How Does Social Media Affect Us

Social media is an interactive computer technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression through communities and virtual networks. Social media refers to official websites and applications designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in the short term. Many people define social media as an app on their smartphone or tablet, but in reality, this communication tool starts with a computer. This misunderstanding stems from the fact that most social media users use their tools through their applications.

The ability to share photos, opinions, and so on has changed the way we go about our lives through doing business. Retailers who use social media as part of their marketing strategy are making a lot of profit. There are different types of social media available today. Nowadays, using social media has many advantages but using social media has also given people a disadvantage. So, I want to talk about the 5 types of social media that exist today such as social networking sites, social media sites, image sharing sites, Video hosting websites and Community blogs, and the advantages and disadvantages of using social media.

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What is a Social Network Site (SNS)? Social networking sites are online platforms that allow users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website. Social networking sites usually have new users input the list of people with whom they share the connection, and then allow the people on the list to confirm or deny the connection.

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After the connection is established, the new user can search the connection network to create more connections. Social networking sites are also known as social networking sites or social sites. for instance, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and more. There are several benefits to using Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as Social networks that give you the opportunity to connect with people around the world. using this social network gives you access to people from all over the world. Some people use Facebook to connect with family, talk to old school friends, and share their political feelings. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform used for comedy, current, and public events. by using whatsapp we can chat with our friends, siblings, cousin or other and we also can-do video call or voice call with them. Some may call this behavior addictive, but that's not the case if people aren't having fun checking in with others or are up-to-date on the latest news and information. People are naturally social beings, so enjoy the likes, hearts, or comments left. You can have a friendly conversation in the comfort of home while watching what everyone is doing without asking them questions. You can also increase your knowledge through social media because the latest news on the news will spread quickly on social media so you don't have to buy newspapers to find out. However, it also brings some downsides that using social networks all the time can lead to an inactive lifestyle because social networking usually happens on mobile devices or computers, it can encourage the habit of sitting in one place for too long during the day. if you use social media for 70 minutes daily in a sitting position, then this habit can begin to lead to changes that lead you to a healthier lifestyle.

Nowadays, young people love to use social media to interact with strangers but forget about those around them such as family members, friends and so on. the relationship between them will be further strained by social media as there is no time to interact with family members because they too busy with their own world by social media. furthermore, the impact of using social sites over the internet has led to many scams or frauds. This is because, there are many cases of fraud, especially among girls that innocents. This is because of the newcomers through social sites. They will usually follow all the wishes of their friends on the social site. For example, this happens when a couple on a social site sends a short message system (sms) to make an appointment by stating where and when. Next, the teenage girl will go to the place mentioned without thinking long. However, upon arriving at the site of a social media site, they may have been cheated and some have been raped.

Social media sites are one of the types of social media that exists today. Competitive media means through a website where feedback can be posted about a person, business, product, or service. These sites may use Web 2.0 techniques to gather feedback from website users or may use professional writers for author feedback on topics of concern to this site. Review websites including the first consumerdemocracy.com to introduce help ratings, then Epinions.com and Amazon.com. Social review sites help customers see great customer reviews of the products they buy. So, help other customers consider buying a product or not. Social survey sites have several advantages such as review sites that can increase the reach of companies that aren't just locals reading reviews, which is why they're online. People from all over the country read it. For businesses that have a physical location in a city, positive online reviews can take them out of the country. People who sell on eBay, Amazon, and Etsy have found themselves with customers around the world thanks to reviews on this site. This type of reach can make your business more profitable than it has ever been locally, and no one will even trust reviews on your own website because if you have a testimonial page on your site with free reviews, you are more likely self-harm from benefit.

