Disadvantages of social media can outweigh the benefits

Disadvantages of social media can outweigh the benefits

Understanding the social media and social networking

Talking about the major platforms used by the human exercising Internet nowadays, it becomes very important to speak of Social media as a foremost junction. Social media is one of the most interesting themes among its users. People from all the age groups find the content according to their interest. Social media is directly associated with the Web which works like a database and moreover like a platform for the social media users. To understand social media and its usage, it becomes very important to understand web as well as social media itself.

Web 2.0 is a term, which is also associated and designated to the social media. On the other hand there are few which consider web 2.0 as a hoax which is created to as a bubble to market social media among its users. Use of Internet has been revolutionized in the terms of promotion and propagation of product sales through social media in these days. It is only with the help of social media that now day’s companies can approach to directly the potential customers, encourage in emerging trade and strategies of communication. The concept of effective online marketing with fewer expenses is a boon by social media. Word press, YouTube, Flicker enables million of users to share their posts with the common public everyday and every other minute. Tim O'Reilly meaningfully brought the trend of involving the users directly in the creation of sites. Soon after the platforms were created like Facebook was developed in the year 2004, YouTube got started in the year 2005; Twitter came into existence from year 2006 onwards. These social media platforms are the mainstream social media centers in today’s world holding multi million active users throughout days.

Definition- Social media was well defined by Michael Haenlein and Andreas Kaplan as “a cluster of Internet applications developed on the conceptual and technical foundations of Web 2.0 that permits the formation and conversation of user-generated content."

Social media enables the give-and-take of ideas and opinions on the topics in a page and even make contacts online. Content can be created by anybody as everyone can contribute into it or add comment to the posted content. Content in the form of texts, photographs, videos and even audios can be posted to bring groups, societies and populations together. 

Social Media and social networking are the two different terms, which must be understood well to make a clear view about their use. Social media being a superior term to social networks includes medias that are used for online communication and associations and to cultivate social communication (sociability). Blogs, wikis, video or photo sharing sites are best examples of social media. On the other hand ways of interaction for people, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and so on are considered as social networking platforms created under social media. Creation of social profile to connect with people from same community, blood type, caste etc. is the examples of social networks.

Compensations and shortcomings associated with social media usage: 

Social media bears two sides, both of which go hand in hand to every user. Social media has grown in the developed and developing countries with a tremendous speed that it has already become an obligation for almost every official and personal tasks. With enormous benefits that Internet offers through social media it is also associate with few of flaws that must be considered while using social media. The exchange of information, interactions, collaborations and home-based work culture, data distribution, sharing hardware and peripherals, services and education is some paramount benefits of social media. Whereas lack of security, addiction to internet, overloading of information, loss of social contacts are some of the major disadvantages which most of the researches have reported after their researches on the educated class in societies. Apart from this, an increase in the intensity of time spent on Internet is one of the majorly reported social media abuse by most of the researchers.

Conclusion:From the considerations included in the paper it can be effortlessly determined that the social media is proving its worth as a progressive tool in many fields for an example as a platform for marketing and reaching end to end consumers of the products with very less efforts and in choicest prices for both producers and consumers. Social media is yet another tool, which holds all the potential to unite the communities, groups and different populations leading to the development of any nation as a whole. Though the usage of social media is associated with endless rewards it becomes essential for us to agree upon that there are shortcomings, which join instantly as soon as a user start using any social media platforms. All the faults, limitations, disadvantages and shortcomings associated with social media are very much open to be assessed by all the common users. Security issues linked with the flow of information on the social media, which can be used as per the intentions of the linked members, is a real disaster associated with the social media usage. Internet addiction, which is a root cause of worsening health issues in the generation Y, is another alarming challenge. Games with violence and inhuman graphics are changing the mid sets of the users. Schools are repeatedly reporting a fallen interest in the out door games in the young generation. 

Considering all the facts highlighted, it can be determined that social media is associated with the drawbacks which are proving more impairing to the young generations. Internet of course is an obligation for day today tasks in these days but social media which might have aimed for the good of the society has actually not devilling to the directions it was supposed to be. Hence the shortcomings associated with the use of social media are completely outweighing the compensations or advantages, social media was supposed to serve to the society.

References: 

1. Cachia R. (2008) Social Computing: Study on the Use and Impact of Online Social Networking [online]. Luxemburg: European Communities, [cit. 2016-20 – 03]. 

2. Jantsch, J. (2010) Let’s talk. Social Media for Small Business. In ducttapemarketing.com [online]. [cit. 2014 – 14 – 11]. 

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