Social Media And Our Lives

by Veena

Over the past decade or so, the world has seen Social Media stimulate the society in every possible way. It has its outreach in Politics, Business, Entertainment, Education, and much more. But come to think of it, don’t you think Social Media has really changed the way we used to live? We, as human beings have changed a great deal, it necessary doesn’t mean a 100% good change, but nevertheless we have changed our own lives.

Social Media has brought in light to our lives in many forms. The younger generation is benefiting the maximum out of it and so are the older ones. It not only is working its magic for networking purposes but also has immense span in Business, politics and education. The Audio and Visual Entertainment has been completely revolutionized by the grand entré of Social Media earlier this century. The world literally is feeling smaller now with all the real time networking and communication channels across the globe.

Let’s just take a look at what Social Media offers to the world that we cannot live without in the present scenario:

• Literacy – It stands to reason that children who read and write more are better at doing so now. This is possible because of all the writing of blog posts, status updates, text messages, instant messages, and the like that motivate children to read and write.
• Intimacy between people – Nowadays it has become a cakewalk to keep in touch with people through Social Media, with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible otherwise.
• Information revolution – Wikipedia and Google have galvanized information to the point where anyone is able to acquire the knowledge they may want. Anybody with an internet connection may gather information through the various Social media resources. It is to be noted that there are specific sites for Travel, Health and medicine, Gaming, Financial, Scientific, and even cooking and pet keeping that offer best of knowledge and brings together members that are interested in sharing their precious knowledge and acquired experiences.
• Changing Political scenarios – A recent report by PEW found signs that social networks may be encouraging younger people to get involved in politics. The popularity enjoyed by the election of Barrack Obama is enough to spill out the power of Social Media especially “Twitter” where Mr. President often appears on a regular basis communicating with his countrymen and people from world over.  It is seen that more and more people are getting involved in politics and are feeling they can make a difference.
• Marketing and Advertising – The traditional approach of marketing and advertising focusing on wide reach and repetitive messaging is now being replaced by many much smaller, niche and people-centric activities. We need to realize that Advertising isn’t dying, it’s merely changing form. We now have more power and more choice.

Susan Greenfield, a renowned researcher in Social Issues thinks that social networking is turning us into babies, shrinking our attention spans, our ability to empathize, and eroding our identity which might be termed as “losing social skills” or “losing humanity”. But then isn’t Social Media about being more social? We are more engaged with friends, we are more literate, more connected, more open to creating new relationships, and generally more interested in the world around us. Probably the whole point is to use our resources wisely and choose a better life for ourselves.