Category: Effects of Social Media

In today’s digital age, we have access to a plethora of online platforms that make it easier than ever to stay connected with friends and family.

The advancements in technology have revolutionized the way we communicate, with the emergence of social media being one of the most influential innovations in recent years. This essay will explore the impact of social media on mental health, how it influences interpersonal communication, its usage in businesses, and so on.

The Benefits of Social Media

Personal development

Social media helps us to learn new things, make new friends, and develop personally by sharing our experiences with others. It can also foster an increased sense of community and belonging.

Networking

You can find people with similar interests by joining groups on social media sites and interacting with them online. This allows you to expand your network and build relationships that may lead to future opportunities in business or other areas of life.

Business development

Social media is an invaluable tool for businesses looking to increase their reach and build strong relationships with customers. It enables companies to connect with their target audience, promote themselves online and engage in conversations around topics related to their industry. This helps build trust among potential customers who may be searching for answers before making a purchase. Businesses can create profiles on various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and more to find new customers, market their products or services, and spread brand awareness.

The Responsibilities of Using Social Media

Stay Informed but Don’t Get Overwhelmed

Social media has become a great source of news and information, but it is important to remember that not everything you read or hear is true. Take some time to verify any information before sharing it on your own timelines or with others. It is also important to be aware of the potential for overload; too much news can be overwhelming and cause anxiety. Be mindful of the number of stories you are consuming each day, so you don’t get overloaded or anxious about the news you are seeing online.

Be Thoughtful About What You Post

It’s easy to forget that everything posted on social media leaves a permanent record – even after something has been deleted from your timeline or account! Before posting anything online, take a moment to ask yourself whether this post could be hurtful or damaging in any way. It might be helpful to think twice before posting something that could potentially embarrass someone else or lead to cyberbullying. If you wouldn’t say it in person, then you shouldn’t post it online either!

Practice Self-Care & Balance

Taking regular breaks from social media can be an important part of self-care. Use this time to focus on activities that will help you relax and nurture your mental health, like reading a book, going on a walk outdoors, listening to music, or meditating. These breaks are essential for restoring balance and keeping our reliance on these platforms at healthy levels.

Conclusion

Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool when used responsibly – from staying informed about current events to connecting with friends and family around the world. But as with any powerful tool, there are certain responsibilities associated with using it wisely – such as being thoughtful about what we post online and practicing self-care by taking regular breaks from social media usage.

By following these guidelines for using social media responsibly, we can all benefit from its many advantages without having to worry about its potential downsides. It is a powerful tool, and it is up to individual users to ensure that it is used in the most positive and constructive manner possible.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites are part of our daily life. Social media technology may have some positive effects, but there are also adverse effects we are facing due to social media. Because of social media, many people face different problems like relationship problems, fake ids problems and lack of interests in education and their jobs.

My aunt had a horrible experience on social media. Someone made a fake id by using her name and added all family members on it. He or she posted nasty comments and inappropriate pictures by using her name which made her look bad. When other family members noticed that there is something wrong because of the inappropriate language and images, they immediately contacted my aunt and informed her. She got very upset and reported to the Facebook. Due to this incident, she is petrified to use any social media.

Because of social media, it is easier to connect with distant relatives who live in other countries. While you are connecting with your long-distance relatives, there are some minor reasons due to which your relatives getting upset, and they stop talking to you. For instance, some people get upset because you do not comment on their posts. They also get upset if you add someone as a friend that they do not get along with or have any personal issues with them.Social media is an addiction. People spend countless hours on social media which may cause the problems in their daily lives. The more people wake up in the morning, and they check their social media accounts before they even leave the bed. Due to this addiction, people are away from their family members, and they spend less time together. They talk to their family members through Facebook or other social media accounts. They can not stop thinking about updating their status or posting pictures on Facebook or other social media. Their lives circle social media; everything has to post on social media perfectly like what they are doing, what they are cooking or eating, etc.

People feel lost and aggressive if they have no Wi-Fi or connected to use social media. Students are also addicted to social media. They spend countless hours on Facebook and other social networking sites. Because of using social media in an excessive amount, students do not concentrate on their studies which effect on their academic performance.Another adverse effect of social media is people compare their lives with others. Some users post an idealized version of their lives. These types of posts are making other users start comparing their lives with them. For instance, a person displays an excellent post about his life and pictures of a wonderful trip to Europe, while some other person is having a rough day. A person who is already facing hardship in life, become depressed after seeing these posts and photos which show lots of fun and memorable times because he does not have much money to travel and have a great time as others do.In the end, it is the fact that using social media is fun. However, excessive use of anything is not good for us. We have to balance our social lives.

Conclusion

For the sake of the prosperous future, students need to concentrate more on their studies instead than spending their time on Facebook or other social networking sites. We can become successful by spending our time on more productive activities. We can do better in education, physical activity, and employment if we concentrate on it instead of consuming our time on social media.

