Social media has become one of the biggest ways of interaction between the people, organisations and businesses across the world. Currently Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world. With an estimated 800 million users, many of those access their page each day.
People us Facebook to interact with friends, meet new people and ‘like’ or ‘follow’ brands or celebrities they are interested in. Large businesses are now using social networks to promote themselves and their business.
A recent study has shown that 48% of youths now get their news from Facebook.
Meaning now many people Facebook to find out the daily news rather than reading or accessing news websites.
Is Facebook taking over our lives?
Statistics show that a shocking 57% of people using social networking sites talk to more people online than in real life. People are spending more time at home on Facebook and Twitter, seeing what is going on around them rather than actually getting up and doing something productive with their day.
A whopping 48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up, and 28% of these doing so before they have even got out of bed. Being a student at university, social networking is a huge part of the student life. With university events, socials and the monthly bar crawls being broadcasted all over social networking sites, it is inevitable that the majority of us will be connected to a network such as Facebook at any given time of the day.
College groups have also started making use of these sites. Students are now joining online ‘Facebook Groups’ to interact with other students on the same course to discuss current assignments, ask questions and to relay ideas. Even lecturers and tutors are even joining these groups in order to communicate with their students for a variety of reasons, such as help, updates on lecture or assignment tasks. This is a positive aspect of social networking sites, as we are able to communicate ideas with one another and meet other students with the same interests as you whilst studying at university.
Social media has both good and bad aspects to it. It is encouraging younger people to interact with news, politics and issues beyond what they might encounter in their day to day lives. However, there is a tipping point where people do spend too long online and are influenced the wrong way when they take on false information. Yes, social media has taken over our lives, but it is the way we use it that determines whether that is a good or bad thing.
Vivian O' Brien Marketing 