Discuss the Role of Social Media’s Influence Essay Sample

The main significant changes that appeared in the recent time are related to the technological progress and creation of the new ways of communication. The emergence of the Internet brought people new possibilities in communication such as blogging, or chatting. It is certainly the case that social media caused an extremely vital impact not only on routine life, business or entertainment, but also on social movements and politics. Today, people can make revolutions by creating significant topics in their blogs and encouraging people for several actions. The modern society can be called a network society and the role of social media in the activism and revolution is huge and makes many positive changes in society.

The issue is that today, social media became an extremely vital part of people’s life. Social media became a parallel world where people can communicate and share the information with each other. The influence of social media touched several aspects of people’s life. They help in communication with the entire world in the easiest way, and can be informed of every piece of information. In addition, social media helps in promoting business and ideas. The fact is that in most cases, social media has a positive impact on society as the information is provided by the people, not by the authorities. There are many discussions concerning the negative or positive impact of social media on social activism. While some people think that it brings the opportunity to share the true information, others claim that social media creates the visibility of actions, but in reality do not make any significant results.

Social activism today is fully depended on social media. During the Arab movements, people could view the real events and their influence on people through social media. The mass media can be governed by the authorities, and provide fake information, while in social media people lighten the real facts. Consequently, authorities understood the danger of social media so they started to control it. When during the Arab movements people started to use the social media in order to show the reality and make revolutions, their authorities started a real battle with the bloggers. Doreen Khoury claims that “the political significance of blogging and social media as a whole is evidenced by the fact that in recent years, Arab regimes have cracked down on bloggers with increasing rigor and ferocity”(2).

In the modern world, there are many people who use the social media, it is possible to gather people for different goals and social media became one of the most significant instruments in social activism. However, there are many opinions that for real changes it is necessary to be not in the virtual world. Mark Kersten suggests that “Social media topples Arab tyrants. Social media leads to democratic elections. It can bring rebel leaders in the heart of Africa to justice. At the core of this apparently irresistible narrative is the belief that social and political campaigns are a success when they achieve massive online traffic and “go viral”. The problem here is simple. None of the above is true”(n.p.). Many people think that social media reinvented activism, and people usually just push the button ‘Like’ instead of making real acts.

In conclusion, the modern era can be called the era of network society. Social media caused an extremely vital influence on every aspect of people’s life. In addition, social media influences social movements and revolutions while gathering people for significant roles and sharing the information. Despite the issue that there are some people who do not believe in ‘Virtual revolutions’, social media causes positive impacts on activism and revolutions as it helps people to be aware of the real facts and communicate with each other without control of authorities.

Works Cited

Kersten, Mark . “Has Social Media Successfully Reinvented Social Activism?.” Justice in Conflict. (2012): n. page. Web. 4 Sep. 2013. <https://justiceinconflict.org/2012/06/02/has-social-media-reinvented-social-activism-a-debate/>.

Khoury , Doreen. “Social Media and the Revolutions.” n. page. Web. 4 Sep. 2013. <https://www.boell.de/downloads/perspectives_02-12_doreen_khoury.pdf>.