The rising acceptance of social media devices has contributed to a rapid rise in screen time exposure for children. The total daily screen time of smartphones, tablets, computers, televisions, and video game consoles for adolescents 8- to 18-years-old, has risen from 5 to 7.5 hours since 1999, this exceeds the recommendation of 2 hours or less by the American Academy of Pediatrics (Sanders). A teenager may not think they are spending that much of their time on social media or recognize any effects they may have. Adolescence is a significant period in human development, during this time many changes occur on the inside as well as out. Biologically changes, emotional development, an awareness of self and developing relationships.

Compared to previous generations, today’s adolescents have increased exposure to social media. During this time of development, mental health issues appear to be more apparent and during this time signs of mental health arise. Teenagers usually do not have the awareness of being mentally healthy or how to maintain emotional balance. (O’Reilly 601- 602) Youngsters regularly report going to web sites, for example, Facebook and Twitter, Instagram to escape from the daily troubles hovering their well-being. Most teenagers presently utilize web-based life, with figures proposing that the same number of as 97% do as such routinely.

An ongoing report found that 57% of US teenagers had started connections on the web, with half of the respondents had ‘friended’ somebody on Facebook (or comparative) to tell them that they were adoringly interested. (O’Reilly 602) Another interesting fact that teens are affected by is the fear of missing out. According to Przybylski, FOMO is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Griffiths). Hence, the “Like” button on Facebook. Social media can take on many forms of communication and social connection, many grew concerned about the amount of time teens spent online (O’Reilly 602). Everywhere you go you can see a teenager has a phone or tablet in their hands. Internet use appears to be linked to less face-to-face interaction, increased alone time, stress, depression and sleep deprivation (O’Reilly 602). There were three areas that were studied as to what the perspective of an adolescent was regarding the effects of social media. The areas studied were: social media can cause stress, depression, low self-image and thoughts of suicide, social media can open doors to predators and bullying, and social media can be addicting. (O’Reilly 605-608)

This study displays that adolescents have concerns about the risks of social media effects on mental well-being by precisely leading to mood and anxiety disorders and indirectly through cyberbullying. Most of the information and data given by the teens were from seeing another person’s experience, not their own. But overall the teens in this study did have concerns with the negative effects of social media in their lives. (O’Reilly 610) Adolescents are very impressionable, they see their parents, teacher, and friends on social media, and they think it is proper for them to do as well. Teens learn best by example compared to what they are instructed to do. Setting a good example for teenagers is imperative for steering them in the correct direction. Teaching teenagers how to navigate through social media and communication about how they are feeling and what is going on in their mind and emotions can help reduce some adverse effects they feel relating to social media.

Since the invention of the Internet and with the great developments of science and technology and information technology, human beings have entered information era. Under such a background, social media, as emerging ways of communication, which can be seen on this planet. From WeChat, QQ in China to VK in Russia and Twitter in Western countries, no one on this planet can be excluded from the effect caused by social media, let alone their relationships. Social media, as it is shown literally, are platforms created by telecommunication runners for people to boost their relationships. However, social media undoubtedly has effects on the relationships both positively and negatively while improving them.

From the positive perspective, social media plays important role in improving relationships. Take WeChat in China as an example. On this platform, people can greet to their friends by sending text, using voice and even video calls, which greatly improve the efficiency of communication and save much time. Besides, WeChat has no limitation of space and time. To put it specifically, people can set up a WeChat group which contains at most 500 group members and allows them to share their opinions, express their ideas, and convey their emotions. What is more. WeChat has no limitation of distance. For instance, one of your relatives is studying abroad, you want to communicate with him or her, just with the help of system of video and voice calls, you can easily get in touch with him or her without going far away. Some companies make good use of this social media to do their business. They establish the enterprise groups on which staffs in this company, even the highest decision makers, collect information and get feedbacks from their supervisors and their clients, even some information about their potential partners and counterparts, which not only contributes to the operation and management of enterprises, but also helps to grasping the market situation and seizing the best opportunity. Social media can also be used in other aspects. Online dating, for example, is increasingly popular among young men and young women. Through this platform, youngsters share their photos and some personal information to seek their best couples for marriage, which has solved marital problems of bachelors. Some schools and training institutions have set up online groups and online assessment system, through which students can share their acquisition with their classmates, and teachers collect feedbacks from their students and then provide targeted guidelines for their students and make accurate and objective assessment on students’ academic work. It is because these colleges or institutions have applied social media to assist them with their academic research and teaching that both of their quality of teaching and academic research have significantly improved and the relationships between tutors and students have tied more firmly.

