International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-10, Oct.

-2017
http://iraj.in
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SOCIETY
BADREYA AL-JENAIBI

Mass Communication Department, University of United Arab Emirates

E -mail: [email protected]

Abstract - This research done on the impact of the social media on our society. Social media has some benefits as well as
unavoidable negative impacts on the society present. The technology is getting advance and likewise the social media is
gaining maximum attraction of individuals. The trends of the world is changing day by day so that the impacts are also
changing as per needs and demands of the world. Social media has made the changes in the process of interaction between
the public and government officials. In today’s rapid changing world it is very important for a business to be up to date all
the time. Similarly, social media has evolved during its evolution. Due to this evolution, the way of communication has
entirely changed. Likewise, there are few negative impacts also present in which individual can get threats and their privacy
caught.

Keywords - Social Media, Society, New Technology , Social Media on Politics.

I. INTRODUCTION researches, it is none other than Facebook, which has

made people it has addicted.
Now days, as we all know that the social media has
become an addiction to the world. It has been Objective of this research:
researched that use of Facebook comes on the second The objective of this research on the impact of on
number after the use of smoke. Social media does not society includes following things mainly: we must
only seem to have effect on our society but it actually have the knowledge of the effects of the usage of
has changed our lives, even our way of thinking is social media on all of our generations. The role of
changed due to the social websites. Before social social media is very important when it comes to the
media usage, we used to think in a different issue of the culture in which young children start
perspective, had different opinions about certain leaving their parents when they are at some specific
things. Now we have completely different opinion for age. Through social media, those relationships are
those things. It has not only affected a single sector of always connected because parents and children are
the society but we can say that its impact is as a friends on these social networking sites. Another
whole and now it has become a need to live. Business important objective for the research is to spread
sectors not only take help from social media and take among the people to reduce their usage of social
benefit from it but sectors as if politics also takes help media as it has some negative impacts too which
from the social media. Social media definitely has damage health and can cause serious problems.
some benefits but we cannot ignore the fact that it has
caused unavoidable negative impacts on the society. Research Question
It has captured our minds in such a way that the Similarly, for this research to proceed. The following
difference between right and wrong forgotten. questions raised.
Therefore, it is better for ourselves to control the What is the impact of social media on politics?
technology, before technology starts controlling us. It How the social media can influence the business?
is in the hands of the user to use social media in such What is the impact of the social media on social life?
a way that he can take benefit from while knowing What is the negative impact of the social media
not to exploit any law or rule. We will discuss in within the society?
detail how social media has influenced in every sector
of our life including business sector, political sector, II. LITERATURE REVIEW
education sector, economic sector, social sector etc.
2.1. Impact of Social Media on Politics
Importance of the study of social media on society: India has recently undergone elections. They have
We should know the changing trends in the world of used social media for this reason and had experienced
social media to be up to date. Like for e.g. the year of tremendous results. The parties started their
2013 was very important for social media world, as campaigns on social media too hence making the
more and more social sites are coming into action and increase in the number of their followers and
social media is getting more users. If we talk about ultimately getting increased number of votes. The
YouTube only, every next month it is getting 100 party, which made their best campaign, won the
million new visitors; it is the case with Facebook and elections. Through social media, India had developed
Twitter. Consequently, for this reason, it is very a sense in everyone to vote. Because this happened
important to know about social media that which for the first time in the history of India that people
particular network is dominating. Through voted. Everyone tried to vote. Social media has
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International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-10, Oct.-2017
http://iraj.in
developed a sense of responsibility in every citizen. Due to this reason, politicians hire a team in which
In the same way, the citizens of India used the public they filter the negative comments from the public. So
forums to discuss which party is the best. They made that their good image can be maintained (Loader, et
their doubts clear. Hence chose the best party. This al., 2014).
