Tag: Impact

January 8, 2021

How Does Social Media Impact Schools?


Our society is making major changes every day, and social media is dictating some of these changes and is influencing how our society operates. As a result, whatever changes we see in society will have a definite impact on what happens in our schools. To run effectively, schools cannot ignore these societal changes. That’s why our students and staff need to develop positive experiences with social media usage in our schools. Schools and school districts that decide to embrace social media are utilizing new technology to inform, educate, and prepare students and staff for the 21st century.

Each school year the following question will have to be answered: What if a student or staff member is using their personal social media account off school property in a negative, inappropriate, or confrontational manner that has an impact on the staff or students? Additionally, does this usage impact the student’s ability to learn at school or impact the educational day? If it does, then the school should have the right to investigate and issue appropriate consequences. This is an important problem that has impacted schools from all over the world. It is vital that our schools address this problem in their student code or face the possibility of students, staff members, or both disrupting the school.

In an effort to be pro-active, schools and school districts have decided to prevent problems from occurring by teaching students the proper way to use social media. Schools are now showing their students how social media can be used to collaborate on school projects, find summer jobs, participate in online chats, discuss books read in class, share and receive positive information on the school’s Facebook page, keep up with what’s happening around the world, do research, share successful educational stories, secure classroom information, etc. Teachers can use Twitter accounts to send homework assignments to students, provide classroom information for students, and have classroom discussions. By embracing social media, schools are empowering their students to communicate more with their classmates, which will develop a stronger community of learners.

School employees should have procedures in place for how they use social media in an effort to monitor how educators use their personal and school accounts to interact with students. Schools should consider employees using their personal accounts to communicate with students as inappropriate and as grounds for termination. While this might sound harsh, sometimes staff using their personal accounts with students can lead to the appearance of an inappropriate relationship. In particular, staff members should never have a student’s pictures posted on their Facebook. These concerns should be addressed at the first staff meeting of the school year, and staff members should sign an agreement that the school’s social media account be used for teaching purposes only and not for reaching out to students.

Overall, schools know there is a lot of abuse involved with the use of social media, but research has shown that schools that take the time to educate their staff and students on the proper usage are developing a community of learning that will be productive in the 21st century


January 7, 2021

Social Media’s Impact on Divorce


Social media has impacted our society in many good ways. Our lives have been made easier. Pretty much anything we want to know is quickly found at the end of a mouse click. We save time and effort by ordering products and planning travel online. We easily catch up with friends on numerous social media sites. But, there is also a down side..

Media and Relationships

Research has found that these sites can have a negative impact on relationships and may even contribute to divorce. A spouse may spend so much time that they neglect family time and hurt relationships. The temptation is there to look up former girlfriends or boyfriends and connecting could trigger past feelings and/or start an affair. One recent study from the journal, Computers in Human Behavior, used information gathered from U.S. Facebook accounts and found a link between social media use and decreased marriage quality. The study showed:

Using social media is negatively correlated with marriage quality and happiness, and positively correlated with experiencing a troubled relationship and thinking about divorce.

A twenty percent annual increase in Facebook enrollment was associated with a 2.18% to 4.32 % increase in divorce rates.

Reasons cited for these effects refer to “virtual adultery” and “internet infidelity” as being one of the culprits. Electronic communication may make users feel more open and free in their communication with others. It can be done anonymously and is easy to use to conduct an affair.

Social Media Used as Evidence in Divorce and Custody Proceedings

What you say on may be used against you. A recent survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, showed that almost 99% of its member attorneys have seen an increase in evidence taken from smartphones (including text messages) and other wireless devices during the past three years. All were used for proving infidelity and other types of misconduct in family-law cases.

What Not to Post

While you’re married, even if divorce seems likely, avoid disparaging your partner on social media or using your Facebook page to vent about your relationship. If you need to vent, confide in a trusted personal friend in private or talk to a counselor or therapist. Airing marital laundry, even to your “friends list,” can make matters worse and might be used against you if you do file for divorce. Bottom line: If you’re considering divorce – even if you plan to file for divorce online and expect it to go amicably – take some precautions on social media.


