The Benefits of Social Media
Why social media is not as bad as we make it out to be
The first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997, which initiated the popularity of blogging. Since then, social media has exploded with sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gaining prominence during the early 2000s and Youtube in 2005 creating a completely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across great distances. However, recently there has been an onslaught of new articles about social media, many degrading it and talking about its negative impact on individuals and society. It has become trendy to shame social media. I feel slightly hypocritical because unfortunately, I’m another person writing about social media — quite an overly-talked-about subject — however I’d like to put a twist on this and put into perspective some of its benefits and why I believe social media is more beneficial to both the individual and society rather than detrimental. The reasons for my perspective are because social media can maintain and create relationships, further educate, and increase visibility of ourselves and others.
First and foremost, there is no denying that social media is going to be our future. Social networking has shot up in the past decade and is seeing an increasing trend for the future. Social media use worldwide is increasing at a rate of 150 million users per year, according to Statista, a leading provider of market data. The next generation of children is only going to use it more as they grow up. For this reason we must figure out how to keep social media a constructive part of our lives and how to combat any negative aspects that may currently exist. There are three primary reasons as to why social media is valuable.
- SOCIAL MEDIA CAN MAINTAIN AND CREATE RELATIONSHIPS
Social media is most often not exactly true to life — we don’t always post about our break ups, our hard times, or times of financial crisis — because that’s not the function and purpose of it. The underlying purpose of social media that has been forgotten is connection. Engagement, storytelling, and relationships are a few of the many sub-purposes of social media. Relationships that are important in your life, such as friends and family, can be maintained by the sharing of day-to-day information. They can see what you are up to immediately, which helps them stay better updated with your life and thus more connected to you.
According to a studies done about social media use, 93 percent of adults on Facebook use it to connect with family members, 91 percent use it to connect with current friends, and 87 percent use it to connect with friends from the past (Duggan). This makes it clear that social media is the preferred method of keeping in touch with those close to us. Additionally, 72 percent of all teens connect with friends via social media. 83 percent of these teens report that social media helps them feel more connected to information about their friends’ lives, 70 percent report feeling more connected to their friends’ feelings, and 57 percent make new friends (Lenhart). These results make sense, considering the inconvenient alternative of sending individual messages to everyone we want to keep in touch with on a weekly or monthly basis.
We also have the ability to form relationships with people and brands all across the world. By posting popular content and gaining a significant amount of followers or subscribers, we have the opportunity to gain brand deals with various companies and form relationships with them which is a form of mutualism: it provides profit and cost-reduced marketing for them, and for us, we can profit either financially or by follower count. Social media has developed into the best new marketing platform because it is much cheaper than alternative methods such as television advertisements, radio ads, physical paper ads, or online advertisements. Take for example, the newly created fashion brand Brave and Bliss. They reach out to hundreds of “lifestyle instagrammers” on a monthly basis for promotional purposes. Their deal: purchase one of their products using a discount code for 70 percent off, then send a picture of you with the product to them through direct messages and post it on your personal account. Because the audience of these instagrammers is Brave and Bliss’s target market, this marketing method offers visibility for both the instagrammer and the brand as well, which is a double benefit. This type of cheap marketing is beneficial, especially for smaller brands that are trying to grow and compete with securely-standing mega businesses.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA EDUCATES
Not only does social media create relationships, but it also helps to further educate the people using it. As the world becomes increasingly connected on these social media platforms, it becomes easier and faster to spread national and international news around to millions of people. Facebook is the obvious news powerhouse among the social media sites. Roughly two-thirds (64 percent) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there — amounting to 30 percent of the general population. YouTube is the next biggest social news pathway — about half of Americans use the site, and a fifth of them get news there, which translates to 10 percent of the adult population and puts the site on par with Twitter. Twitter reaches 16 percent of Americans and half of those users say they get news there, or 8 percent of Americans. And although only 3 percent of the U.S. population use reddit, for those that do, getting news there is a major draw — 62 percent have gotten news from the site (Anderson).
According to additional studies, half of social network site users have shared news stories, images or videos, and nearly as many (46 percent) have discussed a news issue or event. In addition to sharing news on social media, a small number are also covering the news themselves, by posting photos or videos of news events. Pew Research found that in 2014, 14% of social media users posted their own photos of news events to a social networking site, while 12% had posted videos (Pew research). This practice has played a role in a number of recent breaking news events, including the riots in Ferguson, Mo.
As for teens, the social media gurus of this day and age, they want to be aware and informed just as much as adults. Using social media allows teens to follow organizations and causes that they believe in. It makes them feel like they are a part of something, even when they feel like an outcast in society. Increased teen awareness is important so that they can grow into adulthood with a well-rounded understanding of the world. Social media is one of the best outlets to reach the minds of young people to make a real difference.
“The power of social media to raise money for candidates, recruit people to participate in marches and rallies, to organize boycotts of products or the overthrow of governments is one of the best-documented — and most debated — powers of social media.” — Ethan Zuckerman
3. SOCIAL MEDIA INCREASES VISIBILITY OF OURSELVES AND OTHERS
Social media allows us to discover people that we would have never otherwise heard of. For example, Youtube is a great way of finding creators of video content. I have been exposed to many different types of personalities and content on the Youtube platform, and learned about things I’m interested in ranging from topics such as photography and celebrity news to motivational videos on how to more effectively study. On Instagram, I have found various professional photographers such as Peter McKinnon and Patrick Janelle that have inspired me to begin exploring photography and improving my mobile photography and editing skills. There are thousands, if not millions, of stories similar to mine where people have been influenced and gained inspiration through others shared content on social media.
We can also ourselves become discovered through social media. This can occur with instant virality, or by consistently posting content that appeals to a certain audience(s). Take for example, the story of Justin Bieber. Justin was born in 1994 in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, to a single mother. He took second place in a local talent competition at a young age, and after his mother posted YouTube clips of her boy performing, Justin went from an unknown, untrained singer to a budding superstar with a big-time record deal with Usher within two years (Biography.com). Or Pewdiepie, who had a similar rags to riches story with Youtube with consistent postings about gaming. Being able to become well known simply by posting our talents or content that appeals to a certain audience makes it so that absolutely anyone with a social media presence can have the opportunity to grow their personal brand.
Social media is a platform to share more about what we are passionate about, whether that be a business you have started, a new organization, or our artwork. It can help us gain a larger platform and reach more people than traditional marketing because it reaches all ages and demographics. And most importantly, it can help us stay in touch with those that we love and create new relationships with others that we find on social media. For those children who feel marginalized in their local community, social media can help them connect with other people who share the same interests or outlook on life. With social media becoming a significant part of daily life, the way forward is to keep improving it and to keep using it in a constructive way.
SOURCES
Amanda Lenhart, Aaron Smith, Monica Anderson, Maeve Duggan and Andrew Perrin, “Teens, Technology & Friendships: Video Games, Social Media and Mobile Phones Play a Role in How Teens Meet and Interact with Friends,” pewinternet.org, Aug. 2015
Anderson, Monica, and Andrea Caumont. “How Social Media Is Reshaping News.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 24 Sept. 2014, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/.
“Justin Bieber.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 14 Sept. 2018, www.biography.com/people/justin-bieber-522504.
Maeve Duggan, Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, and Mary Madden, “Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms,” pewinternet.org, Jan. 9, 2015
Staff Reporter. “How Social Media Is Helping News Spread Faster than Ever.” Bulawayo24 News, bulawayo24.com/index-id-technology-sc-internet-byo-119106.html.
