The increasing technological developments and media have promoted globalization, which is a crucial aspect in the contemporary society. Social media plays a significant role in globalization, which is sociologically important. Evidence indicate that social media promotes social change. It has created a global village that has enabled people to make connections more easily and on a wider scale. For example, people use social media to update information and events going on across the globe such as through blogging, posting, and tweeting. People are able to interact in various ways and in some instances the connections are more creative. Social networks allows people to influence each other in many different ways. Interaction is a major source of fulfillment and happiness and provide satisfaction to individuals. Humans depend on each other emotionally and most of them will share both negative and positive qualities. In addition, various social movements are using social media to spread their message effectively worldwide. Globalization contributes to structuration of new types and forms of groups and social relationships, which is a key conceptual aspect for sociology ( Nadeem, Andreini, Salo & Laukkanen, 2015). Therefore, social media is seen as a very sophisticated tool that makes social connections possible to human beings.
Background
How Technology Spread Globally
Social media is a communication technology that is being used increasingly across the globe. Examples of social media platforms that are being used include Facebook, YouTube, telephones, mobile phones, and internet. The spread of technology began in 1900 with a series of technologies that are now common and widely used in the current world. These technologies have spread quickly across the globe and have reached a 50% penetration. Examples of these technologies include refrigerator, telephone, dishwasher, washing machine, computers, cell phone, computer, automobile, radio, electricity, and stove among others. The spread of these technologies have generated significant changes that impacts on the environment around us. They created new knowledge that has allowed people to establish new things as well as made other scientific endeavors possible. These technological advances are the major factors that globalization has increased in the past decade. Communication and information technology have become more affordable and efficient and has made the world look like a smaller place that has promoted the rise of globalization ( Sobré-Denton, 2016).
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Factors that Made Technology become Popular
Technological advancements has resulted in development of sophisticated information technologies that have resulted in creation of numerous transformations especially in communications. Computer-based technology in particular have made profound changes in the field of communication and information technology over the past decade. The internet has linked global telecommunications that has facilitated easy access to information and bring current events to people worldwide. The dramatic developments in telecommunication technology has changed the way of life at either leisure, school, work, or at home. It has played a significant role in connecting individuals across the globe whereby people use telecommunication devices to contact each other instantly through video calls, chat programs, and email. The instant communication has changed social lives and businesses in major ways. It has influenced on new cultures and increased standard of living that have raised social and economic concerns. In addition, it has changed the nature of international competition. These rapid changes contributed to its popularity and its increased spread of technology globally ( Sobré-Denton, 2016).
Another aspect that made technology popular is its role in globalization. Emergence in communication technology transformed communication in major ways. It has made communication safer and more efficient that has led to development of a global village. It has also changed the way businesses are conducted. It has increased the scale of trade between nations and made trade to be easier and efficient to conduct thereby making it become increasingly international. Innovations in businesses often include utilization of communication and information technology, making trade more convenient to conduct ( Sobré-Denton, 2016). Therefore, the contribution of social media towards globalization made it popular thereby facilitating its spread globally.
The Current Issue
There are some contentious debate in the current society about the impact of social media on globalization. Some claim that communication technology has caused a negative effect on different cultures around the world. Since social media facilitate globalization, it is believed to be a bad force. They contend that although communication technology has had a positive influence on many culture and businesses and has generated improved economic development and cultural hybridization, it can manipulated for bad just like all processes. However, despite the challenges of the digital divide, it is increasingly common to find many people including entrepreneurs and farmers using internet and mobile phones to connect to markets. For instance, research has shown that people worldwide are using social media such as email to communicate with their friends, family, or business partners. This is evident that emergence of communication technology like the social media have had significant implications on culture and economy of various nations worldwide ( Seeck & Rantanen, 2015).
In addition, it has been argued that communication technology is changing the way businesses would be conducting their operations. It is replacing the old ways for conducting business with a new one. A new global economy that is based totally on virtual world is being promoted by globalization of social media. Additionally, globalization has resulted in transformation of social relations and thus can make a big difference. The viryual reality of globalization is being met with some resistance ( Seeck & Rantanen, 2015).
According to Seeck and Rantanen (2015), t he social media has been in the forefront in spreading cultural and economic globalization. Without communication technology, we would not have achieved technology advancement, globalization, and democracy. It has been used by social movements to help remove a bad government from authority, for example in countries like Egypt and Libya thereby facilitating acquisition of democracy. Therefore, to address the current issue of the negative impact of communication technology on cultures, it is important for us to understand our contemporary world and acquire awareness about the role the social media has played in shaping our world and how it has defined it.