September 26, 2020

Social Media’s Impact on Divorce


Social media has impacted our society in many good ways. Our lives have been made easier. Pretty much anything we want to know is quickly found at the end of a mouse click. We save time and effort by ordering products and planning travel online. We easily catch up with friends on numerous social media sites. But, there is also a down side..

Media and Relationships

Research has found that these sites can have a negative impact on relationships and may even contribute to divorce. A spouse may spend so much time that they neglect family time and hurt relationships. The temptation is there to look up former girlfriends or boyfriends and connecting could trigger past feelings and/or start an affair. One recent study from the journal, Computers in Human Behavior, used information gathered from U.S. Facebook accounts and found a link between social media use and decreased marriage quality. The study showed:

Using social media is negatively correlated with marriage quality and happiness, and positively correlated with experiencing a troubled relationship and thinking about divorce.

A twenty percent annual increase in Facebook enrollment was associated with a 2.18% to 4.32 % increase in divorce rates.

Reasons cited for these effects refer to “virtual adultery” and “internet infidelity” as being one of the culprits. Electronic communication may make users feel more open and free in their communication with others. It can be done anonymously and is easy to use to conduct an affair.

Social Media Used as Evidence in Divorce and Custody Proceedings

What you say on may be used against you. A recent survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, showed that almost 99% of its member attorneys have seen an increase in evidence taken from smartphones (including text messages) and other wireless devices during the past three years. All were used for proving infidelity and other types of misconduct in family-law cases.

What Not to Post

While you’re married, even if divorce seems likely, avoid disparaging your partner on social media or using your Facebook page to vent about your relationship. If you need to vent, confide in a trusted personal friend in private or talk to a counselor or therapist. Airing marital laundry, even to your “friends list,” can make matters worse and might be used against you if you do file for divorce. Bottom line: If you’re considering divorce – even if you plan to file for divorce online and expect it to go amicably – take some precautions on social media.

Lyfeloop


September 24, 2020

Social Media Marketing Services for Greater Impact


Today, no business can survive or thrive without the support of social media marketing services. Online marketing companies help businesses utilize the power of different sharing platforms for a variety of reasons, such as increasing the number of visitors to a website, increasing leads to a brand, increasing sales of a product or service, strengthening a brand image, etc. With billions of people worldwide on various online channels, it would be foolish to ignore the potential of these channels for effective marketing and promotions, whether it is a start-up or an established business.

Social media may not be limited to just Facebook and Twitter anymore. Today, there are so many new online platforms gaining popularity and some new ones being created every single day. The widespread use of smartphones and human beings innate tendency to communicate and connect with each other, share information, explore new areas, all combine to make social media apps and websites powerful and successful. Whether it is Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ LinkedIn, or any others, it is essential to know exactly what to post and where as not all social media platforms are alike.

How Social Media Marketing Companies help?

This is where online marketing companies help in providing marketing services that hit the nail on the head every single time. Each of these platforms have their own target demographic, with some overlapping with the other. The types of content shared on each may differ. For example, a person on Facebook may share different things than what he might share on LinkedIn. Also, if your brand’s target audience is teenagers, it might not make sense to use LinkedIn that much as it might to use Facebook. On the other hand, if your target audience is senior-level executives, then it might make sense to use more of professional media platforms such as LinkedIn rather than other more casual platforms. There are differences between the tone required for different brands and it is important to know this and which is appropriate for which online website. Knowing which to use and what to post where is crucial to success.

Social media can be leveraged for selling ideas, selling products and services, getting people to enroll in courses or getting people to participate or become active in social activism for a variety of causes. Everyone from government agencies to non-government agencies, educational institutions to private and public enterprises are on social media. They are not only looking to increase sales, but also to create a brand identity for themselves in the minds of their target audience.

Growing significance of social media

Online marketing is a great platform for businesses and organizations to connect with their customer base, get feedback, address any complaints or grievances, as well as promote their products or services. It is a very effective way to build a loyal community around a certain brand. Whatever be the reason, various social sharing websites are a platform that should be leveraged to its maximum potential for better results for any business to flourish.

Lyfeloop


September 24, 2020

Impact of Social Media on Society


“Do you have Facebook?”

