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Week 6 [14.11-20.11] Impact of Social Media on the Society


Impact of Social Media on the Society



Facebook was launched in  2004.  After 12 years it had over 980 petabytes data. That is huge. Every month over 1.5 billion users upload billions of photos and over 10 million movies. It shows that communication has evolved. Today communication is based on visual materials. Uploading photos and movies people create superegos or alter egos. Big number of "likes" improves their self-esteem.

A few months ago the American magazine, “Psychological Science” published research. 32 teenagers, aged 13-18,  participated in it Psychologists showed them their photos with different number of „likes”. Bigger number caused higher brain activity in areas responsible for happiness.

Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, says that personal progress is possibly only if a person can realize his own desires. Social media can realize, in short time, our dreams of how we want to be perceived. We can feel so much better and more confident. For example, a shy person could upload a photo from a party with a lot of friends. In this way this person will be friendly or even feisty. What is more, the same person will believe in it. Especially when this photo will have a lot of „likes”.

Social media simplifies communication. We always remember about someone’s birthday. We don’t need to talk with colleagues. Sometimes one „like” is enough to show that we remember them.

Psychologists says that social media make us egoists. A lot of teenagers say that being famous is the most important thing nowadays and social media help to become more popular.

Comments

Unknown said…
You often hear how social media is negatively affecting the younger generation, but critics often go mute when positive effects are brought to light. For example, businesses frequently use Facebook to engage with customers and people can use YouTube to raise awareness for issues that are usually pushed under the rug. Furthermore, friends separated by long distances can keep in touch by sharing images on sites like Instagram. A prime example of the good that can come from social media is this past summer’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

For every positive, there is a negative as well. Instead of interacting with others face to face, many people have taken the non-confrontational approach of using Facebook or Twitter. Look around the next time you’re in public, and you’ll likely see people everywhere on their phones and tablets. Opponents of social media would argue that it has made people much more introverted.