In terms of negative effects, so much can be said about this. Social media makes its good ways to boost relationships while deteriorating them. There are many people who would like to make profits through these platforms. WeChat business, for example. Users promote their goods through WeChat friend circle and groups, such a behavior is so annoying that each groups ban it. Some illegal criminals steal or cheat your accounts by dressing up as one of your relatives or friends and getting in touch with you for profits. Some cult and extremist ideologies are spread by these illegal criminals through social media to worsen social contradictions, which cause great social unrest and damage people both mentally and physically. Many people would like to publish their private information and some photos on the social media platforms. This is a not a good habit, because some criminals can use this information to commit crimes and our privacy is unable to be secured. There are still some odd phenomena in modern times. People are just staring at their cellphone screens instead of caring about their relatives and friends. There is a vivid sentence that can be used best describe this phenomenon. “The furthest distance in the world is that I am sitting next to you and talking to you, but you are staring at your mobile phone screen”. In this way, the relationship between people is more distant. People would rather stare at screen their mobile phones rather than pay visit to their families, relatives and friends, which makes relationships tense and does harm to family and group harmony.

Overall, we cannot deny the fact social media does produce significant effect on relationships, but this is not absolutely right. To what extent does social media make effect on relationships is determined by how we use social media and how we view them, and it is also determined by what specific means that we adopt to maintain or boost our relationships with people.

The use of social media has been a ubiquitous act that is occurring among almost everyone around the world. This has led to the main reason why most kids, teenagers and adults can’t do without pressing their gadgets (phones and laptops) just because they want to make use of a social media network. Some people even walk and press their mobile devices without caring if they will fall down while in motion due to the intense concentration on social media network. I am also a social media network addict; my mum complains about the consistence use of my smartphone because I am always online and active on my social media networks. Apart from being addicted to social media networks, I can confidently tell that I have gained lots of things and benefits just with the use of social media networks. That is why, in this essay, I want to talk about the impact of social media, which I believe is positive.

The first positive effect is that social media help to learn. Despite the fact that it may seem strange at first glance, but in my experience, I have found that it is really so. With social media, we can search for groups, pages, or platforms that engage in the activities we want to learn. There are several groups on Facebook and Twitter that we can learn from. As for me, I have been able to improve my math skills through various Facebook groups.

In addition, we can earn money on social networks by promoting skills to friends, followers and other people. And this is the second positive effect. I know some marketers who use this strategy to get more profit in their wallet.

One of the main positive effects of social media is that it facilitates communication. Social media network is the most used tools used in communication as it helps in easy and convenient communication irrespective of the distance. We can use video call or voice call online even at long distances, regardless of our location.

Also, social media is one of the best places for news and information. People are able to share what is happening around their environment with the help of social media. Most of the gist and gossips we hear about are mostly posted by people on social media platforms.

And of course, social media helps kill boredom when we’re bored. As for me, I use social media as my ‘anti-boredom cleanser’ because I no longer get bored when I use of social media networks.

In conclusion, I believe that contrary to popular belief about the negative impact of social media, I still believe that its impact on us is more positive than negative.

Have you ever seen someone constantly checking their phone? They may just have a social media addiction. An addiction to social media can occur when a person is on social media platforms excessively. They may begin to prefer it over actual social interaction, and they may feel uncomfortable when they are away from it. According to the website Psychology Today, “The only solutions that have been semi-reliable are cognitive behavioral therapy (talk therapy) and digital detox”. That means that there is no 100% solution to social media addictions. Furthermore, many problems come hand-in-hand with this addiction. One of these problems is depression. This is because kids who spend more than five hours a day on social media are two times more likely to be depressed. One out of ten teens check their phone more than ten times every night, and 78% of teens use Snapchat; however, 51% of minors say that it would be easy to give up social media. It’s not. The good thing, however, is that very few of us are genuinely addicted to social media. But many social media users’ usage is habitual to the point of encroaching upon other areas of their lives that may be damaging.

Social media addiction does not develop overnight. One of the main causes of this addiction is the extensive use of social media. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 95% of all teens (ages 13-17) have access to a smartphone. In the same survey, 45% of teens say that they are online almost constantly. Anytime I go anywhere, I can find someone completely hooked into their phone. Take a look around yourself, and you can almost always see someone entranced by their screen. And conversations are suffering, also. Many conversations consist of someone talking about what they saw on Facebook, or Instagram, and that is only if they are having a conversation. Most social media addicts try to center their lives around their screens, pushing away direct interaction with most friends and family, communicating only with people over social media or texting. But this addiction doesn’t just make you want to do social media all the time. It has some serious effects on a person’s attitude, brain functions, social life, behavior, and more. Not only does a social media addiction affect you and your social life, but it also makes you more susceptible to depression. Of teens who use Instagram and other social media platforms, 60% have shown more signs of depression than those who don’t use them. During a five-year study from 2010 to 2015, depressive symptom increased by 33% in a group of over half a million 8th through 12th graders, and the suicide rate for girls in that age group went up by 65%. Coincidentally, in 2015, 95% of teens had smartphones. Both teens and pre-teens have been reported to be on screens, and also social media, until very early morning hours. This means kids getting on social media or a screen in general at 8:00, and remaining on until about 3:00 or 4:0 in the morning. This has shown decreased productivity as well as increased anxiety and depression symptoms. Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook, says: “God only knows what this is doing to our children”. He continues on to say that people like himself are “exploiting a vulnerability in the human psychology… The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously . . . And we did it anyway”.

