Australian Social Media

1634 Words4 Pages

There are significant influences on society when it comes to the usage of social media and mobile technology. This essay will discuss a social media platform, Facebook, and mobile technology, smartphones and observe some positive and negative impacts on Australian society. On the one hand, Facebook can be seen as a valuable tool for effective business promotion. It gives business owners an alternative avenue to increase sales, marketing, and communication. However, the type of environment Facebook offers, entices adolescents to experiment with self-presentation. Due to the growing network and amount of information exchanged, self-presentation can provoke unwanted bullying and harassment. Alongside social media, smartphones are swiftly becoming …show more content…

With it being one of society’s popular social media platforms, it is considered to provide businesses with a channel for additional sales, marketing, and communication. Social media is used to help users by keeping in touch with friends or connect with people who have common interests; and has become a common component of society (‘Facebook can transform your business’ 2013). This common platform can allow a user to post articles, photos, and videos which result in a quick and efficient exchange information (‘Facebook can transform your business’ 2013). Facebook is convenient and easy to use and does not require specialist web skills to set up (‘Facebook can transform your business’ 2013). According to ‘Facebook can transform your business’ (2013), when a user and their friends “like” the same page, it will become known to them and their networks. This process is seen to be valuable and allows for endorsements to rapidly grow. With the constant expansion of the platform, more of today’s society is using Facebook, and with this, more and more businesses are creating online pages to help promote their company. Users of Facebook are able to view a company’s page, product and even post a comment about it. Results show that more than two-thirds of Facebook users post comments about products and organisations each month, as evidenced by a Nielsen report (Simpson 2012, para. 24). And …show more content…

Although the social media platform is considered to have a positive impact on Australian society, the environment in which adolescents can experiment with self-presentation can also be where bullying and harassment occur. John Dalgleish, Kids Helpline manager of strategy and research, concedes that bullying was no longer limited to the classroom due to the rise of social networking sites, such as Facebook (Paine & Killalea 2012). The increasing use of social media within adolescents means that the risk of cyberbullying also increases. Studies show that certain behaviours of adolescents such as self-presentation are associated with cyberbullying victimisation (‘Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation’ 2014). ‘Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation’ (2014, para. 2) concedes that, from a study, more than three out of four participants were exposed to at least one victimisation experience on Facebook. A significant factor found to influence cyberbullying victimisation on Facebook was dependent on the number friends a user had (‘Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation’ 2014). And accordingly, these users who more likely to self-present increased the likelihood of provoking negative attention from potential perpetrators (‘Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation’ 2014).

More about Australian Social Media

Open Document