Social Media's Influence: Utopian and Dystopian Approaches (KIT311)

This essay examines the multifaceted impact of social media on humanity, viewed through the contrasting lenses of utopian and dystopian approaches. It begins by defining these perspectives, with utopian ideals envisioning a perfect society and dystopian views portraying dehumanizing realities. The essay then explores how social media, encompassing online platforms for sharing ideas and experiences, is viewed through these frameworks. From a utopian standpoint, it highlights the positive aspects such as enhanced global communication, educational opportunities, and a platform for weaker voices. Conversely, the essay delves into the dystopian perspective, discussing negative consequences like increased depression, cyberbullying, and unrealistic self-image perceptions. The analysis underscores that social media's influence is complex, presenting both benefits and drawbacks that shape human interaction and culture. References are included to support the arguments and perspectives discussed.

Running Head : SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University

SOCIOLOGY 1
Technology is a pragmatist and a field that has been evolving constantly. Technology has
provided direction to human life and has become one of the major controversial area of the
current era. According to the research studies technology tends to affect mostly the field of
communication and media (Rambe and Nel 2015). Towards analyzing this concept, there lies
some of the media approaches examining technology under utopian and dystopic context. In the
light of utopian and dystopic approaches, communication and technology requires to be
understood and analyzed at a proper manner. This essay aims to analyze the positive and
negative aspects of technology and social media under the light of utopian and dystopic approach
. The essay aims to explain the role and the impact of social media on daily life in humanity.
In the context of the societal views and the impact of social media over the humanity, the
definition of utopian can be explained as the factor which aims for picture perfect society where
each and every individual elaborate or works well with each other towards one common goal of
happiness (Howcroft and Fitzgerald 1998). While utopian is described as the society that is
supposed and conceived to be the perfect, the definition of dystopian can be illustrated as the
imaginary society which is dehumanizing and unpleasant to the extreme. Utopias and dystopias
represent two kinds of environments often used in speculative or science fiction plays
According to the research data, internet has the capability to alter the interaction of
human being. Internet develops social media as well as social life among human. Nevertheless it
is still very difficult to predict all the impacts of technology induced social media over the human
society (Lomborg 2017). Utopian and dystopian interpretations regarding technology and social
media brings together several factors. Towards understanding the realistic face of this technology
induced social media, it is essential towards understanding the changing structure of humanity.
The utopic and dystopic considerations of technologies addresses how technology has developed

SOCIOLOGY 2
the society rather than effecting over the materials. Some of the examples that can be interpreted
includes the utopian context where television is considered as the technology which benefits
several people, however under dystopia, technology is viewed as negatively impacting the
individual rituals and the culture of humanity. Social media, smartphones are also included under
the subject which is similar to utopic and dystopic interpretations (Lim 2018). The visions of
utopist and dystopic regarding the internet and social media also put forward technologies and
other television. According to the definition of utopian and dystopian views, technology and
social media that characterizes strong and democratic environment in communication might
impact the daily life of human culture and humanity.
According to research studies, social media can be illustrated as an umbrella term that includes
the practices using online technology for experiences and sharing of ideas and perspectives
(Yegen 2018). The context of social media has an important power and is one of the message
character which is also in the middle of several utopian and dystopian debates. Some of the
utopian approaches suggests that social media are essential in the terms of speed,
communication, while other utopian approaches emphasizes over the characteristic of social
media as a democratic and polyphonic environment. However dystopic approaches clearly
emphasizes over the idea that social media always had a negative impact over cultural, social as
well as interpersonal relationships.
Positive effects of social media by the utopian approach
It is to note that the biggest positive impact of social media drawn from the utopian
interpretations includes benefits and facilities to make friends in the online platform. A few
decades ago, it has been very much tough for individual to connect with people unless one have a
very extrovert attitude (Ghonim, Entrepreneurship Fellow and Rashbass 2018). Furthermore, the

SOCIOLOGY 3
rise of the technology induced the development of smart phones helped in the establishment of
connection at a new way, from which there is no road to go back. The social media is also
advantageous to get in touch with the entire world, specifically with people living abroad.
According to the current research data, students get advantageous due to the positive impact of
social media regarding the educational purposes and useful information. The platform of social
media also helps them to explore new and innovative ideas followed by strategies for the
improvement of their work (Kozinets 2019). Social media acts as the powerful tool for
enhancing and facilitating the users for improving their skills through the online tutorials and
free webinars at the social media pages. Social media from the utopian perspective helps in rising
a powerful voice for the weaker individuals residing in the globe; promotion of noble causes like
charities and donation promotions are some of the positive effects of social media towards the
humanity. Some of the other positive impacts of social media over humanity includes
employment opportunity for individual and improvement in the standard of living and lifestyle.
Negative effects of social media by dystopic interpretations
From the dystopic approach, the negative effect of social media on humanity includes
rising level of depression, degrading sleep quality, cyber bullying, dissatisfaction with the body
image and more. The negative effect of social media attributes to the unrealistic depictions which
causes individuals or the viewers to feel inadequate. The feeling of low self adequacy lead to
mental and psychological depression among the users of social media. While the social media
intends to make life easier for people, from the dystopic interpretations, it propagated negativity
through out the society (Bray and Thauer 2016). The instance of terrorism is another factor
which is the negative consequences of social media. The online terror attacks and bullying in
social media develop deep mental scars which propagated negative vibes through out the society.

SOCIOLOGY 4
The bad impacts of social media includes constant comparison with other lives which results in
unhappiness among people with current circumstances that furthermore leads to challenges with
depression and self esteem. According to the research studies, the violent games in the social
media results towards the increase in the violent behavioral tendencies among the teenagers
(Howcroft and Fitzgerald 1998).
Thus, it can be summarized from the above essay, the impact of social media over the humanity
from the lens of the utopian and dystopic approaches projects both positive and negative view.

SOCIOLOGY 5
Reference
Bray, Z. and Thauer, C., 2016. Utopian Spaces, Dystopian Places?: A Local Community-Based
Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility. Nature and Culture, 11(3), pp.278-295.
Ghonim, W., Entrepreneurship Fellow, F. and Rashbass, J., 2018. Shorenstein Center on Media,
Politics and Public Policy.
Howcroft, D. and Fitzgerald, B., 1998. From Utopia to Dystopia: the twin faces of the Internet.
In Information Systems: Current Issues and Future Changes, Proceedings of IFIP WG8 (Vol. 2,
pp. 49-70).
Kozinets, R.V., 2019. YouTube utopianism: Social media profanation and the clicktivism of
capitalist critique. Journal of Business Research, 98, pp.65-81.
Lim, M., 2018. Challenging technological utopianism. Canadian Journal of
Communication, 43(3).
Lomborg, S., 2017. A state of flux: Histories of social media research. European Journal of
Communication, 32(1), pp.6-15.
Rambe, P. and Nel, L., 2015. Technological utopia, dystopia and ambivalence: Teaching with
social media at a S outh A frican university. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3),
pp.629-648.
Yegen, C., 2018. Utopian and Dystopian Approaches to Technology and Communication
Technologies: With The Examples of The Jetsons and Westworld. Gaziantep University Journal
of Social Sciences, 17(3).