Another cause of social media addiction is stimulation of notifications. Every time a notification goes off, the sound and/or vibration sends a pulse of dopamine through a person’s brain. Dopamine is the brains form of an incentive, a ‘feel-good drug’ that your brain rewards you with. Notifications release more dopamine than the brain wants, along with drugs and alcohol. Dopamine is what you get addicted to, and the addiction extends to the thing that gave you dopamine. Social media was built to release dopamine, and some could argue, to get people this addicted. More things that release dopamine are when you get likes on a post or seeing that you have more followers. It also could simply be when you see that hundreds to thousands of people just viewed something you posted. This can have some effects on a person’s social life. Getting addicted to the dopamine can lead to a socially secluded person. Online and only online friends do not count for socializing with people. 62% of kids that spend more than 20 hours a week on social media have trouble in social situations than kids that do not. Every day, I view someone who has so much trouble dealing with social situations, it’s scary. That somebody even has trouble socializing with their family. Just watching how uncomfortable they can be when detached from their phone. The number of hoops you can watch addicts go through just to get a few minutes with their phone is impressive. And it surprises most people that people actually have this problem, even if it is just habitual.

The most effective solutions to social media addiction are ‘digital detox’ (the practice of people turning off all of their screens for 260, 180, 60, 30, or however long to slowly wean themselves off of social media, and the use of screens in general) and shock advertising to bring people’s attention to this problem and propose solutions. In my opinion, digital detox is the most effective solution to curing a social media addiction. Even just a couple of days in digital detox has some benefits. People develop a better memory, deeper friendships, better posture and more. Also, when people are not on their phone, they are a lot more approachable. People who have gone through digital detox are more relaxed and empathetic. And, people who went through digital detox for longer periods of time had improvements in other things. For example, 78% of people who went through digital detox had improved motor skills because they weren’t on social media while driving. Lots of people say that if you aren’t on social media on the weekend, your weekdays are more productive. As you can see, a digital detox is the best solution for social media addiction.

If we don’t take steps to solve social media addiction, all people will eventually have decreased social life and productiveness, which would lead to the collapse of governments and economy. It will also have a devastating effect on our interpersonal relationships. In addition, it is obvious that dependence on social networks undermines our ability to think. If nothing happens to curb this addiction, the outcome will be bad.

Works Cited

1. Anderson, Monica. “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018”. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 30 Nov. 2018, http://pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
2. Bell, Lee. “Escape Tech: What Is a Digital Detox, How and Why to Do One and Where to Do It”. Forbes Magazine, 14 Aug. 2017, http://forbes.com/sites/leebelltech/2017/08/14/escape-tech-what-is-a-digital-detox-how-and-why-to-do-one-and-where-to-do-it/#30d29917912c
3. Griffiths, Mark D. “Addicted to Social Media?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, http://psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media
4. Kardaras, Nicholas. “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids – and How to Break the Trance”. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2017.
5. Miller, Caroline. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, 17 Aug. 2018, http://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/
6. Rao, Tony. “Social Media Is as Harmful as Alcohol and Drugs for Millennials”. Quartz, 14 June 2017, http://qz.com/1004612/social-media-is-as-harmful-as-alcohol-and-drugs-for-millennials/
7. Segran, Elizabeth. “What Really Happens to Your Brain and Body During a Digital Detox”. Fast Company, 27 Apr. 2017, http://fastcompany.com/3049138/what-really-happens-to-your-brain-and-body-during-a-digital-detox
8. Schlosser, Kurt. “New Research Finds 95% of Teens Have Access to a Smartphone; 45% Online ‘Almost Constantly’”. GeekWire, 2 June 2018, http://geekwire.com/2018/new-research-finds-95-teens-access-smartphone-45-online-almost-constantly/
9. Smith, Aaron. “Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics”. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 19 Sept. 2018, http://pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/
10. Ta, Jenny Q. “What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had on Society”. Business 2 Community, 13 Aug. 2004, http://business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685
11. “Causes of Social Media Addiction and How to Avoid Them – MI Addiction Counseling”. Perspectives Counseling Centers, 26 Jan. 2017, http://perspectivesoftroy.com/social-media-addiction/
12. Walton, Alice G. “6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health”. Forbes Magazine, 3 Oct. 2017, http://forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/#7e52667a2e5a
13. Will, Free, director. Generation Like. Dailymotion, Dailymotion, 17 July 2017, http://dailymotion.com/video/x5tv7ns
14. Williams, Terri. “The Role of Social Media in Adolescent/Teen Depression and Anxiety”. Center for Digital Ethics & Policy, 3 Apr. 2018, http://digitalethics.org/essays/role-social-media-adolescentteen-depression-and-anxiety

In today’s age, social media has become a key factor. It is used on all platforms, from reports on the results of local teams to reports on hot headlines at international level. Social media has one or even the biggest influence on politics. Social networks can be a great help or a devastating blow. It’s like a double-edged sword. In this essay, I want to discuss the positive impact of social media on politics.

