SOICAL MEDIA IN SOCIETY: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

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“Social media is addictive precisely because it gives us something which the real world lacks: it gives us intimacy, direction, a sense of clarity and value as an individual”- David Amberland, The Social Mind, 2012

Do we live in a world where people don’t communicate with each other in person and it’s now all done through social media? Back in the day in order to talk to somebody who doesn’t live close to you, you’d have to send a letter, call them or make the effort to actually visit them. In today’s society this can all be done with a click of a button. Whether the person lives 5000 miles away or just down the road communication through social media is expanding more and more each passing day.

“ We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it”- Erik Qualman

There are of course huge advantages to social media one being the effect it has on socialization. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat allow users to connect and reconnect with people such as family and friends who don’t live close by. It allows you to keep up with what’s going on in their lives without having to fork out money for an expensive plane ticket or long distance calls. People also use social media to keep informed of the latest global developments and campaigns and voice their opinions on these issues. For example the terror attack on Paris received huge attention on social media. Within minutes there was an unprecedented expression of love and sorrow on all platforms of social media all over the world. Eyewitnesses were able to log onto their social media and warn people of these attacks. Every single image, word and video was being posted on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Social media is changing the way people learn of these attacks and how they react to them.

“The dark side of social media is that within seconds, anything can be blown out of proportion and taken out of context, and it’s very difficult not to get swept up in it all”.- Nicola Formichetti

Unfortunately there are of course negative effect of the use of social media, the obvious one being cyber bulling. Cyber bulling on social media can happen to anybody at anytime. Users are able to publish malicious comments on social networks without being identified. This type of behaviour can lead to depression and in some cases suicide.

In conclusion there are many positive and negative effects of social media. It can be used to bring people close together or tear them apart. Instead of using social media to spread nasty comments about each other it should be used as a platform for good instead of bad. A lot of things can go wrong online, but a lot of things can go right as well. It all just depends on how we decide to use it.