While there are many advantages and disadvantages to using social media, there are also some truly ugly aspects. For example, cyber bullying and online harassment has significantly increased since social media platforms made their way into mainstream society. Privacy has been harder to keep, and productivity in the workplace has slipped to alarming lows in many situations.
Sylwia Pechcin said…
I'm happy that I have been growing up when Facebook wasn't as popular as it is now. Today the most of teenagers think about their profiles at social media and how many likes they've got. It becomes very unnatural when young people are walking across the street and they are looking at their phones all the time! They make photos of the food, of themselves, of city, of street of everything! And everything for more and more likes. Of course, social media make the communication easier, but in most of cases - it's a sick addiction.
Unknown said…
For me it isn't important to be popular, so fact that social media make being famous easier - doesn't matter.
In Facebook I like it that this is worldwide, so it's easy to stay in contact with people abroad. I like the fact that we can make many groups, so communication between group of people is easier. So for me it is nice tool to comunication, but nothing more.
I don't understand updating five photos a day, photos of each food etc. It's annoying when some people are spamming with posts about nothing or some un-funny things mentioned to be funny. Like if they are addicted to post something.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Actually this is a major issue. When you spend your childhood without social networks you see everything as it is, you get used to the real world. Nowadays teenagers may consider themselves miserable based on their friends Instagram or Facebook profiles, everything looks better on social networks and they compare posted photos and stories to their own life which may not be so colorful and interesting. I think that parents should explain kids that they don't see the whole story and this is not a real life, otherwise it may lead to depression.
Unknown said…
I think that Facebook is a very useful tool that makes it easy to communicate with anybody, practically whenever we want. This is very handy. But what about kids or teenagers that consider Facebook or any other social media as the most important thing in their lives? This is very bad. It closes them to normal face-to-face communication. Also can lead to some problems with interaction with other people...or even some diseases or depression.
Dajana Kubica said…
Unfortunately, the new generation is completely different. I read an article on the internet, about children who have been questioned who would want to be in the future. I expected an answer: policeman, doctor, fireman, but quite a frequent answer was: YouTuber. Interent meant that people have become lazy, especially children. Facebook also contributed to this, because this is a great environment for sharing information. However, I think that relationships should take place outside of the internet. At least with your loved ones. I think that keeping in touch with people through facebook only creates an empty relationship. I prefer to several people wrote to me Happy Birthday, because they remember than a few hundred, because facebook reminded them, and most of these people do not know.
Unknown said…
I agree with the above mentioned positive effects of the social media, however I don't consider ALS Ice Bucket Challenge as something as noble as described. For me it's just typical today's way for trying to rise awareness of sth important, however it doesn't even reach the top of the matter, it's rather the fun for teenagers and a good way for becoming more popular in social media. Most of them not only do not pay donation for charity but also isn't aware at all for what purpose this task was created. Such ignorance is truly sad reality.
Unknown said…
You hit the nail on the head mentioning the problem of underestimating among teenagers because of their perversion of value system and misleading real world with an embellished one in social media. Parents and older/conscious generations should take some steps to prevent children from this inevitable influence of today's social media society.
kondrat said…
I've heard, that children in mid-school can be criticized by others if they are not really into social media. It is strange, that nowadays you are forced to use it. Personally the only feature of social media which is worth for me is messaging. It is great, that you can talk to anybody without knowing telephone number.
Unknown said…
Social media is good for us when we are already adults. In my opinion for children it is bad because the children should be at this time to play with their peers in the yard. Now, unfortunately, more and more children have facebook. When I was a kid, the only thing I did on computer it played in the game " Need for speed" :) and I could to play only 2 hours because parents forbid playing longer :D
Piotr Basiński said…
Social Media is now one of the most profitable branch of marketing. It's make real impact on sales of company. Now it's better to buy facebook ads than real posters or newspaper advertising.
Unknown said…
To be honest I only use social media to communicate with my friends and family. In my opinion when people share their private photos or videos they probably don't realize that the content they share can be used in some wrong and prejudicial way. Moreover, I would like to emphasize that the potential employers may reject a candidate based on his/her Facebook profile, Instagram or other social media. My message is simple – be careful what you put up online!
I agree with you there. It is unbelievable that YouTuber can be considered a profession. I have nothing against people who make videos and upload them on YoutTube as long as they can benefit the world in some way. Sadly, streaming gameplays is just a waste of human resources.
I like to use Facebook to keep in touch with people when it is difficult or impossible to talk to them face-to-face. That's said, I only use a very small subset of features that come with Facebook.
Unknown said…
In Social Media people could create better person than they really are. I think that some people based their system of values on the number of likes. For me, it is scary how people show their entire privacy in social media, every step. Of course, I don't think that social media is the same evil. This is a great way of advertising and broaden base of contacts. We can find out what is happening with our friends on the other side of the world through social media or find work. Thanks to social media we could know more easily about the various events that interest us. It is important to use such things properly and with appropriate moderation.
Wojtek said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wojtek Kania said…
I think our grandparents thought the same thing when we started listen music on discmans, MP3s, iPods outside. For them we looked like aliens and they couldn't communicate with us. Now it's normal thing. I think we must accept reality.
Wojtek Kania said…
I think this feature is very useful. But on the other hand if you don't have Messenger you are losing touch with your colleagues. I think today we are forced to use it, if we don't have to be out of circulation.
Wojtek Kania said…
Yeah it's true. But the main reason for that Facebook are great place for ads is an enormous number of active users.
Wojtek Kania said…
Many people thinks like you. I also agree with that. But I think interpersonal communication is changing on our eyes. We're losing a face-to-face communication, but we can communicate with everyone in the world in seconds.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Let’s look on a Facebook as on a tool. Like a hummer or a kitchen knife. We can build houses, cook food or easily harm ourselves. The same with Facebook. As users of such a powerful tool, we should be aware of it.

“Psychological Science” experiment shows us how harmful this tool can be. From what I know, our brain releases serotonin when we get likes. And such a mechanism causes the addiction. Probably all of us noticed that we are kind of addicted to those likes. Checking it every day.