made everyone satisfied. In the same way if we talk
about the elections experienced in Pakistan last year. Social media helps the politicians in making the
People actually came out of their homes and voted. future policies of the country. Because it is very
Similar to India people did not use to think vote as a difficult to know how the public will react after the
good thing in past time and that is why very small implementation of certain policies. Therefore, for this
number people used to vote but now as the world is reason, politicians at first float the ideas and the
growing, social media is growing, so is growing and issues using social media. Then the general public
developing the sense in every citizen about their start reacting to it. When they know the response of
responsibilities and their rights (Passy & Monsch, the public to those certain policies, they adjust those
2014). policies and implement according to the responses
from the public. Social media has helped the
Social media has made the changes in the process of politicians to get vote from the younger generations.
interaction between the public and government The votes from the younger generations had a
officials. The social media has made the politicians to profound impact on many of the elections. Due to the
be more accountable and now they are easily social media, the elections become powerful.
accessible to the public. Similarly, at the same time
they have allowed the campaigns to carefully design 2.2. Impact of Social media on Social life
and customize their candidates’ images based on rich Social media has evolved during its evolution (Al-
sets of analytics in real time and at almost zero cost. Jenaibi, 2011). Due to this evolution, the way of
Social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and communication has entirely changed. In olden times
YouTube has allowed the politicians to make direct it was thought to be impossible to send someone a
contact with the public, without spending any money. message and hoping that he or she will receive the
This has benefited to the politicians because when we message just a click of a button away. This is because
compare it to the old times, the politicians had spent in that period there were no mobile phones and
loads of money to convince the public to vote for internet so people used to send their messages on a
them but now they can directly speak to their voters piece of paper through courier services to different
and can get their opinions and suggestions through parts of the world Al-Jenaibi, 2014). Now it is just a
social media. It has become very common that the click away to send someone a message. In fact, we
political campaigns are producing commercials and can now have a direct contact with our friends and
publishing them on YouTube. Instead of paying, huge relatives through internet, which are thousands of
amounts of money to the television media and radio miles away from us. The first email delivered in the
media. The function of “share” on Facebook and the year 1971, according to the professor of Mass
function of “retweet” on Twitter allow the politicians Communication at the University of North Carolina
to know which people and how much people are at Pembroke. Then American Online appeared in the
favouring them. It tells the rulers about the likes and year 1985. British engineer, Tim Berners-Lee, did the
dislikes of the public. The politicians can float their invention of the World Wide Web. In the year 1997,
ad campaigns and messages to the public according to the social media and World Wide Web came into
their ages, their culture and their demographics. action that is why it was the most important year for
Some campaigns are called the money bombs. These these two big industries. Now the web had 1 million
money bomb campaigns are used to raise a large sites. People began the use of the social media and
amount of money in very short amount of time. These World Wide Web after this year. Friendster was the
type of campaigns have 24 hours to raise large first U.S. social networking website in the year 2002.
amount of funds. For this reason, politicians use The site started getting the registrations and in the
Facebook and Twitter and try to convince the public next three months of the start of this website, the site
to take part in raising the funds for the government. gained three million users till that point.
As there are benefits for the politicians in the usage of
social media, in the same way there are negative Through social media now we can connect to
points in the usage of social media. The direct access someone almost immediately, get right to the point,
to the general public can creates embarrassing and get the information we need almost
moments at times. As general, bluntly say whatever instantaneously. Social media has changed the ways
they want to say whether the comments are good or people write. The language, which people use to save
they are bad. This feature of social media has made their time, can be the words like LOL (laugh Out
the politicians to see their actual images in the minds Loud) or the word people use TTYL (Talk To You
of the public. This happens when the politicians are Later) etc. clearly show that the writing used by
asking for the feedback from the public, so they can people these days is entirely different as compared to
face different things. They can be or they can be bad. the previous times. People now feel, as their circle of

