Week 2 Entry: Social Media - Boon or Bane?

SPRING 2011 COM 125: Introduction to the Internet

Blog Entry 2

A.C. Joke of the Week: “Do people snigger at the mention of Friendster because it sounds like… hamster?”

Social Media: What exactly is it? The first thing that comes to my mind is – Facebook!

Facebook is a social networking phenomenon that gathered over 150 million members in the short span of only 5 years. I observed some close friends over the past few months and realized that the first page people usually open is none other than, Facebook, with the exception of Twitter, Gmail, SIM portal and UBlearns of course.

We started off the week discussing the definition of social media and the differences between social and traditional media. Social media are media that are designed for social interaction, and are highly interactive, accessible and scalable on a global network. Traditional media, on the other hand, is static, has a physical limit and has short-lived value, mainly surviving on advertising.

With social media, I can check up on my friends and family members and their daily activities. Through social media, I can find out about happenings in the world, and I can make my mark in web history just by commenting on it. Furthermore, there are a variety of social medium, where one can express his or herself in a myriad of ways.

SO, the BIG question is: Is social media a BAD idea?

I would say that I agree to a certain extent.

Over the years, as social media grew in popularity, there has been more news of cases of people in the younger generation getting addicted to the internet. Along with this addiction came other problems such as – “social isolation and the invasion of privacy”. However, whether or not we know the exact numbers of cases is a different story altogether.

No doubt, the people who use social media mainly lie within the younger generation. As my father as says, “You young people are lucky. Lucky to have cell phones, the internet, your own computers. Lucky that now, you don’t have to go through the trouble of face-to-face interaction… Especially in situations where you want to get to know a person of potential romantic interest!”

What my dad said was quite true. With the internet and social media, people “forget” how to behave in real social situations. Some would rather make all the “noise” they can on a social networking site. And still, there are others known as “page stalkers” that wouldn’t mind checking out another person’s profile page, thus invading the person’s privacy. Of course, privacy settings are now in popular use, but are they really effective in keeping a webpage ‘private’?

That aside, I believe that some parental control, guidance, and maybe even restrictions, in internet use is important. Adolescents should try to use some discretion when using social media because what you say on the internet will never disappear.

Is social media good or bad then? Well. It’s a conundrum in itself.