The development of the internet has been perhaps the best thing which has ever happened to human beings, as far as computer-based communication is concerned. Ever since its introduction in the world way back in 1965, the internet has continued to play a significant role in our lives.
The advanced use of the internet or the World Wide Web in the contemporary world has had a revolutionary impact to the people all over the world, thus helping to improve their lives in a special way. The human life in vast areas of accountability has been made easier through the possibilities of world wide communications currently offered by the internet.
As it would be observed, culture and commerce are some of the key aspects involving humans today that have been impacted largely by this modern trend of communication which continues to touch every part of our lives. On this particular note, the internet has played a major role in enhancing communication and interaction among people of different cultural backgrounds, through interactive elements like search engines and social networking sites found on the internet.
More importantly, the evolution of the internet has continued to play a key role in today’s business arena in a number of ways. In regard with this subject, this paper examines how the use of blogs and social networking has altered our daily usage of the World Wide Web and the internet.
The constant use of blogs and social networking as some of the main tools of communication offered by the internet has altered the way people use the World Wide Web. Just a couple of years ago, the internet would be seen as a platform for kids and idle adults to kill time in ways that could not be more useful.
This would include things such as sharing of pictures and rants, email communication, and computer gaming, among other engaging activities. However, today, things have completely changed, and internet has emerged as one of the many things courtesy of the computer technology which have proved to be very useful to the human life. As a matter of fact, millions of people across the world have discovered just how the internet could be used for other beneficial ways, apart from simple communication and gaming (Goh & Quek 2010).
Today, people can interact freely with each other and even conduct business over the internet through blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and My Space, among others. As it would be observed, most of these activities are based on social and economic grounds, and it is for such reasons why people would remain attached to the internet nowadays than ever before.
Blogs are interactive platforms through which people can communicate with each other and be able to share and discuss important things in life. Different people would tend to blog for varied reasons that would range from personal to commercial purposes. In this regard, blogging offers both personal and corporate benefits to its many users across the world.
As it would be observed, there are diverse reasons as to why many people in the current world would prefer using blogging as a way of interaction and communication over the internet (Miura & Yamashita 2007). First of all, blogging is an effective and first way of establishing relationships, and for that reason, it serves as a convenient way through which marketers and other business people could create links with potential customers.
Another common purpose for using blogs is to build reputation and credibility online about one’s business. In this regard, businesses are able to provide information regarding their products and services to potential customers through an interactive basis where they can receive feedback and comments from the targeted audience. This, however, plays a significant role when it comes to understanding consumer interests better, thus giving marketers a better stand against their competitors in the market.
Blogging also offers growing businesses an opportunity to create or establish community online. In this case, businesses can share their expertise, knowledge, and information on their products and/or services with a larger audience. More importantly, businesses can blog their new product updates, holidays, and other specials regarding their businesses, thus creating and maintaining good relationships with customers and clients.
Apart from the benefits highlighted above, blogging also offers vast communication benefits to both the bloggers and the targeted people. Through this form of online communication, people can always be assured of effective communication all the time. Moreover, people would be sure to save much of their time when they use blogs to convey their message to the audience, than when they use other mediums of communication. More importantly, blogs are also known to offer a better solution for notification than email or websites.
One common advantage of using blogs over other forms of online communication is that they are an inexpensive method of passing information to persons. Unlike the website, which involves many things which the users have to be familiar with before they can use them, operating a blog would only require one to have basic computer skills. Blog software is easy to operate, since they involve pushing of a few buttons on the computer keyboard, before the task is completed.
This usually involves typing one’s thoughts or ideas, linking to relevant resources, and then publishing to blog for people to read. The idea of blogging is said to serve a wide array of purposes beyond what people are likely to realise via the use of social media. As a matter fact, it is for these specific reasons why many people in the current world have decided to opt for blogs as the effective ways of conveying information.
Social media has also played a very important role in changing the way humans use the World Wide Web or the internet. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and My Space, just to mention but a few, have emerged as very powerful platforms that have helped to transform the way we communicate and do business in the current world.
These interactive sites have continued to play a key role in promoting and enhancing human interaction across the globe. As a matter of fact, social network sites have proved to be useful in enabling people interact online easily. Unlike the traditional ways of communication and the other forms of internet communication that entails the use of forums, email, and message boards, the use of social networking sites closely resembles face-to-face conversations, and this makes communication more effective.
Popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and My Space are altering the human fabric of the World Wide Web. As it would be observed, none of the above social networks appeared to be exciting for the last five years, where they were seen as just virtual sites fit for kids and idlers than anything else.
This perception, however, has changed completely in the current world where a greater percentage of the global population is said to be very active on these sites. According to current statistics on internet, Facebook alone has amassed over 600 million members and users across the world.
On the same note, over 200 million are said to be actively involved in matters involving twitter. The same high participation is also observable in other social networks. This massive usage is a clear indication that the social sites are taking humans somewhere exciting.
One common aspect of the social networks is that they do enable people to stay connected all the time, regardless of the geographical barriers separating them in life, among other common obstacles of normal interaction and communication. In this regard, there are many ways through which social networks have changed our lives, thus altering the daily usage of the internet in the world.
One significant way by which social networks have widely been used is for normal socialisation. Social networking sites have become useful platforms of modern interactions through which people having similar interests and goals can connect. In this respect, employers can easily get in touch with their employees in matters of work, thus enhancing performance and productivity in the workplace. Moreover, people can easily communicate with their friends and family members.
