To begin with, with time, social networks have become very important in this era. They help people to engage with people they know and even those who they do not know. With the help the help of the internet, user can also share stuffs about themselves on social media. Social networking sites allow people to be entertained with the contents posted. Also, users can now get to know about what is happening across the world by using social media. Social networking sites are now part of the daily lives of people and users cannot imagine their lives without the internet and social media (Boyd, 2007).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe first position, social media is a type of entertainment for people in a way\nthat people interact and share contents with other users of different social\nmedia platforms for not only communicating messages to them but also to\nentertain them. For example, we have now reached an era where people use\nInstagram and Facebook mostly to share memes. Furthermore, there are social\nnetworking platforms which are especially meant for entertainment purpose and\npeople are addicted to these. An example is YouTube, which was founded to make\nvlogs and to share videos for entertaining the consumers. Also, in order to\nentertain the users or YouTube, youtubers have to be creative when it comes to\nthe video they are making. Therefore, YouTube is a social media platform which\nis creative and also provides information (Crick, 2016). For example, nowadays\nmany people use YouTube to get information about any topics they want to know. This\nmakes people addictive to the platform in a way that, if ever people need to do\nsome research on their own; they will skip that step and go directly on YouTube\nto find out about something. The author also states that communities are formed\non YouTube. The communities can be in different kinds such youtubers themselves\nform a community as they are the content creators and sharers. Then another\ncommunity can be formed as a community of subscribers of a YouTube channel.\nEven the ones commenting on videos form a different type of community since\nthey are engaging on the social media platform along with the different people,\nwhom they do not know all over the world. YouTube is a kind of addiction for\nthe users in the sense that if a user likes to see the vlogs of their favorite\nYouTubers, he or she will stay updated with what is being featured on their YouTube\nchannels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe second position, social media indeed help people to keep in touch. But in\norder to keep in touch, users of social media should add each other as friend\nlike on Facebook for example. These friends can be people that already know\neach other or they can also be unknown people who are trying to make new\nfriends (Boyd, 2006). Social networks are a new way of how people get in touch\nwith other people all over the globe. This is a way of getting in touch with\nnew people, which leads into forming new friendships behind the screens. Many\npeople do this because they really want to be friend with strangers from abroad\nand they are more likely to reveal their real identity when they are serious\nabout their friendships. Boyd (2006) describes friendship as a feeling where\nthere is mutual love amongst the friends but it can also be denoted that not\nall friendship are real on social media. People cannot be attached to each\nother when they get used to chatting or video calling their virtual friends but\nit does not really mean that the friendship is real. Yet, users of social media\ngets addicted to the people they do not really know in real life just by\nchatting with them online every day. Another argument which is put forward is\nsome people keep track of the people they already know. For example, many\npeople use social networking sites to keep in touch with their family, friends\nor any closed ones who live abroad. Without the internet and their social\nmedia, it would have been difficult for people to keep in touch with their\nloved ones, frequently. (Boyd, 2007) supports this idea by stating that social\nnetworking sites act like a medium as an extension of communication in between\nindividuals who already know each other and also meet each other whether it is\nfrequently or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirdly,\nthe argument that social networks are like a kind of medium among individuals\nis supported by the statement that, social media is not only used to forge new\nfriendship but it is also a tool for businesses to keep in touch with their\nclients (Donath and Boyd, 2004). All businesses have adopted the methodology of\nkeeping in touch with their clients via platforms of social media. This helps\nbusinesses in flourishing in some way, as they can market their products online\nand also they can communicate with people through their inbox but also through\nthe comment section. Huberman et al (2009) maintain this idea by also\nmentioning that social media platforms are being exploited by the marketing aspect.\nCustomers can also provide their feedback on the pages of the business, which\ncan help business to know about the level of satisfaction of their clients.\nAlso, normal people can sell and stuffs through social media by posting\nproducts in online buying or selling groups. This make businesses and people\nsucceed in selling their products and also buyers to buy these products as the\nlevel of engagement on social networking sites helps in achieving a high level\nof target audience. Thus, businesses become addictive to social media in the way\nthat, they will always expect that their customers will communicate with them\nthrough social media and they also use social media for their marketing instead\nof using traditional forms of media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourthly,\nanother way of engagement is that political activists make use of social media\nas a way to target people to support them and their political parties (Huberman\net al., 2009). Many politicians now use Facebook to show that they are working\nfor the people of their country, by posting pictures or even videos to prove\nthat they are really meeting up with people who need their support. At the same\ntime, they use the same platforms to put down their political rivals. They try\nto show off all the good deeds they are doing for the benefit of the country\nand the people. Many politicians adopted this mean of communication in order to\nattain the highest level of audiences and also for their personal gains\n(Bennett, 2012). Whenever, the election is near all politicians will put their\nvision on social networking sites and this will help them to receive comments\nand feedbacks from their audiences. In some cases, the audiences themselves end\nup in giving ideas to the future ministers or deputies while engaging with them\nvia social media. This demonstrates that information is not only being shared by\nthe political but also being given by the people. People share their problems\non social media which acts like information being given to the politician. The\nones who use social media are mostly those who are in the opposition parties,\nthose who are against the government. This makes politicians addictive to\nsocial media in a way that they will keep themselves updated about issues\npeople are facing and also to use this as a strategy to win trust from the\npublic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifthly,\nSocial media now helps countries in gaining more tourists (Germann Molz and\nParis, 2013). Tourism is one of the aspects that is being promoted by social\nnetworking sites, more specifically because of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.