Social Media: Does it have a positive or negative influence in our lives?

Over the past 10 years social media has grown extremely fast and is now the center of many people’s lives. We certainly have come a long way from using dial-up to log on and getting instant messages on AOL messenger. Thank God there were entrepreneurs and geeks that envisioned innovative and faster means of communicating or else we would still be stuck hearing that famous voice prompt “You’ve got mail” on Aol instant messenger but does social media play a positive or negative role in our lives?

Social media has many pros. It allows us to connect with people we meet at different points of our lives and to keep in touch with old friends that we haven’t seen in years. Currently there are many ways to communicate through social media. Facebook, twitter, instagram, and snap chat to name a few. I personally come from the dial up era and in my opinion it is refreshing to have much better options to communicate with family and friends.

Not only can you communicate but if you want to learn something, you can log on and look it up online. You will have many options to choose from n a matter of seconds. It definitely beats going to the library and spending hours looking up information through books. Social media also allows you to get immediate access of information from things happening all over the world. When something important happens in the world you find out through social media. Just by spending time on Twitter or Facebook you can find out about global issues, economic, and cultural events.

This social platform also allows you to have global interaction. Before social media the only way to have this privilege was if you had the financial means to travel to another country. Through social media we can engage with people from other countries and also establish friendships with them. It also allows people to meet in person that you wouldn't normally. There are dating sites where you can converse with people and meet them in person.

Just as social media has a positive influence on our lives it also has negatives. Social media can be very unsafe. For example on Facebook, you can have many friends on your profile that can see your exact location. They have access to your photos and other personal information therefore your privacy possibly being compromised is a big risk and issue on social media. Fake profiles are another risk on social media. It is very easy to make a fake profile and pretend to be someone you aren’t. Getting stalked and cyber bullied happens a lot through social networks unfortunately. Social media is a ground for offences and crime. In worse case scenarios this has led some people to commit suicide.

It is also very easy to get wrongful information through social networks. The spread of radical news is another risk factor. Lastly, Social media can be very addictive, it can make you waist a lot of time and has also made face-to-face interaction become almost extinct. Chatting online has replaced personal phone conversations. So does social media have a positive or negative influence in our lives? I believe it has both. Social media has its pros as well as its cons. Unfortunately the cons come along with the pros and people should be aware of the benefits as well as the risk factors that come along with interacting through social networks today in present time.