Social media has emerged as a powerful communication medium with significant influence over urban and rural areas. For instance, social media has numerous platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and WhatsApp that have influenced business operations, made the world more accessible, and transformed how human beings communicate. However, social media has also received criticism for promoting cyberbullying, identity theft, privacy invasion, social isolation, reduced self-esteem, and child exposure to offensive content. Social media is only part of the digital transformation that defines current human communication. Despite the associated dangers that human beings can overcome, social media has significantly improved human communication by enabling a more extensive reach where people build relationships, share expertise, increase visibility, and educate themselves.
Social media has improved human communication by enhancing customer relationship management (CRM) and business performance. For instance, social media platforms have improved the capacity of organizations to interact with consumers and customize their marketing communication on a one-to-one approach (Charoensukmongkol and Sasatanun, 27). This aspect is necessary for enhancing consumer satisfaction and establishing a long-term bond that businesses need for sustainable operation. With the advent of diverse social media, companies can interact with consumers and give instant responses because the platforms enable real-time communications. Companies currently use social media marketing to promote their goods and services while expanding faster and more economically into markets as opposed to traditional channels. This aspect is achievable because several social media users across the globe can view and share content posted on diverse platforms. Therefore, social media has improved human communication by enhancing communication between companies and consumers and customizing marketing communication to achieve better than traditional channels.
Social media platforms like Facebook have also improved human communication through the role of building positive relationships with friends and family members. For example, people use Facebook as a tool for interpersonal communication with friends and relatives (Joo and Teng, 42). Technological advancement further enables humans to express and develop interpersonal communication. Most Facebook users perceive the platform as a good communication channel that strengthens closeness among family members. For instance, Facebook impacts family members positively because the continuously increasing number of local users helps build a better and harmonic society (Joo and Teng, 42). An enhanced understanding of a harmonic society contributes significantly to the establishment of happy and successful families. Therefore, social media has enhanced human communication by enabling people to build positive relationships with friends and family members while building a harmonious society necessary for happy and successful families.
Another observation where social media has improved human communication entails establishing online communication that brings information that people and audiences could not reach in the past. For instance, social media has diverse forms like blogs, micro-blogs, wikis, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and multimedia sharing and social networking sites where people share information and make connections globally (Akram and Kumar, 347). This aspect has increased people’s awareness about the happenings in other parts of the world. Additionally, individuals use social media platforms to communicate with friends and relatives while acquiring new knowledge and developing interests. Professionals also use social media to expand knowledge in specific fields and build professional networks with other experts. Therefore, social media has improved human communication by introducing online platforms where people access the information they could not get through traditional channels.
Social technologies within social media platforms can offer a potent means for companies to manage information transfer and induce knowledge in their knowledge management discussion groups (KMDG). For instance, social media has grown beyond a personalized interactions space to run concurrently with the personal space (Nisar, Prabhakar, and Strakova, 264). The upsurge of technological platforms like search engines and next-generation mobile communication gadgets within social media spaces has expanded interpersonal communication spectrums. Moreover, social media has opened several next-generation platforms for online social networking that organizations need to access employee-generated content (Nisar, Prabhakar, and Strakova, 265). These efforts are necessary for complementing how companies strategize to leverage knowledge and learning. Therefore, social media has improved human communication by offering search engines and next-generation platforms for online social networking that organizations need to receive and transfer information more effectively.
In another instance, social media platforms empower organizations to achieve superior outcomes by assisting individuals to understand goals, strategies, purposes, and processes precisely as stipulated in a firm’s knowledge management systems. For example, social media molds knowledge-based architectures that companies require to develop strong foundations for knowledge management systems (Nisar, Prabhakar, and Strakova, 268). KMDG correlates positively with information richness while enabling individuals to comment on each other’s posts. KMDG also motivates employees working in communities of practice to acquire and share new knowledge and information they could not access through traditional channels. Therefore, organizations benefit from social media through knowledge management systems generating increased information richness levels (Nisar, Prabhakar, and Strakova, 268). A social media KMDG freely allows informal communication, assists in building personal relationships, and enhances the process of collecting and storing task-related data.
Since the world has diverse religions and beliefs, social media has helped build communities by enabling individuals from different communities to interact and discuss or share vital information. For example, social media unites people on a huge platform where individuals exchange ideas beyond geographical boundaries to achieve specific goals and bring positive societal change (Akram and Kumar, 352). Students and professionals also enhance their competence by sharing and exchanging vital information with like-minded individuals while seeking input and opinions on diverse topics. Additionally, social media has provided businesses with platforms to connect with target consumers at affordable costs. This convenience was unavailable with conventional media like television commercials and print ads (Akram and Kumar, 352). Therefore, social media has enhanced human communication by bringing together people from diverse communities to share and exchange vital information and seek input and views from like-minded individuals, students, and professionals.
