The world has been the subject of various technological developments that have impacted our lives in different ways lately. Nonetheless, the effects of social media in the society has had the largest effect; not only in this country but also in other nations across the globe (Matthews, 2015). Social media sites like Skype have empowered family members to get in touch with their relatives in other countries. Consequently, people used to communicate with their families using expensive phone calls and occasional letters but since the development of social media sites, communications between families and friends have been enhanced. For example, I used to communicate with my sister who was studying in Italy through Skype thus it was easy to make family discussions as if we were all located at the same place. Moreover, it is also important to report that social media sites have also empowered the members of different families to hold discussion forums on particular concerns when it is relatively difficult to meet physically. Most importantly, parents can use social media sites to nurture and guide their children from different geographical regions (Diehl, Weeks & Zuniga, 2015).
Besides that, social media has empowered people to enjoy the joy of living at the moment because a majority of them have been designed with speedy networks. The current structure of families and societies are being stretched to become smaller and smaller every day, but social networks have been necessitating our communications. As far as people tend to find difficulties in making their points using phone calls they can share their concerns to the intended individuals and obtain feedback within a few seconds. For example, I usually share issues with my friends through Twitter and get their responses within the shortest time possible. Most importantly, I usually get critical updates from my friends on social networks as soon as they are posted thus enhancing the speed of communication (Matthews, 2015).
A decade ago, it was substantially difficult for people to make friends not unless an individual was outgoing and greatly talkative to everyone. However, the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have done things to be easier because it has empowered me to chat and make friends with people from other parts of the world. Perhaps, people started to make many friends soon after the development of mobile phones, but the emergence of social networking sites has added a unique dimension on that. Thankfully, we can now make hundreds of friends regardless of whether I know them or not (Diehl, Weeks & Zuniga, 2015).
Another significant effect of social media in the society is the fact that other than being a platform for social interaction and communication, it also provides a remarkable ground for the advertisement of goods and services in the society. Moreover, people have been using social media to share new ideas and innovations that are instrumental in the development of countries and organizations. Most importantly, social media has grown into an excellent platform for sharing business opportunities and advertisement of valuable services in the community. Therefore, if social media increases the productivity of organizations and countries, they could never have been introduced into the society context in the first place (Matthews, 2015).
Despite its positive effects in the society, social media also has adverse effects on our lives. For example, instead of focusing on their duties and tasks, social media has made some people to focus on what other people are posting. Besides, many people tend to spend most of their times on social media rather than doing constructive things with their lives. Also, social media has interfered with the privacy of individuals. Consequently, most people tend to share even their intimate information with the other members of the public. Hence, in summary, despite the positive and negative impacts that have been associated with social media, the technology has had the greatest effects in our lives so far (Diehl, Weeks & Zuniga, 2015).
- Diehl, T., Weeks, B. E., & Zuniga, H. G. (2015). Political persuasion on social media: Tracing direct and indirect effects of news use and social interaction. New Media & Society.
- Matthews, P. (2015). Social media, community development and social capital. Community Development Journal Community Dev J.
