Friday, August 31, 2012

The Good and the Bad of Social Media



After reading the two articles (located at the bottom) for class, I have come up with a short summery of bother the positives and the negatives of social medias and how they play into modern society.

Looking first at the positive side of the social media, I can say that there has been, for sure, a good use of social media in the past decade.  The first point to come across was the ability for people to connect with others, from around the world, with a click of a button.  Allowing intercultural communications has allowed us as humans to discover the ways of others around the world and make connections with people that previously were unheard of.  Another point that is made is the use of social media helps those who cannot physically be social with others, whether they are elderly, have a physical body issue, which doesn't allow them much mobility, or they cannot physically be around people without feeling uncomfortable.  It isn’t easy sometimes for people to me others, because they are frail when it comes to who they are, but the Internet has allowed these gaps in their personal lives to change drastically.   Social media can also be used to help people make connection with others, which might have never occurred otherwise offline.  Stereotypes have been tested and many people are now looking at people and cultures in a new light.  Social media has allowed people to connect and discover new things about other, giving them a better understand to something that previously was only perceive by a small percentage of a population.

Following the positive side, the negatives, in the situation of social media plays an important role in how to view this ever-changing style of living.  A front-runner problem brought up in the article, which I have personally seen, is the affects of social media on the human psyche.  Though social media has been known to create connections, it can also cause a person to slip into depression, whether it is from cyber bulling or noticing how much other people are doing than you.  Recent studies show that social networking sites, like Facebook, are causing people to feel that their lives are less than fulfilling, due to the mass amount of pictures and post people make about their own lives. The lost of social privacy was another major issue, discussed in the article.  We, as the users of the social media sites, believe that we have privacy protection on these websites, but the article brings up the fact that we just might not have all the privacy that is being offered.  Our information is being sold to companies for marketing research.  Also, everything that a person says of places on the Internet is free look at that person’s life.  Nothing is a secret if it’s on the Internet.  Other problems to be noted were: Lost of productivity, online predators, incorrect grammar and spelling, and much more.

With everything in the world, there are good a bad things to be said about social media.  The final choice is up to you on how to feel about it.  Do you think social media, being a powerful way to connect with people around the world, is worth all of the dangers and risk that come with it?

A Social Society: The Positive Effects
Negative Impact of Social Networking

2 comments:

  1. Being a social media user, Matt’s “ The good and the bad of Social Media” was an enjoyable read. I noted there were similar views on positives and negatives of the topic of social media. He starts off with the term “intercultural communication”, which is a great way to define social media today. The blending of all words is a positive subject in its self; it supports the fact that communication is alive and growing. Matt calls this “expanding discovery”, which is exactly what social network is doing, increasing focuses on a diverse field of topics. Matt brings the negative fact of privacy loss , which is common when discussing social networks. Not only are privacy settings not secure on most social sites, users maybe unconscious of the information they are making available on social network posts. Matt brings up details that most social site users aren’t aware of; sites selling user information to researchers being one of them. The conclusion of the blog was great, bringing awareness to active social site users. He warns users that although social media comes with glitches, its up to the consumer determine usage appropriate to the lifestyle hey wish to obtain.

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  2. I enjoyed this blog post because I agree with everything you have to say, with the positive and negative effects of social media. I thought it was good that you provided the link to the articles, but I don’t think you should have written “I have to come up with a short summary” – I think you could have taken this out or switched the wording around, because even though it was our homework assignment I don’t think the audience needs to know you “have” to write this.
    You made a lot of great points about the positive effects of social media and you pointed out it’s prominence within the past decade. I like how you talked about its effects on intercultural communication, and how social media has allowed people to start looking at stereotypes and cultures in a new light. That’s something I’ve never thought about before, as I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t.
    When you talked about the negative affects, I like how you focused on human psyche. Most people might say social media makes people lazy and have less people-skills, but you talked about depression- which is very true, and sometimes overlooked.
    Overall you had a strong piece equip with an opening, body and closing paragraph.

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