“Yes, of course. But I don’t think you can find me, as there are too many people who have the same name as me. Try searching with my surname as well.”

“Hey, you celebrated your birthday in K-Box, right? I saw the photos in your Facebook.”

“Bro, I saw your comments about the YouTube video that I’ve posted in my blog. I’m happy that you are also deeply moved by the ‘Dancing Peacock Man’ as well.”

Social media or “social networking” has almost become part of our daily lives and being tossed around over the past few years. It is like any other media such as newspaper, radio and television but it is far more than just about sharing information and ideas. Social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Blogs have facilitated creation and exchange of ideas so quickly and widely than the conventional media. The power of define and control a brand is shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities. It is no longer on the 5Cs (e.g. condominium, credit cards and car) that Singaporeans once talked about. Today, it is about the brand new Cs: creativity, communication, connection, creation (of new ideas and products), community (of shared interests), collaboration and (changing the game of) competition.

In January 2010, InSites Consulting has conducted an online survey with 2,884 consumers from over 14 countries between the ages of 18 to 55 years old on social networking. More than 90% of participants know at least 1 social networking site and 72% of participants are members of at least 1 social networking site. On the average, people have about 195 friends and they log in twice a day to social networking sites. However, 55% of the users cannot access their social network websites at work. In the past, not many adults were able to make more than 500 friends, but with social media, even a child or teenager can get to know more than 500 people in a few days by just clicking the mouse. Social media has devalued the traditional definition of “friend” where it means trust, support, compatible values, etc. Although we get to know more people, we are not able to build strong bond with all the people whom we met as our available time is limited. Hence, there is an upcoming social trend of people with wider social circles, but weaker ties (people we don’t know very well but who provide us with useful information and ideas).

Social media also influences people’s buying behaviours. Digital Influence Group reported that 91% of the people say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions and 87% trust a friend’s recommendation over critic’s review. It is thrice more likely to trust peer opinions over advertising for purchasing decisions. 1 word-of-mouth conversation has an impact of 200 TV ads. With the prevalence use of social media, there is numerous news related to it from the most viewed YouTube video on “Armless pianist wins ‘China’s Got Talent'” to Web-assisted suicide cases (e.g. New Jersey college student who killed himself after video of him in a sexual encounter with another man was posted online). Thus, does social networking make us better or worse off as a society?

Positive Effects of Social Media

Besides having opportunity to know a lot of people in a fast and easy way, social media also helped teenagers who have social or physical mobility restrictions to build and maintain relationships with their friends and families. Children who go overseas to study can still stay in meaningful contact with their parents. To a greater extend, there is anecdotal evidence of positive outcomes from these technologies.

In 2008, President-elected Obama won the election through the effective use of social media to reach millions of audience or voters. The Obama campaign had generated and distributed huge amount of contents and messages across email, SMS, social media platforms and their websites. Obama and his campaign team fully understood the fundamental social need that everyone shares – the need of being “who we are”. Therefore, the campaign sent the message as “Because It’s about YOU” and chose the right form of media to connect with individuals, call for actions and create community for a social movement. They encouraged citizens to share their voices, hold discussion parties in houses and run their own campaign meetings. It truly changed the delivery of political message.

Obama campaign had made 5 million “friends” on more than 15 social networking sites (3 million friends on Facebook itself) and posted nearly 2,000 YouTube videos which were watched over 80 million times. At its peak, their website, MyBarackObama.com, had 8.5 million monthly visitors and produced 400,000 blog posts. In order to ensure that their contents were found by people, the Obama campaign spent $3.5 million on Google search in October alone, $600,000 on Advertising.com, $467,000 on Facebook in 2008, etc. Currently, Obama’s Twitter account has close to 6 million followers.

In 2010, after the earthquake happened in Haiti, many of the official communication lines were down. The rest of the world was not able to grasp the full picture of the situation there. To facilitate the sharing of information and make up for the lack of information, social media came in very handy to report the news about the affected area on what happened and what help was needed. Tweets from many people provided an impressive overview of the ongoing events from the earthquake. BBC covered the event by combining tweets from the work of its reporter Matthew Price in Port-au-Prince at the ground. Guardian’s live blog also used social media together with the information from other news organisations to report about the rescue mission.

