Positive and Negative Aspects of Social Media

This report discusses the positive and negative aspects of social media, including its impact on communication. It explores the challenges and measures of privacy and security while using social media. The report also compares the features and applications of popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Finally, it examines whether social media can be used as an effective communication tool.

INDIVIDUAL
REPORT

ABSTRACT
Social media is most common platform for people to interact with each other in global
context. This internet based platform allows the people to share their opinion, happiness,
sorrows, business ideas with millions of people in few minutes. This report includes about
positive aspect of social media such as it is time consuming and cost efficient way to interact
with people without considering geographical distance. Negative aspect of social media is that it
is a distraction and reduces research skills of people. Main challenges of social media are its bad
influence on health and mind state of people. Social media is an efficient communication tool if
used in a secured manner.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................1
Comparison between negative and positive aspect about social media on the internet..............1
SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLANGES AND MEASURES.................................................................2
Mention about the measures and challenges about privacy and security which are important
when services of social media are used.......................................................................................2
COMPARISON OF SOCAIL MEDIA SITES................................................................................3
Chose two examples from the social media, compare their feature, sustainability in business
context, applications....................................................................................................................3
Justify whether or not social media can be used as a communication tool.................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social media is referred as the collection of online communication channels which are
dedicated towards community based interaction, collaboration, content sharing and input.
Different kind of social media involves micro-blogging, social bookmarking, forums, social
networking and wikis. All these elements of social media helps people in interacting with each
other and sharing of idea in global context (Allcott, Gentzkow and Yu, 2019). This assignment
report is based upon social media which is a important constituent of internet. This project will
cover information about negative and positive aspects of social media along with challenges and
measure of security and privacy while using social media. Other than this, differentiation
between two type of social media examples and their effectiveness in supporting business will be
discussed. At last, it will be mentioned that if social media is an appropriate tool for
communication or not.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Comparison between negative and positive aspect about social media on the internet
According to the opinion of Akram, w., 2018, social media is basically a platform for the
people in global context so that they can share their interest, activities, real life connections and
backgrounds in appropriate manner. Influence of social media is more on teenagers and adult
rather than old age people. Thus, it can be said that social media is becoming an important part of
life of people. It is also a web based communication tool so that two or more than two people can
visually interact with each other without any physical interaction. For example, Twitter site
allows its users to pin a tweet on permanent basis due to which popularising or communicating it
became easier. Social media which is a part of internet posses both negative and positive
influences and aspects. Comparison between these aspects are mentioned here (Greenwood,
Perrin and Duggan, 2016).
Positive aspects
As we know that Social media is a place where a person can interact with their family,
friends and other persons in a convenient way. This benefits an individual in building and
sustaining strong relationship with them even if they can't meet personally. This allow a person
to acknowledge the events and incidents which happens with their loved ones. Thus, social
media helps in maintaining strong bond among relatives and friends. Other positive aspect of
1

digital and social media is that it helps in eliminating communication barriers among people.
When social media was not in use, people had to travel may days to interact with other people
either for business or personal purpose. This leads to wastage of time, money and efforts. But,
social media helps an individual to share their perception, ideas and opinions with millions of
persons without travelling to another place. Due to this, communication gap among people have
considerably reduced and they are able to talk with one another any time of the day (Hajli and
Lin, 2016).
Negative aspects
Some studies have denoted that using social media on extensive level can leads to the
addiction. This addiction forces them to check their phones and computers on regular basis due
to which they feel distracted in performing other day to day activities. This impacts the mental
state of users in negative manner. whereas, some people believe that much use of social media
limits the real time interaction of people with one another. As social media provide effortless
interaction, people prefers to remain isolated in real world and prefer their online identities. Due
to use of social media for communication, face to face meetings have reduced and people have
lost the charm of gatherings and party under one roof.
SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLANGES AND MEASURES
Mention about the measures and challenges about privacy and security which are important
when services of social media are used
Social media is considered as a communication tool for educational purpose also. E-mail,
blogs, wikis which are a type of social media helps individuals in keeping touch with each other
both for personal and business purpose. It provides more frequent interaction and communication
with people in comparison to those times when letters were used (Holt, 2016). From 2017, most
popular social media site FB starts testing for a snooze button which allows the users to
temporarily unfollow their added friends for 1 day, 7 day or for one month. All of these services
are very alluring and attractive but there are some challenges associated with it.
Challenges of privacy and security while using social media
 Social engineering attacks: Main reason behind these security attacks are the fact that
social network users are not well aware about the value of private information. Due to
2

