In this blog post, we will examine how we can overcome the positive impact of social media and its negative side effects, such as personal information leaks.
Alvin Toffler predicted in his book, The Third Wave, that the agricultural revolution would lead to the first wave, the industrial revolution would lead to the second wave, and the information revolution would lead to the third wave. As he predicted, we are now living in the information age. Every household has at least one computer, and it has become commonplace for each person to have their own PC. Wherever you go, people have smartphones in their hands, and Wi-Fi zones are installed everywhere. With such excellent internet accessibility, people can connect to the internet instantly anytime, anywhere, as long as they want to. In this society, new types of human relationships that did not exist in the past have emerged. What were once relationships that could only be formed face-to-face in the offline world can now be established online without ever seeing each other’s faces. This has been made possible by modern-day social networking services (SNS), which emerged as a product of the World Wide Web that developed in the 1990s. Recently, SNS has grown and developed explosively, attracting great social and cultural attention. Let’s look at what SNS is, what types there are, what its advantages and disadvantages are, and how it will develop in the future through examples. SNS stands for Social Network Service or Social Network Site, and refers to an IT network-based community created for the purpose of building online connections.
Each service has its own unique features, making it difficult to define them in a single phrase. Users also define them differently using their own terminology. Wikipedia defines SNS as “an online platform that enables users to freely communicate, share information, and expand their networks, thereby creating and strengthening social relationships.” Meanwhile, Boyd and Ellison’s definition is also representative. They define SNS from a theoretical perspective as “a web-based service that allows individuals to publicly or semi-publicly build their personal information within a specific system. It also provides a list of other users with whom they are connected and allows them to view the list of connections that other people have within the system.”
Currently, the most widely used SNS are Facebook and Twitter. First, Facebook, considered the most successful SNS in the US, is a website launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. In Facebook, relationships can only be formed with the consent of both parties.
An important feature of Facebook is the “social plug-in” function, which is best represented by the “Like” button at the bottom of a post. When a user clicks the ‘Like’ button on a post they like, that post will appear on the Facebook friends’ feeds. Next, Twitter is a social networking service that combines the “friend-making” function with the speed of a messenger, and was launched in March 2006.
Twitter allows users to post text messages of up to 140 characters, which are displayed in chronological order. A distinctive feature of Twitter, which sets it apart from other social media platforms, is the “follow” function, which allows users to follow people they are interested in. This is similar to the “friend” feature on other social media platforms, but differs in that it allows users to establish a one-way relationship without the other party’s approval.
People who follow you are called “followers.” The difference in how relationships are formed on Facebook and Twitter makes the two services communicate in different ways. While Facebook is mainly used to connect with people you know offline, Twitter allows you to connect with a large number of people you don’t know. Because of this difference, Facebook is more suitable for sharing personal stories and casual conversations, while Twitter is more suitable for sharing public news.
As Twitter’s vice president stated, “Twitter is not a social networking service, it is news,” Twitter has established itself as a platform for quickly disseminating public news. Although these social networking services have different features and characteristics, they share the common goal of forming communities through social networks.
Like Janus, who had two faces, social media has both positive and negative effects on our society. First, the advantages of social media include the ability to build connections with an undefined number of people around the world. Living in the information age, we can easily communicate with people far away simply by creating an account. This allows us to form close relationships that transcend the limitations of physical distance and location.
Another advantage of social media is its ability to prevent incidents and accidents or mitigate secondary damage. For example, a post about an attempted human trafficking incident on the subway was shared on social media, and soon photos of the perpetrator were also uploaded, spreading rapidly. In this way, social media enables the swift dissemination of information, contributing to crime prevention. Another example is the democratic revolution in Tunisia. At the time, the media was controlled by force, but the spread of information through social media helped form widespread public opinion, which contributed to the overthrow of the dictatorship.
In addition, social media enables two-way communication between consumers and companies. Companies can use social media to achieve significant advertising effects at a low cost, while consumers can reflect their opinions on products through real-time communication.
In this sense, social media is an important tool that can increase consumer influence and contribute to product development. However, social media also has many disadvantages. A representative negative impact is the damage caused by the exposure of personal information and privacy. Social media is easy and convenient to use, so individuals often share their sensitive information without thinking. As a result, unwanted information may be exposed to unwanted individuals.
In addition, the use of location information on social media can be exploited for crimes such as kidnapping and human trafficking.
The indiscriminate spread of information is also a problem. As a form of one-person media, social media allows individuals to post freely, which increases the likelihood of inaccurate information spreading. Misleading rumors about celebrities are a prime example.
Furthermore, excessive obsession with social media can hinder real-life relationships. While it is possible to strengthen offline relationships, focusing solely on social media connections can lead to the breakdown of real-life relationships. It is important to remember that social media connections are often fleeting and can disappear as soon as the screen is closed. Excessive immersion in these virtual connections can lead to feelings of isolation in real life and even mental health issues such as depression. If this phenomenon intensifies, it could develop into a social problem beyond individual problems.
So what is the future of social media? In today’s rapidly changing society, social media is clearly considered a useful tool. Despite the negative effects of social media, its positive role and value are increasingly being emphasized. Considering the social, economic, and cultural value of social media today, the social media market is expected to continue to grow over the next few years. The number of users of Facebook and Twitter, which lead the global social media market, has already exceeded hundreds of millions, and this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In addition, according to Wikipedia, more than six out of ten Internet users have social media accounts. This suggests that social media use will become even more widespread in the future.
We have examined the definition, types, advantages, and disadvantages of SNS, as well as its future prospects, through examples. As a medium that swiftly delivers information in the information age, we hope that SNS will continue to develop in a beneficial direction for society by leveraging its strengths and addressing its weaknesses.
