Social Networking is an Asset to Society?

Social networking is an essential tool in improving and developing social skills for today's teenagers. Because of the need for social skills, anything that can develop these skills is an asset. Social networking is an asset to society.

Although some believe that using social networking causes people to become less social, - labeled by some as Facebook Recluse Syndrome (Davis) - the truth is that using social networking helps build and maintain friendships (Davis).

The first proof that social networking is an asset to society is that social networking builds social skills. Changing from watching television all day to using social networking all day is not a negative thing at all. Social networking has begun to replace a bad thing with something that builds social skills (Jayson). Karen Goldberg Goff writes about the Digital Youth Project, which was conducted by the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley. She quotes Misuko Ito, who was the lead author of the study, But we found out that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age. (Goff)

The second proof that social networking is an asset to society is that social networking helps the economy. Jeff Desjardins, Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Visual Capitalist Wrote an article for forbes that lays out a few reasons why social networking helps the economy (Desjardins).

Before social media, you had to pay to get out information about your business. Now, every person and company is its own media brand - and there are significantly less barriers to reaching people. Before social media, you had to pay to get out information about your business. Now, every person and company is its own media brand - and there are significantly less barriers to reaching people. This has allowed smaller brands to gain a foothold in the market much easier. When we see trends like craft beer, food trucks, and local fashion, that is often the result of harnessing social media platforms to build a following in a cost effective way. Prior to smartphones and social adoption, it was much more difficult (and expensive) to reach people, especially if your location wasn't on a main street. One or two small businesses isn't enough to worry a big brand, but millions of them around the country can make a serious dent in their market share (Desjardins).

Another example of social networking helping the economy is the use of social networking for big businesses. Here are some stats collected by Ayaz Nanji for MarketingProfs. He is a co-founder of ICW Content, which is a marketing agency specializing in content creation for brands and businesses (Nanji).

The report was based on analysis of the social media accounts and blogs of companies on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. The researchers looked at channel usage at the corporate level, not the brand level (e.g., whether Apple, not iTunes, has an account). LinkedIn is the most popular social network with Fortune 500 companies: 498 firms on the list (98%) have accounts on the platform. Twitter is the second most popular platform (88% of firms have accounts), and Facebook is the third most popular (85%). Three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies now have YouTube accounts, up nine percentage points from last year; 10% have Snapchat accounts. Pinterest and Google+ both had declines in usage by Fortune 500 brands in the past year. Some 53% of Fortune 500 companies now have Instagram accounts, up from just 9% in 2013 (Nanji).

As you can tell, these companies have started using social networking more frequently which resulted in lower spending on public announcements and advertising, which is great news for individual social networking sites grow and increase revenue.

The third proof social networking is an asset to society is it helps spread news. Social networking use as new isnt a new occurrence. ProCon.org is a website that only presents the facts and always has reputable references. Here is what they show:

[ProCon.org shows that] 78.5% of traditional media reporters polled used social media to check for breaking news. 59% of Twitter users and 31% of Facebook users polled followed breaking news on these sites. Social media sites are one of the top news sources for 46% of Americans, compared to 66% for television, 26% for printed newspapers, and 23% for radio. Social media users have been responsible for reporting events before traditional media outlets, including the Paris attacks in France on Nov. 13, 2015 (Twitter, Facebook, and Vine), the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in July 2014 (Twitter), the Boston marathon bombing on Apr. 15, 2013 (Twitter), and the Aurora, CO, theater shooting on July 20, 2012 (Twitter and YouTube). President Donald Trump said that the immediacy that Twitter affords him is the reason why he tweets, noting that press conferences and press releases take too long to reach the public. (ProCon)

The Pew Research Center also has information on use of social networking for news (Anderson and Caumont).

When you take into account both the total reach of a site (the share of Americans who use it) and the proportion of users who get news on the site, Facebook is the obvious news powerhouse among the social media sites. Roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there ??” amounting to 30% of the general population. YouTube is the next biggest social news pathway ??” about half of Americans use the site, and a fifth of them get news there, which translates to 10% of the adult population and puts the site on par with Twitter. Twitter reaches 16% of Americans and half of those users say they get news there, or 8% of Americans. And although only 3% of the U.S. population use reddit, for those that do, getting news there is a major draw–62% have gotten news from the site (Anderson and Caumont).

As you can tell from what the article communicated, social networking has a major influence on news in this country.

The fourth proof social networking is an asset to society is it aids in communication. Social networking not only augments with in person relationships to grow them, it also works to maintain relationships over long distances. ProCon.org gives good evidence for this claim.

93% of adults on Facebook use it to connect with family members, 91% use it to connect with current friends, and 87% use it to connect with friends from the past. 72% of all teens connect with friends via social media. 83% of these teens report that social media helps them feel more connected to information about their friends' lives, 70% report feeling more connected to their friends' feelings, and 57% make new friends. (ProCon)

Another example of social networking being used for communication is the revolution that happened in Egypt in 2011 (Shah). Wael Ghonim started a Facebook group called ""We Are All Khaled Said,"" (Shah). Here is an excerpt from Time magazine.

Only a few of Ghonim's friends knew that he was the creator of the Facebook page ""We Are All Khaled Said,"" on which he called for the Jan. 25 protest that launched the uprising in Tahrir Square. (Said was a 28-year-old techie and businessman who is believed to have been brutally killed by police in Alexandria in 2010.) Ghonim spent ""nights and days"" on the page, says his friend and fellow geek-entrepreneur Habib Haddad. ""I had been in close touch with him as he was doing it and as he was seeing it taking off,"" he says. ""He was quite emotional about it."" (Shah)

Here is another quote about this same event.

The next day, many people in Tahrir Square said they had been motivated by the footage to show up to the protest. The epicenter of the uprising had suffered a slackening of dissent, as the focus of the political events shifted to meetings behind closed doors. Ghonim appeared in Tahrir that day as well, and was met with a thunderous greeting. Among the thousands of people who had never been to a protest before was Fatma Gaber, 16, who had finally persuaded her parents to let her go. ""When I saw Wael Ghonim [on television],"" she says, ""I really got affected by his words and understood that a lot of people suffered in this revolution. I really wanted to be part of it and support it. I wanted to join for Egypt, because I didn't want the people who had died, and the ones who had protested every day, to pay the price alone for what all Egyptians would benefit from."" (Shah)

The whole reason this revolution happened was because people were able to communicate using social networking. Social networking was used to create a beneficial change and is evident of the power it has.

Social Networking is an asset to society. Among the many reasons are: it builds social skills, it helps the economy, it helps spread news, and it helps communication. Not only are there many reasons that social networking is an asset to society, the negative parts of social media are invalid and unimportant. In conclusion social networking is a valuable tool that will be used for years to come and has helped many people.

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