write an expository essay about "how social media has changed our lives."
Answers
One of the great features of the unprecedented rise of the global cultures is attributed to the revolution of the Internet and social media. Almost everything has become so easy and so instant. Currently, the worlds by which define our reality have been changed by social media. We can do anything and everything through a globally wired network that enables instant communication. Socialnomics is “the value created and shared via social media and its efficient influence on outcomes” (Qualman 2010, p. xxi). Moreover, socialnomics is a revolution driven by people and enabled by the social media.
A case in point is the most popular social networking site called Facebook. According to a blog in Birds Eye Media (2010), Facebook recently celebrated its six-year online presence. Its growing presence has enabled people to communicate more freely and have access to news and important updates. Information exchange occurs within and among the people we interact with in this new media platform. It provides the opportunity to reconnect with friends and loved ones. Social media works like a digital word-of-mouth where information dissemination is just a click away. In this age of globalization, social media networking has significantly altered the way we view realities and handle our relationships with other people.
The Impact of Social Media
Social media affects the way we write and speak the written word (Sherman 2010). Sherman noted that writing is more concise because the presence of a limited character spaces in Facebook and Twitter. People are challenged to convey their message to friends and the world within a 140 character limit. The task of writing something in a shorter and concise manner in Facebook as well as in SMS has changed how we communicate using different spellings and abbreviations (Sherman 2010).
In another website article, Laurie (2010) cited six aspects in which social media has arguably made permanent effects on the lives of the people and the manner in which it is lived. The first aspect is child literacy. Children of today are more literate than in previous years, according to a survey made by The National Literacy Trust where over 3000 children were included. It was observed that a correlation existed between children’s engagement in social media and literacy. Today, even school-age children have active Facebook profiles. This has become a major turning point as users of social networking media vary from the very old to the very young. Social networking has enabled easy access for children in searching for answers on educational or social questions and in sharing what they know by posting links and videos gathered from the Web. Secondly, social networking has led to ambient intimacy since it allows people to be in touch with loved ones with a different level of regularity which people would not normally have access to. Communication has become so ambient that we can use it wherever we want it. Facebook culture paved the way for the development of new levels of behaviors in relationship in general. Moreover, relationship statuses can be instantly changed and somehow be regarded that relationships can be had easily. It also becomes a venue for groups and various advocacies to form a niche and have their own chatroom and discussion board. In this manner, information is spread like a viral infection.
Another aspect of change impacted by social media is the evident accessibility of knowledge (Laurie, 2010). The quote “knowledge is power” applies greatly in this Information age. The way information is produced and shared has changed with the advent of the Internet. Instant information can be viewed from popular search engines and knowledge in this manner has become a collaborative effort. The same thing with the advancement in the literacy level of children, anyone can be as knowledgeable as the person speaking in front of a lecture. Our own desire for knowledge is there and we can only ask ourselves if we want it (Laurie 2010).
Social media has also reinvented politics (Laurie 2010). Accordingly, younger people are encouraged to be actively participating in matters of politics. Obama’s successful election was helped by the proliferation of advocate groups created in support of his candidacy. Different countries used the networking culture to share their political ideologies via Facebook. Fan pages where created where the number of “likes” is akin to the number of “hits” in YouTube. This also enables the exchange of dialogues between politicians and the common citizen. Someone can just post a comment and share his sentiment over a wall in a Facebook page and this could be read by all. All these are just signs of the influence of social media in politics and it is not surprisingly increasing from users all over the world.