Social Media

Impact of Social Media In the present digital era the information is accessible very easily and social media is helping people to share the information with others. The internet technology is backbone of media in today’s world. The internet can be described as vast network of telephone and cable lines, wireless connections, and satellite systems designed to link and carry digital information worldwide, were initially referred as an information superhighway (Campbell, Martin, & Fabos, 2015).During the World Wide Web is introduced and first web browsers Mosaic and Netscape made internet as mass media. The lifestyle of people had changed with tools like e-mail, instant messaging and webcams which belong to internet technology. In this paper the advantages and disadvantages of social media and impact of social media on people will be explained.
Easily Obtainable Information The information is abundant and is available to people at anytime and from anywhere. For example people are using search engines to find information related to tips for playing video games efficiently. Everybody is accessing information using internet for completing their tasks. The internet is used by all categories of people like professionals, government agencies, educational institutions and manufacturing companies for meeting their specific needs. For example the design engineers at General Motors use internet for creating virtual conference rooms and work together who are actually located in different countries. The business organizations are obtaining information through social media and developing appropriate products for delighting the customers and it is supported by Web 2.0 technology (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro, 2012). Sometimes vast information creates lot of stress for the user and consumes lot of time for decision making. The more the better but at the same time the more creates more confusion with regard to easily obtainable information.
Advantages and disadvantages The easily obtainable information is helping people to save their time and money. They need not travel to longer distances for gathering information. Everyone who is having internet knowledge can gather information by using search engines like Google and Yahoo etc. For example a customer who wants to purchase an insurance policy is able to get information through websites and blogs. The comments and opinions of people in the blogs can be analyzed by customers before making final purchase decision. The disadvantage with easy obtainable information is credibility of source. For example some fake social media may pollute the mind or misguide the users. Hence reliability is the major issue with social media unless they are from authorized sources.
Social Media The social media can be simply defined as venue for social interaction where people can share their ideas and interact with each other (Campbell, Martin, & Fabos, 2015).There are different kinds of social media like blogs, collaborative projects, content communities, social networking sites and virtual game worlds etc. The government is able to frame better polices with support of social media (Bertot, Jaeger, & Hansen, 2012).
Advantages and disadvantages The primary advantage with social media is that it helps to lead a better lifestyle. The businesses can use social networking sites like Facebook and market their products. The political parties in 2012 Presidential elections had used social media for helping the people to take better decision while selecting the candidates. The most important thing is that anyone can express their feeling to the world just by click. The antisocial groups and terrorists are using social media for recruitment and also for motivating young people to join them. It is tough to monitor the information on social media because billions of messages are shared on social media. Hence monitoring and controlling are the major issues with social media.
Impact of Social Media on People The people are able to express their feelings and ideas with support of social media. For example the inequalities in United States have been put on social media otherwise the traditional media would not have noticed. For example in 2011 the dictator in Tunisia had fled the country when people exchanged information about harassment by government. The healthcare industry had harnessed the behavior of people and their health with help of social media (Korda & Itani, 2013).
Advantages and disadvantages The people are becoming health conscious and learning values through social media. The importance of being social had been understood after people are using social media. The social media is helping people to perform professional tasks by sharing knowledge in their respective online communities. For example the scientists around the world are able to interact with each other irrespective of their location. The major disadvantage with social media is that people are becoming more emotional and participating in protests. The people are involved more actively in politics and also participating in protests under the influence of social media (Valenzula, 2013)
Credibility Issues Since social media is not owned by any government or organization everyone is able to access information and share information on social media. Hence there is always opportunity for wrong information on social media. The unwanted information related to adults’ entertainment is also being shared on social media which may have negative impact on culture and society at large. Even though platforms of social media might be owned by right people but the users of social media may mislead others on that platform. For example there are advertisements like “Work from home but need little initial investment’ which target the unemployed youth and collect money from them.
Conclusion
The social media is having both advantages and disadvantages. However the social media is playing vital role in the present world. The social media is helping people both personally and professionally for performing various tasks. The individuals are able to maintain relationship with people across the world and share information with support of social media. The users of social media should be educated about the etiquette of human behavior on social media to overcome disadvantages of social media.

References
Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. F., Plangger, K., & Shapiro, D. (2012). Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business Horizons , 55 (3), 261-271.
Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T., & Hansen, D. (2012). The impact of polices on government social media usage: Issues, challenges, and recommendations. Government Information Quarterly , 29 (1), 30-40.
Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2015). Media and Culture with 2015 Update: An Introduction to Mass Communication (9 ed.). NY: Macmillian Learning.
Korda, H., & Itani, Z. (2013). Harnessing Social Media for Health Promotion and Behavior Change. Health Promotion Practice , 14 (1), 15-23.
Valenzula, S. (2013). Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior: The Roles of Information, Opinion Expression, and Activism. American Behavioral Scientist , 57 (7), 920-942.