Searcy (LP) Around the mid ‘2000s, a new impactful thing called social media hit the scene. Everyone that knew about social media downloaded the apps onto their phones and shared activities, pictures, and videos. With popular social media sites being Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, social media keeps gaining increasing popularity in 2016. Within two months, Instagram had 1 million users from the start of launch. It’s easy to determine that society is having a tremendous impact on our society, but is it always a good thing? Many people are for social media, while many others disagree with its motives. On the positive aspect of social media, businesses can connect with their targeted customers for free, the only cost is energy and time.

With increasing popularity, social media is now considered the most viable communication choice for everyone. Jill Treadway believe that “you can talk to anyone around the world easier with a simple direct message. I talk to my friend from Malaysia all the time!” You could talk to someone in China in about one minute, but if you called them, you might have to pay an out-of-country fee and the hassle is ridiculous! On any given month, Facebook has an estimated 1.28 billion users using it, so people are constantly communicating with each other! Another advantage of social media deals with bloggers. These are the people who write anything from stories to polls, and try to get their message out to everyone. Sometimes it can be difficult to get your message out to a multitude of people, but with social media they can have people share their article so more people see it! If it is noticed and supported, the blogger could take off and even write their own books one day! But the major goal of social media is to unite people on a huge platform to achieve a goal. The leaders of social media want to bring a positive change to society. Take Instagram for instance. The whole purpose of IG is to share photos with your friends to make them laugh or show off what you’re doing. Also consider Twitter. The main purpose of twitter is to talk to anyone anytime you desire, and also it’s easier to be contacted by others. Social media supporters believe that it gets more people to talk to each other and unite the world! Despite all the positives, some people just aren’t buying into social media. The other side of the story basically supports its negative impact on society.

The first thing that people argue deals with addiction. Zach Smith believes that “teenagers and adults spend countless hours on social media and task get ignored. I personally spend 7 hours or so on it.” Social media lowers the motivational level of people and inspires technological practices instead of practicing real life encounters. Just take Instagram for instance with 16 billion photos! The biggest effect of social media is on kids though. Any time they get on a social media app such as Instagram or Twitter, they could see photos of sex and violence. This gets the thought of negative situations in their mind and leads to crime related activities. In the worst situations, people who use social media may release too much information about themselves. When people share videos or photos, others can easily download them and find out your personal information. This can lead to stolen identity and a negative impact on your life! No matter what side of the fence you’re on, social media is changing society every single day. With the number of people using it, and the numbers increasing every day, it is a huge part of society and is here to stay.