If the internet changed the way of communicating, social media revolutionized it. It made a fundamental shift in the way we communicated in the world. It also changed the way society works whether to share an idea or communicated news or to inform the availability of a product or service. It has brought the society to a new way of existence that was never before. It will continue to do so and become permanent in the future, as the upcoming generation will never know the world that existed without social media.
It was only the social media in the last ten years with the increase of smartphone made internet part of everyone’s life. For nearly forty years from its official origin in 1969, it was not so widely used in the world. It was confined to academia and for government agencies. In the initial thirty years, many governments around the globe controlled the spread of information ideas through the internet. But with the advent of social media in a big way in the last ten years, nothing can control the freedom of expressing opinions through them.
Social media is not only changing the way we communicate and how we live but also has a phenomenal part in the way we do business nowadays. It is at a rapid pace that many companies bank mainly on social media for survival and success from the competition. As of November 2019, social media statistics, more than 2.4 billion people use Facebook, 2 billion watches YouTube, 1.6 use WhatsApp and the list goes on and on. With so many people hooked on to social media, which accounts for a substantial portion of the total world population of 7.4 billion people, social media is a significant influence on the people.
But social media has both its advantages and disadvantages. Though the benefits of social media are hard to ignore in today’s world, its usage depends on how we use it. It takes a lot of discipline not to let social media steal our time. The bottom line is social media should improve our life than becoming our life.
Five ways of how social media changed our world:
Social impact: The opinion of people before social media could be shared with a handful of friends and relatives. But with social media, anyone’s opinion could reach as many people as possible that it could attract in the world. It is this magic of expressing opinions that had made social media such a grand success. But caution should be exercised as whatever view posted on social media remains forever. Many significant companies back check the social media posts of prospective employees. If they find something that is not liked by them, then there is a chance for not being recruited by them. Also, illegal posts can bring in legal actions against those who post it.
Tracking people with social media is so easy now, and long-time friends, even decades-old who are not in contact, can be easily found to reconnect with them. But there are also chances of cyberbullying, which is frequent nowadays. School children and women are those who are targeted for causing immense stress. Many companies block social media to control the employees’ distraction, which is causing lower productivity.
Business impact: Before social media, only companies with deep pockets were able to rule the business world. It is because of their capacity to advertise their product and making their brand image to reach the nook and corner of the world. But with social media, even an individual with a brilliant idea could make his/her product reach everywhere. It is the magic that is turning the business world upside down in the last decade. It has enabled small businesses to amplify their brand message to a wider audience through social media. With billions of people active every day in it, they can achieve anything they dream, and the only sky is the limit. It is the reason that social media, which was considered an additional option for businesses, has now changed to an essential part of their business strategy.
Health Impact: Social media is also changing how the health industry shares information and also in many of its other activities. Public health campaigns, virtual doctors on skype, groups of people suffering from the same health condition, and in many more ways, social media is helping the health industry. It is both at the personal and community level of heal related activities. It makes vital information about a disease outbreak and its precautions to reach a large scale of people as fast as possible. But there are also downsides of social media for the health industry. There are many ways of misleading people about the wrong benefits of certain substances without knowing their side effects. Misinformation on many health issues complicates them further to the point of no return.
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