Social media is a very impactful revolution that has change our lives all around with just a few clicks. It has completely change the way that we socialise, conduct our businesses, engage in political affairs, build professions and set job recruitments.
- Socialisation
With the
use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, how people socialise has
been greatly revolutionised. It
has made it so easy to connect to our family members, friends and relatives on
a real-time basiswith just a click.
With social media, people can share pictures and videos and communicate with
their close ones. This has strengthened relationships and has brought families
together in a way that was not possible in the past. Families, friends,
relatives and businesses now have the opportunity to share skills and improve
on different proficiencies. Additionally, people get to make and meet new
friends.
- Business
Businesses
have greatly been impacted by social media — from marketing to interacting with
customers on a timely basis. A business that has embraced the use of social has
a definite edge over its competitors. The online platforms are a less expensive
way for businesses to advertise their offerings on a real-time basis and to
attract more customers. It has made it easy for businesses to reach out to a
wider customer base and improve customer loyalty through different programmes.
Easy access to customers gives businesses the leverage to retain existing
customers as well as to
attract more. This leads to great market share and greater profit margins and some
good bucks for businesses. Through interaction and feedbacks by businesses to
their customers, they can understand the market quickly and adopt new
strategies, as well as conform to the dynamic customer’s tastes and demands.
- Politics
Social media has impacted politics in many ways. Nowadays, it is where most people get their news; in some cases, this isbefore the media houses do. It is the medium that gives the easiest access to political and other news.
These online platforms also allow people to air out their political grievances to their political leaders and demand for actions to be taken. It’s also a medium where mass political rallies are formed, campaigns are carried out and even political unrests are most felt.
- Job hiring
Social
media has impacted job recruitments significantly. The majority of companies
make their hiring decisions based on one’s social portfolio. Recruiters also
use online networks to post job vacancies through which they get their ideal
candidates.
It has also made it easy for job seekers to get access to job posts. This is
evident on platforms like LinkedIn, where job seekers can create their profile
containing their skills and see what job opportunities recruiters are posting.
- Education
Many professions and skills have been built and learned through social media. There is a massive increase in online learning where one can easily learn a skill and build a strong profession around it. The existence of social media has led to an increase in the number of people undertaking distance learning, as well as academic offerings such as writing services.
- The negative impacts of social media:
Well, the
grass is always greener on the other side and similarly, there are negative
impacts caused by social media as well. Despite it being a platform
through which we socialise, run our business and understand political affairs,
here are some negative results to take into consideration:
- Through sharing personal information, one’s privacy is at risk of impersonations, theft and stalking — among other vices. Nowadays, companies use social media to gauge job seekers. Posting anything abusive or embarrassing could make you lose that job opportunities, because ‘the internet never forgets’.
- Online social platforms are addictive and this has drastically reduced productivity at workplaces. This impacts negatively on companies as they incur losses.
- In some instances, it has made some people — especially the introverts — to rely too much on the virtual world as opposed to the real world.
- Cyberbullying is another worrying impact of social media. Results of cyberbullying have seen victims falling into depression and, in more radical cases, has cost them their lives.
- Since information travels faster online, a piece of false information could quickly reach a big number of people and cause great panic among the recipients.
It’s been said that information is power. Without a means of distributing information, people cannot harness the power. One positive impact of social media is in the distribution of information in today’s world. Platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others have made it possible to access information at the click of a button.
An independent research shows that the life expectancy of a story, not the one you post in Facebook and Instagram but posted on the web that is after it’s been shared and so on is 2.6 days, when a story is shared on social media. That’s a difference of 23%, which is significant when you consider that billions of people use the internet daily. This means that the longer the information is in circulation, the more discussion it generates and the greater the impact of social media.
While the world would be a much slower place without social media, it’s caused harm as well as good. However, the positive impact of social media is astronomical and far surpasses the ills associated with sharing.
At the end of the day, sharing is about getting people to see and respond to content. As long as the content is still relevant and the need for information still exists, it’s always worthwhile for any organization to use social media to keep publishing.
