on their phones and waiting for pop up notifications, it has led to some forms of communication is affected. The print media, for instance, has for the longest time been one of the most reliable forms of communication all around the world (Kaul, 2012). Most people wait for the news the following day because there is a team that always goes through what has been printed and stories have to be selected based on the relevance and importance, and therefore it makes it more tedious.
As for social media, the news is usually compressed and not as detailed as that on the newspapers. Most of the significant and even lesser newspaper companies have their page on these platforms to enable them to move with the tide and also to stay relevant. However, the importance of the print media is still very significant because of the emphasis on detail and also the emphasis on factual information (Aleksandra, 2008). This is what most of these companies have been founded on, and it would be difficult for them to report something that is untrue. As for social media, it is a very open platform, and this means that people could be able to use the platform to create and produce content that is not true.
Most of these sites are based in the USA, and this has enabled these sites to rely heavily on freedom of the media which has allowed most of these sites to grow. In some of the countries this freedom is not as pronounced, and therefore these platforms cannot thrive. In China, the government has banned most of the popular mainstream sites because they can be used against the government and these sites have been labelled as illegal in the country. These sites are Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and others.
This is only because of the power that these sites have on the population. Most governments use a lot of money on surveillance and counter-intelligence on social media. Some of these companies value the privacy of their clients, and they intend on protecting them from any vulnerability (Rajeev, 2008). This is because some of these sites require that one gives them information that is sensitive and this information has to be protected (Ying, 2008). Companies like WhatsApp have the end to end encryption, and this has proved to be difficult for some people to hack, and this is because most of this chatting is usually personal and there could be sensitive material that is shared between two people.
The Positive Effects of Social Media as a Tool of Communication
Social Media has enabled people to be closer to each other through the sharing of knowledge and information. This is the way in which people have allowed the growth of social media as a significant tool of communication. The number of jobs that social media has allowed to make is substantial all around the world. Through the creation of blogs and content writing, people are now capable of finding alternatives instead of looking for daily office jobs (Shaw, 2011). However, major companies that have severe Public Relations departments have people who handle the social media platform that enables them to reach out to other people and the public. Most government agencies also implore the services of a handler.
These handlers can know what the departments intend to tell the people and they do it in a manner that can be able to showcase these departments in the good light. Instead of relaying the information on government websites this information is posted on Twitter and Facebook, and this is because they want to reach out to the young people who rarely log on to government websites (Shaw, 2011).
Social Media has also been instrumental in making information more accessible and flexible. This is because many people follow the events that are ongoing and the speed at which that information is accessed is much better. The ease with which the data gets to people across the world is much better through social media. The way in which social media has brought about evolution in the communication sector is also significant. Before, people had the feeling that most of the information that they received was controlled by certain individuals who had their interests and those of their companies at heart (Kaul, 2012). Therefore this led to information being specific, and it was tailored to suit mostly the interests of the government. But this slowly changed because during that time only a few people controlled the media, but now many people control the media.
The Negative Effects of Social Media as a Tool of communication
The biggest issue regarding social media has been the credibility of the information that is submitted by some of the people who give out the information. In most of the situations that are projected on these platforms, some may not appear to be as severe as they are (Herman, 2005). One may choose to highlight the negativity of the situation to make people have a certain feeling of resentment, hate, fear which is mostly negative emotions and they may also be in possession of inadequate information.
This brings up a disagreement of sorts, and it makes people have individual views of a particular race, religion, gender and culture (Herman, 2005). Therefore it is advisable not to rely only on social media as a communication outlet but rather to incorporate other sources to enable the information to be more valid and credible. This improves one's point of view, and it makes a person to be impartial in most of these issues.
In social circles, social media has been known to promote a kind of fake identity in the way that people may present themselves in most of the platforms. It is understood that when posting on most of these platforms it is advisable to refrain from posting things that are negative and that may bring up an uproar because it may be offensive and indecent. The major problem is that the youth, in particular, may want to imitate the lifestyle of certain celebrities and people that they look up to and this becomes a significant problem particularly in the area of identity. It has become much more comfortable to connect with most of these celebrities, and they are aware that people look up to them as role models.
They are supposed to present a particular image to the public and their fans, and people end up wanting and desiring to live like them and being in that sort of lifestyle. Most experts have identified this as an issue that has contributed to people committing suicide mostly the youth because they want to actualize the lives being lived by the celebrities and even other people they follow. They are unaware that they do not have the financial capacity to support that lifestyle and the fact that they cannot reach these heights leads them to depression because they cannot be like their heroes but they do not put into perspective that most of what these people post is a fake lifestyle and that they also have problems just like them.
Conclusion
The fact that social media will continue to grow around the world is a fact, and it cannot be undermined. However, it is good to incorporate other sources on information in the media industry because it helps one to have different perspectives and understanding of some of the issues that are vital for the society.
Works Cited
Aleksandra K, Rajeev M, Shubha U. N, and Ying X. (2008). Link privacy in social networks. Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM\'08). (pp. 289-298). ACM. (Conference paper).
Herman, E. S. and Machesney, R. W. (1997).The Global Media: The missionaries of Corporate Capitalism. London: Continuum.
Kaul V. (2012) The Changing World of Media " Communication. J Mass Commun Journalism 2:116.
Shaw, A., (2011). Market Segmentation and the Impact of Online Media. Journal of Medical Marketing: Device, Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Marketing, 11(3), 254-262.
