Let’s discuss several advantages and disadvantages of social media and how it can impact our society.
20 Advantages of Social Media
Social media has countless advantages for every industry; let’s discuss the top advantages of using different social media platforms.
1- Faster Source of Information than Other Media
According to American surveys, 46% of Americans use social media to get updated news on several incidents. It is a matter of fact that social media is a faster source of information than other new channels. Even reporters and journalists use social media reports and images as a reference for the latest news.
2- Helps to Solve Crime
Some social media sites help agencies such as the NYPD to locate and arrest criminals and find new leads. According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 85% of police departments use social media to find evidence and solve crimes.
3- Helps Students in their Academic Activities
Several surveys stated that 59% of students use social media to discuss their educational goals. Moreover, they can use these sites to prepare their assignments based on public narratives and surveys.
4- Find New Friends and Improved Social Relations
In America, about four of every five social media teenage users feel connected and close to their friends. Social media helps people living on the other side of the world connect and be updated about each other’s life events.
5- Empower Business Women
Business women feel more empowered and connected on social media. Social media has helped several moments to find like-minded people to expand their businesses. They can use social media platforms for brand awareness.
6- Make Recruitment and job-seeking Easy
Social site networks offer a great opportunity for job recruiters to find active talent on social media. Similarly, job seekers use social media platforms such as Indeed and LinkedIn for information sharing about their skills and educational background.
7- Increase Quality of Life
You must have seen different online communities talking about diet plans and the importance of mental health care programs. These people can also use social sites to provide counseling and to motivate people to a better lifestyle.
8- In-Person Interaction
Social media is the best way of digital communication because it supports people to have in-person interaction via private messages and video calls.
9- To Activate Your Voters
Recently, social media especially Twitter has become the most effective social media platform to keep voters active. Politicians and world leads use these platforms to spread awareness or to deliver their messages to voters around the world.
10- Key Role in Political Change
Social media is the most powerful tool when it comes to talking about revolution or political change. For example, if something is happening in the other part of the world, you can start campaigns and record your protest against it to bring a political change by using social site networks.
11- Economical Advantages
There are countless businesses and companies that are using social media platforms to reach more clients and get success in the market. Moreover, social media companies like Twitter and Facebook add billions and trillions of dollars to the economy.
12- Bring social change
There are around 2 billion users on Facebook alone so if you want to spread awareness about any particular topic, such as global warming or racial hate, social media platforms are the best choice, as they are prone to bring social change.
13- Senior Citizens can Get Connected
Senior citizens can use these platforms to connect to their friends and other families living in other cities.
14- Bring Isolated Societies and Communities Together
Social media can help isolated communities and people to feel connected and find like-minded and more tolerant people online. They can connect to people around the world and share their experiences.
15- Safety Information
You must have seen different organizations such as WHO and UNICEF on social media spreading awareness about global issues, droughts and famines. It is the best way to share safety information around the world.
16- Disarms Social Stigma
Social media has helped society remove several social stigmas such as issues related to mental health, anxiety, and false beliefs about color and race.
17- Initiate Crowd Funding
There are stories about people finding kidney donors and blood donors on the internet. Several accounts help online communities to conduct funding for people living in war zones and famines.
18- A Way for Successful Business
Social media marketing is one of the key factors behind the success of any business. You can use social media for brand awareness and to keep customers loyal and engaged with your products.
19- Conduct Academic Research
Social media enables researchers and professors to access updated informations and public reviews on any thought. Moreover, they can also put their research in front of the public to understand their narrative.
20- Remote Work and Remote Education
One of the biggest advantages of social media is it allows companies and institutes to conduct remote education. Companies can hire people from other states or countries for remote work.
Disadvantages of Social Media
Despite the countless uses of social media in every field, it has several advances and negative impacts on society. Let’s discuss some of the top disadvantages of social media.
- According to surveys, 46% of users watch information on social media that is false and shared by non-responsible social media users.
- Privacy Concerns are another issue as companies and governmental offices can read your information. It is also stated that the NSA can read the private messages you share on social media.
- Students who use social media tend to get lower grades and GPAs in school or college.
- People who tend to be involved in relationships on social media can get depressed and find it hard to manage their relationship life.
- Most social media users become addicts of these social sites and waste a lot of their time on them.
- Recruiters find it difficult to measure the actual personality of a job seeker based on their profile. Sometimes they tend to hire the worst individuals and lose good candidates.
- Social media is causing extreme depression and personality disorders in teens and adults.
- Online interactions have reduced personal interactions in the real world.
- People use social media to commit several crimes such as data stealing and misuse of personal information.
- People who use social media to share their opinions of several events sometimes tend to be the victim of extremism.
- Moreover, people tend to use social media at their workplaces which reduces their work productivity.
- On social media, 52% of people have faced cyberbullying. Cybercriminals use personal photos and chats to blackmail young girls or even famous personalities.
- According to surveys, social media has increased the reports of sexually suggestive content, such as messages and photos, where 2 out of 5 teenagers use it for sexting.\
- Moreover, extremists use social media to spread hate speech by using false information or allegations against a particular group or religion.
- Social media brings several threats to child security as when a child or teen is using social media they are exposed to all types of content such as violent videos, nudity, or extremism.
- People who are using online dating apps to meet new people can end up in a trap of criminals or gangsters.
- Similarly, it has increased copyright issues, anyone can steal the design or information of any artist make fake profiles or claim their work falsely.
- One of the biggest issues is your posts or information cannot be deleted permanently, it can appear anytime from any other source.
- People who are using social media are quite vulnerable to cyber threats.
- Your social media profile, any comment, photo you liked, or shared can go against you in court or put your college admission in danger.
Conclusion
There is a long list of advantages of social media, simply it has become the need of the hour. However, we need to be a responsible social media user and keep in mid all the ethical considerations while interacting with people on different sites.
If you want to keep yourself protected on internet you must know about the worst disadvantages of social media and how they can impact your personal identity and finances.