which, hackers gain private and confidential information of the people and use them
against the users.
 Spamming attack: This is also a bog threat to privacy and security while using social
media. Here, the attacker perform activities like spamming and phishing so that a
connection with the user can be established. This connection creates a trust between the
user and attacker due to which later is able to take advantage of former person
(Kietzmann and et. al., 2011).
 Identity theft: In this type of challenge, user is attacked by the attacker so that important
information can be collected and user can be impersonated by attacker. Various methods
by which identity thefts can be done are accepting requests of unknown people, clicking
unauthorised links, phishing, sharing account details etc. All of these aspects disrupts the
privacy and security of an individual.
Measure to overcome challenges
 Use of Proxy based real time protection: This concepts uses the elements of cloud
computing and its function is to detect threats to website privacy and security. In this
measure, different online security scanning software are used to scan a webpage or
website security. By this, threats and malware are easily detected and solved.
 Privacy enabling social service: To eliminate the dependence of social network
operators, this tool can be used. These approaches allows in preserving the simplicity of
client server model. By using this software, important information of users can be
protected from other people so that no other people can misuse it. In this context, one of
the best way to secure and protect social media users is using encryption and authorised
sites so that no misuse can be faced (Kuss and Griffiths, 2017).
COMPARISON OF SOCAIL MEDIA SITES
Chose two examples from the social media, compare their feature, sustainability in business
context, applications
There are multiple examples of social media like social media tools, sites, blogs, wikis
etc. which are widely used by people for entertainment and communication purpose. In this
context, most popular example of social media are Facebook and Twitter. Information about
these social media examples are mentioned below:
3

Comparison of features
Features of both Twitter and Facebook keeps updating on regular basis due to their wide
use by people. Comparison in this respect is mentioned below:
Facebook Twitter
 Dynamic text and type feature: In
2015, Facebook has changed their text
only status updates on timeline with
adjustable text size. By this, user can
easily do dynamic texting to make it
more attractive and presentable
(Mojdeh, Head and El Shamy, 2018).
 Hash-tag support: FB also provides
clickable hashtags to the users so that
they can search about those topics
which are actively trending on social
network.
 Mood faces: Chat from Facebook
support multiple emoticons such as ^^^
for shark :) for smile etc. Other than
this, Konami code, Leet speak can be
use to show mood faces.
 Keyboard shortcuts: Twitter offers a
bunch of shortcuts to their users so that
account can be managed properly and
time efficient manner. For instance, r
for reply, k for previous tweet, b for
block user. This helps the user in
saving their time.
 Advanced search: Twitter offer the
feature of advanced search which
includes local originating tweets, track
brand mentions, keep up with latest
news, follow celebrities and idols.
 Create Twitter moments: People can
easily create moments on mobile app or
web. This helps the user in getting
information on those topics which are
important for them to keep them
updated.
Comparison of applications
Main distinction in applications of FB and Twitter is that apps of Facebook are free of
cost. But, in case of Twitter, come apps are free and some of the applications are needed a
payment.
Facebook Instagram
 Events: Facebook event is a way
through which a person can
 Hootsuite: It is one of the earliest
Twitter application which helps in
4

acknowledge their friends about
upcoming events and conducts a social
gathering.
 Market place: FB has also introduced
Facebook marketplace which allow a
user to post advertisements related to
housing, job and sales categories.
 Facebook Notes: It is basically a
blogging platform which allow the
users to attach pictures, write notes,
import blogs entries form the extrinsic
sources.
 Other applications: Some other type
of applications which are offered by
Facebook are live streaming, videos,
photos, check-in places, Facebook
gaming, mentions etc.
tracking multiple social media
networks. This application of Twitter
allows to check other accounts from
central hub (Moreno-Munoz and et. al.,
2016).
 Plume: This application is good for
android users. This app allow the users
to use multiple accounts, integration,
customisation options etc.
 Twitter2gif: This tool allow the users
to download GIFs, videos in MP4 mode
etc. users have simply need to copy and
paste a link from tweet and required
data will be tweeted.
 Other applications: Another
applications of Twitter are Twitpane,
UberSocial, Talon for twitter, Owly etc.
Sustainability for business
Both Facebook and Twitter has high sustainability for the business and they support
business activities in positive and distinctive manner. Information in this context is stated below:
Facebook pages are very beneficial for the sustainability and growth of business. Some of
the benefits also resembles to the benefits which are provided by a website but some benefits are
solely unique to the Facebook. Those marketing tactics and activities which can amounts to
thousand dollars can be performed on FB at maximised cost. Due to which, FB is best suitable
for promoting business and its activities (Tosun, 2019). At FB pages, an individual can publicise
their business address, name, details and briefly mentions about the characteristics of their
offerings. Other than textual information, business persons can also share videos and pictures of
their business. This will help the customers in acknowledging the quality of services or products
which are offered by an organisation. Facebook also provides tag facility to the business persons
5

