Today’s world is influenced significantly by the flow of information through electronic platforms and systems of communication influenced by technology. The demand for high-tech innovation is only matched by the necessity for the modern populous to keep up with the times, for one of man’s greatest fears is to be left behind. It is vital to note that the Internet is a valuable attribute of modern time that is logically applicable to the improvement of the human life and mankind on the whole. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Internet on Social relationships and changes the way people interact in their daily lives.
First of all, it is vital to note that people who do not take advantage of the massive amount of information available for them risk lagging behind the scenes of modernity. The Internet is useful for ordinary use of sites and social networks for the purpose of communication, research and academic endeavors, doing business, and for keeping in touch with the latest local, national, and international news. Therefore, the Internet permeates all the different aspects of life. This means that everyone is affected by the Internet and all communications are to be done through the Internet. This will inevitably change the way people interact with each other. The old system of interacting with your neighbors next door and dealing with things on a simple proximate level is changed by the Internet which shapes the way things are done.
In the past, knowledge was limited to a few people and a few learning centers. To talk about psychology or history or sociology, one had to sit in school and learn them. Social interactions were not very rich and was based on what a person was and what a person had studied. However, the Internet has changed all this and this is evident in social relationships. Websites like Wikipedia serve as the base knowledge about interesting facts, features, persons, events, and phenomena related to the human history and various disciplines. This system allows people to share knowledge and interact and update common platforms which educates and increases people’s understanding and competency. This process is called crowd sourcing, and it relies on the sum of knowledge possessed by all people who use Wikipedia to ensure that the information presented is factual”.
Hence, a collective participation in contributing the knowledge base available for everyone who has access to the Internet made people globally united and informed regarding numerous things, people, facts, and features. This allows people to gain information and share information significantly and achieve advancement in various levels without the need for old and traditional methods of education and rigidity that fed into elitism and creation of classes in society.
Classes are torn down and human beings of all backgrounds can achieve higher dreams through the use of the Internet. This is further enriched by platforms like Google Books and Google Scholar which allows people to learn and improve their social interactions. This ranges from parenting, conversations, social group activities and many others. One study has shown that today both students and teachers are using the Internet with its numerous valuable academic resources and that the Internet has a positive impact in their academic performance “in writing more research papers, in doing better research, better learning experience”. Thus, academic research has not been so fun and easy before the invention of the Internet.
Social interaction is now virtual. The old system of communicating with people if and only if you were next to them is long gone. In the past, people normally married from their cities. People dated only if they met physically and initiated their interactions from those direct connections. With the advent of social networking including Facebook and Twitter, there has been a social paradigm in the form of human relationships. Virtual environments for social media are based on human interests, audience of followers or people to follow, and posts and comments of the users: “One of the main reasons for joining social networks is the need of socialization and the sense of belonging to a community”.
Users turn to a new paradigm of behavior online with further possibility of demonstrating their intentions in real life. People get to know each other for the sake of friendship, dating, ordinary communication, and business. Furthermore, human relationships represented on social networking sites for the co-creation of value and establishment of human and intellectual capital: “Social media companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have high relationship IC [intellectual capital] and derive most of their market value and indeed revenues from their ability to monetize their networked customer relationships”. In other words, human relationships have become easier with their start online and continuation in real life, meanwhile they also become involved in the marketing and business aspects of the Internet.
The Internet has become inseparable in the activities of any successful company: “The Internet is now an indispensable communication tool for companies covering a wide range of functions, as a way of advertising, to educate or to communicate, as a way of interact, to construct and to support relations”. Trade and commerce has changed significantly over the past 10 years. This is because there are various networks and systems through which banking and purchasing can be done over the Internet.
There are numerous social networks, professional forums, trade platforms, and sites like eBay, Amazon, and others that are used for commerce and transactions. The business world has improved its performance with the new opportunities provided by Internet. For instance, financial markets and their dynamics can be seen in real time on special trading platforms such as Bloomberg. People do not have to go to a store to buy something, as long as they can order it online. Not only goods, but services as well have become closer to the current and potential customers. Advertisement campaigns on various web sites are ubiquitously attracting more users.
In conclusion, the Internet influences the way people interact and form social relationships. Technology has changed the way people gather information and knowledge and has democratized knowledge acquisition and destroyed the old class system where few people could have access to things. The Internet and technology has changed the way people buy and sell and also continues to change the way all forms of communication is done.
Works Cited
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Gross, Clifford M. Too Good To Fail: Creating Marketplace Value from the World’s Brightest Minds. New York: Springer Science and Business Media, 2013. Print.
Kumar, B.T. Sampath and Geeta Manjunath. "Internet use and its impact on the academic performance of university teachers and researchers: A comparative study." Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning 3.3 (2013): 219-238. Print.
Ryan, Peter K. Social Networking. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2011. Print.
