Social Networking in Modern Day Society: How Does It Influence Us? Essay Example
Social Networking in Modern Day Society: How does it Influence us?
Social networking in our current society boasts some impressive numbers. A study conducted in July 2010 found over 500 million people are now signed up with social networking giant Facebook. These users were found to have shared more than three billion pictures every month and sixty million status updates every day (Cooke 2007; Carpenter, Green & LaFlam, 2011). These staggering figures only grow when other social networking providers are included in the picture. Twitter, MySpace, AOL and the new Google+ all have millions of users, spread all over the world.
Social networking has proven itself useful in a practical sense, such as Facebook and Twitter being used by natural disaster victims to communicate with the outside world, and YouTube proving helpful in war torn countries where dictators have tried to suppress images of war from the watching world. As well as being useful in a practical sense, social networking has been shown to satisfy all of the basic human emotional needs – communication, continuity and support. Social networking satisfies all these basic needs, all the while remaining instantly accessible and unlimited by barriers of geography, finance or class (Cooke 2011).
Popular culture and politics of the current era are also heavily influenced by social networking. By the start of 2010 there were more politicians tweeting than blogging (Research shows it pays for politicians to Twitter on 2010). Barrack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign made use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites to campaign, garner support and fundraise. The success of his campaign will always be remembered (Cooke 2011). Music, Television and Film all utilise social networking media to promote upcoming artist’s work. Radio and record label executives are no longer able to dominate the market, as new artists can spread their music online without a recording contract or a great deal of
Social networking in our current society boasts some impressive numbers. A study conducted in July 2010 found over 500 million people are now signed up with social networking giant Facebook. These users were found to have shared more than three billion pictures every month and sixty million status updates every day (Cooke 2007; Carpenter, Green & LaFlam, 2011). These staggering figures only grow when other social networking providers are included in the picture. Twitter, MySpace, AOL and the new Google+ all have millions of users, spread all over the world.
Social networking has proven itself useful in a practical sense, such as Facebook and Twitter being used by natural disaster victims to communicate with the outside world, and YouTube proving helpful in war torn countries where dictators have tried to suppress images of war from the watching world. As well as being useful in a practical sense, social networking has been shown to satisfy all of the basic human emotional needs – communication, continuity and support. Social networking satisfies all these basic needs, all the while remaining instantly accessible and unlimited by barriers of geography, finance or class (Cooke 2011).
Popular culture and politics of the current era are also heavily influenced by social networking. By the start of 2010 there were more politicians tweeting than blogging (Research shows it pays for politicians to Twitter on 2010). Barrack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign made use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites to campaign, garner support and fundraise. The success of his campaign will always be remembered (Cooke 2011). Music, Television and Film all utilise social networking media to promote upcoming artist’s work. Radio and record label executives are no longer able to dominate the market, as new artists can spread their music online without a recording contract or a great deal of