From the US president to Kylie Jenner to someone you went to high school with, many people are active on Twitter. Many grandparents have facebook. Most teenagers have facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter… and the list goes on.
My point is, social media is expanding its influence every single day, and this has extensive impact on our society. Many studies show how social media can increase the risk of depression, allow people to create fake perceptions of themselves and instantaneously find out personal things about other people's lives. I remember that when I was applying to university many people advised me to revise all contents on social media in case universities decided to check my online history. A panic was created among students at my school concerning this possibility of a social media background check made by universities, to the extent that many of my classmates changed their online names so as not to be connected with their profiles.
The most important impact of the growing influence of social media is, in my opinion, the spread of fake news, something that is becoming increasingly more common and thankfully is getting some attention from the media. What many don't realize about the proliferating amount of smartphones, is that more and more people have photographing and recording devices with them at all times, and are thus able to record and spread through social media their own "news".
At first glance, a piece of information attached to photographic evidence seems credible, but unfortunately, this isn't the case. Fake news has spread so much that some people see it as an industry and profit from creating websites that promote this sort of news but have names similar to credible websites, so users access them by accident and read the fake news as if it was legitimate.
There are other less deliberate producers of fake news. Everything a public figure says nowadays is scrutinized by numerous people online, and what we frequently forget is that things can be taken out of context. A simple sentence can be interpreted in a completely different way based on what paragraph it is attached to, and these interpretations many times reach extreme levels, to the extent that they become misleading.
Another little-known impact social media has on our society, is that nowadays, from CEOs to young people straight out of college, no one afford to not use the online world to forward their careers. Whether it is a company that has to use social media to become known to its public, or a CEO that has to use Twitter to shut down some fake news, or someone looking for a job has to create a profile on Linkedin. Social media has become essential in connecting people to the extent that it is almost impossible to avoid this communication method in the professional world. There are whole companies dedicated to training public figures on how to deal with the media.
My point is, the world is changing. And while it is vital that we adapt to this new reality, I feel that it is important that we don't do this blindly, but rather realize and reflect on what is changing and why.
