The media, such as the internet and television, have deeply penetrated contemporary society. Its impact grew rapidly along with the development of the technologies. As a result, every sphere of an individuals’ and society’s daily life is under the heavy influence of the media, and the overall view of the society has shifted.
The society and interactions today are very different from those of just a few decades ago. Due to the media, the information travels freely throughout various communities, and the connectedness between the individuals all around the world is speedy and regular.
The advantages of total connectedness are multiple, yet it also brings a variety of threats to modern individuals. The contemporary media impacts the modern society making it more open and the information – more accessible, this raises awareness of various social issues and helps address them but significantly reduces the privacy and security of the individuals.
The first and most obvious impact of the media on our society is the provision of stable and ever-present connection that has become an inseparable part of modern life and in many cases, has developed into a full-scale addiction. Social networks have made a revolution in modern communication allowing individuals all around the world to connect with their old friends, make new acquaintances.
Every day, an extremely large number of people engage in communication via various social networks. For example, as shown by the survey of August 2015, Facebook alone has about one and a half billion active users, networks such as Twitter, Goggle+, and Instagram are used by about 300 million people (“Leading social networks worldwide as of August 2015, ranked by number of active users (in millions)” par. 2).
The majority of the active users of social networks enjoy the positive effects they bring, such as the opportunities to share and learn information, participate in professional, educational, and entertaining activities, and connect with the world.
At the same time, most of these users are affected by the negative sides of the addiction to social networks, such as a tremendous loss of productivity due to regular distractions facilitated by online social media. For instance, multiple companies today decide to block social networks in their workplace internet because the heavy use of social media moves the focus of the employees from work to communication and entertainment (Ta par. 8).
Jung notes that research shows that Facebook reduces the companies’ productivity by 1.5% on average, which results in the loss of billions of dollars annually (par. 4). In other words, with the development of social media procrastination in the society was taken to a new level and “we can’t enjoy the world around us for an hour without retreating back into that safe little digital box” (“Social Media and Society: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” par. 12)
Another important impact facilitated by social media was produced in the way politics is done in modern society. The evidence of the penetration of social media into politics is everywhere. Many modern political movements, campaigns, and activists have to rely on social media as they are the way to engage huge numbers of participators.
Due to the ubiquitous internet connection, dictatorship in politics has become close to impossible. For example, the revolution in Iran that occurred in 2009 involved a massive online protest that united hundreds of thousands of users and was hard to fight because the activists disguised their locations (Mason par. 11).
The impact of social media has provided a political voice and an opportunity to express dissatisfaction to everyone. That way, the authorities in contemporary society have a very unstable ground (and this refers not only to those of politics). Anyone can win popularity within days, and also be brought down within hours.
Finally, one of the most powerful impacts of the media on how we see society is the accessibility of information. In the modern world, secrets tend to leak and then go viral. Regardless of who they belong to, the compromising details reveal themselves sooner or later and due to the speedy connection, become accessible everywhere in the world. In that way, the privacy in modern society has been replaced by publicity.
Today, even the most personal subjects such as divorce and breakups of couples, diseases, and tragic accidents are discussed and argued about online. The right to privacy of the celebrities has been debated for a while now. It seems that in the American society such right does not exist and anything can become public at any moment, while in France, for example, the photographs of celebrities are cannot be published without their agreement (Jones par. 10).
As a result, the obsession with unearthed truth and revealed secrets leads to overall insecurity in the society and leads to the creation of a set of approved behaviors everyone feels pressured to follow in order to remain popular, respected, and socially acceptable. In that way, due to the media impact, modern society resembles that of a high school with bullying mocking those who do not adhere to the desired norms.
Conclusion
The overall accessibility of information and its never-ending flow facilitated by the media such as television and the internet brings a wide range of self-development and self-improvement opportunities. However, the overall accessibility and connectedness create a serious threat to security and privacy in society and generate pressures and threats for the individuals.
Works Cited
Jones, Stefanie Dion. The Price of Fame: Celebrities and the Right to Privacy. Web.
Jung, Brian. The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals. 2015. Web.
Leading social networks worldwide as of August 2015, ranked by number of active users (in millions). 2015. Web.
Mason, Lisa. Impact of Social Media on Society: 5 Times Social Changed the World. 2012. Web.
Social Media and Society: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 2013. Web.
Ta, Jenny Q. What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society. 2014. Web.