Conclusion to Social Media Phenomena

It seems that a seemingly simple topic took on a life of it’s own, as we discussed the benefits, disadvantages, infringement of rights, and overwhelming popularity involving the social media. The class highlighted the benefits of social media by applauding the cultural diffusion, ability for vital information to be spread rapidly, marketing strategy, and more. However, it seems that listing the disadvantages of social media came with much more ease, than did listing the benefits of social media. Instant gratification of information turned into a negative effect when we began to realize that we were too reliant upon the web to deliver us what’s going on in the world, rather than using books, newspapers, or other printed texts to guide us. We also discussed the video involving Joseph Kony (that went viral within a matter of days) and highlighted the false validity and potential harm of social media information.

       In addition, we spoke about the fairly recent Rutgers case involving the student Tyler Clementi who committed suicide; the case involved the usage information complied from the web history of the potential offender (by the police) to be used as evidence during the proceedings in trial. Inevitably, the discussion took a heated turn, when privacy and the breach of rights became involved. Some believed that the government has the authority to keep and check stored information (in regards to crimes or similar harmful acts of that nature), while others thought that the government would be violating the personal boundaries of the cyber world (unless under extreme circumstances with substantial evidence to permit viewing of the web history). Infringement on privacy rights seems to be a tradeoff that we may have to comply with, considering we can find information at the click of a button, make friends with a simple request, tweet our ideas to our followers at ease, etc. The social media just makes it that much easier to convey ideas, messages, and news to the world, as opposed to commercially advertising or spreading information via mouth, and it’s not only fast, but it’s free!