\nThe authors add that now tourists use their social media platforms to learn\nabout any country they want to visit. Those who are addicted to traveling can\nalso view pictures, videos or even feedback of other tourists or local people\non pages of places which are touristic. This will give them a new addiction\nlike as they may view pictures daily on these platforms. Nowadays, Instagram\nacts like a major tool in attracting foreigners to visit different countries.\nThe way that both professional and amateur photographers post pictures on\nInstagram can easily attract a great number of tourists to their countries.\nThus, it can be said that when we speak about social media in terms of\nproviding information, even a photo acts like an information when it comes to not\nonly tourism but also in different fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\nit should be considered that not all memes are share for the idea of\nentertaining people. There are memes which are created in order to somehow\ncreate awareness about poverty, or sometimes about cruelty towards animals.\nThen in those memes, they mention \u201c1 like = 1 prayer\u201d or sometimes they come up\nwith memes mentioning if you don\u2019t want your mum to die, share this post\u201d.\nThese memes are very annoying when to the users (Dobson & Knezevic, 2018). When\nthey post \u201c1 like=1 prayer, or $1\u201d, it does not mean that the sick person or\npoor person is really receiving that prayer and the amount of money based upon\nthe number of likes that people have clicked. This develops a sort of addiction\nin the mind of some people. Like, they will always share these kinds of posts\nwhen they see these posts. While other people are addicted when it comes to\nthese posts in a way that they always comment \u2018Amen\u2019. They can instantly react\nto these posts without even thinking. Instead of doing stuffs like this, people\ncould come up with better ideas such as doing fund raising to help gather a\ncertain amount of money for real to help out the people in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\naddition, some people do make new friends on social media but they do this for\nthe sake of gaining popularity (Boyd, 2006). An example is using Facebook to\nadd a lot of people, just for the sake of becoming popular on that social media\nand also to get a lot of reactions, comments or share when uploading posts,\npictures and videos. Another example is using Instagram as a way to get the\nmaximum number of followers. They also use their story as a way to do shout\nouts for their followers so that in return the followers also do the same for\nthem just to earn more followers. As mentioned above that social networking\nsites act like a mean to help people communicating with new friends and also to\nkeep in touch with closed ones. But, this is not the case as in today\u2019s world\nsocial media is a way of escapism for some individuals. They use have friends\non social media but not in real life. People get addicted to other individuals through\nsocial media but they neglect the people living in the same household or the\nsame society as them. What is the use of having so many followers on Instagram\nand not having a single person by your side when you are sick? I can be denoted\nthat social media is making people so greedy on a virtual society rather than\nin the real world and the real society they live in. People can be having many\nfriends virtually but someday, when they will need these friends to support\nthem in moments of hardship, the same virtual friends they have will never be\nable to help them out. Therefore, in contradiction to the argument mentioned by\nBoyd (2007) social media is fading away the friendship and eradicating the way\nof communicating in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also,\nwhen it comes to businesses in maintaining good relationship with their\ncustomers, this is something quite hard for the businesses (Dijkmans et al.,\n2015). Once a particular brand or business starts gaining popularity, it\nbecomes difficult for the business to keep in touch with their clients. But, a\nlot of businesses recruit workers to maintain that communication in a way for\nnot letting their business rivals take over themselves and also to maintain the\nreputation they have gain because once their clients lose trust in them, they\nwill start losing their reputation. This will lead them into losing their\nclients and also this might bring their business down. Therefore, it can be\nsaid that social media is here to facilitate businesses and clients to maintain\na good relationship between each other but they should maintain their\ncommunication level like it all started. Even if the flowin communication is\nnot the same, the business should try adopt new strategies on the social media\nitself. For example if a small local business has gained over 5000 followers\nand per day, the business\u2019 page is receiving about 100 messages, it will be\ndifficult for that business to interact with all those 100 clients instantly.\nIn that case, businesses should adopt a kind of strategy like for example, post\non their walls that they would revert back as soon as possible or they can also\nput it on automatic reply mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To\nconclude, social networking sites permit people to create their profiles in\norder to connect and share information to other people, who are not only known\nby them but also to the ones unknown (Boyd, 2007). Furthermore, people use\nsocial media to be entertained while also some consider some features such as\nsome memes and sarcastic posts as being annoying. Social media has made people become\naddictive to it in a manner that they are dependent on it in various fields.\nAlso, social media has a high level of active audiences who are addictive\nusers, which is beneficial for businesses, political activists and parties.\nBut, both businesses and political activists should know how to maintain a very\ngood level of engagement with the people. They should always make sure that\nqueries are never left without any replies. It is also derived that information\nis also shared in various forms on different social networking sites.
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Reference List:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bennett,\nW. L. (2012). The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social\nMedia, and Changing Patterns of Participation. The ANNALS of the\nAmerican Academy of Political and Social Science<\/em>, 644<\/em>(1),\n20\u201339. Retrieved from https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0002716212451428<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Boyd,\nD. (2006). Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on\nsocial network sites. First Monday<\/em>, 11<\/em>(12). doi:\n10.5210\/fm.v11i12.1418. Retrieved from https:\/\/firstmonday.org\/article\/view\/1418\/1336<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Boyd, d., & Ellison, N. (2007). Social\nNetwork Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal Of\nComputer-Mediated Communication<\/em>, 13<\/em>(1), 210-230. doi:\n10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x. Retrieved from<\/p>\n\n\n\n