First, social media can facilitate a greater discourse of pluralism. Because the Web allows anyone with an Internet space to share their opinions, some argue that they promote diversity in political debate. By this view, living on the Internet ensures that the dominant sources of the press will never again close the data channels. Thus, new issues and thoughts that may somehow, or another be overlooked by the predominant press can get open consideration.

Second, social media may enable citizens to become more effective political actors. A few people argue that Internet-based life should remove barriers to matching dates and allow residents to influence and control politicians by offering simple and increasingly personal and persuasive methods to fundraise, provide data, recruit and invite supporters from a wide range of interests and backgrounds.

Social media can also build trust in public institutions and figures. Since Internet-based life permit the public to cooperate with open establishments and figures in a casual and intelligent way, some oppose that Web-based life is customizing legislative issues and reinforcing the people’s confidence in administering organizations and open figures. Clarke (2010) noted that ‘digital divide’ in online political cooperation likewise emerges from factors that are thought to have an impact into a person’s probability of getting politically drew in, for example, training, sexual orientation, pay, and land area. In view of these variables, some oppose that online political investment essentially repeats disconnected political assistance: the individuals who are generally missing from legislative issues avoid dynamic support, and the individuals who are as of now drew in go to the web as another discussion of interest.

Another positive effect is that social media may help legislators to better represent citizens, and governments to better serve the public’s needs. Since online life offer minimal effort and easy to use methods for leading a continuous exchange among residents and their agent figures and establishments, some contend that Internet-based life will give chiefs an increasingly advanced comprehension of the open’s advantages and needs.

And finally, social media may engage youth in the democratic process. Today’s youth exhibit low degrees of trust and enthusiasm for political organizations and delegates and are more averse to cast a ballot and join ideological groups. Since youngsters are devoted clients of Internet-based life, these innovations are frequently talked about as one potential methods by which youngsters may turn out to be increasingly occupied with the popularity-based procedure.

In conclusion, social media influences our politics today in many ways, and as this essay has shown, it has many benefits in politics.

Throughout this project, I will explore one way in which social media has made communication significantly more dangerous as it has become more popular. I have chosen this topic as social media is something that almost rules many young people’s lives- including my own, as it’s something I use constantly daily. In order to do this I will weigh the advantages against the disadvantages, using real-life examples, and some of my own experiences. I feel this is a topic that requires a light shone upon it, as social media is becoming increasingly popular, and it appears that year by year, the age children are starting to use platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook is becoming too become younger.

Personally, I made my own Facebook account around the age of 12, below the required age, and I sat with a friend working out what year of birth I’d have to enter in order for me to sign up. I didn’t have many people on there, except friends and close family. Platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram were not as popular then, and I made my accounts for these when I was in school year 8, so around 2012. I was still ‘playing out’ with my friends, and social media was a form of entertainment for when I got home. Eight years forward into 2019 now, my nephew- aged 13, and my niece- aged 10, both have Instagram and Snapchat, as do all of their friends, and most of the other people in their year group at school. They’ll be glued to their phones, talking to each other via photos using a filter, turning them into a funny characters, instead of sitting in a park with their bikes and scooters like I did as a child. This is a national habit now, with more and more people making social media accounts each day. My first phone was a Nokia, where to type the letter ‘c’ I’d have to press the number 2 button 3 times. Children now all own iPhones, or other popular smartphones, so social media is much more accessible, and creating an account is almost inevitable for the younger generation.

One big advantage of this is parents and other families are able to stay in contact with their children more easily. A child was meant to be home for tea at say 6 pm, but no sign of them. ‘Let me see when they were last on Facebook’. ‘They uploaded a Snapchat story 10 minutes ago, at least they’re okay’, are probably two out of many things that would go through their parents’ minds, using social media as a way of checking up on their children. Who their children are friends with- photos on Instagram. What they’ve been up to Snapchat stories of what they were doing. We’ve all lied to our parents about something along these lines, and growing up, if my mum was asking me a load of questions, I’d believe it was to be nosey rather than to keep me safe, but with children sharing what they’re doing daily over social media, this allows parents to gain access into their children’s lives, without the children even realizing as such.

