social arguments

There are two social media sites that have the cyber world connecting billions of people. Facebook and Twitter have risen to the top of the food chain in regards to staying up to date on the world around you. There are very valid arguments on both sides of the spectrum when it comes to the discussion on the positives and negatives of these sites and I would like to go into further detail about a couple of them. With Facebook being as popular as it is there is a huge beneficial aspect for small businesses and corporations alike. The amount of publicity a business can receive from one person liking their page can be astronomical. An article by Jason Spindle talks about business advantages due to Facebook, saying it increases the advertising and promotes recurring customers. Think about it like this; say a random girl goes to the store and buys a drink. On the side of this drink is a label offering a 15% discount for liking their page on Facebook. The girl immediately reaches for her phone, finds and likes the page, thus receiving her discount. She has 672 friends. That means 672 people just saw the name of this product on their newsfeed. 123 of them like the page so they can receive the discount. Each of those 123 has an average of 300 friends who have now also seen the page… it would not be fallacious to say that by the end of the day over 5000 people may have now seen the name of this product. In order for this to happen, all the store has to do is start a free page on Facebook and update the label on their product. This saves a huge amount of money that would have been spent booking a commercial spot on television as well as all the work and money involved in the making of a commercial. http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2534-facebook-benefits.html While Facebook has its pro’s, there is always a downside to everything and this site is no different. One of the biggest and most logical arguments against Facebook is the factor of privacy. Kashmir Hill, a Forbes staff member wrote an article going into three real stories about how seriously Facebook can negatively affect your life. The second story in the article talks about a 13 year old boy who was visited by the Secret Service and questioned about a post he wrote after Osama Bin Laden was killed. This shows exactly how far and fast Facebook content can be seen. Once you decide to put something on Facebook you run the risk of it being maladaptive to your future. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/05/18/the-dangers-of-facebook/ Twitter is also a huge topic of debate for people today. There are those that find it to be a mind numbing waste of time, and those that think it is a great asset to today’s world. I do not personally have a Twitter and I myself am exposed to it on a constant basis. I have seen ways that it can be positive, but can completely understand why somebody would find it to be a huge waste of time. In my opinion the biggest benefit for Twitter seems to be with the business aspect. It is basically the same concept as Facebook. An article on Queensland Gov’t talks about how using Twitter can help a business become further integrated with its target audience. Being able to be hands on with your customer brings about a sense of security that can create an ongoing relationship. If a company is easy to communicate with it has a better shot at having a loyal customer. http://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/running/marketing/online-marketing/using-twitter-to-market-your-business/benefits-of-twitter-for-business One of the biggest arguments those against Twitter have is how addictive and time consuming it is. I found an article by James Meikle of The Guardian that goes into depth about a study done on how hard it is to break the addiction that is Twitter. He speaks about how easy it is to pick up your phone and start typing and says that because it isn’t deadly or financially risky people tend to have a harder time kicking the habit of tweeting than they do cigarettes. I believe it! http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/feb/03/twitter-resist-cigarettes-alcohol-study Each one of the arguments towards both the negative and positives of these two sites have a point. I can honestly say I agree with each argument. I have seen how both of these sites can affect a person and a business and my view point is, socialize! Just be aware of what you are doing, as with anything else. Thanks for taking the time to read another one of my truly educational blogs, have a good day!

The internet has done a lot to change the way we function in society today. The thing about the internet is that along with all the ways it helps make life easier, it also makes life very stressful. This of course is depending on the responsibility and frame of mind of the user. A majority of people have started using this very complex system without knowing everything that comes along with it. Below are a few things the internet has to offer, and a few ways it can hurt more than help as year’s progress. Positives: There are a lot of benefits with internet. The list goes on forever and will continue to grow as technology develops. Here are three positives that come along with having access to the internet. 1. Staying in contact with friends and family. This is probably the most important reason for internet in my daily life. As you grow older the friends you lived next door to move out of state, and you move away from your parents as well. New lives begin and old lives are separated. It is comforting to be able to see what people are up to, and share pictures. I know there is always a phone to call everyone, but being able to have that daily glimpse and see who is doing good and who needs a friend to lean on really does help relationships between people last longer and stay stronger. Social websites, like facebook, are also very helpful in finding people you haven’t seen in a while. A quote from Daniel Nations in his article Why Facebook? sums this up for me. “Ever wonder whatever happened to your prom date? Or your best friend from middle school? With more and more people joining Facebook, it is becoming a great place to look up old friends and getting back in touch.” http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworking/a/why_facebook.htm 2. Time efficiency and easy access for research. The internet has made it easier to access information that helps save time and avoids stress in a person’s life. It is extremely convenient to be able to go to one location and find solutions to life’s daily little obstacles. If you have to figure out where something is or when it opens, you can find it. If you need to know where the most reliable appliance is, you can find it. If you need to know 10 things about Iowa for your child’s homework in science, you can find it. In an article written by Hermanqi Harankhedkar, he explains how businesses profit from the internet because it makes it more accessible for the consumer. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/internet-and-its-uses-in-our-daily-life.html 3. Awareness in the masses Another huge positive is that the public is privy to information that in the past, would be kept from them. There is a lot that businesses don’t mention in the thirty seconds allotted for them in between episodes of MTV’s Teen Mom and Teen Wolf. There is much more consumer awareness now that you can instantly gain information on websites like this: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/homes-mortgages Negatives: While there are many positives to the internet, they usually come with a negative attached. Here are three negatives that create valid debate for the positives listed above. 1. Shallow family relationships. It is great to be able to say hi, and share pictures and stories with friends you can’t see every day. It is not as great when you are online scrolling through your facebook newsfeed for four hours while the rest of your family that you live with sits on their electronic devices and nobody even looks up to see whose home. This is a problem with the internet. It is distancing households. Parent interaction is a big factor when it comes to how a child will develop mentally. In an article by Barbara Frasier, she talks about a lot of ways to be more active in your child’s life, and being in the internet is not listed. http://www.thesuccessfulparent.com/parent-child-relationship/repairing-the-parent-child-relationship 2. Too much information The amount of information on the internet is ridiculous. You can find seven hundred different ways to tie a sneaker if you look hard enough. When you are trying to find an answer to something, it can be confusing trying to figure out what is accurate, what is still in business, etc… In order to use the internet efficiently, you have to be aware of what website you are looking at. According to an article called Why Evaluate Web Information, it is extremely important to know where you are getting your facts. http://education.illinois.edu/wp/credibility/page2.html 3. Gossip to the masses. It is extremely beneficial being able to go to a reliable website to find out what is in your food, or what the candidate for governor said to the cop when he got pulled over for a DWI. These are things that we, the public, have every right to know about. These are things that will influence our society in one way or another. It is not extremely beneficial however, to have a person with no background on a subject to put their two cents in and try to sway a decision that will influence our society. I do not find it to be a step in the right direction if we all start taking our advice and getting our news from a random debutantes twitter. #probablynotthebestidea . Thank you for your time reading my blog about some of the positives and negatives of the internet.