Self-Assessment Essay Assignment

Impact of Social Media to Society

Social media is a term that is used to describe a branch of internet that provides a way through which people could meet and exchange data such as: pictures, videos and other forms of data. Some of those social media include sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, 2go, Eskimi, Instagram, Google+ and Hangouts. These platforms are gaining widespread popularity among many people of all ages and even recently businesses and politicians have taken their policies to these sights. The reason why people like these sites is because; they are very informal and reliable as signing up to these sites is very easy. However, these sites have brought about negative impacts on the people who are into social media and unfortunately the negative effects have surpassed the positive. The social media platforms are a social problem and not personal because the negative effects do not affect individuals but rather a large number of people who use them (Megat, I., 2009). Social media couple effect on learning performance, communication skills, privacy, and relationships.

Students should know that if they are spending time on social media sites, they could be hurting their GPA, which can negatively affect their future. I also think that universities should analyze studies like this to develop policies that will make it so students can’t access social media sites in class. Apart from that, these social media sites have negatively affected academic performance of students (Neelamalar M. & Chitra. P., 2009). This can be proven in several ways: first, these social media platforms use informal language therefore; students are more likely to use the same language in class and even in their exams. For instance, twitter is known for using the abbreviation @ to point at something. Students tend to forget and use the same abbreviations in exams. This shows that social media affects academic performance. Another way through which social media affects academic performance is that; these platforms consume a lot of time that would have been used in studying. According to surveys carried out, the students who spent a lot of time in social media had a higher risk of performing poorly in their academics.

Social media affects the communication skills of the youth. This is mainly because; social media platforms provide facilities to enable people to meet without having to meet in a physical location. This reduces face-to-face communication and this could result to poor communication skills. When these youth go into the job market, they find it difficult to establish good face-to-face communication with people and this could result into antisocial behavior. This shows that despite the fact that social media platforms have made people meet; they have negatively affected the communication skills of these people especially the youth.

Social media platforms also increase the risk of one losing his or her privacy. Since the majority of people who use these social platforms are young people; they tend to make their private information known to the public. This information such as marital status and contact information could be used by people for malicious purposes. Apart from that, employers tend to spy on their employees in order to check whether they are credible enough. Some parents also tend to join these sites in order to spy the social activity of their children. This shows that social media platforms have brought about the risk of one losing his or her privacy.

Many social media platforms have a negative effect on the relationships people have. Many relationships are broken due to unfaithfulness that has been worsened by the presence of social media. many people meet; these sites promote infidelity in marriages as married couples tend to flirt with the people they meet with in this social sites. When one of the partners discovers that the other is unfaithful, he or she feels betrayed (Lee, S, 2014). Apart from that, some relationships are online based and this makes it difficult for them to pass the test of time as there is no face to face communication. Long distance relationships have provided an opportunity for people to mistreat others. For example, there are cases of many people especially women who end up being mistreated by the people they once thought to be their “lovers” and upon further inquiries they reveal that they met through an online site. One thing with social media is that; knowing the character of a person is very difficult and this affects relationships negatively. This shows that these social media platforms are more harmful than beneficial to the youth (Jung, B., 2014).

In conclusion, despite the fact that social media platforms have enabled people to meet easily and transfer their multimedia files such as photos and videos etc. Additionally, social media played a very important role to communicate people easily and mobile friendly. People communicate each other even they are in car, outside, office and travelling places as well. Social media also played a imported role to create social networks of innumerous groups of consumers worldwide that are attempting to address critical social and marketing needs, have long been regarded as incompatible for companies in guiding their business.

References

Megat I. (2009) impact of social networking: impacts of the social network on the society Retrieved from: myconvergence.com.my/main/images/stories/PDF.../MyCon06_50.pdf

Neelamalar M. & Chitra. P. (2009) New media and society: A Study on the impact of social networking sites on indian youth. University of Beira Interior. Retrieved from: www.ec.ubi.pt/.../pdf/neelamalar-new-media

ProCon.org (2011) “Are social networking sites good for our society?” Social networking critical working. Retrieved from http://socialnetworking.procon.org/

Jung, B. The Negative Effects of Social Media on Society and Individuals. Retrieved on April 14, 2014 from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html

Lee, S. 5 Effects Social Networks Have On You. Retrieved on April 14, 2014 from: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/science-you-and-social-media/

Metro.com (2013). Social media and its effects on our emotional well being. Retrieved on April 14, 2014 from: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/15/social-media-and-its-effects-on-our-emotional-well-being-3924915/

Bryfonski, D. (2012). The global impact of social media, Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press

Stollak, Matthew J., Amy Vandenberg, Andie Burklund, and Stephanie Weiss. 2011. “Getting Social: The Impact of Social Networking Usage On Grades Among College Students.” American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences 18(1): 859 - 865.