Vanessa zempoalteca

Enlgish 113 A
Professor lewis
November 14, 2015
Social media

Its hard to conceive that only a decade ago social media was more than building a trend.
I remember when myspace and Friendster where one of the most popular websites and which
also had a decent level of adoption to our society however our population as a whole had not
come around to it yet with that being said over time the use of Social media increased rapidly
and it has shaped the world into a better and positive way social media has had a tremendous
impact on our culture, business, politics, education on the world at large. However opponents
might argue that social media has impact our society in a negative way.

First of all I like to start off by explaining the difference between social media and social
networking. A lot of us tend to think that social media and social networking is the same concept
but its not. Social medias main definition; websites and applications that enable users to create
and share content or to also participate in social networking such as two of our most known
social medias facebook and instagram two social medias that a high percentage of people
participate in daily by uploading pictures, videos, communicate with people from all over the
world, personal messages, and other content. Furthermore if you consider what you understood
media to be before the Internet existed, it was about television, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Once media became available through the World Wide Web, the media was no longer static.

Tremendous interactivity capabilities became available to everyone and it felt much more like a
personal, one-on-one relationship than anything else.

On the other hand social networking main content: the use of dedicated websites and
applications to interact with other users or to find people with similar interests to oneself. Some
people argue that social networking came before social media and some others believe that it was
the other way around. The foundation of social networking is basically the human side. You fill
in your profiles on social media channels and people interact with you based on the personal
details that they read about you

However, one thing that social media and social networking have in common is that they
both depend on viral marketing to become truly successful. If the content goes viral, more and
more people will be paying attention and the more online traffic you have, the better your
chances are of increasing your business. A simple way to look at the basic difference between
social media and social networking is that social media helps people to make the connection and
social networking enhances that connection. With that being said it is very important to
understand that social media and social networking are not one and the same but that they are
both of critical importance to peoples businesses and people should take full advantage of both
for the greater success of their business.

When marketers speak about social media, they talking about all the ways social media can
increase a companys bottom line. Social media has the power to make money out of
advertisement however that is not the only thing social media is capable of doing, social media

has changed the world. Id like to present six ways where social media has shaped the events
thats has shaped our world into a positive way in just the past few years.

One of the main ways social media has impact our lives would be through election sis the
united stated and around the world. It has significantly changed the way people speak about
politics. President Obama used social media to organize supporters to get out the vote
campaigns. In other places for example in countries like Iran and Egypt, where political choice
and speech are limited, organizers were able to create elections that result for their people. As
well as social media has made it easier for people to have their voice heard because social media
has made it possible for people to organize against governments that dont listen to what their
people have to say.

Second of all for many generations if a person wasnt at a live event, the only way they
would hear information about it would be through their peers, TV shows, Radios or better yet
through new papers. This worked perfectly fine consider how things were before however due to
gatekeepers it was very easy for them to control what they wanted people to see or heard. But
now that social media is around everyone is able to post comments, pictures, videos and are able
to share their side of their stories. It has really impact the way people receive their information. It
became a huge problem for governments and organizations because they wants to hide the truth
from others. According to Peter Roesler he states The situation has changed so much that back
in 2013, the Chicago tribune laid off their full-time photographers, choosing to rely solely on
freelancers and shots submitted by the public via social media.

One of my favorite changed that social media has done was the impact that it did on
education. We are able to use social media as a resource, 59 percent of student with access to the
Internet report that they use the sites to talk about class assignments. A Jan. 2015 study
published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology said college freshman should use
social networking sites to build networks of new friends, feel socially integrated at their new
schools, and reduce their risk of dropping out

Social media has a tremendous impact on business. Companies are able to use social
media to advertise their products, create blogs about their companies their able to create their
own face-book page and to have their customers updated. Many firms organize contests and give
away prizes to influence customer to visit their social websites. Companies are able to
communicate with people from all over the world, which leads me to my third point.

The effect on socialization, social networking offers people the opportunity to be able to
connect with their old friends, family members, make new friends as well as they are able to
share their picture, videos and many other things. I personally enjoy the fact that I am able to
share my pictures on social media so my followers on instgram are able to see or also for my
family members to see and I keep in touch with two of my wonderful cousins through social
media.

According to The university of Edinburgh business school study found that 70% of
adults social networking user visit the sites to connect with friends and family and has increased
online communications strengthens relationships. 52% of teens using social media report that

using the sites has help their relationship with friends As well as for me I have many family
members and friends that I dont constantly see I have family members from Mexico, new york,
Korea and Las Vegas who I dont see regularly but when I see their images on social media im
able to keep in touch and see what their up to and how are they doing.

On the other hand other might argue that social media prevents face-to-face
communication. I work at a restaurant and when I glance around the floor I notice thats most of
the customers are eating and on their phone. As well as the little children are on iPads or any
other electronic device. Instead of interacting within each other during lunch time, everyone
seems to be ignoring each other just to spend time on social media.

We know the basic pros and the cons on social media but theres some things we dont
know, for example did you know that student who used social net working while studying score
20% lower on tests and students who used social media had an average GPA of 3.06 compared to
students who were antisocial who had an average GPA of 3.82.

But here is the real questions Are social networking and social medias sites good for our
society? although social networking sites spread information faster then any other media
according to socialnetworking.procon.org 50% of people learn about breaking news on social
media, 65 % of traditional media reporters and editors use sites like facebook and linkedln for
story research, and 52% use twitter yet on the other hands social media can also give us false
information for example Wikipedia anyone can easily get on Wikipedia and just simply give us
false information about 49.1% of people have heard false rumors on social media.

I agree that social media can spread false rumors but thats the reason why we do research
there isnt only one source there are millions of resources where you can back up your argument
or to fine evidence of a subject. Yes it has been said that social media has lower face-to-face
interactions but thats upon the person decision within a family their should be rules set as simple
as no phones on the dinner table. It can all be solved we just have to put time and effort into
creating the change.

Although many might argue that social media has taken our society and had a negative
influential on us in this case social media has been an a great impact in our lives it had
influenced us in many ways its has been an amazing life changing opportunity we are able to be
aware of politics, elections, business, but most important we are able to stay in contact with
friends and family members from across the globe. We have to change the world, the world
shouldnt be changing us, turn every negative thing into a positive thing.

Citations

"10 Amazing Social Media Growth Stats From 2015." Social Media Today. 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

"Social Networking Fact Sheet." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. 27 Dec. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

"5 Biggest Differences between Social Media and Social Networking." Social Media Today. 28 June 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

"What Are the Pros and Cons of Social Networking Sites?" HowStuffWorks. 9 July 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.