The impact of social media on communication

Social media has had a major impact on people’s lives. One of them is the fact that it constitutes an alternative method of communication available to all people. Thanks to social media people are able to communicate easily. However, social media is not always beneficial.

Unfortunately, social media may be dangerous for many people. We all had an internet friend without actually knowing who is behind the screen. In other words, bad people have the opportunity to hide behind the screen in order to kidnap or even harm people. Furthermore, many people but especially children, agree to meet those people because they think they have known them for a long time so it is the time to finally see each other. No one can ever recognize who someone is behind the screen. Moreover, people feel free to post pictures of themselves on the Internet without considering the consequences. What I mean is that social media promotes unrealistic beauty standards. For instance, in that way men and women think that they do not fit in these standards and this may lead them to suicidal thoughts and various mental issues, such as depression.

On the other hand, social media has offered to a lot of people who live in different countries or even continents to communicate faster and more easily with each other. For example, in early times people used to communicate with symbols and images. Nowadays, thanks to social media it is way easier to communicate with everyone so, as Professor Tom Withers maintains, for better or worse the Internet has really changed the way we communicate with other people. What is more, social media contains plenty of information which may be useful to some people. It can educate people on major subjects such as gender equality or the lgbtq+ community. In what way, people can be correctly informed about many significant things.

Taking everything that was stated above into consideration, I believe that social media affects our lives both negatively and positively. Being cautious is one of the things that we should definitely do if we use social media. Nonetheless, overall, social media has affected our lives in a positive way but we have to keep in mind that bad things may happen so we have to be careful.

Tania Zampouridou  ECPEs Lampraki

Do social media influence my purchasing choices?

It is given in today’s world that our lives have become more digitalized than in the past. As years go by, it becomes more and more apparent that many services are starting to be transferred into the digital world. Among them is online shopping and advertising as well. Advertisers have now the opportunity to promote their products via social media. Thus, internet users are exposed to thousands of advertisements daily. However, it still remains a controversial issue whether this practice has positive or negative effects in the purchasing process.

It goes without saying that online shopping has gained ground the last years. Especially during covid -times where the stores were closed, online advertising and shopping helped many sellers not to become unemployed and go bankrupt. The main source that sellers utilized were social media. In particular, through them, they had the opportunity to influence people’s purchasing choices easily, cheaply and fast. Even the smaller companies and brands took part in this competitive game. For instance, it was much easier for them to promote their products via Instagram rather than hire a marketing expert so as to help them with advertisements. Someone could argue that this selection could be considered a clever one, since the popularity of social media is ahead of television and billboards.

Nevertheless, opponents of this practice claim that online advertising, most of times, comes into conflict with the law or privacy. To be specific, social media collect information of their users concerning their age, preferences and needs. These data are purchased by companies in order to promote advertisements, which correspond to users’ personal desires. Moreover, the number of advertisements that deluge the internet is enormous. According to a recent study, just 85% of social media users claim that they come into contact with online advertising more than regularly. Related to this reality is the fact that many apps provide the opportunity to get rid of those kinds of stimuli only by paying a fee.

All in all, taking all the aforementioned into consideration I believe that both sides make a point. To a certain extent, advertisements do really have positive effects to sellers, but also can influence customers negatively, since consumerism constitutes one of the biggest problems of humanity. Thus, in my opinion, it is up to each person to make conscious choices and filter the information while browsing the web.

Evgenia Polyzoni ECPE Lampraki

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEOPLE

   Has anyone ever thought about how social media can affect peoples’ lives, which social media site is the best and how to get entertained? Social media is the best answer, for someone who wants to have the knowledge of what is happening all over the world. In this article you may find the answer of all your questions about social media.

   Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, What’s up, Twitter, Tik Tok are some of the most widespread social media that everyone has. For me, the best two are Instagram and Twitter, but from my experience, I think the most people are using Facebook. I don’t know why, but people like this. It’s not my job to change your opinion, but I think you should try all of them and then make your final decision.

Something more you maybe don’t know is how social media affect peoples’ lives. It’s known that you can upload anything you want on social media, apart from being able to see uploads of others, even if they are your ‘’friends’’ or not. With ‘’friends’’ we mean all the followers and the people that you are following, too. The first reason why social media can affect peoples’ lives is the fake friends. Sometimes they are uploading something bad for another person and people don’t even care about that. But have you ever wondered how this person feels? I am sure you don’t. But when someone would do this to you, I am pretty sure that you will be angry and upset.

The other reason is Photoshop and editing. Some people – if not all people – photoshop and edit their pictures to look more beautiful. Someone that may see that will feel uncomfortable and not confident enough for himself or herself. That’s not good, because social media is a way to spend the time relaxing and not be self-conscious about our image. Social media rules tell that ‘’ if anyone makes anyone else uncomfortable, then their upload will get deleted immediately’’, but these rules are not followed all the time, because these pictures are from celebrities and famous people, but neither they nor anyone have the ability to make others feel like that. I hope that this is understandable by everybody.

Now, to sum up, let’s talk about how social media can entertain us. First of all, it is one of the best ways to spend your time relaxing on the bed after a long and tiring day. Even if you are very tired, social media can make you cheer up, because they affect us in many aspects, that we are interested in. Nobody understands how time passes through their adventure in social media. Secondly, you can chat with friends and relatives. A friend is always the best solution, as we are feeling great talking to them, even if we are sad and even when we are excited. Never underestimate the power of friendship. The relatives are, also, a good answer to discuss our problems or our achievements with them.

Σφυρίδου Δήμητρα  Ds Lampraki