From another perspective, Facebook can help you to keep contact with a huge amount of people. Of course, offline communication is a much more efficient way of keeping contact with close friends. But comments and likes help me to keep in touch with not close people, which might be helpful in a future. So, I can’t imagine networking without Facebook today. I have a habit of adding every interesting personality I meet in my life. And it helps you to have a broader circle of contacts.
Even though I use social media every day, I don’t really know what to think about them. It’s a great way to communicate and keep up with your friends, even the ones who lives far away from you, but on the other hand social media are also responsible for existence of cyber bullying. Kids which don’t have many friends or ‘likes’ are often made fun of because of it. Social media like almost everything else can be used in two ways, to help people in their everyday life, or can be used against them, it only depends on who and how uses it.
I'm not into this Facebook "likes" crazines, but I have to admit that I spend much time being online on Facebook. It is mainly because most of my friends switched from standard text messages to Facebook Messenger, so to be in touch with them I have to use it also. I believe using social media even really often is not a problem until it is only a way to stay in touch with your friends when you don't have time or possibility to meet them in person. However, social media shouldn't be total substitute of physical contact.
I couldn't care less - facebook serves to me very simple purpose of keeping contact with people I know, as it's easier than using phone or writing messages. I'm not interested in almost any other part of the website, as I simply don't care what people post about their own life. It's true that people spend too much time on social media, and it's killing their brains every damn minute, but it's not like there is anything to do if people instead of being productive, learning new stuff, travelling or simply having fun, decide to stay on facebook several hours per day doing absolutely nothing but wasting time and wondering what to post in order to get most likes.

I'm very happy to say that I'm not interested in that service more than bare minimum to keep relations with people I like, and I'd be even more happy if I see that to be the case more often, as facebook is a massive timesink that has many negative effects in long-run. Sadly, people enjoy wasting their lifes sitting there, so it's not like I should be sorry for them.
Unknown said…
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social medias are just a tool to achieve something. Some businesses can get new customers. Some newcomer singers or dancers can find new auditory to achieve their dreams.
The question is how to teach children to use social medias right. It's very sad when young girls watching Instagram's "stars" always looking perfect and trying to be similar to them. When person doesn't feel itself valuable because he or she doesn't have a lot of followers or likes on social medias.
I think children should be thought to live in the real world and to communicate more with the real people.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I guess facebook is one of the biggest social media service so I'll use it as example. It's right that facebook give us simple way to keep contact with anybody we want. In my opinion facebook is the best time waster. Everybody knows facebook is a bottomless well and you can scroll and scroll board really much time. Majority useless informations what somebody have been eating or something like that. I don't say that facebook is bad and no one should use social services but we should use it moderately.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I think social media is only good when "you doesn't have to get in there just to check if you still exist or someone like you".
I had few friends that were very addicted to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram - and for me it looked very funny. I don't mind when someone is filming or making a photo while doing something great - it's a way of keeping good memories. For example climbing on a 100m rock or rafting through rough river - but when you look at a friend and you see that he had more fun posting it on Twitter to get applause/likes from other friends than actually doing it - it gets really depressing.
I think that social media has a huge impact on society - good and bad, of course. Some people care too much about their virtual life and forget about anything else. Personally, I have no need to share my private life with whole world
Kacper Zaremba said…
Things you see on your Facebook timeline mainly depend on your own settings and preferences. You can unfollow your friends which post 'useless' content, such pictures of food or something, and follow some interesting people, mentors, scientists, or journalists. You are the only person responsible of your timeline, so try fixing it. I spent some time doing it, and now my Facebook page is full of interesting information, news, articles and some updates of my close friends I care about.
In my opinion u introduced only better side of this social media. What about people who are depressed about not having likes? U wrote that u don't have to talk with your colleagues.
Unknown said…
I don't use any social media at all so it's hard for me to comment the topic. Direct channels of remote communication like phonecalls, sms and email are by far enough for me. I only write and comment on this blog because that's a more convinient way to pass the course. That's something new and unique for me. I just don't feel the need to use social media. It's an abstract for me. I have quite a few real life friends. I'm very close with them. I get feedling that not using social media saves me a lot of trouble, time and unnecesery worries.
Unknown said…
I think that if used with moderation, social media are good thing. Its easier to keep in touch with others. On the other hand, it is easy to start comparing self to others and treat posts and likes as motor of ones actions, which just can't be good.
Adam Nowak said…
Using social media is a easy way to create a "better version of you" for a society. If you think that you are "worse" than others is some way, then you don't have to do anything about it, all you have to do is to upload a photo of a better, and fake, yourself. The fear of discovering the truth, that you are not this ideal person, cause the real social relationships to vanish. Your fake personality become the real one. Hiding behind a facebook generates a huge stress, which causes a lot of mental problems. We should be aware of this while using social medias.
I would happily abandon facebook but since all my friends use it, it's easier to arrange a meet up with a larger group. Creating events or group chats really help that. These are the main reasons why I keep using Facebook.
If you have a friend that is so addicted to Facebook or any other social platform that they forget about you if you don't use it then what kind of a friend is that?
Unknown said…
When I was young there was not any social media at all and me with my friends always know where to meet - on playground near primary school. Children used to have big imagiation, so we didn't know what boredom is. Now young people creates them selfs by siting in front of computer, writing comments, posting photos and movies insted of meet face to face.
Unknown said…
Nowadays social media is one of the most popular tool regardless the age. Of course, there are some pros and cons as people above said.

