The Impact of Social Media on Critical Issues.

By
Brian Phillips

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Abstract

After computers were invented by the U.S. military back in the late 1900's. The Internet took
off and became a huge part of everyone's lives. Then in the early 2000's social media started to
make its fame. Now the Internet has given us many different ways to communicate. These types of
communication platforms allow the people of the world to address many different critical problems.
Problems that would never have been addressed if it wasn't for the social media platforms available
today. Because of social media we now have independent news and different forms of interactive
collaboration that everyone can take part in. This allows for an acceleration in problem solving.
This paper has conducted research on the different ways social media has solved problems in the
world and how it has also affected our lives in society. Social media has impacted our way of
dealing with critical issues around the world, but it has also had a negative impact on our lives and
sometimes has caused problems in itself. Some of these issues will be addressed in the paper. After
doing all the research, one would come to the conclusion that social media can be negative as much
as it can be positive. However, in the right hands it can be used as a powerful and motivational tool
that can shape a new and different world.

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Since the beginning of the Internet an increasing development has taken place. New technology
is presenting itself to the world everyday. One of these more modern technologies is referred to as,
Social Media. A platform that allows for people from all over the world to communicate, share
and collaborate new ideas with each other. Social networking tools have facilitated creation and
exchange of ideas so quickly and widely than the conventional media. (Tay, 2011) Conventional
media was a one way street regarding communication and collaboration. Not everyone was able to
share their opinions or ideas because there was no possible means of doing so. Now everyone has
the ability to interact with the media. Having this new ability brings an entirely new perspectives of
the world to the table. It allows for more collaboration from different sources which, in the end,
enhances the results of any issues being delt with.

In the past, socities tend to just let the government or scientist solve all the major problems.
Society never had value in their own opinions or creative ability. More frequently than not, one
would simple vote for an official that was thought to have the ability to solve all of the major
concerns, and everything else was left to mere trust. Now, everyone is figuring out that it takes
more ycommunication, connection, creation (of new ideas and products), community (of shared
interests), collaboration and (changing the game of) competition. (Tay, 2011) This means that
power in numbers is really starting to have a new meaning. Social media encompasses these values
and allows everyone to take part in major issues that are happening around the world. It brings to
light the problems that were rarely given attention in the past. It also enables adolescents who some
might say, are the future leaders of our world, to further establish or improve their education. They

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might even participate in their own development, combating various new-world pressures and
concerns all usually fuelled by Social Media. Social media participation can offer adolescents
deeper benefits that extend into their view of self, community, and the world, including raising
money for charity and volunteering for local events, including political and philanthropic events;
Enhancement of individual and collective creativity through development and sharing of artistic and
musical endeavors; Growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites;
shared interests to include others from more diverse backgrounds; Fostering of one's individual
identity and unique social skills. (O'Keeffe, 2011)

Not only does social media help with the collaboration of ideas by other people and adolescents
but it also helps businesses deal with various critical issues. An astonishing reported 91% of
people say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions and 87% trust a friend's
recommendation over critic's review. (Tay, 2011) The sheer volume of Social media users results in
brand new markets opening up wordwide, this in itself establishes new marketing and advertising
platforms. All of this is aided by the necessity to accumulate virtual relationships, giving fantastic
targeting abilities for marketers, literally creating focus groups set up with large volumes of users of
various, yet stated, demographs all tied together under one social network which at least at first was
free to exploit. BioLite is a company from Brooklyn, NY that develops energy producing stoves
fueled by wood. These stoves are being donated around the world to 3rd world counties in the hopes
to help families with no source of heat or a way to cook. It allows them to obtain power simply by
burning wood. BioLite would not have had a chance if it wsn't for social media platforms. Also,
when adolescents sign up for causes such as these, or maybe to study abroad, they can also use
social media sites to review and connect with various related services of their choosing. Children
who go overseas to study can still stay in meaningful contact with their parents. (Tay, 2011) No
longer will people need to use so-called, snail mail to send letters back and forth to their loved

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ones, often spanning weeks in transit. It is a wonderful platform for people to connect from different
countries or even demographcis and make friends, sometimes as far as to say, real, lasting
relationships. It helps facilitate learning of other languages by giving the ability to practice with
others what they have learnt, virtually in-person. Social media has also proven to be worth while in
disasterious situations. In 2010, after the earthquake happened in Haiti, many of the official
communication lines were down ... social media came in very handy to report the news about the
affected area on what happened and what help was needed. (Tay, 2011) Without these platforms,
there would have been many lives that were not saved when this tragic event happened. The most
impressive part of the social media's impact on Haiti is the charity text-message donation service
that soared to over $10 million (USD) for the victims in Haiti. (Tay, 2011) This allowed for a
successful campaign in helping these victims that would have never of received help if it wasn't for
the various social media platforms, at the very least, not necessarily in time.

