Social media has so many definitions and most of them will give you a similar insight but the most structured explanation I got on internet is “ Social media refers to websites and applications that are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time. “
However, today it has gone beyond the traditional way of sharing just a content. It has become the most powerful tool not only to communicate but it can influence anybody and anything on this earth.
People have defined social media in the form of apps on their devices like smart phone & tablets but communication tool has actually started with computers.
Social media has opened the gates, brought people with common traits, interests, communities together, and expanded the boundaries of ideas worldwide. The competence to share photos, opinions, events in real-time has transformed the way we live.
The discharge of social media is expanding constantly in a manner that it is infusing a diction into their behavior. Social networking like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Pinterest and more have reshaped the industrialization into digitization and re-imagined the way of conveying and expressing things.
It has also created a trouble in daily life i.e. the way we talk, the way we walk, the way we dress, the way we eat. Checking and scrolling through social media has become an increasingly popular activity over the last decade. There is a big percentage of users that become addicted to social networking sites and engage in excessive or passionate use.
Social media provides an endless amount of immediate rewards & perks in the form of attention from others for relatively minimal effort.
It has increased the hunger of attention seekers & in the age of social media, our obsession with getting likes and shares can easily become addiction.
Let us have a look on some facts
As per the survey by Emarsys, the usage of social media around the world is ever increasing. Social media statistics from 2019 show that there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, and this number is only growing. That equates to about 45% of the current population.
Most social media networks are also available as mobile apps or have been optimized for mobile browsing, making it easier for users to access their favorite sites while on the go.
Facebook has been shaping the social media landscape since its launch and is continually evolving to meet its user’s needs. With over 2.32 billion active monthly users, Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform. Active users are those that have logged into Facebook during the last 30 days. Roughly, two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users (Pewinternet, 2018).
Interestingly, Facebook was also the first ever-social network to surpass the one billion active user mark, reaching this milestone in the third quarter of 2012.
Currently, we are all slowly becoming social media addicts. Whether it is scrolling down our bottomless Facebook feeds on the subway, or posting the perfect brunch photo on Instagram before eating, social media has become inescapable. This social media statistic uncovers that an average of 3 hours are spent per day per person on social networks and messaging (Globalwebindex, 2019).
The demand for mobile-friendly content across social media is rapidly increasing, and justifiably so. 91% of all social media users access social channels via mobile devices. Likewise, almost 80% of total time spent on social media sites occurs on mobile platforms (Lyfemarketing, 2018).
Fake content in Social media and its effects
\Country like India where we have varied differences among ourselves with mixed religious, political and cultural views ,we are one the biggest contributors of fake content and it is still a challenge to counter it. Some researchers also found that most fake social media engagement relates to political and religious domains.
As per one of the study, it was found that 45% of highly active Twitter accounts in Russia are not real people, but rather bots.
India has the largest number of social media users in the world across platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, ShareChat and TikToK got a good spread of fake news.
In the year 2019 with every major event, from the general elections and Pulwama attacks to scrapping of Article 370 and the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act including Corona , its triggering extensive distribution of misinformation across social media platforms.
Check4Spam, a non-profit entity that verifies posts on social media, said the number of messages it received to check veracity increased more than 20% this year at 5,000-6,000 posts per month against about 4,000 messages last year. “The number of queries is mostly driven by the events happening around the country,” said Ekta Sharma, its head of fake news research. “During elections, the fake information rises and WhatsApp is flooded with queries. We try to debunk as much as possible with our resources.
Let me share a case, which happened last year
Two weeks after a suicide bombing in Kashmir in February killed 40 Indian paramilitary policemen, a Facebook user called Avi Dandiya posted a live video in which he played a recording of a call purportedly involving India’s home minister, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an unidentified woman.
The trio could be heard talking about arousing nationalist sentiment ahead of India’s general election, with the BJP president allegedly saying in Hindi: “We agree that for election, we need a war”.
Within 24 hours, one of Facebook Inc’s fact-checking partners in India, BOOM, exposed Dandiya’s video as fake. An analysis on BOOM’s website said the video was created by splicing audio from older political interviews.
