Reflective Essay on Social Media's Evolution and Impact

This reflective essay delves into the multifaceted impact of social media, examining its evolution from a simple communication tool to an integral part of daily life and a powerful marketing instrument. The essay begins with a personal reflection on the author's initial skepticism towards social media, driven by concerns about its potential to distract from personal goals and negatively affect real-world social interactions. Through study and experience, the author's perspective evolves, acknowledging the numerous benefits of social media, such as enhanced communication, networking, and marketing opportunities for businesses. The essay explores platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, highlighting their diverse applications and advantages for both individuals and companies. However, it also addresses the potential downsides, including addiction, the spread of misinformation, and the impact on real-life relationships. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of using social media judiciously, leveraging its positive aspects while mitigating its negative effects, and considering its implications for personal and professional development, particularly in the context of future career prospects. The essay also references several academic sources to support its claims and provide a broader understanding of the subject.

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
SOCIAL MEDIA

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Reflective Journal:
Social media can be defined as the platform that allows the individuals and the business as well
to communicate and interact with other people. It is the platform that is compute based and can
be used when the computer or the system has the internet connection (Jussila, Kärkkäinen, and
Aramo-Immonen, 2014). Change and the advancement have also altered the nature of social
media these days and continuous rising change in the social media tools these days. In earlier
times when social media has stepped into the technological world, the platforms of social media
were used as the tool for sharing the information. With the advancement in the technological
framework such as development of web 2.0 technology has changes the scenario as well as the
use of social media. It allows the users to use social media tools for chatting and video
conferencing (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). It has been analysed that today, social media has
become the part of daily life of the people and allowing the user to be connected with the whole
world. Even the students are getting addicted to these sites and get new information about the
world.
I have observed that there are people who are getting addicted to the sites like Facebook, twitter,
snapchat etc. this addiction has become so severe that people are on their phones the whole day
and not getting social in the real world. The world has divided into two parts for those people
that are virtual and real. People talk about their Facebook friends and their real friends. This
division is somehow affecting the real life of the people (Weinberg, et al. 2013) This is the usual
thinking of many people that these things like social media distract the person from their actual
goals of life. I was one of them. I used to think that using the social media tools will interfere in
my life goals and it may waste my time that can be utilised in better way. When my friends used
to talk at the their virtual life, I found that they are so much into that thing that they have made
distance from me because I was not one of them who is on Facebook or snapchat. They get to
know about each other everything from these sites only. I started feeling isolated at some times.
But, still I was against these things.
Understanding about social media has changed my view a lot. This is because I thought that
social media is the platform that only allow the users to chat and communicate with each other.
After having the experience and study about social media, I realised that there are many benefits

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of using social media in life. Earlier I just knew about Facebook and snapchat as the social media
tools that allow the users to communication and post their photos and videos to share amongst
the friends. After studying about the different tool such as twitter, YouTube etc., I have realised
that these tools can also be used in other ways that are very beneficial. As far as the benefits of
these tools are considered, it has been analysed that Facebook is not these just for chatting but it
also allows the business to market their products and as the customers we get to know about
various products and offers on Facebook (Ngai, Tao and Moon, 2015). We can even have the
opportunity topost our reviews on the posts. Thus, this application is benefitting the customers as
well as the companies. Another tool that is YouTube is considered, it provides the facilities to all
the people to upload the video on the portal which can be viewed by many people. Some of the
videos are for entertainment industry and some of the videos are knowledgeable. Teachers are
using this portal for posting their education related videos. Thus this site is also helping the users
to get the knowledge (Dolan, 2016). This is also a source of marketing these days. Posting the
das of the products allow the companies to market their products in very low cost as compared to
the television ads. Other tools such as MySpace twitter etc. area also used by the people to share
their opinions about any of the happenings in the world. I have realised that there are difference
pros and cons of using social media by the people. But the major thing tis that addiction of any
media is not acceptable (Jeske and Shultz, 2016). Even if the social media is providing many
benefits but getting addicted to such tools may ruin the real life of the people. As far as the
benefits of social media are considered, the first benefit that is enjoyed by all the people are
making connection and having higher network reach. Social media is used as the platform that
directly allows the users to reach to the wider audience in less time and money. The speed of
spreading the information is also very high (Coulson, et al.2016).This is because of the high
reach and the availability of the social media on internet. Internet is the subset of social media
and this makes the social media technology even more strong. Social media technology supports
the companies promote their brands in different ways such as text, videos; pictures etc. different
ways helps the companies to be versatile in marketing. It has been analysed that the
communication can be effective only when it is two way communications. Earlier, the
communication involved in marketing of the product was one way because the information is
flowing from company to customers, only in one direction. Use of social media has enabled the
customers also to reach up to the companies to share their views regarding the products. This

