Social Media And Its Impact On Society - 1068 Words

One of the most prominent areas of information technology present in today’s society is that of social media. Facebook users make up 62% of the entire adult population and Twitter users compose 20% of the population (Mobile Messaging and Social Media, 2015). Sites like these allow users to transfer information, in the form of social content, to the Internet community with no limitations. These sites also ease communication across great distances, allowing for a diverse audience for any information posted on such a site. Such a tool for information transfer is incredibly powerful in the hands of those who know how to use it. â€Å"Social media has been broadly defined to refer to as ‘the many relatively inexpensive and widely†¦show more content†¦Many people leap at this chance and create a persona they expect will grant them fame. There are also those who create a digital identity for malicious purposes. Others choose to represent themselves as they really exis t, creating a digital identity that matches reality. The people that choose to use social media as their claim to fame use technology to spread information about themselves to gain Internet popularity. Since social media is a type of social content and can be altered by anyone and is completely unlimited, these attention-seekers need only spread enough information about themselves or their personas to get the attention they’re after. Once these users achieve fame, their information becomes that much more valuable, regardless of credibility or truth. To these types of users, information is a currency that they wish to control. Those who create a new digital identity for malicious purposes pose a threat to any and all social media users. These people jump at the chance to attack other users either by insulting them, or worse, impersonating something or someone that they most definitely are not. Social media makes the creation of these dangerous identities far easier than it sho uld safely be. These users represent the dark side of both social media and the seeming anonymity that the Internet provides. The remaining users, when the threats and the â€Å"big