Information and communications technology has changed rapidly over the past 20 years with key developments being the emergence of social media.
The pace of change is accelerating. For example, the development of mobile technology has played a major role in shaping the impact of social media. Across the globe, mobile devices dominate in terms of total minutes spent online. This puts the means to connect anywhere, anytime on any device into the hands of everyone.
Why people share information
A fascinating study by the New York Times Consumer Insight Group revealed the motivations that participants cited for sharing information on social media. These include a desire to reveal valuable and entertaining content to others; to define themselves; to grow and nurture relationships; and to spread the word about brands and causes they like or support.
These factors have caused social media to move from being a useful means of keeping in touch with friends and family to being used in ways that have a real impact on society.
Social media is being used in ways that shape politics, business, global culture, education, careers, innovation, and more. Impact of social media:
The effect of social media on politics
A new Pew Research study claims that 62 percent of people get their news from social media, and 18 percent do so very frequently.
Compared to other media, the influence of social media on political campaigns has increased tremendously. Social media is playing an increasingly important role in electoral politics.
The New York Times reports that “The election of Donald J. Trump is perhaps the best illustration that across the planet, social media is fundamentally helping to reconnect human society .” Because social media allows people to communicate with each other more freely, it is helping to create surprisingly influential social organizations among once-marginalized groups.
The impact of social media on society
Nearly a quarter of the world’s population is now on Facebook. In the United States, nearly 80% of all internet users are on this platform. Because social media feeds on interactions between people, it grows more powerful as it grows.
Thanks to the internet, people from minority groups can see that they are not alone. And when these people find each other through social media, they can do things: create memes, posts, and entire online worlds that reinforce their worldview, and then break into the mainstream.
Without social media, social, ethical, and environmental issues would have minimal visibility. The increased visibility of issues has shifted the balance of power from a few hands to the masses.
The flip side: social media is slowly killing real activism and replacing it with “slacktivism.”
While social media activism is bringing increased awareness to social issues, questions remain about whether this awareness is translating into real change.
Some argue that social sharing has encouraged people to use computers and mobile phones to voice their concerns about social issues without having to actively engage with campaigns in real life. Their support is limited to hitting the “like” button or sharing content.
This is a very human reaction when people have options that absolve them of the responsibility to act. A 2013 study by the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia found that when people are presented with the option to “like” a social cause, they use it to opt out of spending time and money on a charitable cause. On the other hand, when people are able to show their support privately, they are more likely to show meaningful support in terms of making a financial contribution.
Researchers found that a public endorsement is an action intended to satisfy the opinions of others, while people who give privately do so because the cause is aligned with their values.
The impact of social media on commerce
The rise of social media means that it is unusual to find an organization that does not reach out to its customers through one social media platform or another. Businesses see the importance of using social media to connect with customers and generate revenue.
Companies have realized that they can use social media to generate ideas, stimulate demand, and create targeted product offerings.
Many studies suggest that implementing social media in the workplace can strengthen knowledge sharing. The result is improved project management activities and enables the dissemination of specialized knowledge. Fully implementing social technologies in the workplace removes boundaries can increase interaction and helps create more highly skilled and knowledgeable workers.
The flip side: low numbers of social ‘shares’ can lead to negative social proof and destroy business credibility.
Interestingly, although social media use has become the norm rather than the exception in business, some companies, after experiencing some negative effects of social media firsthand, have decided to go against the grain and remove social media buttons from their websites.
An e-commerce retailer in Finland found that conversions increased by 11.9% when they removed share buttons from their product pages.
These results highlight the double-edged nature of social media’s impact. When products attract a lot of shares, they can boost sales. But when the opposite happens, customers begin to distrust the product and the company. This is what Dr. Paul Marsden, psychologist and author of the “Social Commerce Handbook,” called “social proof.”
The effects of social media on the world of work
Social media has had a profound effect on recruiting and hiring. 19 percent of hiring managers make their hiring decisions based on information found on social media. According to CareerBuilder’s 2016 Social Media Recruiting Survey, 60 percent of employers use social media sites to source candidates. Professional social media networks like LinkedIn are important platforms for anyone looking to stand out in their profession. They allow people to create and market a personal brand.
The impact of social media on training and development
Candidates who develop skills in the latest and most advanced social media techniques are much more employable.
A 2013 survey by Pearson Learning Solutions reported a significant increase in the use of social media in learning. More than half of the educators interviewed agreed that social sharing encourages interaction, providing an environment that fosters learning.
Blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and podcasts are now common tools for learning in many educational institutions. Social media has contributed to the rise of long-distance online learning. Despite issues of lack of privacy and some instances of cheating among long-distance learners, this has not deterred social platforms from being used in education.
The moral challenges of social media
Social media has been blamed for promoting social problems such as:
Cyberbullying:
Teenagers have a need to fit in, be popular, and outdo others. This process was a challenge long before the advent of social media. Add Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram to the mix, and suddenly teens are subject to the pressure of growing up too quickly in an online world.
Michael Hamm, a researcher at the University of Alberta, conducted a study that showed the effects of social media on bullying. 23% of teens reported being targeted, and 15% said they had bullied someone on social media. Teens can misuse social media platforms to spread rumors, share videos meant to destroy reputations, and blackmail others.
Lack of privacy:
Stalking, identity theft, personal attacks, and misuse of information are some of the threats faced by social media users. More often than not, users themselves are to blame, as they end up sharing content that shouldn’t be in the public eye. The confusion stems from a lack of understanding of how the private and public elements of an online profile actually work. Unfortunately, by the time private content is removed, it’s usually too late and can cause problems in people’s personal and professional lives.
The impact of social media on personal relationships
One of the effects of social media is to encourage people to form and cherish artificial bonds over real friendships. The term “friend,” as used on social media, lacks the intimacy identified with conventional friendships, where people actually know each other, want to talk to each other, have an intimate bond, and frequently interact face-to-face.
Conclusion
It is said that information is power. Without a medium of information distribution, people cannot harness the power. One positive impact of social media is the distribution of information in today’s world. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others have made it possible to access information at the click of a button.
Research by parse.ly shows that the life expectancy of a story posted on the web is 2.6 days, compared to 3.2 days when a story is shared on social media. That’s a 23% difference, which is significant when you consider that billions of people use the internet on a daily basis.
This means that the longer the information is circulating, the more discussion it will generate and the greater the impact of social media will be.
While the world would be a much slower place without social media, it has caused as much harm as good. However, the positive impact of social media is astronomical and far outweighs the ills associated with sharing.
At the end of the day, sharing is about getting people to see and respond to content. As long as the content remains relevant and the need for information still exists, it is always worthwhile for any organization using social media to continue posting.
If you need help creating and managing your social networks, please do not hesitate to contact us.
