COM 380: The Positives and Negatives of Our Social Media Power
Social media has become one of the biggest intangible aspects in today’s society. So many people have some type of social media but we don’t all use it the same way. The power we as a society have with communication is ten times stronger than we would have 200 or even just 50 years ago. With the huge advancement in mobile phones with internet, we can connect with almost anybody at any moment and with this newfound power, comes certain issues.
There is a lot of problems when it comes to social media. The biggest is the fact that we can hide behind our screens and say and do anything we want. Cyberbullying became a growing concern since the introduction of the internet. However, in just my short 20 years, I have seen rapid changes in how we communicate and how much social media takes over our lives. I believe the introduction of social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram or even years ago, Myspace, appealed the most to tweens and teens who can be vicious. I’m not saying every teenager is brutal, but in general, the younger generations, including my own, utilized social media to create a harmful atmosphere for others. Cyberbullying can be very powerful, even prompting people to take their own lives. This is just one of the many ways our power in social media is dangerous.
The spread of false information and “Fake news” is the latest issue we have been facing across all platforms. Anybody can create a post or fake news story and spread it across somewhere like Facebook and have it reach a large audience. Therefore, this false information is believed to be true which can be harmful to a society. If you believe everything you read or hear, you contribute to a news story that may damage a reputation.
Despite these issues, there are many positives to the power that we hold in the social media world.
We can communicate with people we know and those we don’t. Through this affordance of communication, we can spread important information. There have been many instances in which social media affords the ability to spread awareness for a cause or major event. Recently, the devastating earthquake in Mexico or the hurricane in Florida has gained a lot of attention. Due to the amount of shares and retweets of information on these affected areas, we are able to see the destruction and want to reach out and help in every way possible. Without social media, we wouldn’t realize the ultimate catastrophic state of these areas.
In addition to spreading imperative information, our power of sharing and communication can lead to crimes and missing people cases being solved. With constant sharing of information, somebody is bound to see something relating to the case they saw on Twitter. It has been discovered that social media can help a lot in finding missing people. The article below examines how a family found their child through the power of social media.
https://www.channel4.com/news/can-social-media-help-find-missing-people
Another positive outcome we have with social media is the access to information. Sometimes, others are taught hate and ignorance and through these platforms, they are exposed to new information that maybe they were never taught. It’s not always the case that an opinion can change,however, social media affords the ability to communicate and discover new information. Whether the information is taken into consideration or not, it’s still put out there for everybody to see and maybe change a previous discriminatory opinion.
Overall, social media is not necessary for physical survival and yet we rely so heavily on it in today’s society. The power we contain with social media platforms is huge, and it is vital that we use it for a positive outcome instead of an unfavorable one.