The smartest people online will find that independent reviews hosted on your own website can be as easy as showing you 'the best business in the world'. Having these reviews on a free, inspected and controlled site means they can't be easily leaked and viewed as more reliable. Some review sites also allow you to create feeds directly from their website, so you can keep your favorite testimonials, reviews will only be a better, more reliable source. However, it also has the disadvantages of being easy for competitors to post fake reviews on some websites because on most review sites, it is easy for competitors to sign up under various names and negative post reviews. This is a form of corporate sabotage for the digital age, and there is little effort to be made about it unless they can 100% prove negative reviews from competitors and people like to read negative reviews are also one of the weaknesses because it's weird, but people like to read negative things , like bad celebrity gossip, people can't stay away from it. It has been found that people tend to count good reviews and actually read negative ones. That's why if a product or service is shown despite only a few negative reviews on an online review site, people will really want to know why it appears and what they say and people will find this review and read it. Furthermore, this survey site can also be detrimental to the business because when an individual gets a product that they are not satisfied with, it causes the person to respond negatively to the product, causing the other person to criticize the company even if it produces a high-quality product and good to the people. The individual's response has affected the performance of the business.

Image sharing sites are one of the types of social media that exists today. An image sharing site allows individuals to upload images to internet sites. Image sharing will then save the image to its server and show each type of individual code to allow others to view the image. When you want to share photos with friends, family members, message boards, or across the Internet, image sharing sites are a great way to upload, store, and share your files. However, there are many image sharing websites, all with different features. The best site for you depends on how many photos you need to upload, how much time you want to spend uploading, and why you uploaded the photos. There are some pictures that share websites that help young people to store their pictures or upload high quality pictures on the internet. For example, Google Photos, Imgur, Dropbox, Tinypic and more. These types of social media can use web hosting, you will never be easier to let someone see the picture you want, such as friends and family members living one mile away or in another country. When you upload some image numbers on the hosting website they will be saved and links will be created with the help you can see the pictures whenever you like and at the same time if you want your family members or friends to see images you can help them with links so that they can also see amazing pictures and appreciate the graphic feel of your pictures. In addition, image sharing sites also store, organize, and edit your images because image sharing is an effective way to store and organize your images without using space on your own computer. Provided you choose the right account, you will also have access to good editing software and will be able to take your pictures when you need them. This can be very useful in developing a photo library for marketing purposes. However, images sharing sites have some disadvantages to the people. Alteration and use of picture without permission is one of the disadvantages of image sharing sites because although the risk of misuse is small, sharing pictures online can result in them being altered without your permission and re-shared as memes. Because these types of photos are shared and re-shared continuously, it is virtually impossible to have them removed from the Internet.

A famous example is 'Success Kid,' which is an image taken by a photographer of her own son. After posting the image to Flickr people modified the image by adding their own phrases and reposting it online. A father posting a personal photo of him and his son also found the picture turning up on Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook and other sites after it was modified and turned into a meme. Furthermore, use of personal photos by commercial entities also an advantage by using images sharing sites. Any time you share a photo online there is a risk that it can be used by commercial entities. For example, the Christmas photo of an American family was displayed on a Czech billboard without their consent. The photo was uploaded to a personal blog and social media sites by a member of the family, but ended up on a billboard after the owner of a store in Prague found it online and used it for advertising his business. In another example, the crashed car uploaded by a Flickr user was used as part of an ad campaign by Virgin Australia. Because the user did not check under which license, she uploaded the photo, in this case it was one that allowed commercial use and Virgin Australia could legally use the picture without compensation.

Video hosting services are platforms which allow users to upload, share videos or live stream their own videos to the Internet. These can either be for the general public to watch, or particular users on a shared network. The most popular video hosting website is YouTube, with 1.8 billion logged-in users per month and the most extensive catalogue of online videos. There are some countries in the world which place restrictions on YouTube, so some of these respective countries have their own regional video sharing websites. Venue for artist is one of the pros by using video hosting sites because YouTube, Vimeo, Live video and other video-sharing websites provide a free venue for independent artists to showcase their talents. not only can artists reach audiences previously unavailable, they can also establish their own independent brands and turn their passion into a business. artists can even break into the mainstream as a result of their independent videos such as singer Justin Bieber was discovered in YouTube videos, as was comedian and song writer Bo Burnham and many others. other popular YouTube brands like the comedy series 'epic rap battles of history' and the animation of harry partridge and enjoy strong viewership despite being wholly independent productions. Besides, discussion also one of the pros from video hosting sites. This is because of Video-sharing websites also have the ability to promote lively debate and discussion on any of current topics. Topics ranging from politics to religion to philosophy are all the subject of discussion, and many videos often contain passionate debates within the comments sections, both serious and trivial. Video-sharing sites can also be used to rally like-minded individuals around a particular cause and generate attention for the issue at hand. However, its also have 2 cons such as piracy.