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is the ability to bring to light things that
might never had been known. That is because of the fact that most of these major issues are on the
other side of the world where no one goes, or able to go in the first place. Created by the NGO
Invisible Children, Kony 2012 was released on March 5th partnered with an ongoing campaign to
raise the profile in an Ugandan cult, militia leader, indicted war criminal and International Criminal
Court fugitive Joseph Kony, with the aim of having him arrested by December 2012 (by) the
time ... the campaign expired ... the film had over 94 million views on YouTube alone. (Jenkins,
2013) This issue was brought to light and dealt with by the authorities mostly due to mass
marketing via social mediums. Most notably perhaps, it has resulted in a resolution by the US
Senate and contributed to the decision to send troops by the African Unions. (Jenkins, 2013) Yet
another new source of activism, dubbed Hackitvism by social mediums, has made use of social
media in the past four years. Anonymous, a major hacktivist group dedicated to exposing

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corruption and solving world issues, helped Occupy Wall Street protestors organize events and
demonstrations ... They participated in the attacks againsts the Church of Scientology... Anonymous
also launched a series of attacks against the Israeli government websites. (Jenkins, 2013)

Even at the hands of a single person the world can be changed. In the instance of Dana
Bakdounis from Syria, ... posted on a Facebook group supporting women's rights in Syria and
further afield has polarised opinion and gained the attention of press worldwide. (Jenkins, 2013) If
it wasn't for this one act of activism and the medium of social media, women in Syria would still be
abused and degraded by the hands of the men who are supposed to love them. Not only has social
media been proven to help around the world with many issues but it has helped change entire
geographical areas. Some would say that the middle east was changed by the activists and people on
the front lines alone. It would be naive to argue that social media and online activism did not
contribute to the events across the Middle East, and help to secure their place as effective tools for
the conduct of political campaigns. (Jenkins, 2013) Similarly, that same tool proved to be very
useful during the Obama election for presidency during both of his terms. The mere fact that
content, no matter how radical or extreme has the ability to, go viral another new term relating the
wide-spread, high speed dispersal of said content, to a vast and varied demographic to pandemics
and epidemics of disease and infection.

However, every coin has two sides. With all the good things social media has done for society,
there are still some negative aspects that need to be addressed. Aspects of social media that are
actually causing more problems rather than helping with them. With everyone, almost constantly,
being fully emmersed on their computers or phones checking their profiles, friend's profiles,
streaming content etc, people are starting to forget about the real world. People become dependant
on technology and forget how to socialise in aface-to-face context. (Tay, 2011) A recent video

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called Look Up was released on Youtube, it encapsulates perfectly how this effects one's life and
the opportunities that they will miss, ironically this too went 'viral' almost immediately. When
constantly worried about what your friends are doing or simply trying to gain more attention from
them, people no longer pay attention to the problems that are generally right in front of their face.
They also lose that natural ability to socialize with one another. Social media has devalued the
traditional definition of friend where it is supposed to mean trust, support, compatible values,
etc. (Tay, 2011) Referring to Friends now has more often than not become about how many people
you have listed on your social profiles rather than who actually physically supports you as a friend.
The Internet fosters mostly shallow relationships; the act of leveraging the Internet to engage in
social connection exposes private information; the Internet allows people to silo themselves,
limiting their exposure to new ideas; and the Internet is being used to engender intolerance. (Tay,
2011) In the United States, child obesity is becoming a major problem because children spend
increasing amounts of time glued to social media rather than going outside riding bicycles or
playing sports. One might go as far as to say that physcial activity takes a back seat to the hedonistic
thrills of social media and the Internet. There is also the problem with, now powerful, government
agencies trying to spy on their citizens or companies farming information from customers accounts
and using it against them. Information, for example, gleaned from emails, such as being pregnant
and then the company would act by sending marketing material to their homes or email accounts
related to baby products. Sometimes it can even lead to a misunderstanding by the authorities of illthought comments on social media that seem threatening. Resulting potentially in a productive
member of society ending up in jail and losing everything he has worked so hard for.

In conclusion, Social media has proven to be a useful and productive tool in the modern world.
It allows for collaboration of new ideas and new ways to solve problems around the world. It has
brought to light issues that had no other means of attention accept through social media. It has also

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helped with businesses and politicians in their pursuit to gain fame or customer relations. Social
media allows for communication from all over the world with loved ones and even to make new
friends. It also helps with learning a new language amongst many other education-related things.
With that being said social media, as like other things in this world, has two sides. With privacy
becoming more important it doesn't help in that area. There is also the elusive matter of losing our
socialization capabilities and our health, become enslaved to one's own personal devices. Ultimately
the choice falls down to the users en masse, to use it as a positive and powerful tool or to let it
control your life.

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References
Cerian Jenkins (January 1, 2013) Clicktivism: A Model for 21st Century Activism. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/cerian-jenkins/clicktivism-a-model-for-2_b_2210340.html
Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, MD, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD, Council on Communications and
Media (March 28, 2011) The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.
Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full
Raymond Tay (November 14, 2011) The Impact of Social Media on Society. Retrieved from
http://ezinearticles.com/?Impact-of-Social-Media-on-Society&id=5378885