University Essay: The Impact of Social Media on Global Culture

This essay examines the profound influence of social media on contemporary culture. It explores how platforms like Facebook and Instagram have created a new online culture, impacting communication, social interactions, and traditional values. The essay discusses both the positive aspects, such as enhanced connectivity and the sharing of ideas, and the negative consequences, including the rise of online arguments and the decline of physical activities. The author references key studies to support the arguments, concluding that while social media offers new ways to connect, it also distances individuals from their original cultures, potentially harming future generations. The essay highlights the shift from physical interactions to virtual connections, emphasizing the need to understand the cultural transformations brought about by social media.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CULTURE
SOCIAL MEDIA AND CULTURE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Social media in the form of new media improves the communication between the people
all around the world and in turn it influences the culture of the humans. By creating a new online
culture of its own, it has both a positive as well as negative impact upon the human traditional
culture.
Discussion:
The social media platforms such as the Facebook, the Instagram and Twitter gives rise to
a whole new and different culture which involves connecting to the entire world. These
platforms through different methods such as liking, commenting or posting new information
brings the entire world together in a social culture. The culture that is created is online. This is
entirely different to the traditional culture of the humans across the world.
The human culture earlier involved meeting new people and connecting through them
physically, with meetups or through phone calls. People used to gather and know about each
other through conversation upon different kinds of topics. However according to Van Dijck
(2013), the advent of social media has altered this culture bringing in the brand culture of online
meetings and online dating. Through the messaging service of the social media, the
communication has become easier with the help of a single click. It has impacted our culture in
both positive as well as negative ways.
The social media has given the people a platform through which the humans can share
their individual opinions as well as improve their creativity (Waters & Lo, 2012). It also has
helped the people to improve their individual awareness enriching their knowledge as well

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improve the social awareness. On the other hand it has influenced the human culture in negative
manner. Sharing the ideas has become so easy that the people tend to share anything and
everything on the social media because it has an easy access to it. This has led the people to turn
more conservative to each other’s view points and several argument regarding the political
views, society, culture and religion start to come up. Moreover another effect of this social media
culture is that it plays an important role in diminishing the physical activities of the humans
(Fuchs, 2015). The culture of having a get together at different houses of the relatives, having an
useful conversation face to face, or even the culture of having a proper physical activity in the
playground is diminishing because the humans are always sitting with their cell phones and
engrossed with the social media platforms. The children of today’s generation are also not an
exception (Vardeman – Winter & Place, 2015).
Conclusion:
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that the people of the today’s
generation have been moving away from their original culture with the advent of the social
media platforms or the internet. It has a negative impact f the future generation since it creates n
online culture of itself creating physical distancing and increasing the virtual; social connections.

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References:
Fuchs, C. (2015). Culture and economy in the age of social media. Routledge.
Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford
University Press.
Vardeman-Winter, J., & Place, K. (2015). Public relations culture, social media, and
regulation. Journal of Communication Management.
Waters, R. D., & Lo, K. D. (2012). Exploring the impact of culture in the social media sphere: A
content analysis of nonprofit organizations’ use of Facebook. Journal of intercultural
communication research, 41(3), 297-319.