What is Social Networks or Social Media?
Even in the olden times, it’s the nature of humanity to communicate with one another. Back then, they use signs and then developed languages in order to understand each other. Just as the old saying goes, “No man is an island,” most people hate being alone or feeling alone. That is why the development of social media has left a huge impact on our daily lives. Nowadays, you can video call or chat with someone who is thousands of miles away from you with the power of social media. The most popular social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Moreau, 2016). They all have their own features that make each other different. But, back when there was still no Internet around, people use pen and paper and were pen pals in order to do the things that we are doing now. Socialization with the use of communication has been used even in earlier times. Their means, however, was just by writing letters to be able to talk to someone across great distances. This was unlike with our technology today where we have our different gadgets that could be used to connect oneself to the Internet to chat with someone from another country.
History of Social Media
As time goes by, inventions like telegraph replaced the postal services, then it was replaced by the invention of the telephone and radio in 1890 and 1891, respectively (Hendricks, 2013). Nowadays, we still use these two devices to talk with one another and they are more advanced compared to the previous versions. With the development of powerful computers in 1940s, engineers and scientists started to make networks between these computers and this later became the origin of the Internet. One of the first forms of this network was the CompuServe which began working in the 1970s (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). With this development, in 1988, the Internet Relay Chats or IRCs became popular until the 1990s (Hendricks, 2013). More and more people have gotten their hands on computers that were able to connect to the Internet. With this, there was a continued development in Internet, one of which was the first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, back in 1997 (Hendricks, 2013). Users could make a default profile picture from their computers and be friends with the other users. In 1999, blogging sites and uploading entries to these sites became popular. Different social media sites arise like MySpace and LinkedIn, photo sharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr, and YouTube for video sharing (Hendricks, 2013). In 2006, Facebook and Twitter were established and became popular with the masses (Hendricks, 2013).
Social Media: Advantages vs Disadvantages
With the generation today, it is super likely for them to say that they can’t even imagine life without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even Internet for that matter. Social media has a very big influence on the different branches of society, whether it be positive, negative, or ugly (Smarty, 2013). Of course, being able to talk to our loved ones even though they are on the other side of the world is an amazing thing. Being able to spread the news about Japan all throughout the world is also one, just like being able to share photos and videos with one another even though they’re geographically distant. Also, doing businesses through the use of electronic mails or e-mails are examples, too (Ta, 2014). These are some of the advantages that the social media has brought us.
However, this doesn't mean that social networking sites don’t have any disadvantages. With social media, one doesn’t need to go out to socialize and meet friends. You could say that people could find friends through the use of a computer rather than building it with the use of an actual conversation. It has become the very distraction of people nowadays (Smarty, 2013). Even if people are outside, all they ever do is just constantly check their phones and not really bonding with the people who are with them. It has also become a way of bullying and harassment, and doing fraud acts, and identity theft. Privacy has been threatened for everything that you say on your account, good or bad, will stay there, unless you delete it. Productivity has been lowered for students and employees even during working hours for they are usually distracted with checking Facebook and other social networking sites rather than doing their work (Ta, 2014). Students tend to procrastinate after spending their time on browsing social networking sites. In addition, you cannot believe everything that is written and can be seen on the Internet. One example of this is the Wikipedia, this is because the contents of this website can easily be edited by anyone who has an account. Hackers had also been a problem with the growing technology. By signing in using your email address and your password in a website can be used to get your personal information. Hackers use white bugs in order to pull this off.
Social Media Now
The most popular social networking sites mostly have the same functions. Facebook has become a place where you can place things about you like your picture, birthday, where you live, your school, etc. This is also true with Twitter and Instagram. Posting a status can be accessed by your friends or the public, depending on your own preferences in Facebook. Correspondingly, this is called a tweet in Twitter, and with Instagram, this is a photo with your own caption. Your friends can react or like your status, favorite your tweet, or like your photo. Facebook also has a function of a chat box where you can send a private message to one of your friends. This function is called a direct message in Twitter. In Instagram, this can be done using a photo with a description. Facebook also has integrated some games that can be played against your friend. These are all developed in order to accommodate the target audience of these developers.
Social networks are important that even the newspapers that are published every day joined the Internet in order to spread information for the younger people who don’t pick up a book or a newspaper anymore. Sharing information had been easier with the use of the Internet. Now, even if you don’t browse a printed book, you can still find the answers to your assignment with the use of Google, Yahoo, and other search engines in the Internet. Politics is also not exempted on the effect of social media. In fact, these media had played a critical role in exposing information about politicians which help the people choose who to vote for.
Some of the newly developed social networking sites are Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, and Snapchat (Moreau, 2016). Google+ is pretty much just like Facebook, only this time, if your email address is under the domain of Google, you have an automatic account. Pinterest is like a big corkboard you have in your house where you put everything like a memo for all the things that you like so you won’t forget them. Tumblr is somewhat a kind of social networking site where you can post any type of media that you want, be it a photo, video, chat, text, quote, or link. It’s more like a blogging site, although you can exchange private messages with the user accounts that follow you, or even if they don’t.
Conclusion
The birth of the social media has been both a blessing and a curse given to the world. It’s great to have it when you’re alone and you miss your family, when you need to research about a topic and yet you don't have the time to search and read a book for answers, when you want to reconnect with your friends after a long time to celebrate a reunion but not knowing their contact details except for their Facebook account, when you caught a good Samaritan doing a good deed and you want to share it for the world to see.
But, as there are good things about something, there are bound to also have bad things. Sharing your location can be dangerous for you can have stalkers. Sharing wrong information with some of the untrusted websites can also cause problems. Cyber bullying and harassment (Ta, 2014) has also been a big obstacle with our social media because people tend to say whatever they want for they can create fake accounts in order to bully or harass the people who have their accounts on a certain website. They can even steal identities and act like they are the real person in the virtual world. Some find joy in making these things happen even though these are obviously wrong. Tracing these people are difficult for there are many ways to access the Internet. Playing games, also, had been slightly defeated by social media. Kids these days don't play outdoor games and instead, they are playing against their friends with their phones using Facebook and other games.
In the end, we must practice moderation in all things. Sharing everything on the social media can cause some serious damage to you and your family in the future. The 75-year old study, now directed by Robert Waldinger, on what makes a good life?, concluded that people who kept closer ties with their family and friends in their younger years are more likely to be happy in their old and dying days. That is why, socializing using the Internet is okay, but the relationships we build with our loved ones are what’s more important.
References
Digital Trends Staff (5 Aug. 2014). The History of Social Networking. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/
Hendricks, D. (8 May 2013). Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html
Moreau, E. (13 Feb. 2016). Top 25 Social Networking Sites People Are Using. About.com. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworkingreviews/tp/Social-Networking-Sites.htm
Smarty, Ann. (Jan. 2013). Social Media and Society: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.seochat.com/c/a/social/social-media-and-society-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
Ta, J. Q. (13 Aug. 2014). What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society. Retrieved April 22, 2016, from http://www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685#PXyFJcLthkoOcirD.97
Transcript of "What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness" (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2016, from https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_longest_study_on_happiness/transcript?language=en
