By Lawrence Sunday Ogwang
Definition
of social media
Social Media is a form of electronic communication (such as websites for
social networking, facebook, twitter, whatsapps, micro blogging and may others)
through which users create online communities to share information, ideas,
personal messages, and other content (such as videos). It is a catch-all term
for a variety of internet applications that allow users to create content and
interact with each other. This interaction can take many forms, but some common
types include:
- Sharing links to interesting content produced by third parties
- Public updates to a profile, including information on current activities and even location data
- Sharing photos, videos and posts
- Commenting on the photos, posts, updates, videos and links shared by others.
(https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4837/social-media)
Accessed on 25th Sep 2018
Content
Social Media is the most modern and
progressive form of interpersonal communication across the globe. From the time
of its introduction, the number of users has grown high beyond proportion. The use
of social media in our daily life is increasing at an alarming rate so much so
that even the human relationships are affected by the social media. The most frightening
truth is that the young people are highly affected by this new phenomenon.
The
rate at which the young people are getting immersed in the social media usage
has become a topic of debate. Many school administrators and parents are
raising eye brows and a lot of concerns about this. However, looking at the
definition and the different benefits obtainable from the proper use of social
media, am tempted to think that these concerns are to some extent pushed beyond
proportion and exaggerated if not unjustified. Here below are the reasons for
thinking that way:
Employment Opportunities:
Today, the most affected group in terms of
unemployment is the youth. With the coming of the social media however, many
job opportunities are created on social platforms. Nowadays we can see job
opportunities on the social networking sites like LinkedIn; it is the best and
biggest social networking site for professionals. Here you can show your
talent, skills, experience on basis of that you can seek the job opportunities.
You can also create Alumni groups on LinkedIn; present students can connect
with alumni to get help and contacts. LinkedIn is also used by colleges and
universities for training and placement opportunities. This truth therefore,
makes the concerns of the parents and school administrators unjustified.
Social
media is a great way to connect with people in your life:
It enables a person to share important events,
information and the moments in their lives with people that matter. Youth/young
generation is highly affected by the use of it. Today, students learning in
schools and colleges use social media to share their daily life with their
friends. It actually helps the youth to create a virtual network of friends,
colleagues, acquaintances and enables them to see what is going on in their
life and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and
many other ways to do it. Earlier there were very few opportunities available
to express e.g. forums, debates, competitions etc. But not all are well versed
to express themselves at these places, social networking sites brought this
opportunity of expression.
Information
and Delivery Channel:
Nowadays social media is the main distribution
channel for news, updates, weather forecast; gone are those days when one had
to wait till 10 PM for news. The real-time updates, news, and the current
affairs definitely help us to stay up to date with the time and the situation
around us. Social media sites like Facebook is now becoming the main source for
sharing news and updates. Safety check features on the Facebook help us to
update our status in natural calamities situation which can give a much-needed
relief to our loved ones and friends in a distressed environment.
Awareness:
Social media also create awareness and
innovate the way people live. It is the social medium which has helped people
discover new and innovative stuffs that can enhance personal lives. From
farmers to teachers, students to lawyers every individual of the society can
benefit from the social media and its awareness factor. Young people needs to
be aware of what goes around them and be able to respond accordingly.
Education:
Social media has
a lot of benefits for
the students or the youth. It is very easy to be educated by others
who are experts and professionals via the social media. You can follow anyone
to learn from him/her and enhance your knowledge about any field. Regardless of
your location and education background you can educate yourself, without paying
for it. As young people who are growing, they need to educate themselves more
in order to be able to fit in this fast growing world.
Promotion:
Whether you have
an offline business or online, you can promote your
business to the largest audience. The whole world is open for you,
and you can promote your business to them. This makes the businesses profitable
and less expensive, because most of the expenses made over a business are for
advertising and promotion. This can be decreased by constantly and regularly
involving on the social media to connect with the right audience. The young
people can use this platform to advertise or market any of their products.
Helps in
Building Communities:
Since our world has different religions and
beliefs. Social media helps in building and participating in the community of
our own religion and believes to discuss and learn about it. Similarly, people
of different communities can connect to discuss and share related stuffs. For
example Game lover can join games related communities; car lover can join
communities related to cars and so on. You people needs to build communities of
friends for now and for tomorrow.
Entertainment:
Social media
from its definition is a great source of entertainment for the users especially
the youth. As young people who are so much engaged in many things,
entertainment helps to release the tension and stress. Above all, an idle mind
is believed to be the devils workshop. Engaging in social media would help
their minds from wandering, hence keeping them busy.
Research:
It is generally
believed that social media is a great source of research for anybody wishing to
do a research. This helps to widen the scope of one’s epistemological domain.
