Social media and internet social
networking are the topics receiving a larger proportion of our concerns and
energies. Social media has become an inevitable source of our social
networking. It is a burning issue whether social media is doing to the benefit
or to the loss of people especially our young generation. Social networking has
changed the way we take our friendships and relations. What is the status of
the influence of social networks and social media friendships is a matter of
controversial
Social media refers to the usage
of internet as a source of social activities like meeting people; talking to
the people, organize group discussions, developing social relations etc. Some
popular social medial websites are Facebook, Goole+, Youtube, Linkedin,
Twitter, Yahoo, Flicker, My Spaces etc. These websites allow the people of the
world to connect to on another; to share their ideas publically, collect their
desired information and comments, expand their intimacies and audience for
their voice, and express their feelings and ideas to their desired audience.
Social media is getting more importance day by day. It has become a main source
of human E-interaction (Electronic Interaction), as a social scientist I would
call it.
What social media has really done
with the social life of the people is yet to be explored seriously. The
consistent observation of social media services by many of the social analysts
and thinkers and the attitude and tendency of users has given climb to an
unending discussion on this topic.
Some thinkers and analysts regard
it an optimistic way to get in touch with your friends, families, latest
information, news, living styles, and a lot of such informative and beneficial
updates. They support the idea that social media is playing its positive role
in developing social ties between the people of different schools of thoughts
and in bringing them close to each other to learn about their lifestyle and
culture. They are of the view that social media networks are a place of
information, knowledge and innovative ideas.
The supporter of social media says
that it has provided a platform for a vast scale of interaction to every
individual of the world. People from far off places can communicate to one
another conveniently, cheaply, and frankly. It has broadened the vision of the
people and has provided them with a variety of choices like privacy protection,
sharing of personal identity etc in regard with social media friendship.
The favorers of social media
friendship argue that friendship on social media supplies us such an
environment which allows us to share and express our ideas, thoughts,
creations, and opinions with a wide range of people and audience. It also
serves as a source of business marketing, political preaching, and social
services marketing.
As it provides us with numerous
benefits, social media has also received a lot of criticism of those who find
many flaws and deficiencies in it. They acknowledge the importance of social
media the revolution that it has brought in the lives of people but at the same
time they criticize its policies and deceptive membership rules and principles.
There are no hard and fast rules
for sign up at social media network. For example you just need to provide your
name and email address for sign up with Facebook. It shows that anyone with
fake identity can sign up and do what he wants; he/ she may influence his/her
target audience in an improper way. He/she may use social media network for indecent,
illegal, and inhuman activities or purpose. The privacy of people using social
media is always in threat.
There is uncontrolled number of
members and the number is increasing day by day. The moderators have no rules
to verify new members and to control what is happening on these networks.
Prohibited content is being published and shared on these networks which are
spoiling the character of our young generation. There are such applications and
plug-ins as are influencing the mind set of younger generation.
The other reason the opponents of
social media networking give is that one can get burned out on friends, become
tired of updates of every moment of their life, and can fail to get
face-to-face interaction which is required to keep a friendship strong.
Some social networks like Twitter
and Facebook provide us with too many updates. It is possible that you get
confused upon overloaded information that your too many friends give you on
social networks. Sometimes, when you are bushed of frequently hearing what your
friend is doing, how his/her life is going, what activity is being carried out,
what he/she is interesting in, and how he/she spent his/her last weekend etc,
although you are not interested in such updates, it can turn you off the idea
of hanging out with her/him more frequently.
Moreover the too much application
requests like game requests, page like requests, try it out requests etc are
boring things on social networks. The slight hint of irritation you feel at
deleting several requests from a friend can progress into irritation at your
friend for any communication they send. You might not mean to get annoyed with
your friend, but it will happen naturally.
The real and natural friendship
turns into social network time pass making the people spiritually far from one
another. Everyone try to see the things which interest him/her. The social
networks and the friendships made on these networks are mere a source of time
and resources wastage as the people just user these networks for entertainment.
But as they do this, they spend a lot of their time on these networks. So, the
students are affected a lot.
Now after analyzing the facts
about negative and positive aspects of social media, we come back to what it
has really done to the social life of the people.
Social media has made the people
socially critical and bold. It has given us a sense of familiarity with the
world. We spend our more time on internet and miss our evening walk and
neighborhood visits. We are absorbed in our Facebook friends chat and miss the
company of those who cannot use Facebook and even sometimes we miss our
classes. We pay less attention to our real relations and try to get more
“likes” and comments on our social media posts. We now have superficial
approach towards the importance of the things and phenomena. We waste out time
on useless discussions jus to influence the people on social media. We take no
time for real friendships; we have intermingled it with the social media
friendship. Social media friendship has made us less creative and less
innovative; we just keep on sharing readymade concepts and things; we do not
dare to create our own.
Here I Conclude
Social networks and social media friendships are
beneficial for the people in term of knowledge, information, ideas and opinion
sharing. The serious, mature, and experienced people can benefit from these
networks and get a lot out of their being there on these networks. Social
networks are now the need of every professional and E-commerce business holder.
Social networks can be regarded a blessing for those who know how to use them
in a healthy, fruitful, and legally acceptable way. They can do just to the
presence of such networks. The inexperienced and new generation, who are
neither professional nor they are mature, can misuse these networks and thus
can exploit others and can be exploited in many ways in return. The only they
need is to get entertained and keep in touch with their known friends. And they
can do that through other means like T.V, and mobile phone etc. So, it is only
the way we use these social networks which makes it good or bad for us.
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Suggested Readings:
http://sociallyactive.com/social-media-effect/
http://greenhauseducation.blogspot.com/2012/07/social-medias-impact-on-personal-life.html
http://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/73148-Social-Networking-Effects-on-Everyday-Life
http://teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/485925/The-Effects-of-Social-Networking-upon-Society/
http://socialnetworking.procon.org/
