Social Media: Impact on human behavior and society

Social media has changed not only our powers of thinking, but today governs our behavior and social conducts as well.

Today, social media has created new styles of communication for us, which made huge impact on everyday lives of the people. Social media has brought people with common interests together and expanded the horizon of ideas worldwide. However, there has also been an impact of social media on human behavior and society.

Human behavior changes more when we dabble with technology especially with social media. The daily use of social media by people has increased so much that it is slowly injecting an inflection into our behaviors.

The good impact of social media:

• Social media can add creativity to our thinking as people can share their views and work with others.
• It allows people to explore and become actively involved without the fear of rejection.
• While no one advocates spending hours after hours gaming, social media games can build social connections, improve a person’s self-efficacy, boost their cognitive flexibility and self-control. They can teach students how to deal with successes and failures in real life.
• Social media connectivity with families, friends and some government safety organizations, has resulted in people feeling safe while moving out.
• LinkedIn is one of the greatest example of how networking over social media has helped people in finding the jobs in domain of their interests.

The bad impact of social media:

• Face-to-face interactions which are necessary for development of personalities, learning social skills and communication skills, have been removed from the lives of people, especially younger generations. Children are having a difficult time interacting with others, which might lead to unsociable behaviour.
• Comparison with other lives has been made easy by social media. People become unhappy with their current circumstances, leading to problems with self-esteem and depression.
• Social media use has also been associated with cyber bullying and cyber abuse by anonymous users online, which leads to problems of self-esteem, privacy ,etc.
• Most studies have shown that, social media’s violent games result in increase in violent tendencies and behaviours in children.
• Social media has also been used as tool to spread negativity and rumors online which has lead to increase in the instances of violence in the society. For instance - Recently, the rumours of kidnappers over WhatsApp have led to deaths of innocent people in various parts of India.
• With social media it has become nearly impossible to avoid bad news and the negative influences on our lives. This can lead to long-lasting psychological repercussions and ultimately lead to thoughts of our world falling apart, stress and anxiety.

Key Facts and Figures:

•   In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe.
•  According to a report by we are social, a leading marketing and communications services to organizations in the United Kingdom, the number of people using the top social media platform in each country has increased by almost 1 million new users every day during the past 12 months.
• The global number of people using social media has grown by 13 percent in the past 12 months, with Central and Southern Asia recording the fastest gains.
• Facebook is the most preferred social media platform. With more than 2000 million Facebook user world over, if a country is constituted with them, it would be the world’s third largest, behind China and India.
• The other popular social media platforms are You Tube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Whatsapp etc.
• According to the 2017 official report published by Facebook, on average there were 1.40 billion Daily active users of Facebook for December 2017, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
• According to the same source, on average there were 2.13 billion Monthly active users of Facebook as of 31 December 2017, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
• According to forecasts from media analyst firm BIA/Kelsey, U.S. social media advertisement revenues are expected to grow to USD 24.2 billion in 2021. 
• A researcher linked to Cambridge Analytica (CA), a political consulting firm had accessed details of 50 million Facebook users. The data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, which used online data to reach voters on social media with personalized messages and swayed 2016 US elections.

What effect will social media have on society’s future? How will it change how humans perceive the world?

Social media will have a huge effect on the future of society and human perception, and in many ways. It has become more and more prevalent and will only continue to grow and expand. I remember when I was younger and Myspace was still the place to be. When Facebook came into the limelight, people weren’t really sure what to do; I remember seeing Facebook and thinking I needed to add everybody who lived in my town.

There are a few various ways in which social media will affect the future and change human perception:

Human Interaction

I think one of the main effects that social media will have on the future of society is changing the way that people interact with one another. On one hand, this can be negative; social media gives people an option to post or engage in rude or inflammatory behavior under the guise of being hidden behind a computer screen. Others may feel that social media has made them less likely to be able to engage with friends, family, or others in a face-to-face environment. How many times have you been out and seen people just staring at their phones? We so often interact with others online and via social media that it can be argued that people are losing out on the development of valuable social skills.

Many may believe that what they post on social media will have no effect but the reality is that it CAN affect the way that individuals interact with potential employers, potential love interests, and more. If you have a poor social presence, or one which promotes deviant behavior, are you really going to get the job that you want?

At the same time, it can have a positive impact on interactivity as well. For example, I work in the communications field. For me, being able to show that I can engage with others on social media - and share content which is valuable - has helped me with networking, meeting friends, or even job-searching.

Self-Image

As can be seen by quickly perusing Instagram or any other visually-based network, people post a lot of photographs of themselves, vacations, workouts, food, or just every day life. Because of this, people might start comparing themselves to other people. Social media might negatively affect their self-image because they do not have something (whether it be the body, the money, or some other aspect) that someone online has. Some research has even shown that likes on social media can be psychologically pleasing; people can get addicted to the likes, even feeling that they have more of a support system or that more people like them/are proud of them than might be true.

If companies want to help combat self-image issues which can be compounded by what is shared on social, they need to try and understand how deeply ingrained social media is in modern society.

Flow of Information

Social media provides a quick and easy way to spread news and information online. It is great for up and coming bloggers or Youtubers, for journalists sharing stories, or even for controversies like the United Airlines legging controversy. Many people around the United States, and around the world, use social media as a way to discover news or new stories. While this can be beneficial, the recent influx of fake news from the past presidential election does need to be considered. For social media to become a beneficial news source in the future, it must be ensured that consumers can trust the flow of information.

The flow of information on social media can also perceive how human beings can see the world. For example, the recent Women’s March in Washington, D.C. grew to be a worldwide event, with hundreds of sister marches taking place not only across the United States but across the world. Had social media not been in effect, most likely the march would not have become as widely known as it was. Social media coverage of other countries might also give insight into what is happening in other countries, affecting the way in which people might understand other cultures.

Corporations and Customer Service

Survey findings from 2016 state that when customers contact brands or companies on social media with complaints or questions, 47% expect a response within an hour and 84% not waiting or wanting to wait any longer than one day for a response. 32% expect a response within 30 minutes. With more and more customers taking to social media to air their grievances, or even to rate a company on a website such as Yelp, being able to navigate the social sphere is imperative for brands to survive.

If brands respond negatively or rudely to customers, don't fulfill expectations, or even fail to respond at all, that customer is not likely to positively review or rate the brand on social media. In fact, if the customer is incensed by a certain behavior, they may even leave bad reviews on social media. This can be a detriment to a brand or company as some people might see those bad reviews and choose a different brand or company for their needs or services.

Because of this, online customer service - particularly online customer service as related to social media - is going to be important for brands to focus on. As it becomes more prevalent and more people get onto social media (and as more social networks pop up), being able to make customers happy is going to be helpful in keeping brands successful.

• I believe it affects human behavior in a more negative way than positive.

While it is a great resource to share and connect with friends and family, it does more harm than good by the fact that it makes everything so convenient in regards to human contact and even common courtesy.

For instance, it isn’t common for the mass majority of people to religiously check their phone for updates or messages that aren’t even considered urgent or important, but need to be checked because of its instantaneous nature. Or, they need to check it because whatever they are doing is just too boring and they feel the need to be entertained. Imagine sitting across the table from your date, and all they seem to want to do instead of being engaged with you is check Facebook. Rude right?

Plus, because it is so “instant,” social media doesn’t really encourage us to pick up the phone and be interested in engaging one on one with someone. People still do hang out with one another on the daily basis obviously, but it just doesn’t hold the same priority as it once did. Which means, things like messages being misconstrued and arguments occurring happens more often, or allowing a friendship to kinda fade away because the conversations over text have lacked more and more substance.