Social Media – Big Questions Everywhere

This is now all over the news media channels. At the WEF Globalization and our very fast developing digital world is one of the main topics.

One key area of development is social media.

On many forums you can read a tons of new year resolutions about social media. Many people would like to make more time for their “real” life and hold back with his social media activity.

Where is this tendency coming from?

Since the year of 2000 social media gained a lot of ground in our lives. I remember (yea, you can hear this a lot, but it is still true) when I had to call my friends on a phone (no, not a smart phone) if I had questions about home work or set the date for a party. There were no conference calls or group chats (which are, I admit, very useful features). In the breaks at school we spent time joking, discussing and arguing. We took walks, played soccer or read books. Today you can’t see anything else than children leaning on walls, smart phone in their hands and typing or listening to videos or music through earplugs. Not much socialization going on. It feels sometimes like we become a world without direct human contact.

More and more people realize, that it doesn’t give you a lot of enjoyment to “know” your “friends” only over social media. You see what they ate, how they dress their children, what new sneakers they bought, how they jump around on their bed or how they cuddle with their pets. Is this really what you want to know about your friends? Alright, maybe it is. Of course I am also curious when a friend of mine eats at Jamie Oliver’s Restaurant for the first time, his opinion about the new La La-Land Movie or what new book he is reading. But wouldn’t it be cooler to have your friend tell you his experiences in person with a beer at a bar or  with a glass of wine on your sofa at home (you can also have orange juice or a cup of tea. No pineapple juice though.)?

I know, it is easier to just check your phone, than to put on your shoes, get dressed, walk or take the buss for 10 mins. Interesting when you interact with people is the direct reaction you get from them. You can see so many feedbacks to what you say. Smiles, a provocative statement, sparkling or rolling eyes. Over social media you miss all these feedbacks. Not to speak about direct interaction, discussions, argumentation, questions, etc. People are noticing the loss of human contact. And since people are social beings, tYes, you can do that over social media, but social media is focusing more and more on short “tweets”. Nothing longer than 2 sentences will be read by anybody. How come? Ask people who have these relatively new jobs: Social Media Content Designer, Social Media Manager and there are also Social Media Specialists.

Social Media in todays Business

The business world realized that more people can be reached through social media than almost any other media in our society today. Adds, promotions and anything presented on social media can instantly reach thousands or millions of people with relatively little effort. This makes it one of the most effective  marketing and communication tools of our time. There are positiv and negative sides to this.

(I am not competent to write down all pros and cons, so if you would like to add something, please feel free to do so)

Pro:

free speech

speed of information

no need to put effort into information-sharing

connect to people who are geographically far away from you

everybody has access to knowledge that would be otherwise difficult to attain

global civilization is within reach (the world gets smaller)

 

But what are the underlying dangers of this possibility?

how trustworthy is information (everybody can “create” news)

filtering of appropriate information is more difficult (for example: protect children from certain media)

sheer amount of information in social media

copyright problems

privacy problems

Is it appropriate how

society

our children and the youth

governments

the business world

companies

is handling todays social media?