But when does this become a problem? When social media profiles are somebody behind a screen with a display picture. Somebody. Anybody. Most people will use their own name and their own picture so people are able to find them, but is everyone really who they say they are? After all, if I changed my name on Facebook to Michelle Brown, and used a woman’s photo from google images to everyone I have as a page, I have now become a different person. A commonly increasing problem is people using social media to groom children. Children are not as ‘street smart’ as they used to be, as they spend more time indoors on their phones nowadays, so are more naive to this sort of issue. The increasing popularity of social media creates the idea that if somebody you don’t know tries to add you as a friend, and you have mutual friends, you must know them somehow. They might be the friend of a friend, they might know you from a party or might have just moved into the area and want to get to know people. It couldn’t possibly be a stranger, could it? It’s a photo of someone the same gender as you who appears to be around your age, which seems harmless. So you accept. Even at 20 years old, I am guilty of this. But say a child, who is more gullible in believing it really is another young child trying to become friends, and who is less aware of online predators, is much more vulnerable. This was sadly the case for Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old student from Darlington, who was raped and murdered in 2009, after telling her mother she was staying at a boy’s house. Said boy, who posed online as a teenager, was, in reality, a 33-year-old man living in his car.

People who use social media contribute to the cycle of mediated information

Media is a communication that is passed down through broadcasting, publishing, or on the internet but in the olden days, it was something hard to reach worldwide as some people can’t afford it or has no knowledge of its existence. Only after the 1940s when the first computer was created, scientists and engineers begin to develop more ways to make media spread worldwide. Now in the 20th century media is fully known and it helps us share the culture with each other. It somehow increases the connection between each other as it’s a mediated communication that doesn’t need face-to-face communication and uses symbols to show expressions. Culture is something passed down from generation to generation. As these both combine together it gives freedom for the people. It even helps access information about what’s happening around the world and the developments of the cultures or creative ideas, precautions of conflicts, and even news about the locals, and economic growth. By this, people somehow can sync in with the world as they know how culture is changing throughout the world through the media.

When media spreads around more the culture also changes everywhere. For example, when we are traveling to work despite the location that we are traveling we are using a phone with an earpiece plugged into our ears where it’s muting our surroundings watching videos, dramas or even listening to music while reading news. We barely even look up to see what’s happening around us. Try glancing around a restaurant and it’s hard to see people who don’t have their heads down. After the culture change, we stopped looking up to see our surroundings as we are more intimidated to talk to someone or even look at someone once the media has improved and spread worldwide as it brought laughter just through a mediated conversation. By doing so we forget how people use to be nice and we hide that in and show our outer self to strangers or our own family. But it doesn’t stop there, we are also losing our eyesight from a young age in whatever ways we are trying to get media stuff. We also start to laze around as everything is in our hands now because of that we don’t even focus on our health much or we don’t even have time to do exercise to be fit. In school or workplaces, we are working so hard to keep in sync with the world by spreading the media every minute around as we start to panic it stops for seconds.

In the olden days, different races like the Chinese, Indians, and Malay used to sit outside their house afternoon after their nap time or after kids returned home from their long hours of school and relax outside talking to each other as those days they all lived in kampong style or hut houses rather than the HDB blocks where there is privacy just between families and not much communication between their neighbors as they mind their own businesses. By doing so we are not sharing each other’s traditions and culture because if we understand each other we create less problem of racism and learn how to accept each other’s culture and traditions as Singapore.

Nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions, hand and body gestures, posture, and other actions which convey meaning are not used as we are having more of a mediated communication people use emojis as a sign of expression to others. But if you are in

love a heart sign would do it all to express your feelings to one another. Even sending those signs to someone around the world whom we don’t even know is going through a hard time could get relieved just those messages of signs. But sometimes emoji’s are seen differently or misunderstood which leads to conflict with each other as people are not seeing your action in real.

According to the internet, 18-29 years old uses 88%, 30-49 years old use 78%, 50-64 years old 64%, and 65+ years old use 37% of the social media daily according to research. By using these teenagers can face side effects such as cyberbullying, sexting, and even depression and loneliness which can lead them to suicide. It’s something that could follow you everywhere you go like example a child is bullied at school but only a few people witness it whereas in social media everyone sees it and there’s no room to escape. That’s why the rates of suicide are getting higher as the years pass by as more people are hooked on the phone every time. It also leads to blurred vision at a young age which affects even more later in older age by either blinding the elderly or blurry vision. All ages are just using social media to comfort themselves which ears them to forget about their own health and what are the consequences would they face after they get older. Most of the country’s population half of them are not exercising or controlling the food they eat

Singapore has a population of 5.75 million, internet users are 4.83 million, and active social media users are 4.80 million which is almost 83% of people using the internet in Singapore daily despite our office hours and schools hour a day. The stress level in Singapore only lets us escape through social media where people get their joys and laughter.

