Effects of Social Media: April 2013

Social Justice

There are organizations out there who are dedicated to helping others that are based online. TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms) is a non-profit website organization that is dedicated to getting people out of hard times. Problems such as drug addiction, self-mutilation, suicidal thoughts and other issues that stem from depression and isolation are their main focus. They sell merchandise through their website to raise money for their cause. People are able to share their stories with each other through means of blogging as well as public speakers at concerts.

http://twloha.com/

Works Cited

1. "Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites for Students." Web log post. Performancing. N.p., 2 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://performancing.com/negative-effects-of-social-networking-sites-for-students/>. This article suggests that the negative effects of social networking outweigh the positive. It goes into detail about how social networking wastes time, affects learning, communication skills and even health in some cases. Social media is becoming more and more popular among the younger generations. There exists a correlation between this increase in social media usage and the decrease in student productivity.

2. “Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest and airport life ban”

Paul Chambers decided to take out his anger on Robin Airport via Twitter. He posted, “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s**t together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” This act posed as a threat to the airport and Mr. Chambers was arrested under the Terrorism Act. He was banned from the airport for life. Chambers was the first person in the United Kingdom to be arrested for Twitter comments. Detectives confiscated his iPhone, laptop and home computer during the process. According to Tessa Mayes, “Making jokes about terrorism is considered a thought crime, mistakenly seen as a real act of harm or intention to commit harm.”

This article suggests that social media is another way for our freedoms to be violated. Legal authority takes something as simple as a Twitter post and turns it into a crime; Social Media is eliminating the concept of privacy.

3. "Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites for Students." Weblog post. Business 2 Community Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites for Students Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.

This article helps to strengthen our arguments against social media use by giving examples of problems faced by students. These problems include a reduce in their focus on retaining information and learning in general. They try to multi-task by keeping social media sites up while doing school work. Social media also has an effect on in-person social skills. People are losing the need for face-to-face communication and are becoming ineffective at it. Students are also losing the ability to spell correctly due to their relaxed attitude towards spelling and grammar. They rely too much on spell check features. Privacy is also a big issue because they become so used to using these sites that they forget that their information needs to be filtered because practically anyone can access it; employers and teachers included.

4. Ali, Imtiaz. "Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society." Web log post.

TechBeadTechnology. N.p., 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.

This article gives insight on both positive and negative aspects of social media. Social media has made marketing easier for smaller businesses and has brought together writers and bloggers from all over. These writers are able to reach more readers than ever before. On the other hand, social media has brought about an addiction to it and is a constant distraction for people trying to accomplish day-to-day tasks. They also are relying more on technology and the information found online rather than practical knowledge. People also share too much information with strangers which can pose a serious threat to them. While there may be positive effects, there are strong drawbacks to using social media.

Does social media do more harm than good for our society in the 21st century?

Social media has its advantages; however, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits. The benefits that social media has to offer are unnecessary as far as human relations are concerned. Social skills are suffering and face-to-face communication is becoming more of a challenge. As teenagers continue to incorporate social media into their everyday lives, they are becoming more and more dependent upon technology such as spell-check, eliminating the need for proper knowledge of spelling and grammar. Because of this, when the technology is not present, they are unable to exercise correct use of the language. The health of avid social media users is also suffering due to the desire to always know what their "friends" have on their minds. This obsessive behavior also leads to the deprivation of a good night's sleep.

Of all the students we surveyed, the vast majority believe that the authorities do not have the right to use their online posts for the purpose of incrimination. These posts can be taken out of context and misinterpreted. The frustrations of Paul Chambers led to a harmless joke being blown out of proportion. He was simply trying to amuse his friends when he posted on Twitter that he wanted to "[blow] the airport sky high" (2). He was then detained for acts of terrorism for nothing more than a sarcastic Twitter post.

The impact of social media on today's society is without a doubt the most influential of the 21st century. However, it is by no means a positive one. Social media is ultimately doing more harm than good to our society.

Negative Effects

While there may be a few benefits to the use of social media, they do not seem all that impressive when compared to the disadvantages. We can all live without the benefits that social media websites have to offer. However, there is evidence that shows students who use social media sites on a regular basis have poor information retaining skills (3). They actively use social websites while working on schoolwork. Not only that, but they are wasting their time during school and are depriving themselves of healthy sleep (1). Social media is also having a negative effect on communication skills. A student may be able to hold a conversation over the internet but may be ineffective in a face-to-face situation. Spell check features are also hindering everyone's ability to properly spell words when these devices are not readily available (3).

Benefits of Using Social Media

There are a few benefits to social networks online. Sites such as Facebook can help people stay in touch with their distant friends and relatives. The internet can also strengthen relationships by being able to communicate more efficiently using media such as Facebook chat and Skype. Social media can also benefit businesses. Since marketing media such as radio, print ads, and TV commercials are expensive and becoming obsolete, businesses are using social media to target their customers specifically, effectively, and inexpensively. Bloggers and content creators are able to use popular social sites to gain attention (4).

Using Social Media in My Life

Social Media does not play a very prominent role in my life. I have a Facebook page and I hardly even use it. I may occasionally check it because I can keep in touch with friends and relatives but other than that I do not use it regularly. The only use I actually find with social media sites is the fact that I can share my music with a lot of people very easily. My band recently made a page and we use it to invite people to watch us play shows. It would help if we had a larger fan base but it gets the job done. The band page also enables us to upload our rough recordings for people to listen to and for us to get some feedback. https://www.facebook.com/scene24band

YouTube is also good for sharing things as far as music goes. When we play somewhere, we try to get someone to video tape it so we can see it and so we can share it with everyone else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km83xqL9U6o