Advantages and disadvantages of New Social Media

Advantages and disadvantages of New Social Media

A media theorist called Marshal Mc Luhan believes that the type of media used to portray a message can have a huge impact on the final out come of the desired effect. Ever changing methods of getting your message online is becoming easier and easier on a daily basis. Everything from the News, Smartphones, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, Myspace and emails are growing at an extreme rate. The ease of access to these vast communities of online users can have its advantages and disadvantages. Everyday people of all ages, cultures and race access the Internet to source information on any number of subjects. At the touch of a button users can access un-moderated information to almost anything. One main advantage to the general public is it highlights increased transparency in governments and ruling organizations. This brings us back to Marshal Mc Luhan’s theory. Anyone can access the internet and post false and misleading information for the world to see. The medium carrying the message being the internet cant always be 100% accurate because of its availability to the public and therefore can have serious negative effects. The internet may not be the medium for carrying 100% accurate information in some cases but it allows the public important access to add their own information and views.

New social media such as Skype has transformed the lives of many people, companies and family’s. People are now able to communicate with each other via video and audio link from all over the world with the touch of a button. With Skype being completely free companies and people have saved huge amounts of money on international calls and conferences. Many family members are now able to contact each other on a daily bases, were as before a five minute phone per year would have to survice. With the invention of the Smartphone the internet is now more portable than ever. The Smartphone has been described as a miniature computer in your pocket and it is consistently opening up new avenues and opportunities for people to access every type of social media available on the net.

Marshal Mc Luhan’s theory comes into effect a lot more with the disadvantages of new social media. Misleading and false information can easily be available on the internet through various unregulated mediums such as youtube, facebook, twitter, blogs etc. There are very little regulations in place to moderate information uploaded to the internet and therefore sorces can be often biased and unreliable. The internet has also been cause for a number of cases of online bullying and child abuse such as pedophile rings contacting children via social networking sites. A new wave of videos and websites have been uploaded to the internet by terrorists for purposes of propaganda and recruitment. These sometimes graphic images/videos are often posted on many social networking sites that children regularly use and can have huge impacts on their lives. The ease of access to violent, gruesome images is all to easy. 

People’s privacy of personal information is also undertreat from hackers, spam and respectable companies who all want to access your information to suit their needs. Hackers can access credit card information and important personal details in order to commit fraud and steal money from bank accounts. Spam mail is a consistent annoyance on the Internet and is accounted of 90% of mail sent per day. Respectable companies eagerly want your information in order to better their selling points and to entice you to purchase their products. The frightening this about this is people willingly release personal information on to various websites on a daily bases. Everything from credit card details, address, phones numbers, names etc.

With this virtual world interesting us so much it is extremely had to balance a real lifestyle and virtual life online.