Communication Through Social Media: Innovations and Outcomes

The internet has become one of the most transformative innovations in the 21st century. It has changed how people work, communicate, shop and even play. The epitome of the internet innovation has to be social media which has gained a wide prominence in just a few years of its existence. According to statistics by Statista, active internet users were 4.4 billion people as of January 2019, with 3.5 billion of those people being social media users. Most of these social media users are young people who cannot imagine communication without thinking of platforms such as Facebook, twitter, google+, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube. Facebook alone boasts of over 2 billion users as of December 2018. Social media plays a vital role in impacting our communication. Through social media platforms, people exchange ideas, connect with friends and family around the globe, seek advice and offer guidance. Social media also fosters creativity and conversations with global communities on issues such a politics, race, health, relationships and religion. Although it has brought about numerous benefits, social media has also come at a price. It has robbed us of the trust and comfort we once placed in one another and replaced human companionship and support with virtual connections. People prefer texting to phone conversations and online chats to one on one conversations and this ends up eroding interpersonal skills and leads to antisocial behavior. The main purpose of this essay is to examine communication through social media and oits both positive and negative outcomes.

Addiction and Cyberbullying - Main Concerns of Social Media Communication

One of the major concerns of social media use is technology addiction. This occurs when people spend most of their time online instead of interacting physically with people around them. These people end up feeling such a strong sense of identity online such that they are unable to separate their virtual actions from their real ones. According to survey, the addiction has become so serious that it is now listed as a mental illness with victims exhibiting symptoms such as emotional shutdown, withdrawal symptoms, poor or lack of concentration and even anxiety and depression. The anxiety is caused by being constantly alert for social media messages or comments. Trying to project a fake and unrealistic perfection within one’s social network can also cause depression. Many people embrace this happy and successful illusion while covering up their sad and miserable real life situations. Such people end up carrying long term emotional and psychological burdens because all their virtual online friends cannot help since they believe that they are happy. The consequences of online addiction and the consequent anxiety and depression eventually manifest themselves at the workplace. Workers are obsessed with checking their social media sites after every five minutes so their concentration span is too low. Also, the emotional and psychological burden that they try to hide is reflected in their poor quality work.

There are also far reaching effects of social media such as cyber bullying. According to David Bowman, a West Virginia University Professor, the actions that trigger online feuds are the same ones that trigger real life feuds the only difference being the modalit. A person may be mocked both online and offline due to his weight and in both instances, he will be affected both emotionally and behaviorally. However, when it is on social media, it gives room for more contact and communication and to a larger audience. The bullying messages and comments on social media follow the person everywhere, and they are seen by all his online friends. Also, lack of privacy is a key contributor to online bullying. Sharing personal issues online gives people access to so much information about someone. These people feel the need to process and even reply to such information and sometimes not so kindly. This increasing contact between the bullies and their targets online further aggravates the situation. This can lower the person’s self-esteem at the workplace and he finds it hard to interact with his workmates or even participate in team work.

Positive Transformations Due to Social Media Opportunities

On the other hand, the negativity surrounding social media is countered by positive effects of social media such as faster global communication. Messages are spread faster and wider than ever before bringing with it an abundance of advantages. People interact with people from all over the world and in the process new cultures are learnt, people appreciate each other more and the world becomes a friendlier place. Students also benefit widely from social media use. They can now learn using blogs and podcasts. Another major positive change is in how communication has become uncensored. People pass across their message with no filters and when words fail there are emoji’s and smileys. Numerous social media platforms like Facebook also have translation services and so language barrier is eliminated. Moreover, people can now speak face to face on social media. Due to the ease in communication, professionals from all over the world can now network more easily through the social media platforms.

Social media has also greatly transformed the business world in a variety of ways. It has eroded the traditional mediums of marketing such as television and radio commercials. Organizations now use social media platforms such as twitter and Instagram to communicate to their customers, to promote their products and services and even announce job vacancies. Social media is also widely used by bloggers, content creators and article writers who share their articles with their clients who in turn share on their social media sites hence enhancing the number of followers.

Conclusion

Social media has changed the way people communicate tremendously bringing with it a number of positive outcomes and negative outcomes as well. Since the innovation of the internet and social media is irreversible, it is up to the users to handle the platforms in a useful and responsible way.

References

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