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completes the communication between the companies and the customers. As far as the cons of
the social media tools are considered, it has been analysed that there are many negative effects of
using social media. As the media is open for all thus any of the negative post or the review of
one customer can affect the purchase decision of another person as well regarding the products.
This may rupture the image of the company (Ruths and Pfeffer, 2014).
I have realised that using the tools of social media in terms of marketing the products and
communicating with others is good but it needs to be carefully used. It is required to have the
proper skills its and knowledge about the features of the social media tools so that it can be used
in wrong way. I would be implementing the tactics in my future career. As the social media tools
can be implemented in the organisation for better internal communication, it has been analysed
that is ill also suggest my organization and the agreement to implement such tools so that the
employees of hat organization can internally communicate with the other colleagues. I have
realised that even I can use social media tools as the medium to post some of the knowledgeable
information and also get access to more and more of the information about the world. Even at the
workplace, the social media tools will be used to share the information (Peluchette and Karl,
2008). Making the accounts on social media also allows the employees to have informal
communication with other and to circulate the important information. As we know that working
in the team is very natural these days. Thus, the companies require better communication
medium internally and social media can helps with the same. Earlier, when I do not have such
knowledge I used to think that social media is ruining the real society and making the world
virtual which is not false but it has been analysed by me that if the people start using these
mediums with accuracy and with intelligence they will definitely achieve benefits out of it rather
than having negative experience. Thus, it depends on the people that how they are using it (Kent,
2013).
To conclude I can say that I will try to achieve and experience more and more benefits of these
social media tools and will try to make my real life better by having better connection and
develop myself socially. This is because it will definitely help me in developing my
communication and social skills and also any knowledge regarding the subjects and the
incidences that I have been untouched with (Van, 2013) Understanding the different aspects of
social media has changed my view regarding the topic. I realised that I was wrong but not fully

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because social media is affecting in negative ways as well. It is the need of hour to have better
knowledge about these tools and the positive ways in which they can be used for our and societal
benefits.
References:
Coulson, N.S., Smedley, R., Bostock, S., Kyle, S.D., Gollancz, R., Luik, A.I., Hames, P. and
Espie, C.A., 2016. The pros and cons of getting engaged in an online social community
embedded within digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: survey among users. Journal
of medical Internet research, 18(4).
Dolan, R., 2016. Social media stack up: Pros and cons of the'big five'. Australian and New
Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker, (627), p.68.
Jeske, D. and Shultz, K.S., 2016. Using social media content for screening in recruitment and
selection: pros and cons. Work, employment and society, 30(3), pp.535-546.
Jussila, J.J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014.Social media utilization in business-
to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30,
pp.606-613.
Kent, M.L., 2013. Using social media dialogically: Public relations role in reviving
democracy. Public Relations Review, 39(4), pp.337-345.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44.
Peluchette, J. and Karl, K., 2008. Social networking profiles: An examination of student attitudes
regarding use and appropriateness of content. CyberPsychology&Behavior, 11(1), pp.95-97.

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Ruths, D. and Pfeffer, J., 2014. Social media for large studies of behavior. Science, 346(6213),
pp.1063-1064.
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014.Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence
& Planning, 32(3), pp.328-344.
Van Dijck, J., 2013. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford
University Press.
Weinberg, B.D., de Ruyter, K., Dellarocas, C., Buck, M. and Keeling, D.I., 2013. Destination
social business: Exploring an organization's journey with social media, collaborative community
and expressive individuality. Journal of interactive marketing, 27(4), pp.299-310.