Is Social Media Responsible Enough?

Origins of Social Networking

Ever since the rise of human civilization, communication has played a major role in the spread and sustenance of human society. Social networking is present among early humans even before they started speaking. Initially there were small groups of humans, living in isolation with each other. With the passage of time they learned the strength of numbers. They formed bigger groups, which historians call as “Cultures”, these cultures were based on a strong social network between its habitants. With increase in population, these cultures started intermingling and ultimately led to formation of societies. These societies were called as civilizations. It was only possible because of strong social network that existed between habitants, which means that social network or socializing is the base of any society.

What Is Social Network?

Communication between people of a group or society is called a Social Network.  It helps the members to mould in the society. It also helps a culture to flourish and an individuals to grow.

Social network also includes understanding the basic structure of the society including language, basic manners and other etiquettes. For example if we have a company of good people we learn good habits from them, similarly if have company of bad people, then we learn similar habits. Which means that our social network plays a very important part in how and what we become as an individual.

Has Meaning of Social Networking Changed?

With the advent of digital age, the ways with which we do things has also changed and the same has reflected with the techniques of socialising. Information age brought with itself many technologies and devices, Internet being the most prominent one. Internet has changed the way we do things, the way we contact people, the way we interact with people.

Internet introduced us to E-mail and Internet messaging services, which changed the way we communicate with people. E-mail in present date has virtually replaced the conventional mailing system completely. Various internet messaging services have become the first choice of people when it comes to communicating with people. Same is true with social network as well. Nowadays, social networking has become conterminous to usage of social networking sites or online social network.

What is Social Media?

Social media is a computer and internet based tool which allows users to create or share ideas, content, pictures, videos, conduct polls and many more. Social media can be in the form of forums, blogs, microblogging or social networking sites etc. The thing common among all social networking sites being that they allow user to post or share user generated content.

Evolution of Social Media

Social media started as online link between two or more groups or institutions. It was an instant hit and people started to link to each other via social networks but it was still confined with the people in the same network or institutions. After its success, people outside the group also wanted to link to friends and family on social network. So attempts were made to make a cross platform social networking site, where anyone can join and connect with their friends.

The first social networking site to be developed was “Six Degrees”. It allowed its users to create a profile and be friends with other users.  Many more social networking sites followed the suit, but the first social networking site that went viral was “Orkut”. Orkut was launched by Google in 2004. It was the first social media website to cross 10 million subscriber mark. Although later on Orkut lost its charm to other social networking sites, but we cannot take away the credit from Orkut for making social networking famous among the masses.

Advantages of Social Media

In the present day age and technology, our friends and family are spread across the globe. It is practically impossible to keep a track of them over a period of time. Social media did the same, it provided people with a medium to connect and keep a track of their friends and family, living in different places across the globe. Moreover, social media can also be used to find new friends with similar interests and likes.

Social media can also be used to connect with people, Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s election campaign is an example of how social media can be used to reach the masses. India Against Corruption movement under Anna Hazare also used the power of social media to the fullest in mobilizing masses for a cause.

Social media can also be used for real time information sharing. This can also be put to good use as seen in case of Indian Railway Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu who used twitter to improve railway services. Social media can also be put to use by business houses for promoting their business and targeting the right audience. Other advantages of social media include allowing individuals power to express their views on particular incident or debate, information sharing, creating awareness for social causes and creating campaigns against various social evils. Social media can also be put to use in spreading education and creating social harmony.

Disadvantages of Social Media

There is an old saying “with great power comes great responsibility”, the same applies with social media as well, if not used properly then it can have very adverse effects on the society. Like according to some recent news, terrorist organizations like ISIS are using social media to hire people by spreading their fake propagandas.

Similarly, social media platforms has proved to be inefficient when it comes to credibility, a blog post or some status update can go viral within hours, without even knowing the complete truth. An example for this can be the case of drunk policemen in Delhi metro, who was given a judgment by social media without even knowing the complete truth.

The security concerns and privacy issues are also a major concern across all social networking sites. Personal information available online on social networks can be easily accessed and used by miscreants. Identity theft has become a common scenario with the expansion of social media services. In some incidents social media is also used as a tool of harassing individuals and such incidents are becoming more and more common. 

A recent study has linked social media with depression and other mental health related issues. Social media can also be used to spread hatred against some tribe or sect. Children of growing ages are becoming more and more active on social networking sites. Nowadays social media is full of content spreading hate, violence and sensual content, exposing children to these content in growing ages might affect their thinking, which should be a very serious concern.

Social media is also accused that it is replacing the way people greet each other. Earlier people used to meet in person or contact over telephone calls, but now social media has replaced conventional medium and people wish each other by merely posting on each other’s timelines or walls.

Excess of everything is bad

As the old saying goes “Excess of everything is bad”, social media when used in access has its share of disadvantages. Social media provides a very powerful tool to connect with people, but it was never meant to replace real lives. People should keep a balance between their real life and their virtual life.

Every individual will have different opinions over advantages and disadvantages of social media, the fact that remains is that social media is a very powerful tool and its advantages and disadvantages depends upon the way user intends to use it.