Social Media's Impact on Society: Exploring the Pros and Cons

The term Social refers to the community, getting to know various individual (their thoughts, thinking, emotions, facial behavior, motivation, and attitude). On the contrary, Media in social media refers to the platform that allows individuals to share views, opinions, information, and most importantly content. 

Social Media altogether indicates the connectivity, and interactions of people from different fields, cultures, and communities. One can create and share content of their interest and can stay connected with their family members, friends, and community. Nowadays social media is a great tool for businesses, marketing, and content-sharing. In this blog, you’ll get a brief overview of social media precisely. 

What is Social Media?

Social media is not just a few platforms that are getting popular nowadays. It is a form of mass communication, that works as a platform for people/ businesses/ marketers to get connected. Let's start with the very beginning, the exact date social media when first came on notice is May 24, 1844, a series of electronic dots that are being sent from Baltimore to Washington D.C. by Samuel Morse. 

Social media can be described as a virtual platform that connects one individual to another. It is a digital technology that can help one to establish a whole business through their comfort place, this is just an example of social media. People get to find their interests, work genres, peer groups, achieve marketing goals, and many more. 

Social media also helps most of the population get the right information and be aware of different topics. People get to share their points of view and the way they feel on many online platforms. But we are already aware of the fact that everything positive comes at a price. Social media not only impacts positively but it also causes harm to various individuals. 

Different Uses of Social Media

Let’s not directly dive into the major complex uses of social media, it can be a blessing for an individual in many terms, but let’s start with the most common use of social media and then cover the complex uses of social media. 

Common Uses of Social Media:

• Communication: Social media allows us to connect with businesses, and individuals, and always be aware of the things happening around us. It's all possible with constant and instant communication tools. One can maintain their virtual life through communication. It is a necessity as well as a crucial part of the human being. 
• Blogging: As we are already aware one of the uses of social media includes communication. Now, let's understand how communication helps bloggers to enhance their ability to express thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. It also helps in having a great way to learn new things, whenever you want. Blogging also helps you build a community that shares the same thought process as you. 
• Education: Social media is also a great place for an individual who wants to have a keen interest in education themselves or the people around the world. Social media is the best way to add a skill, or knowledge if used correctly. Many NGOs are now established online that work to educate children, students, and the ones who genuinely want to get educated but can't due to various economic reasons. 
• Photo Sharing: Photo sharing is the most common use of social media, as it is the most common thing an individual starts doing when comes to knowing about social media or its uses of it. Pinterest can be the biggest example of this as it is only specialized for photo sharing. Pinterest is a 'visual discovery engine' for the ones looking for something specific like; cooking, sewing, fitness, or wallpapers. 
• Relationships: Building relationships through social media can be easy but risky at the same time because we don't know what we are going to get eventually. We are aware of the fact that social media was born to connect people, with one another. Many individuals also use it for the same. Nowadays, we can see how the number of dating apps is increasing day by day. Thus, social media can be a great tool for fostering new relationships or friendships. 

Sophisticated Uses of Social Media:

• Collaboration: Collaboration is basically a partnership between two or more brands, people, or influencers to collaborate and create some positive and productive outcome. It works the same in social media as well! When two brands or businesses connect create some sort of content that will help them have more business audiences. A few examples of collaboration include sponsored posts, giveaways, and merging the reach of both brand's audiences.
• Reviews and Feedback: Any business (online or offline) requires feedback for growth. Collecting feedback, reviews, and opinions from consumers helps in finding out the real barriers of any business. Brands like Amazon, Flipkart, and many more are getting higher privileges than other brands because of mostly get genuine reviews and ratings on their products. 
• Paid Advertising: It is a form of online mode of advertising but in a paid manner, where brands pay an amount to advertisers to promote their brand in the form of ads on a specific platform or network. 

Pros and Cons of Social Media

The analytical reports on social media indicate that more than half of the 8.6 billion people in the world are engaged in social media. The numbers have increased drastically from 970 million users in 2010 to 5.17 billion in July 2024, clearly indicating that 63.7% of the global population in the world are indulged in social media. 

Along with the good comes bad. It depends on the way we use any digital or virtual platform. Let's get aware of the pros and cons of social media. 

Job Opportunities Through Social Media

Social media is a great place for marketing as social platforms can give immense growth to a business in very little amount of time. Here you'll get to explore the job opportunities, which social media creates for an individual. Below are some of the best jobs one can apply for, with the required eligibility. 

(1) Social Media Specialist: Social media specialists are responsible for the creation of trendy content for constant growth. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the best places to create engaging content as people nowadays are regular users of these platforms. The specialists mainly focus on trendy topics that will benefit the business eventually. It can be an entry-level job. 

• The average pay for a social media specialist ranges between 2 to 9 LPA.
• Required Skills- Copywriting, graphic design, video production, knowledge of social media platforms.

(2) Social Media Manager: These managers mainly manage the social strategy for their team to work accordingly. Social media managers are a crucial part of a company, as they improve the company's virtual appearance professionally. They mainly manage content creation, brand representation, community engagement, and many more. 

• This job role requires a minimum experience of 3-5 years. 
• The average salary of a social media manager is 1.3 to 13.5 LPA. 
• Required skills include Advanced knowledge of all social media platforms and major listening tools, communication, creativity, data analysis, leadership skills, etc. 

(3) Social media Consultant: These consultants can be individuals or agencies who work with clients or brands to improve their social media presence. They are the professionals who help businesses to grow and earn the benefit of online platforms. Social media consultants are highly experienced in social media trends, algorithms, and advanced ways for natural growth. 

• This job role requires a minimum experience of 4-7 years. 
• The average salary of a social media manager is 1.2 to 11 LPA. 
• Required skills include social strategy, and in-depth knowledge of Social media as a subject.

Tips to Balance the Usage of Social Media

• One can set boundaries for oneself regarding how much time is enough for social media. 
• Many online platform provides the features related to the overconsumption of the platform. One can use these features for balance and stability. 
• Tracking time can also benefit the balance of social media. This creates an awareness of the time that is being wasted by an individual. 
• Prioritizing the real life can be a way for the balance usage of social media. 
• There is no shame in asking for help if the situation is getting worse by the time. A helping hand is necessary for some individuals, one can reach out for help from the experts.  

Conclusion

Social media has undoubtedly changed our lives in many positive and negative ways. The individuals who can benefit themselves are benefiting highly, on the contrary, the individuals who just want to waste their time are doing the same on social media. 

This blog thoroughly explains the pros and cons of social media with an in-depth knowledge of social media as a subject. Furthermore, you've also got to know that social media is not only for entertainment it also provides a varied range of job opportunities.