First Draft

<Social media is beneficial to South Korea society>

20515 윤사랑(Sa-rang Yoon)

 In the book 'Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web', the writer Brian Solis said “Social media sparks a revelation that we, the people, have a voice, and through the democratization of content and ideas we can once again unite around common passions, inspire movements, and ignite change.”

  These days, SNS became an inseparable thing for people, and many people live by sharing their thoughts and getting various information through social media. Think about the case when other people got help through your smartphone. They could build relationships with many people and also express their opinions on political or social news. Although the overuse of smartphone has been a problem, social media offers them many advantages.

 Social media is a platform that allows users to expand their interpersonal network while sharing various information and opinions, including personal interests and activities. After the 2000s, many kinds of social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are created and lots of people started to use them.

 As the world entered in 21st century, which is called the information age, people who used one-way medium such as newspaper or television can access the information quickly and easily by using internet news or social networking service recently. And through social media, they can expand their interests and share them with other people. In addition, social media has become an alternative that can expand the opportunities for participation in society such as online voting by providing many kinds of nation’s political and social news to citizen easily. Like this, social media, which has become the foundation of our social development and indispensable to modern people, is having a positive impact on society in various ways.

 Recently, SNS has had the great impact on students. As per the survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 72 percent of high school and 78 percent of college students spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These numbers indicate how much the student community is involved in this virtual world of social networking. Taking advantage of these characteristics, many schools and industrial institutions where want to let students understand the lessons and provide better classes are changing systems that are based on social media by using internet news or blogs.

 About 40 percent of faculty members used social media as a teaching tool in 2013, an increase from 33.8 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson Learning Solutions. As people can see, students are satisfied in an aspect of the classes and education through social media which is getting popularity, About 60 percent of respondents said the interactive nature of online and mobile technology is creating better learning environments, and 78.9 percent said technology increases faculty and student communication.

 Like this, thanks to the advantages of social media, the quality of education was highly increased. Furthermore, as most of us use social media through smart phone or computer, the use of social media will be increased and we’ll be able to engage in a variety of activities using the Internet and social media rather than currently available programs. There will be many systems or programs that consumers can enjoy and express their ideas, and companies will also take advantage from them by making many kinds of marketing strategies which used social media. If someone overlook the influence of it, that person can be difficult to live in the information age and there will be many disadvantages in terms of relationship or the advancement or can be alienated.

 Think of an era before the information age. Many people weren’t free to express their opinions and just accepted vast amount of information. People weren’t free to express their opinions and just accepted vast amount of information in the past. When people overlook the influence of social media in future, they can be straggled in the present age which is gradually developing. Through the role of social media, our society can be expended from individuals to bigger groups, and they could make a network which was made by information exchange and feedback of each other.

 One of reasons why social networking service is beneficial to society is that it allows users of SNS to share various information and contents from all over the world. On social media, people can access to a variety of information including politics, society, culture, art, and etc. They can read blog posts and get information, communicate with each other through comments and share information on one’s SNS. According to <A study on Mobile SNS Attributes Effects on Information share, Relationship formation, and User satisfaction>, people can easily upload articles and photos anywhere, and share various information and obtain useful information through SNS. As well as simple information, the characteristic of SNS allows people to talk, share information, build knowledge, and expand the scope of communication regardless of nationality or race.

 Another reason why social media is beneficial to society is because social media allows people to maintain their relationships and form groups about their interests and hobbies. Social media is larger, can form a variety of groups because it has fewer restrictions than in everyday life. People can share their same hobbies or exchange useful information through social media. Social media let people to form a variety of groups because it is accessible than our daily lives. In <Characteristics of Collective Participation Type Content Utilizing SNS - A Case Study of Social Festival and Social Web Tune>, people can form a bond with each other by forming voluntary groups and it can bring positive effects on their lives.

 As many people claim the various benefits of social media, there are also some who think it has negative impacts on our society. The most representative argument of them is that social media is just a means to show off one’s merits and express them to others. Research which is about <Relationship between SNS use and positive and negative perception of SNS> can confirm that people who actively engage in self-exposure and expression obsess other people's interests and reactions, which can lead to negative effects. However, this argument is incorrect and overlooks the positive effects of it. In contrast, Self-expression through SNS can serve as an opportunity to increase their self-esteem, and it is nothing but just posting their daily lives that had with oneself and other acquaintances.

 In addition, one of the reasons that this argument is wrong is, posting based on this self-expression tendency is not a problem in itself, but rather depends on the subjective view of people who accept it. While some people accept it without any negative thoughts, some may evaluate SNS negatively just because of one’s extremely subjective feelings such as envying other people for whom uploaded posts. Frankly speaking, this feeling can be the cause that they regards SNS only has bad impacts on our society.

          As we adapt to social media, take it for granted and live, many people don't think much about the positive aspects of social media, but only paying attention to some of the problems they face. However, what people should think is that it is because of the advent of social media that they live on the basis of such convenient and varied information as they do now. The development of our society through SNS is a part that can never be overlooked and therefore everyone should come up with ways to improve, develop and expand it in a better way in line with the footsteps of the 21st century rather than focusing on the negative side. Our society, which will develop with social media, will reach to the better level until people who live in the present can’t anticipate. For us now, social media is an indispensable and such a great medium that affects social development.