Analysis on The Progression of Social Media Usage

The 21st century has experienced a rapid growth of the use of social meadia in the way people interact with each other as a consequence of the development of technology. This, in fact, has significantly changed how human communicate and build relationship both positively as well as negatively.

One of the biggest advantages of social media is that today we are able to make conversations with people all over the world instantly. In the past, we couldnot contact right away with people who were far away, we had to use the mailing service which apparently was not as convenient as nowadays’ social media. In the technology age, we can have an immediate video call to our friend who is ten-thousand miles away just by a simple click.

Doubtlessly, social networking sites have removed time and distance as a constraint. Therefore, we can maintain our relationships and even build the new ones and keep ourselves updated with our friends all over the world. When we join in the social networking sites, we have to create our profile which is called the online identity. What I mean by “identity” here is that what we post on social media can tell a lot about ourselves. In the past, people could only share their lives through the scrapbooks or the stories they told to people around them, which was supposed to be private. However, nowadays, people start to change their way of sharing by posting on social media and their online identity is set up through what they share.

Personally, I think that this is a good way to share and interact with people but it is not the safest way to store the personal information. Because social media is open to public and accessible, its privacy is just an oxymoron. What I mean here is that when you post something on Facebook, a photo about your latest vacation for example, who knows whether it just stays on your own timeline or it can be spread to somewhere else. As a consequence, a lot of personal information can be leaked from the social network and this is, obviously, a drawback of social media.

Another disadvantage of the overwhelming use of social media is that technology, to some extent, lessens the empathy of society. To be more detailed, we are facing to so many shocking stories through Internet and devoting so much attention to the virtual world that when we see something outrageous and hazardous in real life, we just think about how to post it on our social media without feeling like giving people a hand to help. The tendency of being less empathetic is really dangerous since it may cause the indifference inside humankind.

In conclusion, from my point of view, although social media has both positive and negative effect on the society, it is undeniable that it does more good than harm cause social networking sites have brought people closer and together.