The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media - Essay Example

?Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social media and evaluate its importance in today’s society. Plan Introduction: Social media seem to have taken over the world. Facebook, flickr, youtube , twitter. Do social media bring advantages or disadvantages? How important are they in today’s society. Advantages maintaining relationships (friends, family, keeping up with school friends at uni etc) forging new relationships (buying and selling things, playing games, dating sites) facilitating work and education tasks – info, connections, collaboration huge potential for leisure, hobbies, politics, religion Disadvantages strangers can have malicious intent, information can be false, you don’t really know who you are talking to distraction from everyday life, in extreme form addiction loss of privacy, danger of self-respect being lost, things cannot be erased in cyberspace substitute for real relationships, and causes unhappiness Conclusion Social media are both an opportunity and a threat. Not going away. Very important, probably will become even more so. [153 Words] Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social media and evaluate its importance in today’s society. The twenty first century is characterised by a very fast pace of life, and the proliferation of information technology. The age of industrialisation and manufacturing has given way to a postmodern age of globalisation where in Western developed countries there is an emphasis on service industries. The whole of society has now become networked in multiple different ways. (Castells, 1999). Computers are the tools of this new trade, and while some people in the world are reaping great benefits from this technological revolution, there are millions who through poverty and exclusion cannot participate in the new wave of social media which is taking over the world. This paper examines how social media, such as facebook, flickr, youtube, and twitter are affecting human relations in many ways, looking first and the advantages they offer and secondly the inherent disadvantages. There are four main advantages in social media, namely maintaining relationships with friends and family; forging new relationships, which can include buying and selling things, playing games, meeting people through dating sites etc; facilitating work and education tasks, by using social media to gather information, make connections with experts, or collaborate on tasks; and above all there is a huge potential for the formation of common interest groups including those which promote particular leisure pursuits, hobbies, political parties, religion or any other subject. All of these possibilities enrich the range of connections that an individual makes, and have the potential bring concrete benefits to daily life, especially for people who are lonely, disabled, housebound, or just in need of friendship. Similarly, there are a number of disadvantages associated with social media including the possibility of deception, since people on social media sites are unknown and may provide false information or act with malicious intent; social media can be very distracting, and even addictive, especially when conveyed over mobile devices like the iphone; they entail a loss of privacy, and in some situations a loss of self-respect, since items placed on social media sites can often not be removed, leaving a lasting legacy for others to see, and finally they offer a kind of substitute for real human relationships and this can be a huge disappointment to people who invest too much hope in social media. Some of the disadvantages of social media are quite subtle, as for example was predicted back in the 1960s by theorists who pointed out that “the medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1964, pp. 7-20) , which means that the way we relate to technology causes us to take in hidden messages which in turn change the way we see the world, and indeed ourselves. When using social media, people can adopt any identity they wish, and can experiment so widely that they lose touch with their own true self, leading to alienation and a culture of lies and deception (Turkle , 1995).This has implications for human mental health, and for the cohesion of society. Theorists point out also that a serious implication of children’s use of social media is that they come into contact with violence and other unsuitable content which robs them of their very childhood, forcing them to confront issues which they are not yet equipped to deal with. (Buckingham, 2000, p. 41) It is clear that there are both advantages and disadvantages in using social media. One of the good things that can come of it is the way it can facilitate all kinds of group activities. There are some branches of the Christian church which are tapping into the potential of social media for evangelism and fellowship. One example of this is the Youth for Christ movement which has through the work of David Wraight (2007) come out in favour of small group networking, facilitated by social networks, which can be a particularly effective way of engaging with students and other young people. In the past outreach may have taken place in the streets and in coffee bars but nowadays most young people actually spend more time in virtual places, hanging out online with their friends in chatrooms or games, or on facebook, and so the logic goes that Christians should not be absent from these places. The style of this kind of Christianity is less formal than traditional church, and makes use of labels like “emerging culture” (Mann, 2005) or “network churches” which reflects the linkage with social networks and the fragmented and yet connected nature of many modern relationships. The huge popularity of social media, especially with young people, suggests that they are not going to go away, and for this reason alone they are likely to remain important to society for many years to come. Critics observe that social media are part of a significant “paradigm shift” that has for ever changed human social relationships. (Abbot, 1998, p. 84)There are some signs that older teenagers are beginning to see through the superficial nature of social media, and their repetitive and very limited functions, which suggests that perhaps the novelty is wearing off and in future social media will be somewhat less intensely used than they are at present. In the light of these examples outlined above, we can conclude that social networks are a good thing, because they open up new channels of communication, information and support. At the same time children and vulnerable adults need to be protected from abuse and the best way of doing this is to ensure that everyone learns basic safety measures for use with social media. Just as we teach children not to talk to strangers in the real world, so they must learn to take great care in the streets of cyberspace. Human nature being the way it is, namely imperfect, there is always going to be a mixed result when people get together in huge numbers to work, play and explore ideas together. Social media are here to stay, and human beings will adapt to them, as they have to other social changes throughout their history. [1009 words] References Abbot, C. 1998. Making Connections: Young People and the Internet.” In J. Sefton-Green (ed) Digital Diversions: Youth Culture in the Age of Multimedia. London: UCL Press. Buckingham, D. 2000. After the Death of Childhood: Growing up in the Age of Electronic Media. Cambridge: Polity Press. Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Cottrell, J. 1996. Social Networks and Social Influences in Adolescence. London: Routledge.. Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/ MacLuhan, M. 1964, reprinted 1994. Understanding Media. Cambridge: the MIT Press. Mann A. Atonement for a sinless society: Engaging with an Emerging Culture. Milton Keynes: Authentic Media, 2005. Turkle, S. 1995. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster. Wraight, D. The next Wave: Empowering the Generation That Will Change our World. Colorado: NavPress, 2007. Warman, M. 15 Aug 2011. Young people “bored” with social media.” The Telegraph. Available online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/8702509/Young-people-bored-with-social-media.html Read More