First of all, portals such as Facebook, Instagram or Facebook allow people to comunicate all the time despite the place and time. Thanks to it, we safe a lot of time and are able to keep much more contacts. Otherwise it would be impossible.

Secondly, it enables both people and companies to share some information and advertisements or simply make money. Social media is a new channel which opens a lot of possibilities.

On the other hand, we waste a lot of time and are more addicted. Some people accent teenagers are the most susceptible group which has bad influence (which is absolutely true, in my opinion). In fact, we can see people who use smartphones all the time! Walking, being with friends, shopping and so on... Sorry, but I think it's some kind of disability.

Next, companies earn money thanks to invigilation and break our privacy. In my opinion, there is some king of race. The winner is the one who has a lot of information, but is not charge of it. It is danger area for everybody.

To sum up, social media has big influence on our life. It is very useful tool if the user do it in a proper way and is not addicted. Of course, it's possible not to use it, but life (e.g. student's life) is much more difficult. I mean everybody knows about some events thanks to social media. I wrote short list of examples, but it shows that social media can be both good and bad. The scale of influence depends only on the user and that's the true.
Unknown said…
Personally I can't imagine everyday life without facebook. Thanks to it, I know what's going on around me. For example, what you need to do for classes. I've learned a lot via facebook. But I limit myself only to check the most important things. People mindlessly browse facebook. Sometimes I was browsing facebook and after a while I realized that I was browsing it once again. I totally do not understand when my girlfriend is angry because I didn’t like her new photos.
Unknown said…
Oh, come on.. An endless holy war. Stop blaming Facebook, start from people. We live in world of new technologies and social media are included.
Facebook is for those who want to get likes and comments? I'm sorry, but I can't believe that so many people refuse to get a nice feedback from your friends. If you don't need the approval from your friends and family, are you sure you need them at all?The main thing is not to go to extremes and not to transfer all your real life to the virtual world. I love Facebook and Instagram, and I'm pleased to receive a response to my post and response. I do care what my closest people think about it. It is normal, why do people hide the fact that the attention of friends is nice?
Social networking is bad for kids. Sometimes it is. But. Inattentive parents and teachers, TV, street, poor environment are much worse. Parents should spend more time with their children, and it could help to avoid the psychological problems more than isolation from Facebook and video games. And if the teen wants to be an youtuber, why not? The main thing is to be a cool youtuber and nice person, and to try hard to reach the goal. Tell your granny that you want to project games for Android, ha-ha.
As it was wisely pointed above - the social networks are just tools. We can either learn how to use it properly, or move to a cave and once a year notify the relatives via pigeon mail.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
For me the fact that social media have such big impact for people is very frightening. People tend to live in internet nowadays and they can't leave their phone for few minutes as they need to be online all the time.
I try to use social media as small as possible and likes better talking to person (even by phone) than writing.
Unknown said…
I just don't know how to tackle this, so whatever. Come on, now Facebook and Twitter is ruining society, when we have real issues around, like Aliens or Illuminati.

