The Role of social media in Modern Society

Social media is everywhere in modern society. Whether as an online interface between friends, a source of information and news, or a marketing tool, few people can get through a day without interaction through some form of digital platform. People, including me, use a wide variety of them. For example, I may use the image platform for news and a social aspect, in particular to keep updated on the progress of a publication. I would use another platform to keep in touch with current affairs, and in doing so, use them both as a form of access to digital communities. But, at the same time, it is posited that they are also “a classroom; an office; a political town hall; [and] a form of self-help resources.” This shows the range of ways in which these platforms have transformed the media landscape.

The implications of this are mixed and complex. On the one hand, social media has been heralded for its ability to bring together a sense of community and increase engagement in ways that could never have been imagined. On the other, the impacts on society have been questioned, with concerns often focusing on whether the emergence of social media has left us more or less socially connected with a pronounced ethic. One possible area to consider is, for example, where these platforms blur the line between leisure and business – does this carry an ethical burden for both employees and consumers? Similarly, due to the plethora of platforms, are we restricted not just in the realm of how we work, but in what we can share online? As such, this makes ethically reasonable approaches to usage difficult to pluck out. Is it reasonable of me to ask my students to use a platform that has links, either direct or indirect, to less moral enterprises?

The Evolution of social media

Social media platforms have become ubiquitous across the globe. Publications have extended analyses of individual platforms from societal, political, and economic angles. What has been overlooked is the broader picture - looking at the inception and changes that have evolved over the decades. For this, one must travel back to the early 1990s, a time when the internet was relatively nascent. During this epoch, internet sites were referred to as search engines, where publication houses often had static home pages that existed in the cloud. Recruitment drives to improve the perception of the company were minimal in this period. This period of the World Wide Web was colloquially labelled as Web 1.0; a time when the vast majority of web pages were published to be read only and, as such, they were referred to in plural by using .com.

With the advancement in technology and interoperability, social interaction was included in what was referred to as Web 2.0; a comprehensive shift in the early 2000s that led to webpages social networking services. A plethora of SNS platforms is today used for diverse reasons, including microblogging, and yet interestingly, each emerged with different participation patterns and has its own distinct factors that attract and retain members. It all began in 2004 when Facebook saw the light of day at Harvard University. Founded by Mark and his college roommates, the platform was initially limited to Harvard students before expanding to Ivy League universities and schools in the Boston area, and from there, to many other universities across the country and world soon after. Over the past eight decades, social media has become part of people's routine, and it has changed the way they communicate, share information, and exchange co-developing worldwide trends and events.

From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

The term "Web 2.0" originated in 2004 to describe the technological shift from Web 1.0 to a more interactive approach to the web. This included trends such as the internet shifting from being a library to a school, from a place to find information to a place where one can interact. The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 illustrated the technology and perceptions/expectations of companies, not on the part of consumers. The period from 1990 to 2000 was the first critical decade of the web's commercial beginnings; and from 2000 to 2010, the web became software-dependent in its relationships of Web 2.0 (social, participatory, and community).

Web 1.0 was a predominantly top-down approach focused on simply adding information to the web, while Web 2.0 is community-focused and utilises a bottom-up ideology. The Web 2.0 approach can respond to the need for information exchange, provide a support network for businesses, and enable the interaction of businesses and the exchange of rich content. Web 2.0 is characterised by websites that provide free tools and opportunities for conversation between internet users, where the visitors are the main generators of content. The network community's interaction and sharing should be a participative social space compared to the web as a communication medium. Web 2.0 sites published a participatory culture, where individuals presented diverse identities and actively contributed by responding and creating their own culture. The rise of Web 2.0 is described as challenging the network with tools and templates that actively promote collective and cooperative work.

Impact on Communication

One of the most obvious impacts of social media on modern society is how it has revolutionised communication, both on an interpersonal and massive scale. Communication, either between friends, family, or business associates, has become vastly faster since the introduction of social media. Messaging applications allow people to talk in real-time for free from across the world. The use of shorthand or informal language like emojis has also become popular, changing the way that people communicate and altering modern language. Social media has been given the ability to reach so many more people due to the easy functionalities that media platforms provide. Access is so easy that many regular people have even risen to become social media "influencers," gaining huge amounts of advertising and sponsorship through their sizable followings.

Another impact of social media on society has been the ability for different groups and movements to get a voice. Many marginalised voices and movements have been given a platform. This raising of marginalised voices has ultimately led to more democratic communication and access to news that someone might actually care about. However, social media can influence the information that people receive. The amount of people that say they get their news from social media has grown significantly, and since then has probably risen. Visual media has a particularly marked impact on people, including videos and images. This can be seen when one realises that videos average a short duration before someone watches something else, whereas a photo can capture that person for longer. Social media has drastically reduced the number of people who get their news from television or old "traditional media."

