Social Media: The Best
Thing Since Sliced Bread
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Life as we know it will never be the same. This innovation in modern technology has changed the way commerce and connection will operate for the rest of our lives.
Social media as we know it has been around for quite some time now, but its purposes have become so much more than keeping up with your auntie’s new puppy. Today, social media is one of the most powerful tools for both businesses and individuals.
From a business standpoint, social media has become crucial for most businesses to grow and succeed. Advertising through social media has become the most cost-efficient form of marketing. With the vast amount of information available to companies about their customers, it has become easier than ever to engage with target audiences. This is good not only for the business, but the consumers as well. Advertisements on social media can be tailored to the user so that they see things that are more relevant to their interests. This allows the audience to view advertising that pertains to their wants and needs, resulting in more purchasing of those goods and services. This makes social media a powerful tool for the economy.
Traditional forms of advertising through mediums like radio and television lack the precision of social media marketing. Though a business can specify which channels or stations it would like to promote itself through, it’s like throwing a dart in the dark and hoping for the best, when compared to social media marketing.
With social media marketing, there is the advantage of analytics. These tools allow a business to calculate how many impressions its ads accumulate, how long users spend looking at its ads and profiles, how many clicks it gets onto its websites, how many shares its posts earn, and so much more. All these data points are valuable to the businesses that collect them. They can be used to improve their content to better suit the consumer and create more revenue.
Many people have privacy concerns when it comes to social media. It can be a bit scary at times when you realize that there are people tracking your habits and keeping tabs on your online behaviors. If there is one thing you can count on though, it is that no one cares that much about you. No offense. The data collected on you is simply that, just data. There is no malicious intent behind the information that is gathered. Put simply, the data is used to improve the effectiveness of the ads you see, and to predict the advertisements that will be of most interest to you.
Social media is also an excellent tool for business on a personal level. With the world at your fingertips, connecting with someone across the globe is faster now than it has ever been. Platforms like LinkedIn allow users to network with employers and find jobs that suit their profiles. It is said that “job seekers with a comprehensive LinkedIn profile have a 71% higher chance of getting a job interview” (Yang 2021). Career-oriented social media like LinkedIn help employers fill positions with great candidates they might not found without such platforms.
On the topic of employment, social media is great for creative freelancers. It can serve as a public portfolio of one’s work, open for all potential clients to see. This opens the door to connect creatives directly with their audience, showcasing their work and offering a way to communicate with their clients.
Social media has made great leaps from what it once was many moons ago. Today, it is more than an avenue for casual connection; it is a powerful tool for marketing, employment, networking, and so much more. Whether you are seeking a job, starting a company, or promoting your work, it's to your advantage to use social media and take advantage of all the ways it can help you, your career, and your business.
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Certified Enemy
The youth of today are in danger, and the enemy is right under our noses. Social media is a toxic plague to our society. It has enslaved our attention, ruined our people skills, and intensified our anxiety.
By the age of 11, 53% of kids are given their first phone (Kamenetz 2019). Phones are valuable tools for safety and connection between parents and their children. The problem with kids receiving cell phones at such a young age is that, given the innate tech-savviness of today’s kids, it won’t be long until kids find a way to access social media account and be exposed to all its ugliness.
Free time that was once occupied by meeting friends and playing outside has been replaced by scrolling through social media in solitude. Kids today spend hours upon hours on social media, and many times will choose digital satisfaction over a real personal connection. Having the world at your fingertips sounds like a great thing, but social media is designed to suck users in and keep them scrolling for as long as possible. This leads to the erosion of social skills. When people spend more time on social media, they spend less time interacting and building relationships with people in the real world.
Not only does it ruin people skills, but mental health is a huge factor as well. The obsession of keeping up with the lives of people you follow can lead to a decrease in overall self-image. People are endlessly posting about the highlights of their lives, which in turn, can cause viewers to have a lower sense of self and social anxiety. When comparing their own lives to the hyper-filtered lifestyle they see on social media, viewers can become discouraged and think less of themselves for not living up to the “standard” they create in their own minds.
Some people say that social media is a good thing. There are some positive aspects about it, like how it allows people to connect with friends and family virtually. There is also great entertainment in looking at social media. Although these things are good, becoming absorbed into these apps can pull you away from real life. The purpose of social media is to connect people with one another, but people have become so accustomed to doing it digitally that they neglect to connect with the people right in front of them.
“A recent study found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds today. It is reported that goldfish have a 9-second attention span” (Ebstein 2021). Social media is one of the primary factors for the decrease. Most of the content seen on social media is delivered in bite-size posts that are easily and quickly digested. This pattern of instant gratification is highly addictive and can be detrimental to the user.
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While the intentions of social media are meant for good, its effects on society outweigh its benefits. Connection doesn’t have to be sought through a screen; in fact, it is hindered by it. Do yourself a favor by putting the phone away and start taking advantage of life. You just might find yourself some true connection.
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References
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Ebstien, J. (2021, July 6,). Our attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s. here’s what we can do about it | commentary. Orlando Sentinel, Retrieved from https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-attention-span-dwindling-20210706-rwv2owqhezbp5hkmyqqtpmiq4u-story.html
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Kamenetz, A. (2019, October 31,). It's A smartphone life: More than half of U.S. children now have one. Npr, Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/10/31/774838891/its-a-smartphone-life-more-than-half-of-u-s-children-now-have-one
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Yang, P. Resume study: How LinkedIn affects the interview chances of job applicants. Resume Go, Retrieved from https://www.resumego.net/research/linkedin-interview-chances/