Sociological Analysis
In sociological analyses of globalization, media such as mobile phones, computers, and the internet have been thought to be among the fundamental forces of the current restructuration of cultural and social geography. Electronic media has enhanced and increased interconnectedness throughout the globe promoting flexibility in social interaction. Social media is one of the driving force of globalization that has changed the world. It is used in social sciences in discussing the international questions. It has allowed universalism, integration, synchronization, and homogeneity. However, globalization has a tendency for promoting diversity, differentiation, heterogeneity, and localization. These processes are inter twined and signify different faces of a coin ( Hu, Gu, Liu & Huang, 2017). Therefore, this means that globalization is not a uniform process but may include different terrains and displays itself in differently in several contexts and has diverse impact on the social and cultural contexts of people.
The modern era of globalization has made the world to have permeable borders. The dominant social forces worldwide in the contemporary society to address certain interests created the concept of globalization. The social forces provide themselves a new conceptual name called “international community” to align with the idea of globalization. Critics have argued that the current globalization is not very different from the old fashioned colonialism. Globalization has been met with resistance and it is not a new thing. For instance, since Opium War, China has been resisting globalization. They argue that globalization is imperialism in disguise and has similar intention of having control over resources and the right of authority. However, these is not true because social media promotes development of a global media system that facilitate easy communication across national boundaries. The penetration of new media technologies in the global world has contributed significantly towards promoting increased access, transmission, and retrieval of information. Scholars and intellectuals have been discussing about the international aspects of social media over the past decades. For instance, there have been numerous discussions about the paramount importance of social media on social change. Moreover, media globalization has had an unprecedented impact on the social structure. It has created diversity of media content that has enormous cultural implications. The global flows of social media have resulted in contradictory impact on culture. It has created new hybrid cultures under globalization. Proliferation of cultural globalization through social media poses a great threat on cultures, which has raised questions on how cultures can be preserved in future. In addition, it is argued that despite the increasing transcend national borders; social media does not establish a public sphere at global or transnational level. Globalization of media platform has resulted in formation of public opinions by people within their own global level but it is still tied to a national level ( Hu, Gu, Liu & Huang, 2017).
Social media provides a platform for formation of global networks that are important in mobilization of international support in social movements. The emergence of social media has generated rapid emergence of revolutionized communication that are important aspects in social movements. It has been seen as an important tool used in shaping the agendas of social movements and assisting in collective action at the global or local level. The most significant ability of social media is to allow ordinary citizens to organize and connect themselves to the world. Social media websites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook provide people with a voice to be heard and this is why many social movements are making use of social media to articulate their concerns to reach the world system at a large extent ( Hu, Gu, Liu & Huang, 2017).
Conclusions
The contentious debate about the negative impact on social media on cultural globalization requires solutions to address the issue. Many have argued that cultural globalization has resulted in development of homogeneity, which in turn has led to decline in domestic local cultures. This problem can be addressed through revitalization of domestic cultures under globalization. Taking media ethnographic approaches will offer an important evidence against the inaccuracy of social media on our global society. These solutions will be effective because they would provide awareness of the paramount importance of cultural globalization in our contemporary society. Information on importance of social media on globalization would help embrace technology fully because it contributes significantly in our society. The key points that can be taken from the research is that social media is sociologically important because it has created a global village that has allowed people to make connections with each other across the globe. Social media is an important communication technology that contributes to social change in society. It has influenced people in major and different ways. For instance, it has made it easy for people to access information, communicate with each other via the social media platform, and allow business people to make connections in their market industry. Additionally, it allows people to connect, nurture their dreams and those of others, shape politics, and form opinions. In addition, it has provided social movements with a platform to voice their concerns and bring change in our society (Zhu, 2017). Therefore, although globalization of social media has resulted in significant changes, it has significant positive impact on all realm of society including economic, political, cultural, and social aspects of our lives.
References
Hu, S., Gu, J., Liu, H., & Huang, Q. (2017). The moderating role of social media usage in the relationship among multicultural experiences, cultural intelligence, and individual creativity. Information Technology & People , 30 (2), 265-281.
Nadeem, W., Andreini, D., Salo, J., & Laukkanen, T. (2015). Engaging consumers online through websites and social media: A gender study of Italian Generation Y clothing consumers. International Journal of Information Management , 35 (4), 432-442.
Seeck, H., & Rantanen, T. (2015). Media events, spectacles and risky globalization: a critical review and possible avenues for future research. Media, culture & society , 37 (2), 163-179.
Sobré-Denton, M. (2016). Virtual intercultural bridgework: Social media, virtual cosmopolitanism, and activist community-building. New Media & Society , 18 (8), 1715-1731.
Zhu, Q. (2017). Citizen-driven international networks and globalization of social movements on Twitter. Social Science Computer Review , 35 (1), 68-83.