Regarding education, social media enable students to communicate with ease and share information faster with one another on social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. For instance, social networking technologies expose learners to global trends that diverse users observe, update, share, and discuss on different platforms (Akram and Kumar, 350). This exposure empowers learners to set up plans regarding future expectations by observing changes in global trends. Social media platforms also avail paths that understudies need to achieve mutual success regarding class wanders and group assignments, or assistance on homework assignments (Akram and Kumar, 350). Without social media, understudies may lack reliable platforms to express their thoughts more effectively as they never take intrigue reliably in the classroom. Therefore, social media empowers understudies to excel in education by sharing their thoughts more effectively than they would do in classroom settings.
When entrepreneurs adopt intensive social media use for CRM, they report increased satisfaction with business performance. For instance, social media provide platforms for entrepreneurs to implement CRM toward enhancing performance (Charoensukmongkol and Sasatanun, 30). Some entrepreneurs lack the good interpersonal skills that they require to build long-term relationships with consumers during face-to-face interactions. However, entrepreneurs lacking this vital social competency can compensate for their interpersonal communication weakness by utilizing social media as their CRM tool (Charoensukmongkol and Sasatanun, 32). This aspect is achievable through computer-mediated communication necessary for building long-lasting bonds with consumers. Social media sites form a crucial part of digital marketing by assisting businesses to expand beyond demographic and geographic boundaries. Therefore, social media has improved human communication by providing a CRM tool for entrepreneurs to build long-lasting bonds with consumers via computer-mediated communication.
Despite the plethora of communication benefits that human beings derive from social media platforms, the advancement has faced criticisms for its negative side. For example, interactive social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have transformed the way families communicate by hindering interpersonal relationships (Joo and Teng, 31). This experience indicates that social media has made the world smaller by enhancing interactions, but made it more expansive by suppressing interpersonal relationships between friends and family members. Elsewhere, social media has a positive correlation with negative scenarios like cyberbullying, identity theft, privacy invasion, social isolation, and low self-esteem. Social media has exposed users to cyber harassment as they receive terrorizing messages and gossip that inconvenience the general public. Therefore, social media also has negative advantages that human beings must address adequately to enjoy the endless benefits.
Social media has also faced criticism for addiction and child exposure to offensive content. For instance, individuals occasionally share multimedia containing savagery and sex that can harm the conduct of young people (Akram and Kumar, 352). Excessive use of social media may also impact children’s academic performance negatively due to addiction that stimulates time-wasting. Elsewhere, some people view social media platforms like Facebook as inappropriate tools to communicate with family members staying together. Conflicts often emerge to impact family members negatively when parents and guardians attempt to monitor children’s social media activities (Joo and Teng, 41). Social media may also expose children to risky sexual behavior because they are in the stages of finding their sexuality. This preoccupation with anything sexual can lead to suspicious sexual conduct and unwanted pregnancies.
In summary, social media has improved human communication by enhancing CRM and business performance and building positive relationships with friends and family members. Social media has also established online communication platforms that avail information people could not access using traditional channels. Additionally, social media platforms offer a potent means for organizations to control information transfer and expand their KMDG. Another social media benefit entails uniting people through enhanced exchange and information sharing beyond geographical borders. Despite these several benefits, social media faces criticism for encouraging cyberbullying, identity theft, privacy invasion, social isolation, reduced self-esteem, and child exposure to offensive content. Therefore, increasing awareness of negative influence is necessary to ensure maximum benefit from the positive aspects. Parents and guardians must monitor teen social media choices and ban some applications with explanations to avoid potential adverse impacts.
Akram, Waseem, and Rekesh Kumar. “A study on positive and negative effects of social media on society.” International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering 5.10 (2017): 351-354.
Charoensukmongkol, Peerayuth, and Pakamon Sasatanun. “Social media use for CRM and business performance satisfaction: The moderating roles of social skills and social media sales intensity.” Asia Pacific Management Review 22.1 (2017): 25-34.
Joo, Tang-Mui, and Chan-Eang Teng. “Impacts of social media (Facebook) on human communication and relationships: A view on behavioral change and social unity.” International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology 7.4 (2017): 27- 50.
Nisar, Tahir M., Guru Prabhakar, and Lubica Strakova. “Social media information benefits, knowledge management and smart organizations.” Journal of Business Research 94 (2019): 264-272.