Today’s technology makes everyone a journalist with the support of freedom of speech and expression. Now anyone can say anything and anyone can oppose or accept what you say. Social media plays as a platform for people to practice citizen journalism. Basically, journalists will be trained to gather news and publish it without taking sides but citizens journalists post what they have in their hands at the moment without considering the consequences. Somehow users are happy that they get to speak what they want. Glad that authorities are still able to decide if a post is needed to be in view in case it holds sensitive content or arguments as well as claims.
In 2020, it is believed that almost everyone owns social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for socializing purposes as well as to register their opinions and beliefs in the eyes of the globe. Social media is not only applicable for individuals but also for companies and organizations to engage with their target audience in order to build an effective bonding and publicity among people. So it is very important to make wise decisions while saying something on social media because once said, the word goes internationally although you have an option to remove it.
When it comes to social media, the amount of reach matters. Just like when we talk, we make sure the receiver listens to us. Similarly, a message or an announcement on social media needs to reach the target audience for effective communication. For instance, the number of likes for a Facebook status indicates the percentage of agreement from your friends and followers. The number of shares and comments for a product explains the loyalty and support of consumers towards a company. Indeed, the reach matters the most on social media platforms.
Since reach is an objective measure of the impact of a social media post and it makes sense, users should use it wisely instead of using it for discrimination and racism. Social media gives you a great platform to get to know more people as well as to achieve your goals such as promote and develop your company, get more revenues and customers and so on. A recent case of George Floyd is a bad example of using a social media account. Of course, nothing can be equivalent to his life. The least effort that can be done by Facebook is to allocate space on its own website for the anti-racism segment. It is clear that social media can actually educate users by creating ideologies and perceptions.
Looking at the bright side, social media enables everyone to communicate regardless of the geographical difference. Moreover, it gives plenty of options such as video calls, audio messages and text messages for free as long as there is a strong internet connection. Besides communication, it helps the audience to build confidence either personally or professionally. Furthermore, social media plays an important role in business industries especially in reaching the target audience to expand the profit of a company.
Social media has great impacts on people. It can change a whole perception of people towards other things. For example, politicians use social media to let the public know about the services they could provide if they receive maximum votes to become the next government. It was proven when Pakatan Harapan (PH) became the ruling party after winning over Barisan Nasional (BN), a ruling party that was for 60 years in Malaysia. PH used social media to get support from the nation during the election season. Therefore, social media could change one’s decision toward the future of a country. It also shows that social media could be a factor in a change in politics in a country. That is because the messages being posted on social media reach a huge number of people within seconds.
Social media is also used for educational purposes. Students may refer to certain official pages that have posted on educational exercises. The main purpose of social media is to connect people from all around the world, but these days, it has extended its purposes into education as well. People could still get connected with others when they communicate with the owners of the posts. Besides that, kids these days prefer studying via social media as it is more interactive and fun. Facebook has official pages of institutions. Even schools created official pages on Facebook to post important notices where students could refer to it.
Sellers have also explored their businesses into social media accounts. This is to reach out to more buyers online. Social media allows sellers to post products and sell them to social media users. With this, the use of the app had increased from communicating to selling products online. Well, the main purpose of social media is still being upheld which is connecting people from all around the world. Through businesses, people could get connected with buyers and sellers from all around the world. Besides gaining revenue and increasing the number of customers, sellers could get connected to people from different countries and expand their market to other areas.
This shows that social media has many other benefits. The main purpose is to connect people from all around the world while they could benefit from other services such as education and businesses. Facebook has imposed many steps in maintaining the benefits of using this social media app and also from stopping people from misusing the app. People should use social media wisely, especially Facebook, which provides many services such as education and business opportunities besides communicating. The benefits of Facebook can turn into a nightmare if people use it for negative purposes such as cyberbullying or posting racial comments. Disharmony can occur if people continue to use Facebook for bad intentions. The death of George Floyde made Facebook control the comments from people who are likely to create havoc. Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility to use social media for good purposes so that everyone could enjoy the benefits of it.