Communication through social media has become an essential part of human lives. Social media allowed us to contact each other even in different countries, made the business advertisements more overarching, and became the virtual platform where people work, rest, communicate, buy, sell, and basically spend most of their days. The current essay is devoted to analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of social media communication, its risks, and future opportunities. Social media is a complex phenomenon that has both positive and negative aspects. According to this paper’s research, communication through social media has many perspectives for contributing to the stable growth of society, and its pros outweigh the cons. Leveling social media communication awareness can help overcome social media’s negative consequences.
Social media communication contributed to the stable growth and the development of the communication level and speed. Thanks to these technologies the communication has become more diverse (Ameen et al., 2020). People can send each other photos, video, audio, text files in a second and share their knowledge to reach a broad audience in the social media blogs and profiles. The speed of transcended information is high due to social media communication; thereby, people have practically unlimited access to all types of knowledge, which is one of the main advantages of social media communication. Another positive aspect is the access to the people’s attention, which contributed to the easier business management and advertisement programs.
Considering the negative impacts of social media communication, it should be mentioned that because of visual attractiveness, people can be mentally addicted to social media. As a result, malicious users can easily manipulate them (Lewetz & Stieger, 2018). Social media profiles often contain personal data, which is enough to harm people’s wellbeing. The second disadvantage is that social media communication requires fewer efforts than real one, and people sometimes choose virtual life over the real world. In order to reduce this negative impact, social media holders should take the responsibility of stating the importance of real-life communication. Therefore, the positive aspects of social media communication outweigh the negatives ones because mentioned problems’ impacts can be minimized.
Social media provides people with various development opportunities and ensures constant access to information no matter the conditions. Thus, the recent self-isolation caused by the pandemic proved the substantial role of social media in human lives (Benedict et al., 2019). Therefore, many organizations and educational institutions continued their activities through social media networks. Nowadays, distance working and education help people save time and gain more knowledge and experience in less period. Social media also provides various business opportunities and contributes to analyzing customer satisfaction through direct feedback.
The most devastating threat of social media, which can cause the mental deterioration of the personality, is the high potential for manipulation. Since social media has become the trading platform, the information changes its character from the narrative to the appealing one (Ameen et al., 2020). Therefore, people can be unconsciously influenced and manipulated by others. Using social networking sites, people should be highly conscious about their communications and profiles information.
The current examination of the positive and negative aspects of social media communication, its threats, and opportunities provoked the discussion about the role of social media in human lives and the responsibility they have to take for the possibilities they get. The countries government may consider the programs to level the citizens’ social media communications safety awareness. Being warned about the possible social media communication threats, people can avoid some dangerous consequences.
Therefore, communication in social media is one of the main types of communication nowadays, which cannot be replaced. This study showed that the positive aspects exceed the negative influences and contribute to the constructive changes in the market and information access. Thus, the threats like the lack of personal information and unconscious manipulation can be solved by the united efforts of the government and social media users.
References
Ameen,Y., Sadeeq, M., & Zeebaree, S. (2020). Social media networks security threats, risks and recommendation: A case study in the Kurdistan region. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 12(7), 349–365.
Benedict, C., Diefenbach, M., Ford, J., & Hahn, A. (2019). Recruitment via social media: Advantages and potential biases. Digital Health, 5, 1–11.
Lewetz, D., & Stieger, S. (2018). A week without using social media: Results from an ecological momentary intervention study using smartphones. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 21(10), 618–624.