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Social media
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Social media
Introduction
The power and influence that social media has over the lives of millions of individuals living in this world, is immense. This is true for both the virtual and the physical world and is visible from the high number of traffic that social media sites encounter on a daily basis. This platform has grown exponentially over the years and has even transformed its brand. It has become a platform that gives opportunities for businesses, professionals, organizations, and entrepreneurs. However, it also had some negative effects on the livelihoods of numerous people. This essay looks to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of social media and conclude whether it is beneficial or harmful in nature.
Discussion
The advantages and disadvantages of social media can be broken down in 2 categories. Primarily, the social advantages and disadvantages that it produces and secondly the business advantages and disadvantages that it produces. Its primary social advantage is that it has the ability to connect people from all walks of life (Dumitrescu, et al, 2018). No matter how far they are from each other or how close if one has any online presence, they will be able to get into touch with someone who lives far away from them. Furthermore, social media has been very helpful in decreasing social ills. This has been done by breaking down barriers that have impeded friendship and understanding between different people.
It has reduced barriers such as cultural, national and racial barriers. This also helped in promoting interactions socially and provided a platform to different forms of ideas which could be shared online. On the business side, it has given businesses high amounts of exposure to not just the domestic market but the international market as well (Filippo, et al, 2018) This allows businesses more feasibility towards attracting their target market at a higher rate than normal. Business partnerships have also benefitted greatly with the advent of social media as it has allowed for networking that is of the utmost quality.
However, it does have certain disadvantages to speak off. Primarily, any individual can become heavily addicted to it and can be as harmful to the health of the person as getting addicted to any other chemical drug. With increase in addiction to social media, individuals tend to isolate themselves which makes them socially isolated (Belangee, et al, 2015). Even if they are physically present, they are always mentally somewhere else and not enjoying the present moment. There is a high trend of people showing them living their best lives but the fact that most of these people encourage living a life that is fake in nature.
People take pictures with cars, homes and pets that are not originally their own but on social media, they show themselves as the owner. The most prominent disadvantages of social media are the proliferation of online bullying that has led to a high loss of life. On the business side, businesses take advantage of other small businesses only to take their customers for themselves (Drahošová & Balco, 2017). Social media has also led to stealing of ideas through increase monitoring of a company’s social media posts. Ideas are stolen and then modified to be sold as their own. Brand images are always at the liability of being destroyed due to misinformation spread by a customer regarding a business on social media.
Conclusion
However, in the end, it can be said that social media is very beneficial tool if used properly. People have used this platform to launch businesses, revolutions and movements all around the world. Instant access to real time information regarding any event occurring in every part of the world is possible. For example, the loss of life in the different hurricanes and storms that had hit the different cities around the world since last decade was more easily known through social media rather than any other platform. So, with everything there, it is always a downside, but it is up to the observer what he or she chooses to focus on.
References
Belangee, S., Bluvshtein, M., & Haugen, D. (2015). Cybersocial connectedness: A survey of perceived benefits and disadvantages of social media use. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 71(2), 122-134.
Drahošová, M., & Balco, P. (2017). The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of use of social media in European Union. Procedia Computer Science, 109, 1005-1009.
Dumitrescu, L., Fuciu, M., & Gorski, H. (2018). Implementing New Marketing Strategies in the Context of The Online Environment–Advantages, Disadvantages, Statistics and Trends. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Economics.
Filippo, C., Bonaccorsi, A., Fantoni, G., Ossola, G., Cimino, A., & Dell'Orletta, F. (2018). Technical Sentiment Analysis: Measuring Advantages and Drawbacks of New Products Using Social Media. In 2nd International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2018). Proceedings.
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