Social Media - A Controversy

Social media was the main factor that resulted in the fast spreading of the Arab Spring – a number of revolutions through more than 15 Arab countries. The Arab Spring is proof that social media makes it possible for one person’s idea to spread to millions of people in a short amount of time. Social media is the quickest and most powerful way to spread information and we should not deny it as a part of our daily lives.

One advantage of social media is speed. The internet is the fastest way to spread information – faster than newspapers, radio and even television. It enables you to get updates by the second of any worldwide breaking news that could be important to you. It also enables you to stay in touch with individuals and organizations from all over the world on a secondly basis. 750 tweets are tweeted each second on twitter, and received at the same time.

Social media also makes a great contribution to globalization. Through social media sites, you can ‘follow’ people from all over the globe. You can get to know other cultures and points of view personally through what local people of that area have to say. An example would be Islam. A typical American may be influenced by the belief that Muslims are terrorists, but by getting to know a Muslim, whether by chatting or just reading his/her posts, the typical American may change his/her mind on judging Muslims.

Social media can also help in organization in everyday life. You can easily make appointments and keep up with where your friends and coworkers are to arrange quick meetings and be able to be in touch anywhere anytime. Most social media sites are also free and easy to use.

There are, however, drawbacks to the frequent use of social media sites. On the internet there is a lot of spread of false information, and people often make mistakes in research papers and articles, etc. because their resources are all from the internet. Identity theft, which is pretending to be someone you are not online by fake names, etc. is also a common issue. 350 million plus users suffer from “Facebook addiction syndrome”. These people tend to get so social online that they do not know how to be social in real life. These are serious problems that have very bad effects, but they can be avoided from the receiving side. It is every users choice of what to believe and how much time to spend on social media sites.

Social media is a revolution that has changed the world, and will keep on changing it to the better. It is fast free, organized and easy to use. You should not stop using the internet because of the negative effects of social media sites, since it is up to you of how much it affects you.