By the time Facebook took down the post, it had received more than 2.5 million views and 150,000 shares. There is no Indian law that specifically targets fake news, but police in New Delhi registered a case of forgery against Dandiya and an official said investigations were ongoing.
You understand by now that fake news and other types of false information can take on different faces. They can also have major impacts, because information shapes our worldview: we make important decisions based on information. We form an idea about people or a situation by obtaining information. Therefore, if the information we see on the Web is invented or is false, exaggerated or distorted, we cannot make good decisions.
Impacts of Social Media on Society and Human Behavior
As per the global sources suggests so far about there is a huge impact of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-being. A report by BBC says, “Three billion people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute “
Now the noticeable fact is that Social media is now a part of our life and people gets shocked to know you if somebody is not on social media.
People use social media to vent about everything from customer service to emotions to stress to love to hate etc.
In the survey of 1,800 people, women reported being more stressed than men did. Twitter was found to be a “significant contributor” because it increased their awareness of other people’s stress.
Social media has allowed users to diverse opinions and thoughts of people of different cultures and different geographies. This has the power to make people flexible, to challenge stereotyped views on particular communities and to develop mutual dignity among people of different culture.
Traditional media (Print media, Television etc.) was the only medium until recently to reach people. Not everyone could share their views and information with people. Most of the conventional media channels are in the hands of big businesses. Social media enhanced democracy and equality by enabling everyone to send out their content to a larger audience.
Social media has the power to change lives—but for the most part, these changes are not positive and it has a significant destructive potential.
As per an individual research, Social media is unhealthy if used in an irresponsible way like
Distraction & loss of productivity
More than a third of employees report turning to social media as a mental break from work. In addition, while taking a break isn’t dangerous, getting distracted can be a problem. The temptation to glance at social media can take people out of the meetings, social gatherings, and other events that may require your attention.
Addiction
In extreme cases, the constant urges to check social media and make posts can lead to a kind of addiction. People afflicted with social media addiction are not just frequently involved with the platform; they feel compelled to engage constantly, to the detriment of their personal relationships, health, and happiness.
Stress and mood
Frequent engagement on social media can also affect your stress and mood. One study found that participants who browsed Facebook for 20 minutes had a lower mood than a control group who browsed the internet in general. Negative online interactions have also been shown to be correlated with rates of depression.
Anxiety
There’s also a high correlation between use of social media and anxiety. People who used seven or more social media platforms were three times as likely as people using two or fewer platforms to experience symptoms of general anxiety disorder. You may have experienced some level of anxiety in your own life, even if it is just in the moment before opening the app and wondering if your friend saw your message from earlier.
Social isolation
One study found that among people between the ages of 19 and 32, the people who spent the most time on social media were twice as likely to report feelings of social isolation. The irony is, of course, that social media was created to bring people closer together. The problem is that people often feel temporarily fulfilled with an online interaction, so they do not pursue a more fulfilling real-world one; over time, these limited interactions form the majority of their socializing, and they feel isolated as a result.
Sleep
Excessive use of social media, including exposure to blue light late in the night and obsessive “checking” behavior, is also linked to problems with sleep—and sleep problems can lead to other negative health outcomes, including depression and increased risk of physical ailments, like obesity and heart disease.
Social media shows you different aspects of the same story or incident and forces you to accept the one, which is the most odd out of all.
Social media Ethics and responsibilities
Social media sites are developed as a tool to communicate with others by sharing personal information, photos, videos, comments and more. Community sites with user-generated content should be used responsibly.
One of the most fascinating fact is the highly active social net-workers show a higher tolerance for their activities and they sometimes do not identify which content is right or wrong.
Some of the key responsibilities of users are :
- Please ensure the authenticity of a news before posting it on any social media handles.
- Please ensure your post and comments are not creating any debates and hurting any religious sentiments .
- If you come across any fake news and prohibited content ,please report immediately.
Let me explain with the help of a small story .The Japanese play “Rashomon” tells of a murder of a prince at a crossroads in the forest at dusk that is witnessed by a woodcutter, a merchant, and a robber. The event is first portrayed as it happened. The rest of the play consists of the subjective versions of what happened as told by the three others as observed from their vantage points and “edited” by their states of mind. So do we have one truth and three stories, or are there many sides of the truth?
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