After all the disadvantages there are also advantages where it improves people’s skills of multi-tasking, keeping in touch with family members and friends all around the world, it also helps to make new friends and keep in touch with them throughout the years and even visit them to learn about their culture and traditions. Not only that it helps maintain people’s prestige of themselves as when we are complete strangers with someone we tempt to stumble upon our words or don’t have a proper facial expression and reading and writing skills are improved as in certain countries English aren’t their first language or some people don’t have the habit of reading books.

Reference:

1. Nayeem, Showkat. (2015). A Theoretical Perspective of the Inter Relationship https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319401787_Media_Culture_A_Theoretical_Perspective_of_the_Inter-relationship
2. Beverly Steitz. (2006). A brief computer history http://people.bu.edu/baws/brief%20computer%20history.html
3. Ayaz Nanji. (2018) Social Media Use in 2018: Platform, Age and Visit Trends https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2018/33723/social-media-use-in-2018-platform-and-age-trends
4. We Are Social.(2018) Digital in 2018 in Singapore https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocial/digital-in-2018-in-singapore-86861961
5. Maura Keller.(2013) Social Media and Interpersonal Communication https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p10.shtml

This thesis aims to explore police use of social media and how it can be used to benefit public engagement within the community. The social media platforms mentioned in this thesis include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, all mentions of followers were correct at the time of writing. Furthermore, the use of social media for engagement purposes will also be explored as well as an analysis of police social media misconduct cases and how this has impacted community engagement. Finally, the exploration of social media as an intelligence-gathering tool within policing and how this in hand with community engagement can be used to its full benefit.

Since 2008, policing has experimented with the use of social media with the initial aims of increasing confidence within police forces and the overall effectiveness of police response to all types of crimes (Crump, 2011). The first chapter of this thesis will explore the methods of engagement via social media from all policing professionals and critically analyze the current levels of public engagement across all police forces. The importance of the police being used as an organization will be explored from the viewpoint of acting within the community’s best interests paying reference to social norms and online social media culture that encourages cancel culture and the ignorance of mental health especially within the police service. The College of Policing will be referred to throughout this first chapter allowing for the importance of community engagement within policing to be fully highlighted. (College of Policing, 2022). The first chapter will also display the current figures of police forces’ social media online following across two platforms: Facebook and Twitter (A1, A2). Furthermore, this first chapter will explore the future recommendations for policing with regard to community engagement across multiple generations online and how this can be improved based on past and current recommendations made by various policing professional regulators including the HMIC (HMIC, 2017) and The Policing Foundation (The Policing Foundation, 2022).

The second chapter of this thesis aims to explore the current issues surrounding police social media misconduct and how this can influence police effectiveness and public engagement across various online social media platforms (Goldsmith, 2013). Another element this second chapter will explore is the issue of officer vulnerability and how the promotion of social media trends and toxic cultures can lead to the ignorance of police officers’ mental health in the public. The ability to form strong public relationships is severely affected by officer social media misconduct and has led to the exploration of restrictions that this has had on community engagement both offline and online. Paying reference to the guidelines set by The Professional Standards Department, the guidelines for appropriate social media usage by officers have been closely studied and have enabled the exploration of repetitive patterns of misconduct within policing. Chapter 2 will also focus on the issue of racist, sexist, and homophobic officers having access to their own social media accounts and the damage that publicly shared opinions can have on a community’s trust and confidence in the police.

In the final chapter of this thesis, the integration of digital information gathering within policing will be explored. (Fortin and Delle Donne, 2021). The use of social media by police will be explored based on intelligence gathering and the impact that this can have on criminal investigations. Through the exploration of using social media as a policy tool, the strategical advantages will be outlined and explored further, using gang culture, rioting, terrorism, and anti-social behavior as examples of crime, this chapter will explore the use of social media as a tool to prove intent within a court setting as well as the benefits this brings to police at an operational standpoint. The final element of Chapter 3 will explore the advantages of social media used by police during a missing persons investigation and how joint community elements can enhance police operations and engagement overall.

Literature Review

Chapter 1 will draw upon various academic resources to build an evaluation across the topic of police and community engagement via social media. A crucial professional body that has been well referred to throughout this first chapter is the works of the ‘College of Policing’ (College of Policing, 2022). The guidelines provided by the College of Policing have been invaluable throughout this research paying specific attention to the ‘Code of Ethics’ and the ‘Engagement’ PDFs accessed through their website. The reasoning for this source is the level of credibility it brings due to their authorized professional practice and outlining of good practice within policing which has been vital for a full analysis of police engagement via social media. The ‘College of Policing website has allowed access to all code of conduct guidelines as well as media relations which has particularly aided me during a full analysis of police social media usage. Another crucial academic journal referenced within Chapter 1 is the works of Jeremy Crump ‘What Are the Police Doing on Twitter? Social Media, the Police, and the Public’ (Crump, 2011).

