Since the beginning of the 21st century, several essential inventions have changed how we view the world. Technology is used throughout everybody's lives for unique purposes. I as a college student use it to keep up with family and friends back home. Also, technology today is vital to my success as a student and in my future profession. This brings me to my main point, the invention of social media as a whole has been the biggest technological innovation. Before social media platforms, we could only get news from papers and other news outlets. Also, before social media, we did not have influencers and content creators. Social media created an entire array of new possibilities. However, there were negative sides to the creation as well.
As a communication major, I have to have some idea of what is going on in the world. The news plays a big part in that. Ever since social media around local news stations have become less popular in the world. Social media allows everyone to report the news without a degree. We can go on the internet and see anything news related from different people’s points of view. The positive effect of that is some of the diversity that we see in world issues. However, a negative effect is some of the fake news we see, and the censorship of certain people on these apps. Most journalists believe social media has hurt the news (Pew Research Center). Surprisingly many journalists use social media sites like Twitter, or Instagram to promote their work.
This brings me to my next point. Social media has completely changed the field of cinematography and other communication majors. Most people promote their work on their social media platforms now. This is not just for communication majors or even college students, anybody wanting to pursue a business can promote it on their profiles. We see this on YouTube, where people promote themselves as video editors. Specifically, to me, I can create reels and showcase these things online to promote myself and get hired by people nowadays. Things like that could not be done before social media. Most people were just hired based on their Resume. Social media gives us a chance to present ourselves in a certain way online, but we have to be cautious about how we do this as well.
Everything that we do online is tracked and recorded. Especially, on social media platforms. This is all called our online footprint. It showcases our entire online presence. This is how algorithms keep up with what products we like, and which ads to recommend to us. My online footprint is clean and it is not much you can find about me. When I searched for my name I saw pictures of my grandfather and that is about it. The only thing that I really showcase on social media is my work. As I stated before, as a media major I have to show the world what I can do to be applicable for a job. Moving on, a digital footprint is permanent. Somebody can always find information about you online just by knowing what to look up. Often, that data is taken and sold to third parties too. Facebook has faced several lawsuits in the past about their privacy settings, and how data is not safe on there. These factors can lead to the negative effects of social media.
Before social media platforms, nobody could obtain much information about you unless they met you in public. Now, because people can interact online we have new terms such as cyberbullying. This brings an entire change to people's mental health. Some people are made fun of in public and they go home to escape. Social media allows people to bother you anywhere. Frequently, social media platforms have a certain image they want to portray, meaning they only promote specific influencers on the brand setting standards for what they decide is beauty. This creates an unrealistic narrative of what people expect to see in the real world. Also, others are bullied for not looking a certain way or feel that they have to act or look a certain way to receive attention. There are multiple steps taken now to put a stop to this.
Social media does a lot of great things for society. It has excelled in business I hope to go into unlike ever seen before. However, the negative side effects cannot be ignored in society, and the constant data tracking. Even though they are private parties there should be laws put in place restricting them from obtaining and saving certain things about us. People make mistakes sometimes and do accidental posts, and that stay uploaded forever even if they delete them. We as human beings need to maintain a healthy relationship with this technology, as with anything else. Promoting our businesses online and using it for news is healthy. However, constantly checking every second of the day and you conduct your entire life online is not smart. I believe I have a healthy relationship with social media. I watch YouTube and TikTok during the day to keep up with sports news, world news, and a few content creators who inspire me, but that is about it. I do not post too much about myself on my social media platforms, because I have always been aware of my online footprint. Therefore, I only posted editing videos I have done. Overall, this technology needs to have restrictions set on it to lower some of the stakes and risks people run while using them.
Sources:
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/impact-of-social-media/
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/06/14/many-journalists-say-social-media-helps-at-work-but-most-decry-its-impact-on-journalism/
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-digital-footprint
https://www.stopbullying.gov/
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