SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY

BY: HAROUT BOYAJIAN

 HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Very Early Stages:

¡ In 1844, Samuel Morse sent a telegraph from
Washington D.C. to Baltimore. This was seen as the
first steps towards some resemblance of social media.

¡ In 1969, the military was able to transmit two letters

with a goal of connecting universities on a proto-
internet.

Interesting Fact: The military was only able to

transmit the letters “LO” instead of the full word
“LOGIN”.
 History of Social Media
Real Beginnings of Social Media:
¡ From 1997 to 2001, a social site called Six Degrees had up to 1 million members on their site who
were able to “friend” each other.
¡ In 2002, the first social media site emerged called “Friendster”. Fun Fact: They rejected $30 million
dollars from Google.
¡ In 2003, LinkedIn was launched and gave users a place to post their resume and private message to
other business-minded people.

¡ In 2004, Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg and now has over 2.2 billion users.

¡ In 2005, YouTube was launched, people were able to upload and share videos online.

¡ In 2010, Instagram was launched and gave users the ability to post and share pictures.
¡ In 2011, Snapchat was launched.
 Major Participants in Social Media
The Lower and Middle Class:
¡ Social media is used by almost every individual in the middle class and most in the lower class.
¡ Some lower class individuals might not have access to the internet, which would prevent their
participation in social media.
¡ The role of the lower and middle class is to simply participate in the social aspect of social media
and be the consumers. The lower and middle class are often attracted to the lifestyles portrayed by
the upper class through social media.
The Upper Class:
¡ The upper class began using social media in recent years with the rise of celebrity culture, political
influence and business marketing.
¡ This rise is due to the nature of individuals in society to be followers of a major political idea and
support those that are leaders of these ideas. Individuals in society are also very attracted to the
unrealistic celebrity lifestyles and have a sense of envy towards their online glamour and luxury.
 CHANGES IN SOCIAL MEDIA OVER TIME

More Focused on Business and Marketing:

¡ When social media first began gaining popularity, it
primarily focused on users who wanted to make friends
online.
¡ Slowly but surely the value of social media marketing began
to appeal to more than just private individuals. Social media
is based more on marketing and corporations than ever
before. The consuming mindset of individuals in society has
caused social media to evolve into a grand marketing tool.
¡ Social media has changed by giving businesses the ability to
reach their audience directly in a more relatable and
personalized way. This makes the consumers feel more
attached and connected to the products being advertised;
making them feel more special and eager to purchase the
product to improve their self-image.
 What Caused Changes in Social Media
The Need for Fast News:
¡ Social media evolved in order to facilitate the spread of news all over the world.

For Example: Twitter, initially, was a tool that allowed those in social circles to essentially "shout out" to
one another, but it has increasingly become a broadcast platform to reach the masses. Society’s need for
connections and communication has aided in the evolution of social media.

The Evolution of Marketing:

¡ The evolution of marketing has caused a huge shift in the goals of social media platforms. As
businesses realized the potential of mass reach social media platforms could potentially
provide, these platforms became more business oriented.
 Stable Features of Social Media

The Voice of the Average User:

¡ Although social media has evolved over time and has become more business oriented, one
thing that has remained stable is the voices of the users. From the time social media platforms
were launched, users have been able to express their opinion freely. This has allowed
individuals to potentially express their self to millions of people all over the world.
The Platforms:
¡ Another aspect of social media that has remained unchanged are the platforms. Facebook
launched in 2004 and is still very popular today, similarly to Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
These platforms are even more popular today then they ever were. This is mainly due to their
success in making the user’s image of his/her self dependent on these platforms.
 SOCIETY’S PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Based on Current Events:
¡ About two-thirds of Americans (64%) say social media have a mostly
negative effect on the way things are going in the country today, Just
one-in-ten Americans say social media sites have a mostly positive
effect on the way things are going.
¡ Those who have a negative view of the impact of social media
mention misinformation and the hate and harassment they see on
social media. This is most likely due to the negative political climate
that is very prevalent in society today.
¡ Many believe that social media platforms have been used negatively
by spreading “made-up” news and engendering online harassment.
Perception of Social Media By Corporations:
¡ 52 percent of social media marketers believe social media positively
influences and increases their company’s revenue and sales, customer
engagement, marketing and client communications.
¡ Social media provides immense potential for businesses because
consumers habitually log on to it daily and are exposed to companies.
¡ It has also presented huge challenges to businesses because it’s an
ever-changing space that is extremely noisy and crowded.
 THE PLATFORM FOUNDERS’ PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA

