The Pros And Cons of Using Social Media
The Impact of Social Media
Introduction
Today’s generation is very different from the Baby Boom generation in many aspects. Both generations have contentious views of each other. Social media has become a powerful tool in terms of the modern generation’s characteristics as seen in this proposal. The issue of concern, in this case, is the way social media affects the modern generation. The impact of social media has been chosen as a topic because they have a powerful influence on the lives of the current generation. The target audience is the modern generation, which is highly affected by media in both negative and positive ways.
Research Questions
In order to understand the research topic, research questions are generated to guide the main research process. The research questions in this case are:
- To what extend has the use of social media been realized?
- Which of the two, the Baby Boom generation and the modern generation, uses social media the most?
- What are the positive impacts of social media on the modern generation?
- What are the negative impacts of social media on the modern generation?
Research Objective
The research will aim to point out the way social media affects the two generations in different ways. Targeting current generation, the research will be based on certain results to show how the generation could benefit from social media. The research objective also involves the establishment of the negative effects of social media and the way the modern generation can avoid the harmful side of using them.
Background
The use of social media has been growing in course of time. They have become an important tool in communication, but some people use them with their goals. Understanding this fact is important because it is the only way for people to gauge good and bad sides of using social media. While social media remains to be a significant part of modern civilization, users need to know the problems associated with this way of communication. Some of the key issues include standards and privacy issues. Communication via social media is hardly safe since privacy is a major concern today. Besides, cases of communication standards are deteriorating especially in terms of the growing abuse of social media and failure to observe the provided terms of information exchange.
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Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are the most used social media networks by both individual users and companies. Their users have benefitted in various ways such as close interaction with friends, cheaper mean of communication, new friends, friendships without physical conduct, and free means of advertisement. The major problem is that once a person creates a profile or a tweet, he or she receives more followers than it was intended. False friends in social networks have created a major concern, but only the user as an individual can solve this issue. Often, some users are tricked through cyber crimes leading to loss of huge amounts of money or face other related crimes.
Methodology
The methodology of the research includes the method of conducting the actual research. This includes the data collection methods, analysis of the data kinds to be used, study of the data sources, and the data analysis techniques. The research shall use both primary and secondary data. A survey shall be used to collect the primary data for the research. Being qualitative research, interviews shall be conducted to obtain relevant data concerning both the benefits and problems of using social media. Interviews, in this case, shall be conducted online in order to reach a wide scope of audience around the world. In order to distinguish the users in terms of the two generations, the inquirer asks respondents to quote their exact age and their approximate period of using social media. The types of social networks used shall be indicated, as well. Respondents shall also be asked to state the benefits achieved from the use of social media and the problems encountered in the process of social networking.
Discussion
The modern generation is known to be lavish in lifestyle, selfish in choices, extremely materialistic, and seems as a lost one by the wise men and women of the past. It often seems that the good old days will never return; however, a drastic change has occurred over a period of merely 10-15 years after the increased use of modern technologies especially the Internet. A great reason, if not the winning one, of those drastic changes in society is the spread of social media. Social media proves to be a great innovation and significant development in modern society, but its users are reckless in many ways. Moral decay is thus a major concern, which shall be given a top priority in the main research. Again, individuals and business organizations have lost billions of dollars through social media. Therefore, it comes out that while social media benefit the current generation, users are faced with high risks from the associated negative effects. It may, however, turn out that the Baby Boom generation is less affected due to their moral values and immense caution while performing their daily activities.
Conclusion
It is obvious that social media have made the modern generation more educated than the past generations. Social media help to share information easier than ever before. It has become readily available for users and, importantly, users can initiate active chats and other forms of interactive communication thereby promoting an exchange of ideas. Again, businesses have grown globally through online shopping, which became a new way to shop at home. Online marketing is a new way of selling and buying products and services. Nevertheless, all these good things come with high operational risks. Without good ethics and caution, users are likely to lose large sums of money in favor of hackers and cybercriminals. These criminals are representatives of the modern generation, and the crimes themselves have been initiated by the increased use of the Internet and social media. It could occur if social media users are not cautious and disciplined enough; the risks associated with social media could outweigh actual and perceived benefits. The research shall point out all the risks and the best ways in which users could operate to avoid the negative effects of using social media.
