Emerging Culture

Like or Unlike? Social Media Now and Beyond 

                                                               Photo Courtesy: Yahoo

The last fifteen years internet and later social media becomes too influential to the people’s lives. It became a significant tool for communication, information, entertainment, business and education. It became a part of the people’s daily life because of its interactivity, multimedia and multi tasking capacity compared to other traditional medium such as television and types of print media. 

In social media one can interact with people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. It is commonly used in keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances; developing new contacts often with friends of friends, or people with share interests; sharing content; engaging in self expression and exploring identity; accessing information and informal learning and sometimes for recreation with the presence of some gaming applications. 

A number of romantic stories also blossoms to social media, expanding the horizon of someone to his or her search of love. 

Social media is also surprisingly changing the political and social landscape in the world. A number of politicians and celebrities are maintaining such, for easier interaction with their constituents, fans and followers. Some government agencies also have their own social media accounts both facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and the like where they post for announcement concerning their operations and functions. Because of social media, communication between the government and its citizens has changed from indirect communication to direct contact. But since in social media it is largely unfiltered, public personalities and agencies can be easily hit by bashing and criticism. 

Prior to social media, agencies and organizations would communicate with the public through newspaper notice, public postings, radio and television commercial, direct mailings, or other traditional methods. In this case, the senders of communication had little way of knowing if the information was being read or how they reacted to it. 

                                                            Photo Courtesy: Yahoo

Social Media also serves as a platform for the people to engage in “citizen journalism” by posting images and videos of events they personally witness detailing information such as sequence of events. It provides the world the venue to witness Filipino talents through uploaded trending performances in the internet, as well as other materials that promotes the diversity of the Filipino Culture. 

In his book Ethics and Social Responsibility in Mass Communication, Jose Mario Maximiano said “Today’s revolution in social communication involves a fundamental reshaping of the elements by which people comprehend the world about them, and verify and express what they comprehend. The constant availability of images and ideas, and their rapid transmission even from continent to continent, have profound consequences, both positive and negative, moral and social development of persons, the structure and functioning of societies, intercultural communications, and the perception and transmission of values, world views, ideologies, and religious beliefs”.

                                      Screenshot from my facebook account top list friends.

 

Philippines is now considered as one of the top social media users in the world, having more than 30 million users and continuously increasing. Data from SocialBakers.com a site monitoring internet usage statistics shows that almost one out of every four Filipinos has a facebook account or more than 27 million users. There are also 5 million users of the micro blogging site twitter. The data shows, that majority of the internet users in different social networking sites are the youth. It is also noted that social media users nowadays are becoming younger.   

The overused of social media carries a lot of risks personally and professionally, but it is becoming a part of the culture especially for the younger generations it is hoped that it could contribute more on the positive side. In the near future, some see the line between traditional and social media disappearing and predict that all media will be social. It is expected that mass media and social media will be seamlessly integrated across devices and platforms to offer relevant, dynamic, personalized experiences to people anywhere. 

Social media is undeniably becoming an emerging culture to communities, organizations and each individual. It impacts now the attitude, values, performance and views of each and everyone and perhaps dictates how the people would be in the future either acting responsibly or irresponsibly.