The Impact of Social Media on New Zealand Society

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1. Introduction The aim of this report is to analyze the impact of social media to New Zealand society, and give the suggestions regarding both on how to improve the positives impacts, and how to minimize the negative effects it may bring about. Social media is the fruit of the current Web 2.0 technology. It is a series of organized applications which need to have internet connection to realize their functions of producing and interchanging of the contents generated by users (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). To be clearer, the social media is what we use to exchange information in daily life through internet. The implementation of social media can be found all around us, especially with the development of portable devices, and easier internet access. With constant upgrading on mobile platform, and the efforts of internet suppliers, more and more people can now enjoy the social media applications and media web sites with a relatively lower constraint by time and space. Through using social media tools, people can receive or deliver information quicker and more effectively. The implementation of social media has made the earth smaller. Thus, it may bring about many impacts which may significantly change people’s lives. The report focuses on the attitudes of society regarding social media, and the impacts that social media may bring about as a consequence of the attitudes, in respect to individuals, commerce, and government management. Attitudes Towards Social Media Social media start as a very personal tool for users to communicate with their friends and closely related people. Soon after, business area have also take the advantage of this innovative way of exchanging information. 2.1 Individual Attitudes towards Social Media Social media merged into people’s daily lives in many ways. The younger generation learn and adapt more easily with the fast-paced innovation of technologies, so that they can be more active when getting involved with virtual society created by people who are using the social media applications, such as Facebook, Forums, MSN, etc. As to the middle age individuals, even though some of they are unkindly to some social media tools like Facebook, due to privacy concerns. They are still using other kinds of social media applications to some degree, and take keen interest in using them, as the applications are more convenience then the traditional ways of exchanging information, like e-mails and short text messages. However, compared with the individual users below 55 years old, the percentage of that above 55 years old and still using social media in New Zealand is usually around 30% or less (see Figure 1 below.

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