ICT Issues

It absolutely baffles me how much people focus on the negatives when it comes to social media. I really can’t see social media as the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, with billions of people knowing that it will make the world worse off and using it anyway. I believe people, on some level, weigh the pros and cons of social media every time they log on, and every time they come to the same conclusion as me, social media is more good than it is bad for the world.

Technology has progressed to the point in which we can instantly connect with nearly anyone, from your best friend two houses down to your grandmother on the other side of the world everyone’s a click or a tap away. I’m aware that this line, in different forms has been used a million times and reused a million more, but it’s true, and there isn’t much more I can say.

I personally love social media; Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit (if you can call it social media) all of it. I know that many people may have very different and negative experiences online, but I can’t ignore all of the positive use that I’ve gotten out of it. Social media has completely transformed my social life, I would say almost completely for the better. I’ve been able to meet, and talk to people I never would have otherwise met.Not to mention the keeping in touch with and interacting with friends often and easily. I know my opinion is mostly based off of social media in my life, but I’m sure that it’s the same for most other people too, because they continue using it day after day.

Some people argue that many don’t enjoy social media but feel as if they have to use it out of fear of missing out, and though that might be true I see a completely different point in that argument… the fact that there is so much on social media to miss out on. Aside from the purley social aspect, there is the commerce, culture, information and entertainment that has all been made possible, or at least has been enhanced, by social media that people don’t think about when they hear the term

Now I’m not denying the serious and abundant pitfalls and dangers of social media. As outlined in detail in the many presentations in class social media has had and continues to have a very real impact on it’s users and the world at large. Payam’s and Max’s presentations made very valid points about an unforeseen product of the social media boom, the rise of enormous and powerful technology companies, namely Facebook. Payam talked about how companies have amassed incomprehensible amounts of the personal information that users put out on social media and how this information is sold. To me more concerning than this were Lauren’s points on the so called echo chambers that have been created that often circulate detrimental and dangerous ideas.

Still, there is no evidence to show that any of this has actually hurt the world significantly enough to tip the scales and outweigh the benefits of social media. There have been big and unethical companies and governments before social media and they’ll continue existing well into the future. And the same goes for people gripping to their opinions like it's the last turkey on Thanksgiving, and distancing themselves from anyone or any organization that disagrees with them.

Social media may have added some fuel to the fire that is the many problems with society and our world, but there’s no doubt that the fire was raging long before the first tweet was sent out. The world is nowhere near perfect, so we couldn’t possibly have expected anything that came out of it to be any different. But despite it’s flaws, social media has made the world a smaller and better place.