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Critically Assess the Effect of Social Media on Society

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Critically assess the effect of Social Media on society
Social media as defined by Andreas M and Michael (2010, p. 61) is “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Social media platforms include chat rooms, blogging web sites, social networking sites, forums, and also text messages and e-mail (Luxton, June and Fairall, 2012). The most popular social networking site, Facebook has made such an influence on society that from 2004 to 2011 the number of users registered to the site increased from 1 million to about 1 billion users worldwide (Yahoo Finance, 2012). With such vast figures social media is bound to have an impact on the way society operates, either positively or negatively, or both. These will be critically analyzed in this essay, identifying the most crucial impacts it has on our society.
With the rapid increase in the awareness and use of social networking sites, it has provided positive contributions to how society functions. First and foremost, social networking has grown to become a critical part of a business’s marketing strategies, and if managed efficiently, will prove to be a major factor for its success.
Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter have provided an easy-to-access platform for people to share their views, preferences, and experiences about brands and products. Once this information gets widespread through word-of-mouth, it will have a direct influence on people’s opinion of brands and products, ultimately resulting in a pleasant or negative effect on brand image (Milad, Choubtarash and Salber, 2013). Moreover, Evans (2012) and Milad, Choubtarash and Salber (2013) all agree that people find word-of-mouth to be more trustworthy than claims from marketers and this results in them wanting to

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