¡ Sean Parker, one of the co-founders of Facebook, says he thinks social media is
damaging the health of humans’ brains. He said that “It literally changes your
relationship with society, with each other . . . It probably interferes with
productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's
brains" .
¡ Coincidentally, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently put a more positive spin
on the role that technology broadly is having on our day-to-day lives: "A lot of
people focus on whether technology creates or destroys jobs. I've seen both this
year — improving tech has created more jobs in some industries and in others it has
eliminated jobs,”
¡ Researchers working for Facebook state that “passively consuming information”
poses a mental health risk and can damage emotional wellbeing.
¡ CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that “protecting the community is more important
than maximizing our profits” yet Facebook has added features to become more
addictive and easier to consume, such as instantaneous purchases.
¡ It is obvious that the founders of social media platforms are more passive about the
topic of mental health regarding the obsessive use of their platforms, and this is
mainly due to egocentric monetary reasons.
 Social Media Works better for Some Individuals
(as opposed to others)

Social Media Benefits Corporations More Than Average Users:

¡ Social Media has given most corporations a more personal connection with their consumers and
this has allowed them to be more popular and profitable.
¡ Social Media has allowed corporations to advertise their products directly to a larger number of
consumers. Corporations have taken advantage of the average user and has adopted many
methods of almost manipulating the consumers to buy their products. They often make the
consumer feel as though they need the product and advertise it as though the product betters
one’s self-image.
 SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS BETTER FOR SOME INDIVIDUALS
(AS OPPOSED TO OTHERS)
Social Media has Contributed to Ageism:
¡ Social media along with the recent global pandemic has created a
toxic online environment for the elderly.
¡ Public discourse and negative sentiment - involving jokes or memes
- were found on nearly one out of five Twitter posts related to older
adults and COVID-19, according to a recently published UM
analysis in the Journals of Gerontology Series B.
¡ About 16% of tweets had ageist content, with most of them that
hinting at elements of senicide - or killing of the elderly. The highest
ageist content of 53% occurred on March 11, which coincided with
when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a
pandemic.
¡ Social media has created a toxic environment for the elderly because
young users of social media feel empowered and protected to say
anything they want.
 SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS BETTER FOR SOME INDIVIDUALS
(AS OPPOSED TO OTHERS)
Social Media has Changed Self-perception of Some Members of
Society:
¡ Research on the impact of social media on women’s body image
varies that exposure to images of attractive celebrities and peers
harms their self-image.
¡ Comparing yourself to your friends, on social media can easily put
you in a bad mood, harboring negative thoughts about your body.
The alleged fix: restricting food and exercising excessively.
¡ This can lead to self harm through the use of diet pills and other
unhealthy forms of food restriction, which will also ultimately lead
to harming one’s self-image.
 How to Improve Social Media