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International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-10, Oct.-2017
http://iraj.in
family and friends is as large as they never expected and their productivity decreased because of this
before. reason.
Social media can cause many cases of cyber bullying.
2.3. The negative impact of Social media As we have discussed above that the social media can
As we have discussed many of the tremendous cause loss of privacy, giving more opportunities to
advantages of Social media, at the same time it the hackers to use personal information of the people
consists of many negative impacts too. These and after that black mail them for money and for
negative impacts can be loss of privacy, false sense of other unethical activities.
connection, cyber bullying and decreased Social media has increased its impact on our health.
productivity (Al Jenaibi, 2015). When we browse the Several studies say that social media networking
sites of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, sites, especially Facebook in particular can have
Twitter etc.), we feel like we are connected to a larger detrimental effects on our wellbeing. Another
community, but these type of such casual connection research says that the more the people use Facebook
in an electronic environment can also have downside. the more they become dissatisfied from their life
The major disadvantage of social media is the loss of overall. Because if we take an overall view on the
privacy (Al-Jenaibi, 2008). When people use social usage of Facebook, we will find out that people have
networking sites, they encourage their selves to be started envying lives of the other people, ultimate
more public about their personal lives. Users are stress and depressions found. A survey say that two
posting every single detail of their life on these social third of the users of social media find it difficult to
networking sites. The details, which they will not tell sleep after its usage.
about their selves to someone, that specific detail
posted on social networking site and it is very easily III. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY IN
accessible. Another disadvantage of posting things of RELATION TO SOCIAL MEDIA
personal lives on social media, is that the posted
information is always available, may be for an It is the theory, which is used in the context of
indefinite period of time unless and until it is deleted psychology, communication and education that part
by the person who has uploaded it. In the same way, of a person’s knowledge acquisition is directly related
for suppose, if a person is working in a reputable to the observation of others within the context of
organization and he or she posts the pictures of his or social interactions, experiences and outside media
her personal life, those pictures may involve some of influences. This theory states that when people start
the things which are forbidden in the society. This observing others, their own behaviours change, and
can damage the image of the organization that this these changes are according to their observations of
particular person belongs to this reputable others. We can directly link social media to this social
organization and is involved in unethical activities. cognitive theory. As the usage of social media
Although there are some privacy options in some of involves people to observe other people and behave
the social networking websites to limit and control according to it. That is why they start thinking that
who can see your profile and cannot. Nevertheless, others are blessed with so many things and they have
these privacy features often neglected. That is why nothing. This causes stress and depression and
these social networking sites can cause severe ultimately to the dissatisfaction from one’s own life.
damages to the privacy of some of the users of these
websites. IV. DISCUSSION

Social media can create false connections among the Social media helps the entrepreneurs to connect
people. We should not trust every individual on social directly with their customers. The entrepreneurs need
networking to be our friend because there are many to engage with the social media to get the responses
people who are fraud and can exploit our values. of the customers. The opinions of the customers
Therefore, it is better to avoid such contacts and relevant to the products of the entrepreneurs really
connect to the people whom they know in personal. matter in most of the businesses. The presence of the
Because if we focus more on these fake people and social media builds a personality behind the brand.
maintain strong relations with them, our true relations This can create change in the impact of usage. For
with the people might get weak. this reason, the entrepreneurs must need to be very
The companies, use social media to market their effective and should directly participate in the online
product and to deal with the customers directly. There conversations with the customers to get the first-hand
is disadvantage of social media too in this regard. The knowledge to prepare the future strategies of the
people who have more interest in the social media product. The entrepreneurs should disseminate the
sites can distract their work and can reduce their information with their customers. Nevertheless, the
productivity. There are many cases in the world, entrepreneurs must reply to the responses of the
which have shown that the employees were busy in customers in the most courteous way. The content
using social networking sites during their duty time, shared with the customers should focus on being eco-
friendly (Hajli, 2014).

