Social media-The impact on culture and society

Dima Maria Andra

Networking plays an important role in the actual times,the current pandemic being an
opportunity to express our thoughts online with the virtual world. Social media is an online web-
based resource that allow users to learn and explore new knowledge, to exchange ideas and
connect with new people,places,companies,products that they might not know or not discover
yet.The digitalization has made interactions much simpler by transforming the way people
communicate.It enables content such as records, photographs and videos to be shared and
seen.Platforms on social media can come in various forms, for instance:in blogs, business
forums, podcasts, microblogs, posting images, reviews, etc.
Furthermore,studies have shown that 25 percent of people spent their time on social media
platforms, which demonstrates how powerful and popular the digital world have recently
grown.In different fields including business, culture, food, lifestyle, fashion and many other, the
value of the social media can be seen.
Today, networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp have had a
huge effect on people's lives,over millions of users being already registered on social media
platforms.The exchange of images and knowledge was not only successful, but also born a whole
industry.The mass of people of each social channel obviously demonstrates the importance of
social media in our contemporary world and how information and communication as a whole has
shifted.

The advantages of social media

 The use of social media has never been easier in establishing contact with family
members or acquaintances.This helped even with the current pandemic,people being able
to work or study from home in front of a laptop.
 Online communication is one of the easiest places to meet someone with the same
passion and to connect with new people, since social media will encourage you to follow
the communities based on your own passions and hobbies.
 Social media is an effective method of instantly spreading news around the world,with
"break news" tweets that have tens of thousands of retweets in minutes.
The disadvantages
 Cyberbullying is a major problem because social media sites will give people a full
access to someones life, being an actual danger particularly for the younger generation.
 Social media can be extremely addictive since some people are more anxious to present
their life on a social media profile, choosing to follow the others “perfect life”.
 As stated earlier, the key benefits of the social media is that information can be shared in
a very short time to millions of people.While in case of an emergency ,it can be
considered a major plus, a major disadvantage might be the fake news that can generate
panic around the world in a few minutes.

Short description on how the most used social media platforms work:
Facebook
Facebook is a platform where you can link to friends, acquaintances or individuals you don't
know once you have signed up for its free online profile.It encourages users to share photos,
songs, videos and articles with as many people as they want, as well as their own ideas and
opinions ."Friend requests" are submitted from users to other users that they may or may not
know each other.Moreover,when the request is accepted, the two accounts are connected and that
person can see whatever other person share. Facebook has over 1 billion users."Facebookers" can
share a snapshot of what happens in their lifes at all times and can enter into private
conversations with users who are online on the platform,or leave a message for the others that
are offline.
Twitter
Twitter is a free microblogging site in social media,that allows registered users to send short
messages called tweets.Via various channels and devices, Twitter users will broadcast tweets and
track tweets by other member.The platform will send notifications for tweets and their reply .The
default Twitter settings are public for everyone.Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, where users have
to accept social connections, everybody on Twitter would be allowed to follow publicly.In
addition, participants will place hashtags in their post to generate tweets and link them to a large
topic of interest.
Instagram
Everyone who owns an Instagram account, like Facebook or Twitter, has a profile and a news
feed.Once a picture or a video is being uploaded on Instagram, it appears on the newsfeed page
of the person who follows the one who posted it..Like all social media, there exists a connection
with other Instagram users in order to be followed, comment, like,tag and private message
someone. You can see updates from other Instagram users, those updates being like a simplified
Facebook version,Instagram being recently buyed by Facebook,existing some similarities
between those two platforms.Also,the images you see on Instagram can be saved and users have
access to shop items from a business account,this platform being a market opportunity for
publicity and also a way of growing small companies.
“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built,that humanity doesn’t understand,
the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” — Eric Schmidt

The impact on personal culture

The access to the internet has become one of the easiest ways to make a research on something
that you are interested in,instead of opening a book and searching for hours in order to get an
answear.The social media impact on culture made people informed on aspects that are a trend
worldwide,people sharing every day content from various fields of interest. Besides,social media
has become a culture itself,people imitating foreign cultures,learning foreign languages ( in
generally,english is the language that is used the most on social media for
hashtags,videos,surveys,etc) trying to gain more fame and became an international influencer.
Not to mention that,in the actual world,social media and its power of hashtags is changing our
culture and this is just the beginning of the digital era.

CONCLUSION
To sum up,social media has reached every face of human activities,being present almost in every
spectre:professional,cultural or personal.This has become an essential part of what
communication means in all its forms. Online networks, including Facebook,Twitter or
Instagram,entered social and cultural worlds and created new behavioural trends in the real life.
All things considered,social media is not going to disappear,but everyone should be aware of the
advantages and disadvantages of the digitalization,using it with limit and focus on its mainly
roles,not on the addictive part.

Bibliography
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305117691544
https://press.rebus.community/mscy/chapter/chapter-2-digital-culture/
https://www.aspen.review/article/2017/internet-social-media-changing-culture/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-vs-facebook