Video-sharing websites also enable others to infringe on the copyrights of established artists. By posting videos of copyrighted material, virtually anonymous users can share material to which they have no rights and potentially damage an artist's reputation or revenue. With specialized browser add-ons and plug-ins, users can even directly download content from YouTube to their computers, further enabling piracy. While these sites profess a zero-tolerance policy towards copyright infringement, copyright holders must file a complaint against the content and pirates can still create additional accounts and post the content up again. Furthermore, privacy issues are also undeniable weaknesses because video-sharing websites can be abused by those invading the privacy of others. not everyone is eager to become an unwitting YouTube sensation because of an embarrassing video shot by another, but with a population increasingly armed with video cameras at all times, it becomes more of an issue. in most instances on broadcast television, images and names can't be used without consent, but YouTube videos have no such restriction. as such, anyone passing by with a camera during an embarrassing moment can easily humiliate you with relative impunity, without you even being aware that you're the star of their video.

Lastly, Community blogs are predominantly websites where many authors can post journal entries on a single space and where people can respond by commenting on posts to the community blog. Blogging communities are collections of individual blogs (potentially tens, hundreds, or thousands) tied together by a larger common value or theme. Conversations can occur on the individual blogs, between the blogs, on a common message board that binds the individual blogs together in a community, or across other blogs in the blogosphere. Establish your business as an industry leader is one of the pros. It does not matter how small your business is, blogging is a good way for your business to build trust and establish clout in your industry. By providing content that will be viewed as valuable, expert information, your potential customers get to see the knowledge an experience that you have gained in your field. In time, posting blogs that are helpful and informative on a regular basis can make you the 'go to' resource in your particular niche within the industry, which will subsequently lead to more enquiries and higher conversion rates. Develop and strengthen relationships with existing and new customers also an advantage of community blogs. Customer engagement is an immensely important element of online marketing and branding. Blogging provides the opportunity for you to connect with your existing and potential customers in a different, more conversational way. Blogging is a good way to build trust with your target audience through high quality content that they find relevant. With an active comment section, you will also be able to follow the visitors' responses to your posts, and you will be able to respond directly to their comments, which is huge in building trust and relationships. Poor content is one of the disadvantages of community blogs. Its because poorly written content can reflect badly on your brand put some thought into what you blog about and ensure your work has been edited and reviewed. Furthermore, Time also a con by using community blogs. Time is scarce for small business owners and it’s the biggest obstacle in the way of us achieving everything we want to do. It’s a huge disadvantage for bloggers. Blogging is time-consuming, my first post was under 100 words and took me half a day to construct and publish. It wasn’t the writing that took the time but the editing and constant proofreading. Give me half a day of uninterrupted time now and I’d be able to produce 3 blog posts of 1000 words or more. You do get quicker at blogging the more you do it but that doesn’t necessarily help if you don’t have the time now. You may have decided that blogging is for you but have let it slip down your to-do list. My advice is to allocate time now, allocate time every week to write. Plan your posts in advance so you can maximise that assigned time.

In conclusion, social media is, and will continue to be, harmful, unless something is done about it. The power it has over people is dangerous and often goes unnoticed. People should care because if not addressed, or taken care, of social media could cause national and international problems. Social media stunts interpersonal growth and increases narcissism in many internet users. Even if the user is not psychologically affected by social media, they are still in danger. Nobody is immune to the harmful side effects social media including identity theft, stalkers, or hackers. Social networking allows hoaxes and false information to cause widespread chaos. “The dark side of social media is that, within seconds, anything can be blown out of proportion and taken out of context. And it is very difficult not to get swept up in it all”. If there are no regulations or limitations on social media, the repercussions will accumulate. People need to change the destructive patterns of social media use before it destroys society. The fast, easy access to information that is supposed to be beneficial to society is actually detrimental to society.

Updated: Feb 24, 2024
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How Does Social Media Affect Us. (2024, Feb 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/how-does-social-media-affect-us-essay

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