THE 2+1 OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media as we know it now bombards us with information everywhere and all the time.
We now have a right to choose what we want to know, 'follow' or simply 'like'. However, have we ever stopped to think about what led to today's social media having this much power?
This blog will discuss about how the spreading of information, influence of media and advent of the Internet led to social media as we know it today.
Media
"If one morning I walked on top of the
water across the Potomac River, the
headline that afternoon would read:
'President Can't Swim.'"
-Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 –1973)
|
Implications of Social Media – The Good and The Bad
Sunday, April 22, 2012, 11:38 PM
Previously ‘expressing yourself’ might have been in the things you wore or did with the groups you went out with, but that has a whole new meaning now. Expressing yourself now not only refers to the plane of your physical existence, the persona you create online has increasingly grown in significance as well. First let us go over what I call the “Good” (decidedly, anyway) part of social media. Communication Social media allows us to keep in touch with our distant friends through mediums like Facebook or Twitter, thus eradicating the need to ever maintain a well-worn phonebook filled with numbers and contacts painstakingly and lovingly written like how our parents’ generation does. Our friends can not only visually see us through uploaded photographs of ourselves, they also get to know of our random ramblings and even things as inconsequential as what was for lunch. This is so much of our lifestyle that even celebrities are joining in the fun, tweeting about their lives and opinions to fans.
Sharing of ideas Social media also gives us the opportunity to share our ideas with the world. While most of us are not as flamboyant as Natalie Tran to share our personal views over YouTube, there are many who will identify with me about sharing their thoughts over a personal blog (perhaps private to themselves and maybe a selected fortunate few). Information and opinions online A decade ago, to get surveys done, one might have to be off to pound the streets, asking passers-by for their opinions. Luckily now all that needs to be done is to just poll our peers over various forums or even via personal survey sites. The ability to harness opinions over social media is an important one, whether for businesses or for sociologists who need feedback. Even our Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong created a Facebook page just days ago – to engage young voters of course.  Advertising Lastly, advertising opportunities. Granted the advertising model of social media tries to be unobtrusive as possible, without it a lot of things cannot exist. Even to a micro scale, when I am trying to get my group of friends to go on an outing, I can get the word out (advertise) through social media (my Facebook groups) as well. While there are now these conveniences not previously available, there are also appalling things, the "Bad", that can happen over the internet that we must also acknowledge exist, for example, things like: Cyberbullying We have instances of people who have taunt their classmates in school, and even after class hours, continue to do so in their online postings. I can only imagine it must be horrible for a child to be faced with bullies with no respite even at home. One such case would be that of Miss April Teo, who had posted opposing opinions in an online forum. She suffered a backlash of flaming, insults, digitally altered pictures and name-calling. It got so bad that she cried to sleep and made a police report. Was the reaction by the netizens to her comments necessary? If they did not agree with her, they could have simply rebutted her and move on, but instead they went on to attack her personally with information of her from the forum registry. Is this right? Abusing the power of social media that enables us to share our information? Fake Identities People can be anyone they want to be on the internet, which may seem to be innocuous enough. However, when used with malicious intent, may lead to disastrous results, like in the 2007 case of Ms Lori Drew. She had posed as a boy, "Josh", online to befriend Megan Meier, who had had a fall-out with her daughter. She wanted to find out what Megan, had said about her daughter. Megan, 13, had talked online with "Josh" for more than a month. She later committed suicide the day after the “friendship” abruptly ended with “Josh” calling her a "liar". A simple case of a fake identity used with a hidden motive could cause serious repercussions, in this case, the death of a young teenager. Fake news The Foxconn Report by This American Life released by a reporter created an everlasting image about poor china workers and their horrible conditions in their factories. But guess what? That emotional drama that went viral on our social media turned out to be fake news. While real conditions were not far off and it did help raise the minimum wages for the Chinese workers, its original story was in fact, not true. The reporter only wanted to break a big story to get his name out there. Thankfully, the news was eventually retracted by This American Life and cleared up. Sometimes, it is all too easy to blindly follow something emotionally-charged that we are not sure of, and especially online, where these “news sources” are not the most trustworthy. Privacy Issues One’s private life is no longer as private over the social media. As Erin Bury, Sprouter community manage puts it, “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” One would have to constantly watch their back to ensure that they do not say or do anything that they do not want to be held responsible for. Teachers cannot post of themselves partying on their Facebook pages; children of public figures have to watch themselves and what they post. Look at the Wee Shu Min elitism controversy in 2006, she had made the famous comment on her blog, “get out of my elite uncaring face”, and immediately faced backlash from the netizens about her attitude, eventually involved her politician father, Wee Siew Kim, to make a public apology. While it was insensitive of her to make such remarks, it seems like there is no freedom and respite for these people as individuals in the name of societal values.
All in all, there are implications as to how social media has – and is – forever warping the world. This not only has impact on a broader society, many of us are directly involved in its winds of change as well. It would be fascinating to see where technology will bring us next into the future.
References: 1. Kaplan, A. M. & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68 |
