In the contemporary world and the age of the internet, social media platform has become one of the most efficient ways to communicate with the world (Chandy, 2014). The internet and social media combined have formed a global community where sharing of information and communication take place. One of the largely used social media networks is Facebook ("Facebook", 2018). Facebook site has more than 2 billion users worldwide. It is hard to imagine the world without its existence because people all over the world use Facebook especially for chatting and sharing pictures. The platform has undoubtedly revolutionized and changed how people see the world and communicate. Although Facebook has made communication and connectivity more efficient it has been instrumental in replacing conservative ideals with liberal ones, and this has dramatically changed how society members interact in a relatively short time.
Facebook started way back in 2004 as a simple idea on how to share information among peers but has grown to be a multinational corporation today. It was this novel idea that changed how the world communicated and shared information (Hay & Hay, 2011). The social media platform is attributed to the readily available internet connections in many parts of the world. The use and availability of internet-enabled smartphones have also revolutionized and contributed to the growth of social media platforms. When Facebook first started it had little effects to the society. The platform growth has tremendously transformed the society especially the young generation.
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Most of the conservative traditional ideals of official communications have drastically been affected. For instance, social media was only taken as the informal social interactions but with time this has been changed by the predominance of the Facebook with many people in the modern society embracing Facebook in making communications. The shift is evident in increasing the number of the modern organizations and big corporations including Facebook itself making official communications through FB posts. Big companies are making posts which are regarded with certain levels of trust in the sources. More people are keeping up with current trends through this social media platform. This means a shift from the traditional ideals of communication and information sharing to the informal Facebook information sharing and communications. However, these changes fairly come with their positive and negative effects as addressed in this essay.
Facebook use has made communication easier and people are able to share information with more than one people at the same time. This is contrasting with traditional mediums of communication like letters and emails. Most people had to adapt to the new social media communication. The users also meet new friends; keep up with the old ones; contribute to educational aspects; share a birthday, age, relationship, and life experiences. The users are also able to share photos and video, make calls using the Facebook Messenger and many other positive effects as discussed below.
Ideally, the social platform was formed to facilitate information sharing and communication. The innovation that came with Facebook social networking was long overdue considering how people adopted the platform with ease. Before Facebook, sharing of information was via the email or telegraph which were slow in some in various ways. They were the only fast methods of information dissemination. The innovations in computer communication Facebook social network a reality. Today even the most conservative person in one way or the other appreciates the importance of Facebook social platform as the fast information sharing and communication medium.
Facebook has been able to bring the world together under one platform. Most people including its founder refer to Facebook as the global community. This refers to the capability of sharing information with more than one people at once which is made possible by the platform capability of video streaming and telecommunication, live chats in closed groups and pages. When these come together, they made Facebook a leading social platform which is bringing the world together and closer to everyone.
Making and meeting new friends has never been the same since the entrance of Facebook as a medium in the social world. People make and meet new friend via Facebook which is made possible by the friend request utilities. This has changed how people socialize as well as the social life in the modern society. Traditionally, making new friends was limited geographically as people could only make friends within their reach. Today, one can have a friend from around the world without necessarily having to meet them personally. All one has to do is to send a friend request, and then the other person if interested accept the request and start chatting and sharing. This has brought people around the world together sharing different cultures, values, beliefs, and behaviors.
Facebook has enabled the users to keep in touch with family and friends. The platform has become a great way of keeping in touch with family and friends that live far away. The Facebook instant messaging and video chat create a perfect way to stay connected with them. These platform capabilities bring them close even if they are far away. With status updates, photos, and profile information, help keep up to date with what is happening with their close friends and loved ones.
The social media platform has been used by the majority of the user as a way of self-expression. Expressing yourself using Facebook has been made easier with simple status updates. The latest utilities like emojis and comment expressions have also contributed much to how people express their feelings and emotions on their timeline. People have used their status updates to vent out their life experiences and encounters, and the majority feels relieved after expressing their feelings. Another thing that makes Facebook a way of personal expression is the ease of personal express without feeling embarrassed as compared to one-on-one expression.
Beside social life, Facebook has also contributed to the way businesses are conducted in the modern business world. Many of the businesses today use have appreciated the need for social networking and the role it is playing in business. Facebook is being used a way of reaching out to the prospective customers and in the creation of brand awareness. Facebook has utilities for opening a business page which will be used to reach out to the customers. Therefore, modern businesses consider Facebook as one of the trending marketing strategies. The good thing about this method of marketing it is cheaper and reaches large market compared to other traditional marketing methods Kerpen, 2011).
