1. Deiondre Coleman
Prof.Blanco
FYS
Social Media is Beneficial
When reading the overview of the “Social Media Explosion” there was some key issues
that I saw within the reading. Such as some analysts worry that a preference for social media
over face-to-face meetings may make it easier and more tempting to commit identity fraud and
hoaxes. They analysts fear that social media are being seen as a replacement for face-to-face
conversation. Research suggests that social media are leading to increased political activity.
Social media make supporting and organizing causes easier than in the past and are especially
effective in getting people already interested in politics to take a more active role.
Benefits of social media there are quite a few. Social media can benefit in a lot of ways
such as social networks like Facebook and Twitter have tools that allow you to communicate
the right kind of content to your audience. Social media helps find new customers and expand
your audience. Social media allows you to receive instant feedback from your customers’
perspective. Social media for business gives you instant access to positive or negative feedback,
which provides you with valuable insights on the customer perspective. Social media for
business has allowed companies to increase brand awareness and reach of their brand at little
to no cost.
There are also concerns for the social media and how it’s affecting people. “Many kids
say they prefer not to talk face to face,” notes Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at
California State University. They rely on written communication only, mainly via text or social
media sites, especially when communicating with adults. That choice might damage young

2. Deiondre Coleman
Prof.Blanco
FYS
people's communication skills for years to come, Rosen says. When people rely entirely on
written messages “where you don't have access to [nonverbal] cues, things are ripe for
miscommunication,” Rosen says. Social media is eroding privacy for people since you can
anything on the internet and on social networks.
Social media has it pros and cons in effecting the democratic societies. Research
suggests that social media are leading to increased political activity, Joseph Kahne, a professor
of education at Mills College, in Oakland, Calif., and chairman of the MacArthur Foundation's
Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics. In a survey, 41 percent of young people
reported engaging in what Kahne terms “participatory politics” individual efforts to influence
public policy. Social media probably are not causing more people to become interested in
politics and policy, as some Internet analysts have long hoped, Kahne says. Most people who
engage in the new participatory politics would have been following politics anyway, he says.
However, social media have provided new ways for people to turn their interest into deeper
involvement and influence, he says.
Over 2 Billion people around the world are active social media users that’s almost 30
percent of the world population and over 3 billion people are active internet users and that’s
around 42 percent of the populations and that’s almost half the world population. But is social
media helping the society or hurting it? Social media is helping the society and I’m going to
explain how.
Participating in social media (blogs, Listservs, Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter, and other
media) inspires people to reflect on self, others, and the world as people strive to "see with the

3. Deiondre Coleman
Prof.Blanco
FYS
eyes of another". Participating in online professional activities (professional Listservs, Linkedln,
emailing with colleagues, virtual continuing education) provides an opportunity to benefit from
and contribute to ongoing professional development. The "pooled intelligence of the social
group" (Adler, 1929, p. 63), or a common wisdom, is one of the major and unique benefits of
online education. Participating in social media instills and maintains a sense of one's
connections to the community and one's responsibility toward that community. Online his or
her own academic success but for the success of other students by actively co- academic
activities are a reflection of true democracy in which one is responsible not only for
constructing learning experiences in the class.
Social Media help students do better at school. 59% of students with access to the
Internet report that they use social networking sites to discuss educational topics and 50% use
the sites to talk about school assignments. A Jan. 2015 study published in the Journal of Applied
Developmental Psychology said college freshman should use social networking sites to build
networks of new friends, feel socially integrated at their new schools, and reduce their risk of
dropping out. Social media can help improve life satisfaction, stroke recovery, memory
retention, and overall well-being by providing users with a large social group. Additionally,
friends on social media can have a "contagion" effect, promoting and helping with exercise, and
dieting. More than 25% of teens report that social networking makes them feel less shy, 28%
report feeling more outgoing, and 20% report feeling more confident (53% of teens identified
as somewhat shy or "a lot" shy in general). Youth who are "less socially adept" report that social
networks give them a place to make friends and typically quiet students can feel more

4. Deiondre Coleman
Prof.Blanco
FYS
comfortable being vocal through a social media platform used in class. Shy adults also cite
social media as a comfortable place to interact with others.
So as you can see social media is very beneficial to the world and actually makes the
world go round if you think about it. People love social media and love what they get from it
and also how it helps them in life. Social media is definitely helping the society has a whole and
will continue to grow and keep helping the society improve.

5. Deiondre Coleman
Prof.Blanco
FYS
Kemp, Simon. "Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015." We Are Social RSS. N.p., 21 Jan.
2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
"Social Networking ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Clemmitt, M. (2013, January 25). Social media explosion. CQ Researcher, 23, 81-104. Retrieved
from http://library.cqpress.com/
Belangee, Susan, Marina Bluvshtein, and Daniel Haugen. "Cybersocial Connectedness: A Survey
Of Perceived Benefits And Disadvantages Of Social Media Use." Journal Of Individual Psychology
71.2 (2015): 122-134. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.