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Social entrepreneurs tend to focus on collaboration their brand from the customers. This will help in
while many companies are focused on competition. enabling the changes in the product according to the
Social media helps us in creating and maintaining demand, need and want of the customer. The stronger
deep relationships with the ones who are similar to us will be the relationships with the customers if the
and who are favouring for the similar causes like us. stronger is the frequency and degree of engagement
Social media also helps us to make networks and with the customers. Hence, the company gets a huge
connect to the like-minded businesses. To get the impact on its customer satisfaction, sales and product
maximum exposure from the audiences, reputation.
entrepreneurs make lists of the businesses, which are
similar to their businesses. Then they start following Social media can served as a tool for the retention of
on the Twitter and for Facebook, they start sharing the customers. For e.g. A study shows that 67 per
their links in their professional group. In this way, cent of the users of Twitter are the followers of their
there will be a great exchange of the audience and favourite brands. They use all the products of those
great interaction will take place. Following these brands. Therefore, this helps a company in building
procedures, it will help entrepreneurs to benefit them the loyalty of the customers. It even helps the
and their partner businesses too. Because, in this way company to retain their customers. This increase in
customers will be able to get more options to choose the growth of sales is the result of the direct contact
for the products they want and need. of buyer and seller.
When companies start conveying the information
The entrepreneurs should not only use the social regarding their products, the company actually
media to promote their own businesses but they reaches to a new audience and the company has now
should use social media and work to promote the an opportunity to grab that audience and make them
awareness of education and knowledge of the their consumers and ultimately make them their
environment. Their main objective should be to build customers. This makes completely sense that when a
the knowledge of the social problem that company floats its message of the products or the
entrepreneurs are trying to solve. When you build brand to 100 million users of Twitter and to 500
more knowledge among the customers, the more are million users of Facebook, the company is actually
the customers influenced and convinced, so spreading their message throughout the world. This
ultimately customers start their action because now will definitely make the increase in the sales and
the audience or the customers of the product of the customer loyalty and ultimately the company will
entrepreneurs are inspired. Eventually it will benefit have the huge number of satisfied customers. In this
the entrepreneurs, as they will become expert in this way traditional marketing efforts like print
field following the above procedures and techniques. advertisements and broadcast advertisements
In today’s rapid changing world it is very important complemented because its serves as a third party to
for a business to be up to date all the time. It is very enhance the efforts of these types of advertisements.
hard to keep up with the trends. In this way, When a company is connecting with their customers
entrepreneurs will know with the changing needs of or potential customers, the company might be getting
the customers. To cope up with these changes the new customers from entirely different, from entirely
entrepreneurs need to maintain a close contact with different country or society. This will actually create
their customers. The more closer an entrepreneur is and build a positive image of the company and its
with his or her customers the more successful he or products.
she will be in the future.
If we look from the perspective of a marketer, we will
Hudson & Thal, (2013) analyse in their study and say get to know that the market research in the
that companies use social media to get their goals development of a product is basic and essential that it
accomplished. This goal can be the growth in the actually gives life to the product. Without market
annual sales. Small businesses find social media to be research, a product might die before entering into the
the communication platform between the company market. Social media is the best tool until now for the
and its stakeholders. The objectives of the company marketers to do the market research by all means,
include market research, customer relationship including age, gender, culture, lifestyle,
management, customer base expansion and customer demographics etc. Social media is the best reliable
retention, cost control initiatives, product marketing, tool to explore a market. In short, we can develop
sales and recruiting, and public relations. certain products according to the demands, needs and
Social media is the opportunity to strengthen the wants of certain audiences and develop strategies for
relationship between the company and its customers. those products accordingly. The online conversations
A company can convey the information of its brand of the company and its customers also alert the
to the current customers and to the potential company if the remarks are going negative by the
customers too. In return, the company might get a customers. Social can give the companies opportunity
positive word of mouth and appreciations. In the to get to know about the future problems and to deal
same way, company might get negative remarks for with those problems in an effective manner. It makes

