The Impact of Social Media on Society
Editorial . . . . . . .
In today’s fast-paced world of communication, social media brings individuals closer together, effectively turning the entire world into a global village. Thanks to the many social media networks. According to statistics and studies, Facebook is currently the most popular social networking site, with over one billion registered accounts and 2.89 billion monthly active users. Globally, there are 4.48 billion active social media users, up 13.13 percent year over year. The average amount of time spent per person each day is around 2 hours 27 minutes worldwide. The Facebook firms presently own the four most popular social media platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, which are the most popular globally today. The United States and China are without a doubt the most well-known social media platforms. In India as per one report WhatsApp users 53 Crore, YouTube users 44.8 Crore, and Facebook users 41 Crore, have user-based. Common Indians may now express their creativity, ask questions, stay informed, and freely share their opinions, including criticism of the government and its officials, thanks to these social networks. As a vital component of democracy, the government recognizes and respects the right of any Indian to criticize and disagree.
The United States has over 100 billion social media users, while Chinese social networking sites such as WeChat, QQ, and the video-sharing app Douyin have developed to become mainstream in their respective countries and contain local content and viewership. TikTok, a popular video-sharing software, is the foreign counterpart of Chinese Douyin. Other social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Quora, Telegram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn have increased in popularity in the market for speeding up communication. Bharatam is India’s first social networking platform. This platform is for Indians, and it was built by Indians for Indians. Share Communicate, Koo, Roposo, Elements, Squad Cam, Chingari, and Josh are a few examples of prominent Indian social media apps where one may chat, share views, news, photographs, and video messages quite popular among the youth. According to reports, Indian new networking site apps would be launched in 100 nations, not only connecting individuals but also assisting businesses in many sectors. Social media has crossed the generational divide and has become extremely popular among seniors and super seniors. People increasingly use social media for a number of purposes, including sending and receiving messages, news, opinions, wishes, photographs and videos, comments, rating, publishing one’s own work and expertise, data sharing, e-commerce, advertising, marketing, and purchasing, among others. Now social media play a key role in brand discovery, study and research. It is expected that 60% of the global population will use social media by 2022. Today’s social life has been greatly influenced by social media. Person-to-person communication allows people to reconnect with former friends, lovers, and mates, as well as influence them to form new friendships. These web-based social networking sites alter society’s lifestyle in a variety of ways, including improved connectivity, assistance in forming groups for the less affluent, educational benefits, information updates, advertising, and more. Social media is displacing traditional marketing since it is completely free to customers. Of course, there are other risks in marketing, such as negative feedback, uncorrectable errors, message spread, and so on. The new generation is almost entirely reliant on social media and is constantly connected and online. They are using the media to further their education by visiting numerous sites for knowledge development and sharing their opinions with friends and acquaintances, but for how long? They spend the majority of their free time on social media, which not only causes health problems such as decreased physical activity, obesity, insomnia, radiation, eye problems, headaches, posture-related problems, and so on, but also shrinks and reduces human contact, lowers academic grades, and waisting time. The effects of internet gaming are visible. Other negative consequences include addiction, digital distraction, digital misunderstanding, work disruption, inappropriate website visits, behavioural changes, and sleep disruption. All of these things can have short- and long-term consequences, and they can lead to a variety of problems that can damage a child’s career. Social media has a big influence on how people live. This changes the sleep habits of most users, who are usually busy late at night, and thus reduces normal social activity during the day, with long-term consequences such as poor sleep quality, altered dietary habits, and negative mental health, all of which affect people’s lifestyles and quality of life. However, studies demonstrate no substantial difference in physical or social health between daily and non-daily social media users. Sexting, or texting and sex-related photographs on social media for transmission and receiving purposes, is another hazardous aspect of social media. Cyberbullying has become increasingly accessible to the younger generation as a result of the widespread availability of smartphones, according to much research, and displays distinct behaviour among boys and girls who are more passive in this environment.
To acquire good quality and good effects from social media, one must use it properly so that the time spent is worthwhile and meaningful. To protect the younger generation from the negative impacts of social media, parents must establish a realistic and rational time period, avoid unusual and offbeat sites, monitor kids’ accounts, and most importantly, talk about social media and explain what is acceptable. To protect society from the negative consequences of social media, the authorities responsible both at the level of Union and UT of the Jammu and Kashmir government must be more cautious about the negative impact of social media on the society as well as guide young people on how to get the most out of it for the development of better society to lead our great India in days to come.
