Introduction:

Social media is an electronic communication medium that has developed rapidly in just a few years. The developments of the social media platforms and its usage have successfully reshaped the entire structure of the communication industry and it has effectively refined and changed how the individuals connect with one another. The usage of the variety of social media networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others, s not limited to the adults only. These have successfully attracted millions of users and thus the debate still goes on whether social media is a boon or a bane for the common people. On one hand, where the social media platforms have huge advantages in personal lives, professional lives, and in business, on the other hand, it has numerous consequences. The thesis statement that this argumentative essay aims to discuss is that social media enhances life and makes life much easier.

Discussion:

With the evolution of the modern technology, social media has developed rapidly because it has a plethora of advantages and positive impacts upon the people. However, it can also be argued that as the internet platforms increase their efficiency, there appear innumerable risks and disadvantages.  Kumar and Gapta discusses that everything in this world comes with its pros and cons. On one hand if there are advantageous elements of social media platforms, it also affects the society in a negative way.

Connectivity or victimization?

The prime advantage of the social media websites is that it helps the individuals to connect with the people all throughout the world with just a mere click (Drahosova and Balco). Connectivity has become extremely easy and the social media platforms have enabled the people to converse with anyone regardless of their religion or location. This also helps the people to learn a lot and gain knowledge from them, along with the fact of sharing their thoughts. However, it has been argued by the scientists that the use of the social media is not only limited to the adults, and the children become the primary victims of the negative consequences of social media use. As per the reports of the Pew Research Center of 2018, it has been found that almost 59 percent of the teenager and the children have been victims of the cyber bullying (Best, Manktelow and Taylor). They have been harassed and bullied on these online platforms where the percentage is the greatest on Instagram followed by Facebook (37 percent). The fake accounts on these websites target the innocent teenagers who have no proper knowledge of the cruel world, and threat or intimate them with messages, for which these adolescents often end up committing suicides. Also excessive use of the social media platforms is dangerous for the health of the individuals. The radiation as a result of the prolonged use creates extreme pressure on the eyes and brain. Most often the people forget to exercise, and stay fit, and thus end up sitting at one place gaining a lot of weight (Alobaidi). People also tend to be drug or alcohol addicted by following others on these online medium since they find them alluring and attractive.

Source of education or addiction?

In accordance with this, the social media and the online platforms are a great source of education. People can learn a variety of topics and subjects and thus this proves to be extremely beneficial for the students as well as the teachers. The professionals and the educators can easily impart their knowledge through the social media channels and people sitting anywhere in the world can have an easy access to the same. These platforms also make the learning attractive and to be more specific, education becomes interactive through the online platforms. Along with this, the people can share their personal as well as professional issues through the social media websites, since it can reach millions of people within just few seconds, and the person facing the issue can get a variety of solutions to it (Van der Bank and van der Bank). Apart from these, the most important con of social media is that it is extremely addictive. The teenagers are the most prominent victims of this addiction which not only disturbs their personal lives but also has a negative impact upon their academics. Getting involved in sharing posts, commenting and liking the social media content, they don’t realize that they eventually end up distancing themselves from the society and physical contact. They waste immense time on these platforms which could be utilized by them in a productive manner (Ashurst and McAlinden).

Information or misinformation?

The social media platforms are also a great source of information and updates. People active on these channels can receive each and every news even before the television channels or the print media publishes it and shares with the people. Individuals can easily update themselves with whatever is going on in their surroundings, ranging from entertainment news to politics (Escobar- Rodriguez, Elena Carvajal-Trujillo and Monge-Lozano). People can also share their opinion on respective topics, share and comment on social media posts which they like or which they feel that they should be a part of. Important facts from different subjects reach out to the people very easily. However, Often the posts and the information that are shared upon these platforms are shared in carelessness, which lead to the sharing of fake news. This often misleads the public and they tend to believe in them and the wrong information. People even do not try to find out the actual the truth behind the event and keep on believe on the social media content and the false truth that it propagates. The credibility of news has become a very important issue, where 25% credit goes to the social media platforms for sharing the wrong news. (Perloff)

Business benefit or risk?

Another great advantage of the social media is that it is a very active medium of promotion. The various social media channels act as the business promotion platforms where the brands and the organizations can promote their activities, products and services by attractive campaigns. Since this connects to a larger audience social media in today’s world can play a very important role of advertising the businesses and reach out to their target audience, with the help of pages, and posts (Kumar and Gapta). However, it can also be argued that social media also has security issues. People need to compromise their privacy and still be active on the social media. The security agencies have a clear access to the personal information of the social media users. Moreover, the pots and the social media content have an easy allowance and they can easily go viral. This can be a source of embarrassment for the company, business or even the individuals (Ghaznavi and Taylor). The social media trend, which implies making information public, can often end up impacting the reputation of the people and the businesses.

Public or Private?

Social media channels and platforms also have an added benefit because through this the people can spread awareness. These can also be used for noble causes such as collection of fund for the poor and the underprivileged, for various social welfare activities and also get associated with the NGOs for a social cause. Apart from this, the online platforms also play an import role to allow the people to showcase their talents and thus give them a chance of indentifying their creativity. It also teaches people and the comments or the shares encourage them to participate in online contests and be creative. Also the social media platforms can easily access the personal information of an individual, which accounts for the fact that there are privacy issues. Identity theft is the greatest among these cases, where several accounts on Facebook, twitter or Instagram have been hacked by professional hackers (Goudeau and Croizet). This eventually affects the lives of the persons and thus is dangerous

Motivation or Fraud?

Last but not the least, the social media platforms have the power to build up communities and also the brand awareness and business reputation. From the business perspective the positive comments about a company help the employers and the managers of the organization get connected to the customers and thus the relationship strengthens (Latif et.al). Moreover, from a social perspective people can discuss regarding topics of religion, politics and others and thus can connect easily with a group of communities. Different people coming from different background are not discriminated on the social media but they get unified and connected just on the basis of their common interests. There are also cases of frauds and scams on these social media platforms. There can be monetary scams since these websites easily make acquaintances and thus can be a severe trap to the businesses, especially startups. In addition to this most of the individuals have a tendency to start a relationship over the online platforms and eventually ends up proposing them without even meeting each other physically. Most of the cases end up in cheating, as most of the feelings shared are fake, along with fake information

 Conclusion:

Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that the social media has a lot number of advantages as well as disadvantages but the positives in this case overrule the negatives and thus there have been larger developments in the field of the social media platforms and also there have been several new and beneficial social media platforms that are coming up. In short, these platforms connect a lot number of people and have made their life easier in this modern generation.

Works Cited:

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