The effect of the social media in our lives and privacy

Social networking has become an important part of the modern day generation as more and more engage in online conversations via mobile and computer technology. People can share images, photos, and videos via social sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and many others (Guthier et al. n.p). Social sites allow people to connect with anyone in the world although there is the downside of this interconnectivity. Technology has led to changes in the lives of many people especially the young generation in terms of their habits, lifestyles and expectations. Socialization through the sites such as the Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and the others have led to many social, personal, and political changes in peoples’ life.

First, social media affect people’s emotions in various ways such that some people may feel happy while others get sad and stressed. According to research, spending a lot of time on social media sites does not always cause happiness to the person. There are many people who have signed in the social media sites. For instance, Facebook has more than 250 million photos uploaded every day and many videos of daily events of individuals who are subscribers to the social site (Bloess, Kim, Rawashdeh, & Saddik 1). There is the tendency to boredom, sadness, and loneliness to creep in as ones scroll the postings on the sites. For instance, as individuals go through the uploaded materials, they get to find their former classmates and friends with partners, good jobs, and good homes. The information can make one feel jealous especially if the individual has not achieved any of the status in the posted material. Sometimes people may find that they are ahead of the others and feel happy that they have achieved more than the friends. Other times individuals can get encouraged to work harder to reach the same status their friends are, which is a great feeling. Addiction is another problem with the social media and its users and may make students and professional workers lose focus on their activities. Some individuals spend a lot of time in the social media that can be devoted to building the world.

The use of the social media enables people to make friends with people from all over the world. Some people meet in the social media, and build a relationship that leads to marriage making the sites important for bringing people together. Many people have made hundreds of friends on Facebook to share their life experiences and comfort one another (2). Nowadays, it is possible to make friendship with powerful individuals such as state presidents and exchange ideas without any trouble. It is possible to invite friends to parties such as weddings and birthdays via the social media. Sharing the ups and downs, of individuals help them deal with difficult situations and move on with life. Sharing enables people to meet the ones that have undergone a similar ordeal and get information on how to deal with it. Social sites open up the world and bring all people together regardless of the status as long as somebody accepts the friend request. Friends in the social media can interact and exchange their cultures through dressing and festivals posted as videos in the sites. A diverse culture reduces racial prejudices and promotes a peaceful relationship regardless of the individuals’ place of residence.

Social media influences how people do business by analysing peoples’ views on the sites, which can help one to decide the most viable business to start (Wright, et al. 73). Some people use the social media for advertising by posting pictures and videos of their areas. Others put on the clothes that they design or post their household goods, which they stock in their business premises. The display will capture many people and influence them to make orders. Twitter and Facebook are major promotion sites for people who cannot afford the high cost of advertisement to promote their sales. Doing business is not easy for many young people as they can get customers via the social media and advertise their wares at very low costs.

Social media has increased the speed of communication between parties regardless of the distance separating them. Communication is also efficient with the use of social sites as within a very short time a message reaches many people all over the world (74). People can send congratulatory messages and condolences to friends and relatives all over the world. Through the chat tag, one can hold a lengthy conversation with friends and relatives more quickly than when using SMS or the other messaging services. People can also access video footages of events occurring in their country and abroad by watching videos posted on the social sites even after the television or the radio news have passed. Communication is very important in peoples’ daily lives, and everyone wants a method that is fast and more detailed to receive it. Social media gives the platform for accessing every detail of any information concerning daily events and occurrences in the world. People do not require televisions to get news but with a mobile phone, they can access everything.

There are a number of negative effects of the social media such as cyberbullying among the users. Cyberbullying is a form of violence in social media through various forms such as posting of abusive messages and undesirable images. Kids are vulnerable to cyber bullying more than any other group of individuals and can lead to mental torture (Wood, Wendy, Frank, and Chachere 371). There are cases of reported suicides resulting from cyber bullying in the social media. Social sites can also make it difficult for people to differentiate between meaningful relationships and casual relationship experienced in the world. Many people meet via the social media, but their marriage does not last long, and the couple has no familiarity with each other. The future generation is the most vulnerable to the negative effect of social media as they also reveal their details carelessly, and the information will remain forever (371). In future, the information they posted out of naivety will haunt them and affect their psychological being. The future employers might use their earlier posts to judge their character before offering any employment. Many of the employers are rejecting many applications due to the social behaviour of the candidate posted earlier.

Social media affects the privacy of individuals since the social sites collect and distribute personal data about everybody. The young children and teenagers are at greater risk because of the exposure to some adult videos and nude pictures posted on the social sites (371). Before the establishment of the social sharing sites, people used to share very little information about their lives and those of their close relatives. Nowadays people upload photos and videos of their children, spouses, and close relatives without minding about privacy. Some people capture compromising videos and photos of their colleagues and post them in the media with any caution. Many times videos of naked people, people fighting, and drunkards get their way on the site without their knowledge depriving them their privacy. One may not be a member of the social media sites, but their colleagues can post their photos and videos without their knowledge. People have uploaded other peoples’ compromising photos and shameful videos without their awareness exposing their secrets.

Conclusion

The use of social media has both ups and downs on the users. The positives include fast communication, ease of doing business, making friends, and socializing. The negatives effects are deprivation of privacy, cyberbullying, bad emotions, and breakups. If people can use the social sites moderately, there will be no need to worry about the negative impacts as one will regulate what to view. Social networking sites are neither very good nor very bad, but people need to regulate what they watch. Parents should guide their kids on the best use of the social media to avoid exposing them to dangerous acts or watching uncensored materials. The social sites are important for the exchange of cultures as people of all races converge and share their daily life experiences. If everybody uses the sites responsibly, the world will be a global village with all races united as a social group.

References

Guthier, Benjamin, et al. “The affect-aware city.” Int. Conf. on Computing, Networking and Communication. 2015.Print.

M Bloess, HN Kim, M Rawashdeh, A El Saddik, Knowing Who You Are and Who You Know: Harnessing Social Networks to Identify People via Mobile Devices in Advances in Multimedia Modeling, pp 130-140, 2013. Print.

Wright, Elizabeth, et al. “The lasting effects of social media trends on advertising.” Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER) 8.11 (2010): 73-81.Print.

Wood, Wendy, Frank Y. Wong, and J. Gregory Chachere. “Effects of media violence on viewers’ aggression in unconstrained social interaction.” Psychological bulletin 109.3 (1991): 371.Print.

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