so that they can let more and more people know about their offerings. For example, a travelling
company can post the picture or video of river rafting and tag hundreds of people to invite them
for the same. By this, promotional and advertisement activities can be performed appropriately.
Other than this, FB also allow a business person to communicate with their existing or potential
customer via text, voice call or video conversation so that reliability of words can be maintained.
Other than this, Facebook allows a business to do target advertising, raise brand awareness and
promote positivity about services etc.
Twitter also benefits business organisations through Twitter cards. People can make their
own website and assure that their products are advertised among people in proper manner.
Business firms can also build twitter followers by targeting them in right manner. This will helps
the business in sustaining a loyal customer base irrespective of rival organisations. In this
context, one of the best tool is social Quant. By using Twitter lists, contacts can be improved and
movement of people at timeline can be increased. This will helps a business in promoting their
services for high sales and growth. This comparison state that from Facebook and Twitter, a
business person can use Facebook for business purpose so that high revenues and profits can be
earned without spending much amount (Turel and Qahri-Saremi, 2016).
Justify whether or not social media can be used as a communication tool
Information is a kind of power and communication is basically an art of transforming
information efficiently for society empowerment. With the origin of social media, role of print
media in providing information is considerably reduced. Social media sites helps in getting
updated information without taking any extra time (Wamba and Carter, 2016). In today's time,
social media provides different kind of avenues by which a person can interact with another
people. Technology savvy young population, prefers to use social media tools and sites to
communicate rather than using traditional mediums. Other than this, broadcasting technologies
like Twitter helps in sharing an information with million people on one to one basis. Below are
mentioned some points which justify the use of social media as a communication technique:
 Sharing of pictures, uploading links, chatting is a way to communicate with friends and
other people which are highly supported by social media sites and tools.
 Facebook a social media site help the world to connect with one another in the way
people have never imagined. Facebook helps in providing global attention to those places
6

which are suffering from some issues. By sharing and communicating with other people,
people of suffered area can get valuable suggestion (Wang and et. al., 2016).
 Instant messaging sites are also a part of social media which provide shorter length
interactions on a conversational manner.
All of above mentioned information justifies that social media can be used as a
communication medium without any issues.
CONCLUSION
This assignment report shows that social media is an important part of the people's life.
With the help of blogs, websites, social networks, tools and sites people are able to interact with
another people irrespective of physical distance among them. Main challenges associated with
social media are Social engineering attacks, Spamming attack, Identity theft. With the help of
measures like use of Proxy based real time protection, privacy enabling social service these
challenges can be overcome. Also, FB and Twitter are most used social media which have
different features and applications but both of them support business sustainability. Also, it can
be inferred that social media sites are important tools for communication.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M. and Yu, C., 2019. Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social
media. Research & Politics. 6(2). p.2053168019848554.
Greenwood, S., Perrin, A. and Duggan, M., 2016. Social media update 2016. Pew Research
Center. 11(2).
Hajli, N. and Lin, X., 2016. Exploring the security of information sharing on social networking
sites: The role of perceived control of information. Journal of Business Ethics. 133(1).
pp.111-123.
Holt, D., 2016. Branding in the age of social media. Harvard business review. 94(3). pp.40-50.
Kietzmann, J. H. and et. al., 2011. Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional
building blocks of social media. Business horizons. 54(3). pp.241-251.
Kuss, D. and Griffiths, M., 2017. Social networking sites and addiction: Ten lessons learned.
International journal of environmental research and public health. 14(3). p.311.
Mojdeh, S., Head, M. and El Shamy, N., 2018. Knowledge sharing in social networking sites:
how context impacts individuals’ social and intrinsic motivation to contribute in online
communities. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction. 10(2). pp.82-104.
Moreno-Munoz, A. and et. al., 2016. Mobile social media for smart grids customer engagement:
Emerging trends and challenges. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 53.
pp.1611-1616.
Tosun, L. P., 2019. Use of Social Networking Sites and Subjective Well-Being. Psikiyatride
Güncel Yaklaşımlar. 11(3). pp.304-317.
Turel, O. and Qahri-Saremi, H., 2016. Problematic use of social networking sites: antecedents
and consequence from a dual-system theory perspective. Journal of Management
Information Systems. 33(4). pp.1087-1116.
Wamba, S. F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical
study. In Social media and Networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and
applications(pp. 791-806). IGI Global.
Wang, T. and et. al., 2016. What drives electronic word-of-mouth on social networking sites?
Perspectives of social capital and self-determination. Telematics and Informatics. 33(4).
pp.1034-1047.
8