Young people with young brains are encouraged to do research and seek
knowledge. The best way for doing this for now in this contemporary world is
the social media.
Communication:
Communication is
one activity of man. Man needs to communicate. The first and main advantage of
the social media is connectivity. People from anywhere can connect with anyone.
Regardless of the location and religion. The beauty of social media is that you
can connect with anyone to learn and share your thoughts. In this way,
communication is inevitable. Young people needs to communicate with the world
around and in away, their curiosity is satisfied.
Innovation (solutions to the contemporary
problems)
Social media
provide platforms for discoveries and improvements on the modern issues. Many
discoveries have been made and many others are still to be made. While the
young people engage so much in the social media, they have all the chances to
innovate and maybe come out with some of the solutions to the modern day
challenges.
v
Having
seen the positive side of social media, let’s
explore the darker side of it and see exactly how (and why) it’s bad for the
young people. The negative effects of social media are both physical and
mental. It can change one`s perception of the world and the self. This is not
always for the better but for worse. These effects therefore are very dangerous for
the young minds of the youth. These, makes the concerns of parents and the
school administrators justified as hereby seen below:
Cyber bullying:
Before social media, bullying was
something only done face-to-face. However, now, someone can be bullied online
anonymously. While social media made making friends easier, it also made it
easier for predators to find victims. The anonymity that social networks
provide can be used by the perpetrators to gain people’s trust and then
terrorize them in front of their peers. These online attacks often leave deep
mental scars and even drive people to suicide in some cases. Cyber bullying
isn’t just affecting kids, but also full grown adults. The young people need
therefore to be protected from this crime.
General Addiction
Social
media is often described as being more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol
with the worst being social media apps of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat
when it comes to addiction. This can develop into a serious
disease both n the mind and in the body. Youth people therefore need to be
safeguarded from this monster called addiction. Basing on this case, we can
rightly say that the concerns of the school administrators and parents are
justified and unexaggerated
Highly time consuming
One big misconception people
have about social media is that: It’s FREE. There are several free or low-cost
tools available, but you have to deploy a substantial measure of your time to
understand and learn the usage. Time is not absolutely free. Companies who have
implemented social media activities on their marketing strategies successfully
understand how much time it takes to learn and implement all of them. As young
people who are growing up, social media is not the only thing to know. There
are many other things to be done for the young minds. Parents are rightly
concerned about them because they must use their time appropriately.
Virtual
Friends (ghost)
Although it is true that social
media and Social networking sites enable us to make friends from all over the
world, we must not forget that some of them are not real-life friends. We are
more concerned about a number of friends we will have than the quality of them.
Social media sites are changing the definition of friendship. The young people
must know that not all they call friends are friends. Some are not. These kinds
of friends can easily mislead the young minds.
Misleading adverts
Not everything uploaded on the
social media stands for what they say. Experience has shown that many people
use the platform to peddle lies in regard to what they post. Some of the items
and language of advert is misleading. Young people can easily fall prey to
this; hence, they need protection from both the parents and the school
administrations.
Mental pollution
It should also be made clear that
social media contains all sort of filths. Some of these are not really good for
the mental consumption of the young people. Psychology teaches us that with the
uncontaminated psyche of the young people, anything that enters there remains
for eternity. The concern here is if all these filths of social media enter the
mind of the young, the
imagination of what would happen is not necessary because it is devastatingly
an obvious thing that the victim may not survive the ordeal. With this in mind, the concerns of the parents and the
school administrators would be more than justified.
Pornographic
materials
Like it is stated in the previous
point, social media had become a fertile ground for posting any nonsense. The
perpetrators of pornographic materials who target the youth mostly are
utilizing this platform to capture their innocent prey that also get there
without simply knowing it and by the time parents get to know, the innocent
youth are already trapped. Mere thought of this worries the parents and school
administrators and hence, forcing them to put forth their justified concerns.
Conclusion
Like any other technology, social
media also have both brighter and darker sides. On one side, social media brings
lot of opportunities but at the same time, there are things not worth exploring.
Better Parental Control features need to be implemented on these social media
sites so that younger children will be protected from such online harms and
also learn to use the social media constructively. There is a saying that ‘what
an elder sees while seated, the young man cannot see even if he climbs the tree’.
Concerns from the parents and schools must be respected.
REFERENCE
PAGE
- Materials obtained from class discussions
- http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns
- https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/
- https://theconversation.com/social-media-can-be-bad-for-youth-mental-health-but-there-are-ways-it-can-help-87613
- https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2018/03/19/5-ways-social-media-can-be-good-for-teens
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/23/parents-may-fret-but-teens-and-even-experts-say-social-media-use-has-its-benefits/451461002/
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