Social media today seems to be utilized by everyone ranging from global conglomerates to the common man, the more popular options likely being Facebook and Twitter after the allure of Friendster seemingly died off some years ago. The ubiquitous networking platform of the modern age, it has proved to be an indispensable tool in nearly every facet of our lives. Not only does it allow us to catch up with old friends, but it also plays an important role in introducing new trends, given the ability of social media to disseminate information at an astonishing rate with ease, linking quickly from network to network.
The recent General Elections in Singapore, for the first time, saw social media being used by politicians to reach out directly to the general public, recognising its ability to reach the masses and the tip the scales of public opinion. Along with light-hearted humor such as remixes of Returning Officer Mr Yam Ah Mee’s deadpan announcements, social media played a vital role in allowing personal opinions to be shared and discussed. More importantly, the ability of social media to ‘share’ or ‘recommend’ links and articles not only enabled opinions to spread within a network of friends at record speed, but also provided users with an alternative view aside from the traditional media.
These social media platforms have been extremely successful as they are relatively inexpensive and can be used by virtually anyone. Additionally, social media has another advantage over traditional media as it allows the average man to not only access existing resources, but to also publish information should he or she wish to. Politics is not the only field that users of social media has benefited from. Social media also provides avenues for more mundane issues such as product reviews, with buyer feedback possibly swaying the purchasing decisions of potential customers.
Take the Lord of the Rings release on Blu-Ray for example. Although the extended versions of the trilogy had
been released on DVD, Warner Brothers made the decision for the Blu-Ray release to contain only the theatrical editions of the film. For a little background, a Blu-Ray disc can comfortably hold more than twice the data on a DVD. Potential customers were understandably unhappy with the studio’s decision as they perceived it the studios trying to profit twice from the fans, predicting the inevitable blu-ray release of the extended versions of the films. Amazon’s discussion page for the product was flooded with complaints over Warner’s controversial decision. This dissent eventually led to a protest of sorts, with thousands of customers leaving a one star review on the product page (Link), encouraging buyers to wait for the extended editions instead.
Yet, for all the benefits social media brings, there is invariably a dark side to the technology.The speed at which social media is able to disseminate information can make recalling erroneous reports an uphill task. Just today, CBS News mistakenly left a post (Link) on Twitter reporting the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. It was removed almost immediately, but the offending post could still be viewed due to the number of users who retweeted the news.
Social media has also been responsible for incidents such as burglaries and job losses. Just this May, the Larson family from Great Falls city in the United States came back from a holiday only to find their home burglarized. In hindsight, they believed a Facebook message detailing their travel plans was the root cause of the break-in. Similarly, Facebook posting have also brought grief to Dawnmarie Souza and Nathalie Blanchard. In Souza’s case, she lost her job after bad-mouthing her superiors on Facebook. Blanchard, similarly, lost her insurance benefits after she was tagged in Facebook photos that depicted her having a ball of a time, despite the supposed depression she was on sick-leave for. These cautionary examples all depict situations that stem from a loss of privacy. Social media such as FourSquare, which enables users to share their current location, may be a gold mine of information for people who know what to look for.
Potential job seekers should also be wary of what they post on social networking sites. Straight from the bosses themselves, they make it no secret (Link) that they do look to social networking sites to have a better understanding of prospective employees, especially applicants that do not have much prior working experience and thus results in a lack of background information for the employers to conduct a check upon.
In this time and age, social media has given users unprecedented access to information and the ability to share and discuss opinions. However, the bad side of social media has also reared its ugly head from time to time in recent years. Bearing in mind that nothing posted on the Internet is entirely private and making good use of privacy settings, one can lessen his or her chances of getting into such situations. Imagine having your boss or, God forbid, your family, coming across pictures of a drunken you doing the merlion thanks to some genius who decided to photograph and tag you for laughs. Ugh. No thank you.
My Thoughts 