According to Colgate and Buchanan (2005, p. 429), what makes the use of these interactive sites more interesting is the fact that, apart from them being virtual spaces upon which information can be managed in an efficient manner, the sites also enable their users to listen to music, share photos and watch videos, among other stuff. More importantly, just like such engines such as Google and Yahoo, social networking sites can also be educational and informational, and this keeps users updated on many things in life.
Social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are also viewed as the most reliable communication platforms in the current world through which celebrities, and managers of non-profit organisations can reach out to their targets of interest. These social sites have also become the touchstone for politicians and other high-profile people who are willing to publicise and promote their causes. In this regard, the targeted people can also use the interactive platforms to share their ideas and voice their opinions.
Moreover, they can also communicate with these people on a one-on-one basis. Social networking sites have become common among the younger generations in the world. For this reason, progressive politicians and other famous icons have seen them as the most efficient ways of reaching to the tech sawy youth of the current world, thus going for them without hesitation.
Social networking sites have also proved to be useful tools in the modern business world. Things in this world are changing fast with times, and such is the business world which has taken every initiative possible to stay ahead in matters regarding technology.
In the current times, progressive marketers and businesses allover the world have embraced the power of technology to reach their customers and try to engage them in useful communication that will help in improving their business relationships with them. In this case, marketers and businesses have turned to social sites as important platforms upon which they can advertise their products and services.
Burn and Loch (2007, p. 39) claim that by “simply placing banners and advertisement texts about their products and services, companies and other businesses can be assured of reaching more customers in diverse regions, thus increasing their sales in the long run”. More importantly, social sites are cost inefficiency, thus enabling entrepreneurs and investors to draw insight on their businesses without having to incur much expense in terms of advertisement and publicity.
The fact that sites such as Facebook offer much exposure to commercial advertisements, possibly owing to its great popularity across the world, has attracted many investors and entrepreneurs into the habit of using the social sites to promote their businesses.
Both established and emerging businesses in the modern world have adopted the idea of social presence as a convenient way of testing their services on consumers. In this respect, customers are able to air their views and give suggestions on products and services, among other aspects, thus helping businesses to understand their interests well. This plays a crucial role in facilitating future improvements to serve the customers better.
Thanks to current advancements in the communication sector, an access to the internet has been extended to reach beyond computers to mobile phones. In this regard, internet users across the world are able to reach the internet and access social networking sites simply by pushing a button on their phones. This offers great opportunities to businesses, which are ever eager to reach an expansive market for their products and services.
It is worth noting that social networking sites have also played a crucial role to modern journalism. Today, it is easy for the people in the media sector to reach large masses of people in the world, through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In this case, news and other important information would have reached the audience long before they are aired through traditional media.
More importantly, some news websites offer people the opportunity to share their version of a news event before it goes on air, thus adding value to the report. The ability to sift through news and speculated events offered by the social sites gives everyone who can access the internet a better understanding of the information, compared with anyone who relies just on traditional media to get to know about news (Sohail 2012).
The other notable place where the effective use of social media has applied is in the business and recruitment sectors. As a matter of fact, there are businesses that operate solely on social networking sites such as My Space, Linked In, and Facebook. This, however, enables them to interact well with their clients and other people that may be of interest to them.
In this regard, the businesses would sometimes see these interactive sites as convenient zones to seek potential employees, thus placing employment advertisements on them for willing applicants to apply. Linked In, which specialises on career and professional matters, is known to have undoubtedly played a key role in advancing careers by helping Human Resource professionals in the world discover potential employees with the desired qualities.
In just another perspective, some potential employers have adopted a new way of getting to know their potential employees better through the social networking sites (Kumar, Novak & Tomkins 2010). This has the meaning that it is possible for the employers to sift through the applicants’ information using sites such as Facebook, and make informed conclusions about them, before they get to hire them in their companies.
On this note, it should always be understood by everyone that social networks can sometimes play a significant role in our professional lives, and therefore, it would always be a good idea for people to be careful with the kind of information they post on the internet for others to see. While good images and information give the best reflection of someone, compromising information, images or any other details can severely hurt one’s chances to pursue employment.
The use of blogs and social networking sites, as observed in this paper, has completely changed the usage of the World Wide Web in the world. Blogs and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and My Space, among others have completely reduced communication barriers in all aspects of human life.
As observed in this paper, many people across the world have become great fans of the internet, owing to the many social and economic benefits associated with the trend. This, however, explains the current changes on the daily use of the internet in the current world.
List of References
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Colgate, M & Buchanan, O 2005, ‘Relationship benefits in an internet environment’, Managing Service Quality, vol. 15. no. 5, pp. 426-436, via Global Internet database.
Goh, J & Quek, C 2010, ‘An investigation of students’ perceptions of learning benefits of weblogs in an East Asian context: A Rasch analysis’, Educational Technology & Society, vol. 13. no. 2, pp. 90-101.
Kumar, R, Novak, J, & Tomkins, A 2010, Structure and evolution of online social networks, Springer, New York.
Miura, A & Yamashita, K 2007, ‘Psychological and social influences on blog writing: An online survey of blog authors in Japan’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 12. no. 4, pp. 1452-1471.
Sohail, Q 2012, How social networks have changed our world. Web.