10/31/2013
Imagine that if someone from the previous century got a chance to live in our century without having any idea about the technological development that we've already had. He would probably think that we all are crazy. All the time we are holding something and staring on it for a while then start talking or laughing with ourselves. This imaginary description may give you a glance about how the social media has affected our lifestyle. Nowadays, most people, no matter how old they are, have a smart phone and at least an account on Facebook or Twitter. According to the video ("Social media revolution2013", 2013), one million Twitter accounts created each day, which means more than 250 accounts have been creating per second. Moreover, there are around 165 million active Twitter users and 55% have access their accounts via mobile devices. And there are 50 million tweets a day. This unbelievable numbers show us how much the majority addicted the social media. It is make our life much easier and better in many cases, but it has some disadvantages as well.
Instead of using our devices just for calling such as cellphones, or just for reading and surfing the internet such as laptops and tablets, we use the social media to interact with others if we want to discuss what we've read or what we've learned at the school. For example, many students have a group on Facebook with their teachers and classmates for talking and sharing knowledge very quickly and easily. As a teacher, I am used to letting my students contact me on my Twitter account, which I think breaks the barriers between the students and their teachers and let them feeling free to ask about anything that they couldn't or forgot to ask about it in class. YouTube is the other good example of how the social media give a helping hand in education. There are many of educational channels on YouTube website contain hundreds lessons in different fields. These channels help students, and especially unschooling students, to improve their educational level and interact with other students who share the same interests. On the other hand, the owners use their channels to offer not free lessons, or advertise for other channels or schools. This means social media doesn't only help us educationally, but it also has a great impact on our business.
Business is the other filed that social media has effected on. The most popular example of how social media is driving sales is "social shopping". Social shopping is when people depending on their friends' feedback through the digital shopping experiences which give them a confidence about the product. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are social technology applications and platforms, all together are driving the evolution of the social shopping. If we talk about Instagram as an example of social shopping we will find that it has helped customers and the marketers as well. Through Instagram, the customers are share their opinions about the products and the marketers can identify their loyal customers and improve their products by considering their feedback. This leads us to think about how much of time we spend on social media reading or writing feedbacks about our digital shopping experiences, especially if we are the social media addicted.
As the result of the revolution of the social media, people are contact with people who are far away from them, but they stay away from their families who are much closer. We’ve taken to posting our daily events, regardless of how personal or uninteresting they may be. I’ve seen Twitter updates such as, “Heading to the grocery store!” and “Ugh. Can’t sleep!” I’ve probably done it myself. I used to update my status on WhatsApp application on my cellphone, and tweet twice a day on twitter telling what in my mind that time. The pressure to stay on top of social media is tremendous. It’s no wonder the fine line between social media and family time gets blurred, or even forgotten. There’s huge pressure to keep up with the rest of the Twitter and Facebook's posts. Is there a solution other than picking up your phone every three seconds to respond or staring into your computer screen instead of your child’s eyes? Is there value in doing so? What’s really at risk?
In conclusion, each of these influences of the social media has the power to shape our thoughts, feelings actions. We have used it for a while and I don’t imagine our life without it. It has helped us in many filed such as educations and business, but it sometimes moves us away from our families. Yet, as free humans, we have the ability to control our self by take the benefits of the social media and prevent it from affected us negatively.