Advantages of social media by Shu Yee Wong (APA style)

Advantages of social media by Shu Yee Wong 

November 2019

Social media are web-based platforms that allow people to interact with each other. It is often use to describe as websites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. Nowadays, most of the young adults use it as a source of entertainment. It enables users to connect with each other and create a community. It is more about building relationships than simply announcing or posting and not engaging with others. Slowly, social media is changing the way one communicates.  This paper discusses the four advantages of social media.

The first advantage is social media can be served as an educational tool. People are able to showcase their talents on a global level, such as, competing in an online drawing contest or sharing their writing skills through social media. Social media allows them to exchange ideas and learning experience with one another to improve their skills by looking at references or appreciation and critique given by other social media users. They can also use social media to interact with professors from across the country to seek for more knowledge (Gawkroger, 2019).

According to Gawkroger (2019), social media is a great platform to get updated with new information. They can get updated about the latest incidents happening around the world in just a short time. With the help of social media, they can get the true facts and information just by doing some research or connecting to a broader base of opinions and world view through global connections. It provides all the information about politics, trends, lifestyle, music industry, film industry, gaming industry or anything else for that matter. Unlike the television and print media these days that are biased and do not convey the true message to the public.

Mentor (2019) stated that social media has the advantage of connectivity. Social media allows everyone to meet new friends or find their ideal partners from around the world, despite of their country and religion, for example Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and social applications. Also, people uses social media to stay connected with their close friends and families without having the trouble to write a letter and mail it to their house. Staying connected with our friends and families will keep us happier and mentally healthy.

Last but not least, social media is also a great platform for business marketing. According to Mentor (2019), Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources. With the help of social media, companies can promote their business to a larger area to reach more audience. This makes the business more profitable and less expensive as can publicize their product to a targeted audience in a lesser budget. Social media is a platform for the future of advertising and social media marketing, as it improves business reputation and client base with the minimal use of advertising.

At the same time, social media is also considered as one of the most dangerous elements that we have in our lives. Wrong use can lead to bad conclusion. The most common disadvantage of social media is cyberbully. There are many cases of children and teen adults who have suffered as the victims of cyberbullying which caused them a lot of harm. People can write nasty things behind the screen and act like there is nothing. They share false information of the victim on the internet and made fun of them, making them embarrass to the public (Rosli, 2018).

In conclusion, social media is a blessing to humanity if used appropriately and also a weapon of mass destruction if misrepresented. There are millions of users around the world that use social media on day to day basis. And social networking is a topic that divides opinion, some people think that it is an amazing tool but some may worried about the impact it has on people’s lives. No matter what, everyone should keep their software updated, double check information before believing it and keep their privacy settings updated too. People should learn to use the internet in the correct way. After all, when you’re using it correctly, it improves your life.

References

Mentor, M. (2019). Social media marketing and social media marketing landscape. https://millmentor.com/social-media-not-media-key-listen-engage-build-relationships/ 

Gawkroger, P. (2019).  Advantages of social media. https://medium.com/@clinguen/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-social-media

Rosli, J. (2018). Malaysia sixth-worst in global cyber-bullying ladder, survey shows | Malay Mail. Malaymail.com. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2018/10/27/malaysia-sixth-worst-in-global-cyber-bullying-ladder/ 

Note:

References must be in alphabetical order.