Advantages Of Social Media

Advantages Of Social Media Connections. You are friends with people who have other friends, and so on. By using a social networking site, you can do what you can and get connected with these people to form a web of connections that can give you leverage if you play your cards right. Breadth of Knowledge -connectedness that students can experience through social media use. It is now easier than ever to know (or find out) something about almost anything in the world through connected media. Additionally, students can be connected to a broader base of opinions and world views through instantaneous global connections. Technological Literacy All social media relies on advanced information and communication technologies that seamlessly work to build and support technological literacy.. Worldwide Connectivity, No matter if you are searching for that former college roommate, your first grade teacher, or an international friend, there is no easier or faster way to make a connection than via the social network. Although Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace are probably the most well known social networking communities, there are new websites popping up regularly that are dedicated to allowing people to connect and to interact via the Internet. These connections can help one with a variety of things such as: Finding romance, Seeking a new job, Locating assistance, Getting and giving product and service referrals, Receiving support from like-minded individuals, Making or receiving advice on career or personal issues. In many ways, social communities are the virtual equivalent of meeting at the general store or at church socials to exchange news and get updated on friends and families.. Commonality of Interest, When you opt to participate in a social network community, you can pick and choose those individuals whose likes and dislikes are similar to yours and build your network around those commonalities.You can meet with your friends anytime you have an Internet connection and whenever you find them online. Real-Time Information Sharing, Many social networking sites incorporate an instant messaging feature, which means you can exchange information in real-time via a chat. This is a great feature for teachers to use to facilitate classroom discussions.In addition, the Internet is the ultimate online textbook. Students no longer need to take out six library books at a time. Much of what they need to know they can find online. Free Advertising, Whether you are non-profit organization who needs to get the word out about your upcoming fundraiser or a business owner marketing a new product or service, theres no better way to get your message in front of millions of people 24/7. The best part is it that you can spread the word through social networking profiles for free. Increased News Cycle Speed, Social networking has revolutionized the speed of the news cycle. Many news organizations now partner with social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook in order to both collect and share information. One can get a sense of what is going on in the world just by watching trending topics from many of these sites. This has led to the development of a near instantaneous news cycle as millions of social networking updates rapidly spread news and information. Social media has the power to drive traffic to your website, blog, articles, etc. Social media is able to bring people together, especially when promoting global products or cause-related campaigns and ideas since it allows people from the different geographical location to meet at a single point and express their views. Social media could be the spark you are looking for to attract attention to your site, product or service. It could also be used to further build loyalty and long-term relations with your audience. Social media marketing could always be a fun and creative method of doing business. Facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery. Allows everyone to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links. Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool. Disadvantages of Social Media: Distraction -talking not about the momentary distraction of an isolated text message, but rather the way in which social media involvement provides an acceptable diversion from intellectual pursuits. Essentially, he is arguing that it is socially safer to stay connected to peers through always-on social media, than it is to put oneself out there by having a legitimate opinion about a serious topic and disconnecting from the social networks long enough to put it out there. Pressure to Conform examples of students confiding in him that one of the main reasons behind their 24/7 connection is a fear of not keeping up with peers or appearing like a loser in public, as one of his students confided in a class journal. Risk Aversion unclear about whether students aversion to taking risks is a symptom of social media use or is directly caused by it, but the point is no less important either way. Social media engagement supports a culture of avoidance which operates in direct opposition to the idea that students need to take risks and fail in their academic endeavors in order to become successful innovators. Shallowness . Twitter, text messages, and other social media tools focus on brief, quick, shallow interactions that do not encourage either deep social engagement or intellectual exploration. There is, after all, only so much information that can be obtained in 140 characters. when you make a mistake offline, a few will know but when you make a mistake in front of hundreds or thousands of you online audience, most of them will know Face to Face Connections are Endangered, A huge advantage of these social communities has a reverse side effect that is also a big disadvantage of social networking: they reduce or eliminate face-to-face socialization. Because of the autonomy afforded by the virtual world, individuals are free to create a fantasy persona and can pretend to be someone else.It is hard to say no, be rude, or ignore someone when you are looking them in the eye. Its incredibly easy and quick to unfriend or unfollow someone or simply block their efforts to make a connection. Just one click of the mouse and your problems are over. Tweens and teens are at higher risk because those years are when they are learning to interact with others or build and maintain relationships. A report from the National School Boards Association shows that of the children in these age groups that use a social network, 41 percent spend their time posting messages. They are not spending this time in face-to-face interactions with their peers or others nor are they developing the necessary social skills for future success. Cyberbullying and Crimes Against Children, Use of social networks can expose individuals to harassment or inappropriate contact from others. Unless parents are diligent to filter the Internet content to which their families are exposed, children could be exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content.. Risks of Fraud or Identity Theft, Whether you like it or not, the information you post on the Internet is available to almost anyone who is clever enough to access it. Most thieves need just a few vital pieces of personal information to make your life a nightmare and if they successfully steal your identity, it could cost you dearly. Time Waster, A Nielsen report explains that social networking can be a big waste of time that sucks 17 percent of our Internet time down the non-productivity drain. it is also true that it is easy to become distracted and end up spending valuable time on games, chats or other non-related activities. Corporate Invasion of Privacy, Social networking invites major corporations to invade your privacy and sell your personal information. Facebook projects it will earn $3.8 billion in revenue in 2011. Thats not bad for a free site. If Facebook and other social networking sites dont charge their members, however, how do they make so much money? They do it by selling the ability to specifically target advertisements. On social networking sites, the website isnt the product, its users are. These sites run algorithms that search for keywords, web browsing habits, and other data stored on your computer or social networking profile and provide you with advertisements targeted specifically to you. At the same time, you may be giving the site permission to share your information with outside sources unless you specifically generate settings that disallow them to do so. Participating in applications like Farmville may also be allowing outside vendors access to your private information. In order to get social medias full effect, you need to understand how it works, when and how to use it and which channels to focus on depending on your end goal of using social media. Social media can have a negative influence on students and workers productivity. Employees may waste valuable time using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. They can also use social media to attack the companys reputation! When social media is used excessively or in the wrong way, it could have serious detrimental outcomes on both mental and even physical health of individuals. Opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks. Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft. May result in negative comments from others about everything we put in our social media example our video in youtube Potentially results in lost productivity, especially if students are busy updating profiles, etc. Lack of Anonymity,You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in. Scams and Harassment, While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these cases of harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity theft to an absolute minimum, you still may never know. Time Consuming, that it would just be a waste of time for you. The key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for study purposes. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who dont see the point. For them, it can be a disadvantage.