?Global Connectivity

As of 2019, there were 3.5 billion active social media users around the world. Social media platforms are known for being places where individuals transcend geographical and cultural borders to create connections, albeit digitally. Additionally, when users worldwide engage with one another on social media, ideas and cultures can be shared and exchanged in a way that promotes mutual understanding. In addition to personal connections, social media has also become an important aspect of social movements. Cross-cultural efforts have been realised using social media to advocate for many local and global campaigns.

For global companies and organisations, social media provides an opportunity to have a presence in places all over the world, something that was difficult to do in the past. Although social media can enable global cooperation and communication, individuals and groups in many parts of the world remain excluded from such global connectivity. A large percentage of people in remote, underdeveloped places are deprived of the resources and the opportunity to access social media and the internet. In large accommodations for study and research in various universities around the world, a significant number of individuals from developing and poor nations also remain marginalised from utilising social media platforms due to a variety of reasons. Moreover, the connectivity of social media initiatives is not uniformly shared among social media users. In addition, although social media allows global interaction, advocates criticise some worldwide social media trends and behaviours. For example, advocates argue that the popularity of global fashion trends and hairstyles that are not explicitly associated with the wider communities promotes cultural misappropriation and violates the rights of those whose culture is being misappropriated. In general, cultural misappropriation is described as a careless, offensive, and indecent representation of one's culture and heritage.

Influence on Politics and Activism

Since the early 2000s, social media has become permeated by politics. Where once political opinions were confined to a few pages of newspapers or carefully crafted sound bites on broadcast news, social media has acted as a space for political mobilisation. Social media has facilitated the spread of grassroots social movements; it has played a role in the outcome and aftermath of political events, including US presidential elections, the Brexit vote, the Hong Kong uprising, and the Capitol riot. It goes without saying that political campaigning has gone digital, and in the US in particular, this very transition has led to profound changes in the business of politics. This section discusses the changing content and strategies of political communication in US elections and congressional campaigns in the age of social media. First, in presidential election campaigns, digital campaigning has facilitated new ways of raising funds, organising, and reaching potential voters. Political commentators and activists have bemoaned the ascendancy of 'slacktivism', a phenomenon wherein individual citizens believe that their retweets, likes, and shares amount to meaningful participation. Research into slacktivism and social media campaigning is still very much in process, and a recurring question is whether it is causally efficacious. Findings generally suggest that positive online incitement does positively impact political engagement, although in-group hostility is a significant issue, and negative online incitement is less causally efficacious. Additionally, there is some evidence to suggest that slacktivism may be more prevalent among liberal individuals, who tend to be more 'expressive'. It is hoped that the insights below will illustrate why the epistemic nature of the political part of social media poses a threat to liberal democracy and justify the need for alternative models of governance.

Social Media and Mental Health

Social Media and Mental Health: Positive and Negative Links

It is argued that social media can be a ‘lifeline’ for many young people, providing support and encouragement from their peer network. Engaging with political and civic content can also provide a sense of belonging. However, there is growing evidence that young people, during the pandemic, found themselves in a situation where their excessive consumption of social media messages about mental health and well-being may have inadvertently encouraged them to focus on and spiral into their mental health concerns. It may also have perpetuated their sense of isolation and loneliness, and driven feelings of not being ‘good enough’ — which can have negative repercussions for mental health. Research has found that people (14 to 24 years old) who engage in high levels of activities such as scrolling, posting, commenting, liking, and chatting online showed a greater decline in their mental health and life satisfaction over time, widening the mental health gap.

There is evidence that excessive attention to their social media profiles can have negative mental health outcomes by encouraging social comparison with others, especially when bombarded with messages about living ‘perfect’ lives. Spending too much time on social media can also contribute to a sense of not doing enough, have a negative impact on sleep, expose users to cyberbullying, and isolate individuals. This is especially relevant to younger users, as a study has shown that social media operates within an ‘attention economy’ which capitalises on insecurities and vulnerabilities of adolescents by playing on their need to ‘marry attention with affection’. Social media can negatively construct unhealthy body (or self) image ideals and performance to meet these ideals.

However, research on the potential link between the use of social media and mental health finds the relationship between them can be more complex and variable than suggested by extensive coverage. There is wide variation in study design; sample population, size, and age group; social media use component studied; the mental health outcome measure; and consideration of possible confounding factors. Questions about whether the research findings represent a direct causal pathway or reflect an underlying mental health drive to escape into social media use require more research and also pose major challenges for public health policy. Calls for greater investment in policies and interventions that develop people’s awareness of their social media habits, protect them against potential harm, foster positive experiences on social media, build resilience, strengthen emotional literacy, and create positive and more inclusive online communities.