An Examination of Social Media's Effects on Global Society and Culture

This essay examines the transformative impact of social media on global society. It explores three major changes: the impact on business, highlighting how social media has revolutionized advertising and brand messaging, enabling businesses to reach global audiences more effectively. The essay also discusses the significant social impacts, such as breaking down communication barriers and providing diverse platforms for self-expression, influencing how people connect and share opinions. Furthermore, it analyzes the changes in lifestyle, noting the shift from traditional media consumption to reliance on social media for daily updates and business interactions. The essay also acknowledges the negative impacts of social media, such as fostering artificial connections, privacy concerns, and cyberbullying. The essay concludes by emphasizing the pervasive influence of social media on the global community, both positively and negatively.

Running head: Global Society
Global Society
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Global Society 1
Can anyone recall the days without the existence of social media?
One cannot imagine a single day without social media it is unbelievable that over a decade
ago our way of life was totally different from this new era of social networking. However
there were some social networking sites but most of the people were not aware of it and rest
of them did not really seem to have the need of using it (Shikati, 2017). Change came with
Facebook, Twitter and smart phones. In 2018, social networking has totally changed the way
community works.
Three major social changes to the global community in last 10 years are:
Business Impact
Before social networking sites, it was very difficult for the businesses to advertise their
products. Therefore it has been a major change for the global community from last 10 years.
In today’s era businesses can now easily raise their brand message in all over the world. They
can now easily grab the attention of the whole world towards their product which was used to
be impossible. They could never dream of having attention of such a wide audience towards
their products (Laroche, Habibi, Richard & Sankaranarayanan, 2012). Earlier they used to
spend so much money to advertise their products but now it has changed. As soon as the
advertisement hits on a social networking site, the viewers increase exponentially.
Social Impact
Social networking has the major social impact. Social networking has broken down barriers
in terms of communication. Now there are number of choices when one wants to
communicate with people. There are number of ways from which we can express ourselves
not only to friends but the whole world (Gordhamer, 2016). Before the birth of social
networking sites, if one has the opinion regarding something he/she could only share with
few people around but now it has changed from few people to lacks of people that too within
a few minutes.
Changes in lifestyle
Due to social networking, lifestyle of people has totally changed. Over a decade ago when
there was no social networking sites people usually starts their day by reading newspaper
instead of checking over the phones for the daily updates. For instance, online newspapers
such as USA today, Times of India and other (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung & Valenzuela, 2012). Now

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people do not take much time to start the business as they don’t have to buy the outlet or
plots. They just have to make the account on which they can share their products and
services. Social networking has become the answer of many questions such as how people
meet and stay in touch with each other, what people reveal, who is the greatest influencer
(Gordhamer, 2016).
There are some negative impacts also such as social media has encouraged the artificial
bonds on social networking sites over actual friendships, lack of privacy, cyber bullying,
causing distraction and harming the productivity and others.
Conclusion
Social networking has completely evolved the global community by being the great
influencer in both ways negative and positive as mentioned above. I have explained three
major changes occurred due to social networking sites that are changes in the business, social
changes and changes in lifestyle. I have also mentioned some of the negative impacts of
social networking on global community.

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References
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Jung, N., & Valenzuela, S. (2012). Social media use for news and
individuals' social capital, civic engagement and political participation. Journal of
Computer
‐Mediated Communication, 17(3), 319-336.
Gordhamer, S. (2016). 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Daily Lives. Retrieved 17th
March, 2018.
https://mashable.com/2009/10/16/social-media-changing-lives/#oZxs4DFRsOq1
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M. O., & Sankaranarayanan, R. (2012). The effects of
social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation
practices, brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1755-
1767.
Shikati, C. (2017). Ways social media has changed our society. Retrieved 17th March, 2018.
https://medium.com/w-i-t/ways-social-media-has-changed-our-society-38fd4d3e5ce8