The modern-day politics is also largely applying the use of social media especially Facebook to reach out to the online followers ("Social Media in Politics - Twitter and Facebook as Campaigns Tools", 2018). The platform is used to ignite political opinions from various political groups and interests. Many politicians today hardly ignore the Facebook community of their society. They use the social platform to sell their agendas and political manifestoes. This has changed how and the way people share their political sentiments affecting their daily lives. Initially, such opinions were never taken seriously sadly because by then social media was not regulated. Today anything that goes viral in the social media community attracts the attention from all corners of the political divide. Therefore, Facebook is being used to air the issues affecting the modern society.
Facebook is also playing a critical part in the education sector. The society has accepted the role of social media in improving education. Facebook is being used by the student to share learning material, lecture materials or assignments and other concerns of the school. Some today schools are also using the social platform as the noticeboard to the students. Majority of education stakeholders have also appreciated the role of Facebook today by acknowledging its use in carrying out various education activities like communicating with students and parents.
Although Facebook has been a communication and social life game changer in the modern society, it has negative impacts that have adverse effects on the individuals and the society as the whole (Missaoui, Abdessalem & Latapy, 2017). To start with privacy, society is mindful of the people’s privacy and breach of this is detrimental to the people personality and reputation. Privacy is a major concern in the modern world of social networking. Therefore, people were very mindful when making taking part in the social networking. Recently Facebook has been faced with various privacy issues which risked the privacy breach of millions of social media users. However, most of the Facebook users are not aware of the privacy policies they sign when joining Facebook. This has led to many of the Facebook user sharing information that if there are a security breach and the information leak to wrong people, majority stand being exposed to their personal world.
The modern society full of cyber bullies and Facebook is not an exemption (Hinduja & Patchin, 2008). Facebook is one of the targets of cyberbullies who only thrive in social media platforms. Cyberbullying occurs when a person is harassed through words comments and pictures that are offensive to their values, beliefs, and behaviors. Another kind of bullying is social media monitoring by maybe a friend of a parent that limit the social media privacy. A person can be ganged up easily in the social media than they can be in the real environment. Social media bullying can detrimental to the user's personality and self-esteem. Social media bullying can also take the form of racism, intelligence, appearance, and many others.
Facebook has also caused relationship problems like family or relationship break-ups. Facebook has made people share their life with the whole or chosen group of people but some of this closeness may cause a problem with one's spouse because of closeness with virtual friends or jealousy of the attraction and attention a spouse get from the Facebook. These can result in tension in the relationships or eventual break-ups. Facebook friendship sometimes can lead to long-term relationships a form of relationships which never existed before social media era. This has undermined the family values and mutual relationships in the modern societies.
Social media is considered to be highly distractive and Facebook is one of the social networking causes of distraction. Online distractions have been major societal concerns especially the young working class (Sharp, 2016). The young people and there urge to be up to date with the current trends and Facebook posts, make them to checking their Facebook status updates. The society has criticised Facebook on the worldwide distraction and addiction to the social media technologies which have amounted to a significant amount of time wasted. There is a current trend which is termed “the social media detox” which means abstinence from the use of social media.
There are also fears of identity theft which is rampant in the social media platforms. Some people may expose a lot of personal information on their Facebook profile which risks social media identity theft (Zou, 2018). Providing personal information such as e-mail address, school and place of work, date of birth, contact, home address and others are enough information other people can use to impersonate. These risk your personal identity where people can use it to get money or get privileges pretending to be you.
It is fair, according to the above illustrations on the impacts of Facebook to the modern society, to conclude that Facebook social network has revolutionized various sectors in the modern society. It has been established that, with modern advancement in information sharing and communication, Facebook stands at the most strategic position to gain more grounds as the preferred medium of communication and information sharing. The positive impacts it has on the modern world need to be regulated because they also come with negative impacts and costs. Therefore, the issues of social media security and users privacy need to be addressed to safeguard the future of social media communications.
References
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“Social Media in Politics - Twitter and Facebook as Campaigns Tools.” (2018). Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534
Sharp, J. (2016). Advantages and disadvantages of digital communications in the workplace - Real Business. Retrieved from https://realbusiness.co.uk/tech-and-innovation/2016/06/07/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-digital-communications-in-the-workplace/
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