¡ The best way to improve social media for all members of society is to integrate fundamental
reform policies on all possible platforms. The collective effort of all popular social media
outlets is the only effective way to proceed, because if one platform changes, users simply will
jump to another.
¡ These policies should include more stringent privacy changes. This would prevent the social
media algorithms from feeding addictive content to consumers and rather, allow the consumer
to decide where it starts and ends. Businesses will not be affected by this because users will
begin to consume more meaningfully and lean toward their interests rather than random and
irrelevant content suggestions. Ultimately both the business and consumer will stay on track in
a more positive and uplifting direction.
 Functionalist Theory Analysis of Social Media
¡ Social media contributes to the smooth and stable functioning of society. Social media,
from a functionalist perspective, is seen as an essential part of today’s society as it
facilitates connections with family, friends and other individuals. Social media also
allows individuals to connect with a larger number of people. With this, there is some
dysfunction and disruption that comes with normalized use of social media in society.
One example is when social media is used to meeting individuals romantically. One
cannot genuinely know if the person they are speaking to and perhaps growing feelings
for is presenting their true self. Fabrication of personalities is now very common with
social media and has disrupted societal ease and comfort when using these platforms,
which complicates the stability of a functioning society.
 Conflict Theory Analysis of Social Media
¡ The conflict perspective focuses mainly on inequality and competition. Conflict perspective
states that it is necessary to have economic conflict between the social classes that is caused by
the unequal issuance of resources within society. Sociologists believe social media is an
immense network of conflict. Social media platforms are a very easy and accessible method for
organizations such as large corporations, political groups, employers and more to spread
information; unfortunately, a lot of the information is false, misleading and sometimes hateful.
These organizations as a result stir up conflict with consumers and followers, while they sit
back and gain more popularity and profit. The social media user is competing against other
users over resources such as social media followers and influence over a large group of people.
This causes conflict between different social classes, while also profiting those who control the
media platforms.
 Symbolic Interactionism Theory Analysis of Social Media
¡ The symbolic interactionist theory focuses on the individual. It sees society as individuals who
are active in building the social world around them. The main idea of this paradigm is that
individuals within society make sense of the social world through language and symbols.
Through communication, they connect with one another and help shape the social world. Social
media is seen as a great means of communication and connection within the interactionist
theory. Through social media, all individuals are able to reach many people and adapt to the
new meanings and symbols that are created overtime. Symbolic interactionists focus on how
social media platforms expose those who have a need to be noticed, giving them a chance to
receive feedback from others. To these individuals, symbols present themselves in words, such
as “like”, “block” or “unfollow.” There also is an expectation to use the most up-to-date “slang”
terms, such as “smh” or “wtf”. These terms symbolize an individual that is young and trendy.
 Works Cited
¡ CLARK, NANCY. “Social Media and Body Image: #Fitspiration at Its Worst.” American Fitness, vol. 35, no. 2,
Spring 2017, pp. 66–68. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=122675133&site=ehost-live.
¡ “Ageism Escalates on Social Media: ‘Harmful’ Tweets about Seniors Rise after Posts Regarding COVID-19 Risk
Factors.” Journal of Business (10756124), vol. 35, no. 20, Sept. 2020, p. A23. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=146327532&site=ehost-live
¡ Ahmad, Irfan. “The History of Social Media [Infographic].” Social Media Today, 27 Apr. 2018,
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¡ Hou, Zontee, et al. “How Social Media Has Evolved Over the Past 12 Years: Social Media Strategy.” Content
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¡ Matelski, Kristien. “How Social Media Has Changed in Ten Years.” Vizion Interactive, 4 June 2020,
www.vizion.com/blog/how-social-media-has-changed-in-ten-years/.
 Works Cited
¡ Suciu, Peter. “Do Social Media Companies Have The Right To Silence The Masses – And Is This Censoring The
Government?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Jan. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2021/01/11/do-social-media-
companies-have-the-right-to-silence-the-masses--and-is-this-censoring-the-government/?sh=f8051b548e2d.
¡ Auxier, Brooke. “64% Of Americans Say Social Media Have a Mostly Negative Effect on the Way Things Are Going
in the U.S. Today.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 15 Oct. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2020/10/15/64-of-americans-say-social-media-have-a-mostly-negative-effect-on-the-way-things-are-going-in-the-
u-s-today/.
¡ Author, Guest, et al. “Why Social Media Is Important for Business Marketing.” Marketing Insider Group, 18 Sept.
2020, marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/why-social-media-is-important-for-business-marketing/.
¡ Rozsa, Matthew. “Facebook's Co-Founder Blasts Social Media: ‘It Literally Changes Your Relationship with Society.’”
Salon, Salon.com, 9 Nov. 2017, www.salon.com/2017/11/09/facebooks-co-founder-blasts-social-media-it-literally-
changes-your-relationship-with-society/.
¡ “Facebook Admits It Poses Mental Health Risk – but Says Using Site More Can Help.” The Guardian, Guardian News
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media.