How Social Media Changed Us

Any individual who has come to own and maintain his or her social media account in facebook, twitter, instagram, blogs, etcetera has been surely changed—whether the individual noticed it or not. The influence of social media may vary for each of us, but it can never be denied how much it altered our sense of reality and how we deal with others. And whether we contend that the changes  may have been gradually or radically, it certainly had a great impact on how we all see the world today.

 

“For one, it has become easier to launch influencer marketing campaign because you are sure people will take notice, with millions and millions of facebook users alone,” observed Nathan, 34, who works for an influencer marketing agency in Singapore.

 

 

The younger member of the population seem to get their

information and news, firsthand, through social media as well.

“My father often ask me what’s for in the headline every morning

at breakfast because he knows even before I get up from my bed,

I’ve already checked my phone,” shared Amanda Smith, 19.

“While he still enjoys his morning broadsheet with his coffee at

breakfast, he knows my news will be more detailed. This is not

because I am a social media addict. I have been trained to always

read the news because I major in Journalism, and I want to be a

journalist or simply a writer of fiction in the future. So naturally, I read the New York Times and Forbes online as much as I could,” Smith further said.

 

Sociologist and political analyst Dr. Landro Tan also observed how people became more vocal on the things they advocate, “The positive side of being active in social media is the world seems to be a smaller place now in a sense that what happens in the Middle East even when you are from a faraway country like Australia will easily be known. I also noticed how people are more open and vocal with their political views nowadays albeit getting bashed is such a big risk for people who add others that they don’t really know in person. My take on this is to secure you account and make sure those in your circle are friends whom you really know in person. As a lot of us over-share, there is this danger of being stalked and being judge unfairly just based on what we share online.” He further said, “But there really are more positive things that social media yields. For instance, social and political issues about divorce, the LGBT, contraceptives, religion, health, welfare of animals are just some of the common advocacies that we read online today. We become more inclusive and we see how people now care more than ever. However, there is this issue of fake news always circulating so we need to be more critical of what we read.”

 

 

“Social media has sprung out of human’s need to connect. And we see both the positive and negative effects of it. It always depends on the person using account/s to be very responsible. For one, the internet has made it easy for people to become celebrities even when they are not exactly actors or politicians. One can also self-publish just using free blog sites. Social media also made possible for us to follow our favourite artists online. Others do online business like selling apparels and even baked goods just using their instagram accounts. And the list can be endless,” shared Professor Maggie Cooper, a teacher of economics in a university in Canada.