Social media is a good thing or a bad thing?

Social media is a good thing or a bad thing?

Social media is a good thing or a bad thing? That is the most frequently asked question today. Well, there are always two sides to everything; it depends on your perspective on how you perceive it. The same goes for social media, most people admire it as a revolutionary invention and some seem to take it as having a negative impact on society.

We have complied some of the positive and negative opinions people express about social networks:

Positive Effects:

-Friends and Relations:

Social networks started as a place to connect with your friends in an easy and convenient way. Truly speaking, many of you might have found your old pals from school or college who were out of touch due to one reason or another, well I would say I have and I thank social networks for this. Social networks have provided us with the opportunity to connect with people and build better relationships with friends with whom we are unable to meet personally and let them know about our life and take input about their lives and events happening with them.

-Reducing Communication Barriers:

With social networks, we can communicate our thoughts and perceptions over different topics with a large number of audiences, and raise our voice. The sharing feature available on social networks makes your opinion about any topic reach a huge number of people (even to those who are not on your friends list). We have the option to make groups with people who are like minded and share the related news with them and ask for their opinion or input about the topic. Simply there are a number of options available for us to communicate with others on these social networks.

-Opportunities for Businesses:

Social networks have become a crucial part of many of us. We don’t even notice this but as soon as we open our desktops or laptops to access the web, we subconsciously open our favourite social network just to see about the updates received. Businesses have noticed the value of social networks in our lives, and they are using different techniques to promote their products. There are a number of customized applications being made on social platforms, whose main purpose is to promote the product or brand. As social marketing is cost-effective and brands have a huge audience, they are shifting more towards social marketing.

Negative Effects:

-Leads to Addiction:

Many studies have shown that the extensive use of social media can actually cause addiction to users. Throughout their day, they feel to post something on their pages or check others posts as it has become an important part of our life.

-Lead to Isolation:

Extreme usage of social media has reduced the level of human interaction. Because of social networks interaction with other people has become effortless and people have isolated their lives behind their online identities. Face-to-face communication and meetings has been reduced and many of us have lost the flavor and charm to be together under one roof.

-Affecting Productivity:

Most businesses use social media to find and communicate with clients. However it is a great distraction to employees, who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking. Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty.

Conclusion:

We have mentioned a few positive and negative points of social media, but it doesn’t explain whether social media is good or a bad thing. It stands somewhere in between. You will remain wary despite these examples that either social media is a good or bad thing for society. We would live to hear your thoughts and opinion about the question raised... Do you think Social Networks are good or bad?

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-good-thing-or-bad-thing

1. What is one positive effect of social media?

What is one negative effect of social media?

What is another positive effect of social media?

What is another negative effect of social media?

How can businesses benefit from social media?

What is one way social media can affect productivity?

Is social media inherently good or bad?