Impact of Social Media
By: Kimberley Agius
Tags: Technology, Social Media, Media, Impact

In the past twenty years, information and communication technology has changed rapidly, with the emergence of social media being a key development.

Why People Share Information

New York Times Consumer Insight Group research showed the motive behind the exchange of Social Media data. These include wishing to reveal valuable and entertaining content to others, defining oneself, developing and nurturing relationships, and sharing brands and causes that they like or support. These factors have led to social networks to not only become a convenient way of maintaining contact with family and friends, but they have also become a way in which they are being used to impact society. Social media is being used to shape politics, business, world culture, education, careers, innovation, and more.

Here are seven ways where the impact of social media is felt by individuals and social groups:

1. Impact on Politics

A new Pew Research study claims that 62% of individuals are receiving their news from social media, with 18% of them accessing this information regularly. The impact of social media in political campaigns has increased immensely in contrast to other media. Because social media enables individuals to interact more easily, they help build incredibly powerful cultural organisations between once disadvantaged groups.

2. Impact on Society

Facebook is currently used by almost a quarter of the world’s population. Because social networks feed off interactions among people, they become more powerful as they grow. Through the internet, every person with marginal views can see that he’s not alone. And when these individuals discover each other through social media, they can do things such as create memes, publications, and whole online environments that support their worldview, and then fall into the mainstream. Without social media, there would be minimal coverage on social, ethical, environmental and political problems.

On the other hand, social media progressively kills real activism and replaces it with ‘slacktivism.’ While social media activism raises awareness of societal problems, questions stay as to whether this knowledge translates into a real change. Some argue that social sharing has encouraged people to use computers and mobile phones to express their concerns about social issues without having to actively engage in real-life campaigns.

3. Impact on Commerce

The increase in social media makes finding an organisation that does not meet its clients and opportunities via one social media platform or another uncommon. Companies see the significance of connecting with clients and generating income using social media. Businesses have noticed that social media can be used to generate insights, boost demand, and create targeted consumer offers.

Many research studies suggest that social networking can enhance knowledge-sharing within the workplace. As a consequence, the project management operations are improved and specialised knowledge can be distributed. Complete implementation of social technology in the workforce reduces boundaries, eliminates silos, increases communication and helps produce more skilled and competent employees.

The backlash: a low amount of personal ‘ shares ‘ may result in adverse social proof and damage the credibility of businesses. Although the use of personal share is the norm rather than the exception in the enterprise, some businesses have chosen to go against the grain and remove the social sharing keys from their accounts after having some adverse effects from social media.

4. Impact on the Work World

Social media has had a great impact on recruitment and hiring. Professional social networks, such as LinkedIn, are important social media platforms for anyone who wants to distinguish themselves in their profession. They allow for the creation and marketing of a personal brand.

5. Impact on Training and Development

Employees who are competent in the most advanced and recent social media methods are far more employable. In many educational institutes, Blogs, Wikis, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and podcasts are popular teaching instruments. Social media has also helped to enhance online learning over long distances.

Despite the lack of privacy and some instances of cheating among long-distance learners, the use of social platforms in education has not been discouraged.

6. The Moral Challenges

Social media has been blamed for promoting social problems, such as:

a. Cyberbullying

Teens feel the need to fit in, be popular and outshine others. This issue has been causing challenges way before the introduction of social media. Add to the blend Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram and suddenly teenagers feel pressured to grow up too fast in the online world.

b. Lack of Privacy

Stalking, identity theft, personal attacks and information abuse are some of the threats that social network users are facing. Users are most often responsible for sharing personal information that should not be otherwise available to the general public. There is a lack of understanding of how the private and public elements of an online profile work. Unfortunately, it is usually too late when private information is deleted and in turn, can cause problems in the users personal and professional life.

7. Impact on Personal Relationships

One of the impacts of social media is to encourage individuals to create and maintain unnatural relationships rather than real relationships. The term ‘friend’ used in social media is not as intimate as when used with conventional friendships, where people actually know one another, talk to each other, have a close relationship and interact with one another.

Sources Used:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616

https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article

This blog is a project for Study Unit DGA3008, University of Malta.