In this blog post, we will look at how we can overcome the positive effects of social media and the negative effects of personal information leakage.
In his book “The Third Wave,” Alvin Toffler predicted the first wave from the agricultural revolution, the second wave from the industrial revolution, and the third wave from the information revolution. As he predicted, we are now living in the information age. Not only is there at least one computer in every household, but the use of one PC per person is becoming commonplace. People everywhere have smartphones in their hands and Wi-Fi zones are installed everywhere. With such excellent Internet accessibility, people can instantly connect to the Internet anytime and anywhere if they want to. In such a society, new human relationships that did not exist in the past have been created. Relationships that could only be formed offline by meeting face-to-face in the past can now be formed online without seeing each other’s faces.
This was made possible by the modern form of social media, which is a product of the World Wide Web that has developed since the 1990s. Recently, this social media has been growing and developing explosively, attracting great social and cultural interest. Let’s take a look at what social media is, what types of social media there are, what their pros and cons are, and how they will develop in the future through examples.
SNS stands for Social Network Service or Social Network Site, and refers to an IT network-based community created for the purpose of building an online network. Since each service has different functions, it is not easy to define its functional characteristics in a single word, and users also define it differently in their own terms. Wikipedia defines social media as “an online platform that allows users to freely communicate, share information, and expand their social network, thereby creating and strengthening social relationships.” Meanwhile, the definitions of Boyd and Ellison are also representative. They define social media from a theoretical perspective as “social media allows individuals to publicly or semi-publicly disclose their personal information within a specific system.” It is also a web-based service that presents a list of other users they are connected to and allows them to browse a list of other people’s networks within the system.”
Currently, the most commonly used social media platforms are Facebook and Twitter. First, Facebook, which is considered to be the most successful social media in the United States, is a website that was created by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004. Establishing a relationship on Facebook is only possible with the consent of both parties. An important feature of Facebook is its “social plugin” function, which is represented by the “Like” button at the bottom of the post. When a user clicks the “Like” button on a post they like, the post is visible to the user’s Facebook friends.
Next, Twitter is an SNS that combines the “Friend Request” function with the speed of a messenger, and was launched in March 2006. Twitter is a simple service that allows users to post text of 140 characters or less, and the posted posts are listed in chronological order. The feature that sets Twitter apart from other social media is the “follow” function, which allows you to follow people you are interested in. This is similar to “making friends” on other social media, but the difference is that it allows you to establish a one-sided relationship without the other person’s consent. People who follow you unilaterally are called “followers.”
The difference in the way Facebook and Twitter form relationships leads to the two services communicating in different directions. While Facebook mainly forms relationships with offline connections, Twitter can form relationships with an unspecified number of people. Because of this difference, Facebook is more suitable for private conversations or small talk, while Twitter is more suitable for public news delivery. As Twitter’s vice president said, “Twitter is not a social media, but news,” Twitter has established itself as a platform that mainly delivers public news quickly. These social media have different detailed functions and characteristics, but they ultimately have something in common in that the purpose is to form a community through social networks.
In this way, social media are like Janus with two faces. It has both positive and negative impacts on our society. First of all, the advantage of social media is that it allows you to build connections with an unspecified number of people around the world. We live in the information age, and we can easily communicate with people in distant places simply by creating an account. We can form friendly relationships beyond the limitations of physical distance or geographical constraints.
Another advantage of social media is that it can prevent incidents and accidents or help prevent secondary damage. For example, a story was posted on a social media site about an attempted human trafficking on a subway, and soon after, a photo of the perpetrator of the incident was posted and spread rapidly. Social media can contribute to crime prevention by enabling the rapid spread of information. Another example is the pro-democracy revolution in Tunisia. At the time, the media was controlled by force, but the spread of information through social media helped to form a broad public opinion and topple the dictatorship.
In addition, social media enables two-way communication between consumers and companies. Companies can enjoy enormous advertising effects at low costs by using social media, and consumers can reflect their opinions on products through real-time communication. In this respect, social media is an important means to increase the influence of consumers and contribute to the development of companies’ products.
However, there are also many disadvantages to social media. A major negative impact is the damage caused by the exposure of personal information and privacy. Social media is easy and convenient to use, so individuals often inadvertently share their sensitive information. This can expose unwanted information to unwanted people. There is also a risk that the function of providing location information on social media will be exploited for crimes such as kidnapping and human trafficking.
The indiscriminate spread of information is also a problem. Since social media, which serves as a one-person media, allows individuals to freely post, there is a high possibility that inaccurate information will spread. A typical example is false rumors about celebrities.
In addition, excessive attachment to social media can hinder real-life relationships. While offline relationships can be deepened, focusing only on social media connections can actually sever real-life relationships. It is important to remember that social media connections can be empty relationships that disappear when you close the screen of your computer or smartphone. If you become too immersed in these virtual connections, you are likely to feel alienated in real life and may even suffer from mental problems such as depression. If this phenomenon intensifies, it may develop into a social problem beyond the individual.
So, what is the future of social media? In today’s fast-changing society, social media is clearly seen as a beneficial tool. Despite the negative impact of social media, its positive role and value are increasingly being emphasized. Considering the social, economic, and cultural value of social media, the social media market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. Facebook and Twitter, which lead the global social media market, already have hundreds of millions of users, and this trend is expected to continue for some time. According to Wikipedia, more than six out of 10 Internet users have a social media account. This suggests that the use of social media will become more common in the future.
So far, we have looked at the definition, types, advantages and disadvantages, and future prospects of social media through examples. As a medium that delivers information quickly in the information age, we hope that social media will continue to develop in a direction that is beneficial to our society by taking advantage of its strengths and addressing its weaknesses.
