The Impact of Social Media on Society

This article explores the positive and negative impacts of social media on society, including its effects on communication, business, hiring, training, and politics.

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INTRODUCTION
Social media involves social websites such as facebook pages, We-chat pages, Twitter
among others pages where people interact on daily basis for various reasons. In my opinion,
social media is growing under very high rate, considering that the world is becoming digitalized.
Many people are interacting on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, among others.
Friends, families, strangers, teenagers, and adults interact on social media. Social media has
changed the world in different ways. It affects the living standards of people all over the world.
There are both positive and negative effects of social media concerning the life of people. It has
revolutionized ways through which people interact and communicate with one another. Social
media affects political, business, and social living standards of people. The emergence of social
media has changed the communication and information technology sector. It has played a
significant role in transforming the communication and socialization aspects of people.
THE METHODS USED IN DATA COLLECTION

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The following are methods used in collecting data regarding merits of social media. They
include Interviewing of data science experts, observation and analysis of 2018 report, carrying
out survey on impacts of social media in modern society.
POSITIVE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
According to data I collected from interviews of the data science experts and observation
of the report written January 23, 2018, social media has impacted positively the way people
interact, communicate, and share views through websites.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BUSINESS COMMERCE
I think almost 80% of consumers rely on social media platforms to get information
regarding what they would like to buy. Besides, most business organizations use it to reach their
consumers. Organizations and businesses premises use it for advertising what they are offering
(Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 p.1353). Social media enables business organizations to reach a
wide range of consumers. They make use of digital social networking media to build their brands
and increase the scale of the revenue. Additionally, social media is used by the business
organizations to offer a friendly relationship with consumers from different parts of the world.
HIRING PROFESSIONALS
In my opinion, social media is essential in hiring and recruitment process in many
organizations. The way of recruiting employees within the organizations changed when it
emerged. In the process of recruiting the organization employees, social platforms determines
someone's fate and chances of being selected in the process. It is estimated that most of the
managers often tend to review social pages profile of the job applicants before making the

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decision (Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 p.1354-1355). Personal profile on social media can stand a
determining factor on whether one will be selected in the hiring process. Besides, about 90% of
employers use social media to find the candidates to be hired in the organization. They post the
requirements for a job position to be hired. This is a better way to reach many people, and the
chances of getting the qualified personnel for that position are very high.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
I think social media has both emotional and social development impacts on training and
development program. Many companies look for candidates who hold various skills in social
media. Moreover, social media has become learning and teaching platform in which employees
are taught. Recently, social media is used as the media of teaching in many schools and
institutions. Through the use of online communication platforms, tutors communicate with their
students from all parts of the world. E-learning programs are supported by social media to enable
the interaction of learners with their professors.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON POLITICAL AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Social media is used in political and business administration in many countries. The
government and business organizations use social media to pass the information to people. The
company’s updates are availed to the employees through the use of social networking platforms
(Hansen, 2012 p.30). In addition, many politicians and national business administration
departments use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook pages to pass their
information. Also, through the use of social media, citizens express their views regarding the
administration of the government or performance of the business organization (Xiang and

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Gretzel, 2010 p.179). They can give replies based on posts made by the political administrations.
The government uses social media to get feedbacks of the citizen regarding any issues arisen.
RESULTS COLLECTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA MERITS EXPERIMENTS
Activity Percentage use of social media
In business commerce 80%
Hiring process 90%
Training activities 75%
Administration activities 67%
NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
There are negative impacts associated with the use of social media in the modern world.
Some of the negative effects of social media include the followings;
CYBERBULLYING AND CYBERCRIME
Nowadays, 65% of teenagers are using digital social platforms as means of interaction
and communication. According to reports, 23% of the total teenagers on social media know little
about cyberbullying (Hansen, 2012 p.35-36). The fraudsters target the teenagers because they are
aware of their little knowledge about cybercrime. It has been reported that 15% of teenagers on
social media have been subjected to cyberbullying and cybercrimes issues (Hudson and Thal,

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2013 p.156). Besides, teenagers use social media to spread the rumors and false information
through Photoshop video clips and photos destroying other people’s reputations.
LACK OF PRIVACY
Social media has no privacy and therefore, many people use it to carry out terror attacks
and other bad things. Social media display information regarding people, place, or something. It
becomes easy for the thieves or attackers to plan for their deals (Pearson, 2011 p.800). Social
media users share their personal information about their locations, what they do, where they live,
and they end up being killed by individuals with evil motives (Walther, 2012). There are many
cases reported where thieves use social media information provided about the company,
organization, or even people to steal from them.
SOCIAL MEDIA RUINS THE MORAL VALUES IN SOCIETIES
As discussed above that social media has no privacy, some posts, video, and audios
posted on social media pages are contributing most towards ruining of the moral values of people
in the society (Hudson and Thal, 2013 p.158). Some people post naked posts and prostitution
videos on social media. The same images are displayed all over the platforms. Teenagers access
such photos and videos clips ruining their moral values.
CONCLUSION
Social media is so crucial in modern word society despite having many negative impacts.
It is therefore important to make use of the social media in a better way. Besides, there should be
restrictions on social media on what to be shared. Children under 18 years should be restricted by
all means from accessing social media to avoid ruining their moral values.

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