Furthermore, this article has provided insight into the ambitious, political agenda set by the Association of Chief Police Officers with regard to the promotion of social media and its integration into local policing. Furthermore, Crump’s article has allowed for a true analysis of the limitations of social media policy engagement including the constraints of police culture. On the other hand, a small limitation to the thoroughness of this article is the lack of a range of social media platforms within its analysis. The article solely focuses on Twitter as opposed to the variety of social media networks that police use daily. Additionally, chapter 1 has also benefitted from the works of Miriam Fernandez, Thomas Dickinson, and Harith Alani, allowing for its comparison of its own analysis of police-community engagement with their article on ‘UK Policing Engagement via Social Media’ (Fernandez, Dickinson, and Alani, 2017). This article has enabled the exploration of ineffective engagement via social media and how this can lead to broken community relationships, a drawback of this research through no fault of its own is the date of publication. As this article is from 2017, there have been many changes to policing social media policies, and therefore requires more recent statistics for its accuracy.

The second chapter will explore the issue of police social media misconduct and will therefore derive from the guidance put forward by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC, 2022). The IOPC has allowed for Chapter 2 to include relevant, recent cases of online misconduct via social media including official warnings from professional policing bodies about the dangers this poses to the public. The credibility that the IOPC brings as a source is heavily reliable and has allowed for official complaints publication made accessible for public viewing including cases of racism, homophobia, victim abuse, and online misconduct. Furthermore, the IOPC as a source for official complaints has brought a sense of realism to this chapter about the severity of police social media misconduct and the effect that this has had on community engagement, trust, and confidence. Secondly, a source that has been used hand-in-hand with the IOPC is the Association of Chief Police Officers and Ministry of Defense Police who have constructed the guidelines for social media police conduct; ‘GUIDELINES ON THE SAFE USE OF THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA BY MDP OFFICERS’ also applying to all police staff (Ministry of Defense Police, 2013). Additionally, chapter 2 has derived conclusions about engagement and the effects of social media misconduct based on reports published by the HMIC (HMIC, 2012). The report ‘Police has made some improvements to how it identifies, monitors and manages integrity issues’ has allowed for past recommendations to be analyzed and compared with recent guidelines to find a lack of improvement across all forces in terms of social media misuse by police officers. A criticism of this source would be its age; however, this source is still very relevant in drawing conclusions on the level of police social media conduct and its improvement over the years.

To assess the effectiveness of social media as a tool for intelligence building within policing, chapter 3 has drawn upon the works of multiple academics. This third chapter has taken a more academic approach as opposed to statistics and figures which have been mentioned briefly, the focus has been more on the use of social media as a cultural tool in identifying themes and patterns within crime. A particular article; ‘Innovation and Policing: Factors Influencing the Adoption of Social Medias by Members of Quebec Police Organizations’ allowed for social media to be used to find the intent behind a crime, when looking at gang culture and online patterns, the initial reasoning behind a crime becomes apparent (Delle Donne and Fortin, 2018). This source has enabled research into the technology adoption amongst the public and how social media trends can aid police in intelligence gathering. A second source used a handful of times throughout chapter 3 is the works of Antonius and Rich through their report on ‘Discovering collection and analysis techniques for social media to improve public safety’ (Antonius and Rich, 2013). This report has enabled the identification of themes and patterns across terrorist activity via social media and how policing can be adapted to improve the safety of the public through the analysis of these online patterns during information gathering. A limitation presented in this source is the heavily based research on non-terrorism case studies which have left little room for analysis. A variety of government sources and case studies have also been used within this chapter including the’ riots 2011′ and the ‘2017 Bridge Attack’ and how social media for intelligence purposes have led to multiple successes also benefitting through the involvement of the community.

Methodology

This thesis has been constructed with both primary and secondary research throughout, the fluidity of research between both methods has enabled thorough research from multiple perspectives and sources. The primary research, although more time-consuming, has enabled conversations with real people including conducting an interview with West Midlands Chief Inspector Rodney Rose, where his viewpoints on police social media usage provided multiple thinking points for the gaps within this research. This use of secondary research allowed for a gap to be filled where an opinion from a policing professional was needed to further enhance the limitations of police social media usage. A piece of primary research that helped conduct a comparison across forces was the table of followers for police across Facebook and Twitter social media platforms as this had not been done for every police force before. Another example of primary research that felt necessary to include was a small local survey, although limited by the small number of participants, the gap within local research could be estimated through various responses given. Another method of research heavily used throughout this thesis is secondary research, drawing on the works of academic literature, journals, articles, and news reports has enabled the comparison and contrast throughout all sources to gain a stronger idea of the current state of police engagement via social media. This mixed method approach has allowed for a comprehensive analysis of all sources further exploring original works and filling gaps.