Final draft
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,
social media offers them many advantages. In this aspect, social media is
beneficial to our society.
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 thing 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, the percentage of people who
use SNS such as Facebook and Instagram more than once a day reached 74 percent.
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 students' 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 people will 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 form relationship
through the characteristic of accessibility and connectivity of 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 <An Analytic Study on Private SNS for Bonding Social Networking>, SNS can promote bonding relationship of people who use it and also compensate the defects of public SNS.
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 <An Analytic Study on Private SNS for Bonding Social Networking>, SNS can promote bonding relationship of people who use it and also compensate the defects of public SNS.
Lastly, with the spread of SNS, various social movements can easily spread, which has a positive effect on society. Therefore, SNS is an important tool to promote this awareness and change society for many people. A typical example is the Ice Bucket Challenge. This was initiated to sympathize with the suffering of patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, with various age of participation by citizens and spread in stages. In addition, it has positive results such as encouraging voting through simple exposure in SNS. It can encourage people to participate the voting easily. Social media is an important means in changing someone's perception and changing the social environment through these acts.
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 <Self-expression and privacy concern on social media> can
confirm that as people use SNS, they want to express their ideal self and
greater privacy concerns are also associated with them. 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 regard SNS
only has bad impacts on our society.
The other argument in other side is that many people can be hurt by malicious comments and cyber bullying on social media. In fact, many people claim that there are some people who use cyber violence against celebrities and other people in our society, who often criticize them with bad comments. According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Education, among 50,000 students from elementary to high school who have suffered from school violence, 10.8 percent experienced cyberbullying. This may be considered negative if social media is misused, but this aspect can be solved by extending sufficient training and the introduction of systems on the Internet. In addition, the related legal system can be strengthened to the maximum extent possible. It is wrong to overlook the role of the entire part of social media due to some people’s bad behavior.
The other argument in other side is that many people can be hurt by malicious comments and cyber bullying on social media. In fact, many people claim that there are some people who use cyber violence against celebrities and other people in our society, who often criticize them with bad comments. According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Education, among 50,000 students from elementary to high school who have suffered from school violence, 10.8 percent experienced cyberbullying. This may be considered negative if social media is misused, but this aspect can be solved by extending sufficient training and the introduction of systems on the Internet. In addition, the related legal system can be strengthened to the maximum extent possible. It is wrong to overlook the role of the entire part of social media due to some people’s bad behavior.
What the society now should think is that it is due to the advent of social media that people live on the basis of such convenient and varied information. Organized culture
and industry that will develop in future will be based on the use of social
media. Therefore, the role of social media will be very important at that time. If
social media spreads wider in our society, it can also greatly help exchange of
nation, and also be a communication network that connects many people around
the world. No matter how far away an individual is or how difficult to meet,
they can communicate through social media. It can also be the best means to
spread social issues of great social concern, and make them to re-emerge in
meaning in the world.
Brian Solis: Engage!: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, John Wiley & Sons. Print.
Hyeonjung Ahn, Sangwon Lee. (2015, July 19). An Analytic Study on Private SNS for Bonding Social Networking. <Abstract> Article from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-20367-6_12
Megan Rogers. (2013,
October 21). Wired for Teaching. Article from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/21/more-professors-using-social-media-teaching-tools
Pew Research Center(2019, April
10). Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly
unchanged since 2018. Article from:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/
Sim, Sun-Hee (Dep.
of Business Administration, Pukyoung National University), Moon,
Jae-Young (Division of Business Administration, Dongseo
University) (2012, March 5). A study on Mobile SNS Attributes Effects on
Information share, Relationship formation, and User satisfaction <Abstract>
Article from:
Tae Rang Choi, Yong jun
Sung (2018, December). Instagram versus Snapchat: Self-expression and
privacy concern on social media. Article from:
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