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International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-10, Oct.-2017
http://iraj.in
a company to be proactive. In the previous times, it Around 50 per cent of the small companies have
used to happen that companies face many problems increased their number of customers, using Facebook
after implementation of some strategies. As they were and LinkedIn mostly. This is not at all surprising that
not in direct contact to the customers like now. the small businesses are using social media not only
Now by using social media marketers can directly to increase their visibility but also to connect to their
market their products to the customers without doing customers directly. In these days, the surprising thing
any kind of promotions. This includes the website is that people are still doing researches and then
advertisements. In a research, it stated that more than writing it using paper. People are still using paper
100 fortune companies are active on the social media thing in their lives, although now the society is
and are conveying messages to their customers completely shifting to the online industry in which
directly. This creates the opportunity for the whatever the public wants it is available on the
competitors to make their strategies and use tactics to internet. Therefore, there is no use of using paper.
build their brand image and equity. The company can Social media has another advantage that is called
have a competitive advantage by using the above online ordering. Companies know that for online
techniques. For suppose we take the example of purchases, the customers will first go to the search
McDonalds. McDonalds has planned to go in a engine and then will search the product or service
certain area in future, now for this reason, it will be which they want or which they are in need of this.
an advantage for the Burger King, as they will not Most of the online buyers first research about the
have to do much market research to get access to that product, its company, and its online reviews by other
area. This will reduce the cost of Burger King. From people. Then they go for the online shopping. Hence,
the point of Cost cutting, social media has played its the companies must be careful that when a customer
role. It has actually reduced the efforts of the is reading the reviews about a company and its
marketers in the promotions of their products to the products, they must be positive so that more and more
customers. If a company will save its dollars which customers are attracted towards them and hence the
they were about to use for the promotions of their company will be able to create a competitive
products using media advertising and print advantage.
advertising, now the company is going for the social
media, the company is cutting it cost. Social media is Now days the perception of shopping is completely
the most effective and cheap way to use for the changed because of social media. People do not go
marketer to promote their products. In return, the for the best things while shopping online. In fact, they
company gets huge number of customers. chose the products, which recommended them by
their friends, according to a research. By introducing
When a company uses Facebook, Twitter and lead generation cards, Twitter has also made local
LinkedIn, the company faces to a large number of search a priority. Through this feature, businesses
audiences. It actually creates customer loyalty and allowed to create promoted offers. If a company is a
brand image. When a company is in direct contact retailer, so to grab the attention of the customers,
with the customers, their builds a strong relationship company should upload images of some of their
among the customers and the company, so if any products and offers. In this way if a customer is not
negative word of mouth go viral, the company can interested in using the services of the company in
deal with those problems and can handle it and can prior period, now he will show some interest and
react to it effectively. Social media is the best media ultimately will become the permanent customer.
on which a company can rely. Usage of social media When a customer see that one of his or her friends
can increase the sales of the company by using its like a product or a brand so he might notice this like.
functions like “fan” and “email a friend”. This tells us However, when ten of his or her friends are supposed
the product ratings of the customers. to like one product or any brand then he or she will
definitely notice this like. This is the main objective
There is another benefit of the social media, which a of the company to come in the visibility of the
company can grab it. It is the selection of the customers. In the way visitors will come to the page
potential employees though using social media. The of the company then there must be the following
online profile of a person in the LinkedIn account information present: address of the company, phone
tells the company the skills and traits of that person. number and link, which directly backed to company’s
The likes and dislikes can also know from that website. If a company thinks that any kind of
profile. The company can get complete knowledge of information that is not useful to kept confidential
their employees or potential employees using social from the public, should share the knowledge with
media websites. This recruitment program can also their customers. This helps in the retention of
lead the company to get the feedback from the public customers. This can also help in getting the
that whether the advertised job is good or not and if it competitive advantage as the competitor might not
is not good, then the public is able to give suggestion share their every detail with the customers but one
to the company to improve their selves. company is giving every detail of their company to
their customers. This creates a strong bond between

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