What, Social Media is the thing that makes teenagers being driven by popularity and fame? Right, because they were never driven by those before. Instead of remembering birthsdays you just send like - so what, if you do just that you wouldn't care to remember in the first place.

Social media is made for people by people and is here to stay. Saying that it destroys society makes as much sense as saying that electric light is going to make everyone die from mysterious sickness - and some doomsayers tried just that in the past.
Unknown said…
In my opinion Facebook can be both a good thing and a bad thing. It certainly is a great tool to keep in touch with friends, family that are far away. It can also make easier everyday communication with friends and colleagues. If you are busy or sick you can still be in touch with them. What scares me though is how people get addicted from likes. I know people who actually will delete a photo if they don't get enough "likes". What is more, I am afraid that children that grow up with Facebook and other social media won't be able to communicate with other people in real life. Today it doesn't seem like a problem because people still remember the "pre-Facebook" era and know how to talk to each other face to face. But will it still be the same in the future?
KamilG said…
I think that having and using a social media account has a good and bad pros. The good one is that we can keep in touch with friends and talk to them. Also social media offers a lot of information around the world, that can interest us. The bad thing is this sometimes lead to addiction and silly fun, that may cost a health and life. It is very popular among teenagers. We have to use brain sometimes, before we do something.
I don't really see any negative effects social media could possibly have on my life. Facebook is probably my main channel of communication right now and it is only because I'm not to good at answering my mobile phone straight away, I sometimes don't notice messages on my phone and people generally know that when they send me a message through facebook, I'll probably read it in the near future. I honestly think that phone messaging systems made people a bit more unsocial. People prefer to chat with me on Facebook, because when it comes to mobile phones I much prefer to call someone than text them, which many people nowadays are genuinely scared of.
Moode said…
To me social media killed the normal ways of communication between people. I like the idea that some coffee places are wi-fi and phone free and actually make people talk to each other.
Unknown said…
Facebook its good platform to talk with your friends without showing your emotion and body move. I think its good way to dont waste your time to move to someone to talk with him. When you want to meet someone you can write to him and just go outside but when its windy and cold you can talk with him from your home and take care about your firendship
Michał Pycek said…
I think that the impact of social media on our society is huge. People have started to build their new, better and more fancy lives online, in social media. To me it is a shallow and narrow minden approach and I do not want to be a part of it.
I am not really a fan of social media and to be honest I have cancelled my FB account, because I just don't think it is funny anymore. To me it has been a waste of time to just get pop ups from people I wouldn't talk to that much or from profiles I have liked years ago. I appreciate social media like Twitter, where people get to share their opinions, not really write long stories about how much they hate something or somebody.
Unknown said…
I'm not complaining about social media, it's all about learning how to properly use them. Thanks to facebook and other applications we can reach a big number of people. Having people like your drawings and posts is a nice feeling, just like when someone acknowledges it by other means. It's handy to know that you can block and disable parts of facebook functionality so you don't get that much spam and useless notifications. Birthday reminders I find actually useful, I have problems with remembering dates even for my closest friends. As for the number of facebook friends, not everyone has 500+ of them. I have around 100 and I never felt that those are people "I do not reckon".
OlaScislewska said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
OlaScislewska said…
Social media are fantastic "discovery", very usefull and helpfull. The idea was to comunicate faster and easier with our friends also meet new people or find old forgotten friends. Unfortunately some of the people start to use social media like the main way to contact with the world and forgot how to talk and behave in real.
Speciali young often mixed-up people started to use social media to create false image of themself. Bombarded with fake images of their idols - what is also fault of social media - become Insecure. They judge each other on pictures on instagram or amount of likes on faceboook what is unfair and unjust.

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