Question

1) Does social media truly represent who we are or is all just one big marketing experiment? Do the positives outweigh the negatives or vice versa?

Answer 1

Social media refers to websites and applications designed to enable people to exchange content in a fast, effective and real-time manner. Many people on their smartphones or tablets describe social media as apps, but the reality is, this networking tool began with computers. The misunderstanding stems from the fact that most social media users are using apps to access their devices.

There was no competition for the dollar even in the early days of social media. You can spend thousands of dollars, for example, on a Facebook ad campaign and still get no return on your investment. Because of its very existence, social media is a media cycle of limited attention, it is much easier to get somebody's attention with a Tweet than to get somebody's attention with a newspaper ad. That's because ad headlines and copy are harder to write on Twitter or Instagram.

Perhaps one of the most prevalent trends of the "big data" period is the desire of data scientists to capture and extract value from any shiny new dataset or resource without taking the time required to consider the underlying assumptions or complexities that could affect the questions being asked about it. Increasingly sophisticated algorithms are bundled in turn-key user-friendly environments that make it simple for non-technical users or even professional users who are unfamiliar with these specific techniques to implement them without knowing the algorithm's constraints or limitations or imposing the limitations of the data sets and parameters used.

Social media's relative benefits and drawbacks are a regular topic of discussion. Some of the benefits of social media include the ability of users to keep in touch with friends and family with ease, communicate with like-minded people and develop business connections. Social media was also used to raise awareness and coordinate protests about social and political problems. The frequently cited drawbacks of social media include questions about privacy and a decline in real-world social interactions.

Surely one of the most significant advantages of social media is the speed and ease at which it helps people to interact. For example, social media played a vital role in communication during the protests that took place in Turkey in 2013. Most of the demonstrators were young men and women, students and they used social media to coordinate the protests. The plans of when and how the protests will take place quickly spread via social media pages, staging some of the biggest protests Turkish people have witnessed in the history of the country.

It is a perfect example of how social media can be used to alter, and to organize the public. Different cases happened during the Arab Spring, as well as events around the world. Social media has given people a new and powerful tool to come together for the issues they believe in, particularly the young generation that is very tech savvvy.