The Pros and Cons of Social Media Apps

Social Media Applications

Social media applications are electronic communication platforms where people come together and form virtual communities. They provide a platform where people share information; they are entertained and even educated (Vivakaran and Neelamalar 4). These platforms have enhanced the technological revolution in the communication field by allowing instant two-way communication.

Various Electronic Platforms

Various electronic platforms exists, they include Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and, Spotify among others. The goal behind the creation of social media apps is to enhance mutual understanding through communication. Proper communication is imperative to the existence of all human beings. Nevertheless, social media apps have been a controversial subject based on the benefits and disadvantages in the real world. This essay explores the pros and cons of the social media platforms.

Enhanced Convenience in Human Interactions

Social media apps have enhanced convenience in human interactions. In the apps, the subscribers sign up, develop an online persona with a profile, and hence can reach out to a network of friends within the platform. They provide a place for people with similar interests to meet and share information. They also provide features for instance feedback among the virtual communities. Within the communities, people discuss foundational aspects of their interests and hence help them to improve in their activities. Guzzetti and Lesley (611) note that on average, a Facebook user is connected to 80 community groups. These platforms provide features for public and private conversations. Using the apps, people who are thousands and millions of kilometers from each other can easily communicate.

Social Media Apps in Marketing

In the field of marketing, social media apps provide a platform where businesses can engage masses and sell their products (Hajli 388). The business environment has become dynamic today. With the rise of globalization, businesses are able to sell their products in different parts of the world. This has seen an increase in the number of existing multinationals globally. Social media apps allow various producers of good and services to inform their target markets of new products, improvement and for the new businesses to reach out to their market segments. Besides that, they also have features that allow for online sales, where a customer can communicate directly with the producers and make orders, and the goods are delivered to them. This has eased the cost of advertisements and increased the businesses’ chances of reaching more customers.

Enhanced Recruitment Processes

Social media apps have enhanced the recruitment processes in the field of human resource development. This is because; a person can assess a company on the social media networks even before attending the interviews. This person can therefore make a decision on whether he would want to join the company or not. It is also helpful to the human resource professionals as they can have an idea of the personality and the background of a person based on their social media life. An example of such a platform is LinkedIn, which is of a high professional nature.

Cybercrime and Social Media Apps

Social media platforms have also been associated with drawbacks such as cybercrime. Cybercrime entails the use of computer networks to commit crime (Byrne, et al. 38). With the convenience, speed and, the anonymity availed by the social media applications, criminals are exploiting the networks to commit financial and sexual crimes among others. Traditional crimes have also gained a platform to reach out to masses such as sale of counterfeit goods, identity theft, and illegal gambling (Leaver 12). These crimes have become widespread, owing to the opportunities availed by the social media platforms.

Sedentary Lifestyles and Health

Another drawback is that social media apps promote sedentary lifestyles, which leads to deteriorating health of the users. Use of the applications requires one to have a computer or a mobile phone and this entails either sitting or standing for too long (Byrne, et al. 47). People, who spend a lot of time on the platforms such as social media marketers, influencers, and social media handlers in organizations, are likely to develop the lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. They are also predisposed to developing poor sleeping patterns as they are continuously exposed to artificial light, which affects their eyesight.

Privacy Concerns

Third among the cons is that social media platforms erode the privacy of individuals (Tunick 41). Everyone strives to protect his or her privacy and even the law provides for such protection. However, social media platform barely perform well in privacy protections. This is because once an individual posts some information, it is owned by the social sites. This can put an individual in a compromising situation especially if they play multiple roles in the society and they are exposed, interfering with their ability to deliver on another. For instance, with Facebook, an employer can easily monitor the private life of an employee.

Conclusion

Every aspect of technology has both pros and cons and social media applications are no exception. The advantages explores in this essay are only likely to get better in the future by providing convenience in meetings, shopping, family times, businesses, education and, keeping up with the developments in the world. However, if the cons are not addressed, they are cybercrime and other cons will advance, human-to-human interactions will be limited by the human technology interactions and, it will increase the chances of an unhealthy population. For this reason, social media apps developers should assess all the merits and demerits to adapt the sites to the needs of the people and address the concerns put forward.

Works Cited

Byrne, Elizabeth, et al. “Cyberbullying and Social Media: Information and Interventions for School Nurses Working With Victims, Students, and Families.” The Journal of School Nursing, vol. 34, no. 1, 2017, pp. 38-50.

Guzzetti, Barbara J, and Mellinee Lesley. Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media. 2018.

Hajli, M. N. “A study of the impact of social media on consumers.” International Journal of Market Research, vol. 56, no. 3, 2014, pp. 387-404.

Leaver, Tama. “Researching the Ends of Identity: Birth and Death on Social Media.” Social Media + Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, p. 205630511557887.

Tunick, Mark. Balancing Privacy and Free Speech: Unwanted Attention in the Age of Social Media. Routledge, 2016.

Vivakaran, Mangala V., and M. Neelamalar. “Utilization of Social Media Platforms for Educational Purposes among the Faculty of Higher Education with Special Reference to Tamil Nadu.” Higher Education for the Future, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, pp. 4-19.