Controversy: The Use Of Social Media

Social Media has been the center of a controversy that seems to only deepen as time passes. I believe that the use of social media improves the lives of countless people, worldwide, every day. It allows for further business communication and networking opportunities, keeping in touch with family and friends, bands/artists with their fanbase, and can also help connect students and their teachers or businesses with their clients or partners.

How can communication on such a large scale be beneficial? There are hundreds of millions of users on Facebook alone, and many of those people use the messenger to connect with each other. 70% of adult social networking users use sites to connect with friends and family and this increase of online communication is proven to improve relationships (ProCon.org). Social media may also allow for reconnection with past schoolmates or work-mates (Chung, 2013). Reconnecting with people you were once close to is a fantastic feeling, but it could also be life-saving in some cases.

Being able to communicate your feelings can relieve stress and

anxiety as well (Student Reports, 2013). For example, David is having a tough time coping with his parents’ divorce, so he writes a tweet about it and goes to bed. The next morning David wakes up to a private message from someone who went through a similar situation, and they offer to listen and talk him through it. A good example of the benefits of communication on this scale comes from a statistic: 25% of socially isolated people say that this kind of communication made them feel less shy (ProCon.org). For example, a lonely and depressed teenager might find their way to Tumblr, or another site, and connect with someone who talks to them and offers an outlet for their feelings. This could save the teenagers’ life and in turn create a long-distance friendship that could last for any amount of time. As we’ve seen in past videos in this class, social media can allow us to rebrand ourselves as confident or powerful people, which can improve self-esteem and communication skills. Being able to connect with someone is crucial to our well-being, especially if we self-isolate. Or perhaps someone may be a busy college student with little time to go out and make friends with their peers, social media offers outlets to do just that (Mensah, 2014). It also allows 30% of teachers in the U.S to communicate with their students outside of the classroom (ProCon.org).
Not only does social media allow for connection and reconnection, it can also impact businesses! In fact, of the bigger companies using social media, almost 90% reported measurable business benefits (ProCon.org). Businesses may be able to take trends and other data from these sites and turn it into profit. For instance, the Lay’s create a flavor contest allows people on Social Media to vote for their most desired flavor, which the company in turn can create and make the most profit.
Google+ allows for international business meetings to be held without leaving the office, as well as relieving the demand for space and cutting operation costs (Techno FAQ, 2015). LinkedIn offers a way for professionals to connect, network and communicate with one another (Mensah, 2014). We may also hear about job opportunities or new business available for partnering through social media. Brands, artists, and musicians often use social media to build a following and clientele. For example, a local band may use their followers and friends to spread their music to share it and gain more fans. Or, a young clothing brand might be cruelty free and hypoallergenic, they start online and as more people buy from them, their customer base grows.
Not only have we seen that social media offers a variety of benefits and ways to affect the world altogether?

Social media boasts the ability to keep us up to date with breaking news worldwide (Mensah, 2014). Think of the amber alerts that come to your phone, now think of all the people who do not know how to use a phone or don’t have one. Social media can allow us to have access to that information, online, and share it with each other. Over 30% of the adults who use Facebook use it to get their news (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). For example, recently police had four states under watch for a man who killed another man on live video. Other than amber alerts, people were sharing it throughout multiple states and districts. Imagine there is a mass terror attack in another country, people who may not watch mainstream news but use social media like Twitter, will be informed by the end of the news

day.
Using social media for news not only can keep the population informed, but it also encourages further communication. Many people engage in political banter with complete strangers over Facebook, which may relieve tension in their personal life. The Pews website offers the example of discussing government surveillance programs in real life versus online. While 40% of the population would discuss this at family dinner, 16% would do so on Facebook and only 14% on Twitter (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Although the numbers aren’t as high, this is still a considerable amount of people who would be willing to communicate on news and government issues online and doing so by using social media. This data could be crucial, as the information on the internet is generally public, and discussion can encourage social action.
Social movements often encourage communication in order to incite change and succeed in the gain of social justice. In the article, it is mentioned that mobile phones with video cameras and the ability to upload to a social media and reach millions of people is a major catalyst in a modern social movement (Lopes, 2014). During 2016, and with the popularity of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, social media users were privy to seeing the mistreatment of black Americans by police officers. Some videos showed blatant mistreatment while others showed wrongful deaths, although both were watched. For a single citizen to be able to communicate with the rest of the country an injustice or a wrongdoing at any time and have it be shared around the world, is simply a modern positive of social media. This just shows that social media can offer multiple type of communication.
Personal growth and relationship growth through communication, benefits to business and artists, and the spread of news and social movements are all benefitted by and sometimes made possible due to the use of social media. Each article provides a small facet of information, be it factual, statistical or mind-opening.