It has been two years since CNN officially launched iReport as a section of its website where people can upload video material, with contact information. During the Haiti crisis, CNN had published a range of social media material but not all the materials were verified. The editorial staff would vet the reports from the citizen journalists and labeled them differently compared to unverified contents. On Facebook, a group, named “Earthquake Haiti”, was formed to show support and share updates and news. It had more than 14,000 members and some users even pleaded for assistance to the injured Haitians in the group. Using email, Twitter and social networking sites like Facebook, thousands of volunteers as part of Project Ushahidi were able to map reports sent by people from Haiti.

The most impressive part of the social media‘s impact on Haiti is the charity text-message donations that soared to over $10 million for the victims in Haiti. People interested in helping the victims are encouraged to text, tweet and publicize their support using various social networking sites. The Global Philanthropy Group had also started a campaign to ask wealthy people and celebrities, like Ben Stiller and John Legend to use Twitter and Facebook to encourage others to give to UNICEF. An aid worker, Saundra Schimmelpfennig, allowed the advice from other aid workers and donors to post on her blog regarding to choosing which charitable organisations to support. In the meantime, donors were asking questions in Twitter, Facebook and blogs about their donations and endorsements of their favourite charities. After every crisis, the social media for social cause becomes a more effective medium to spread the word.

Negative Effects of Social Media

There are always two sides of every coin. Social media is just a tool or mean for people to use. It is still up to the users on how to use this tool (just like a knife, can help you to cut food or hurt others). Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center conducted a study on “The Future of Online Socializing” from the highly engaged, diverse set of respondents to an online, opt-in survey consisted of 895 technology stakeholders and critics. The negative effects presented by the respondents included time spent online robs time from important face-to-face relationships; the internet fosters mostly shallow relationships; the act of leveraging the internet to engage in social connection exposes private information; the internet allows people to silo themselves, limiting their exposure to new ideas; and the internet is being used to engender intolerance.

Some respondents also highlighted that there will be development of some new psychological and medical syndromes that will be “variations of depression caused by the lack of meaningful quality relationships”, and a “new world society”. The term, “Social Networking”, has begun to deceive the users to believe they are social creatures. For instance, spending a couple of hours using Farmville and chatting with friends concurrently does not convert into social skills. People become dependent on the technology and forget how to socialise in face-to-face context. The online personality of a person might be totally different from his/her offline character, causing chaos when the two personalities meet. It is apparent in online dating when the couple gets together in face-to-face for the first time. Their written profiles do not clearly represent their real-life characters. It is more enticing for people to type something that others want to hear than saying the truth.

Besides the “friendship”, creators of social networking sites and users redefine the term, “privacy” in the Internet as well. The challenge in data privacy is to share data while protecting personally identifiable information. Almost any information posted on social networking sites is permanent. Whenever someone posts pictures or videos on the web, it becomes viral. When the user deletes a video from his/her social network, someone might have kept it and then posted it onto other sites like YouTube already. People post photographs and video files on social networking sites without thinking and the files can reappear at the worst possible time. In 2008, a video of a group of ACJC students hazing a female student in school on her birthday was circulated and another video of a SCDF recruit being “welcomed” (was hosed with water and tarred with shoe polish) to a local fire station made its way online.

Much news has been reported about online privacy breach in Facebook and Facebook is constantly revising their privacy policy and changing their privacy controls for the users. Interestingly, even when users delete their personal information and deactivate their Facebook account, Facebook will still keep that information and will continue to use it for data mining. A reporter asked whether the data will at least be anonymized. The Facebook representative declined to comment.

In the corporate world, human resource managers can access Facebook or MySpace to get to know about a candidate’s true colours, especially when job seekers do not set their profiles to private. Research has found that almost half of employers have rejected a potential worker after finding incriminating material on their Facebook pages. Some employers have also checked the candidates’ online details in Facebook pages to see if they are lying about their qualifications. Nowadays, younger generations have a complete disregard for their own privacy, opening doors to unwelcome predators or stalkers.

Lyfeloop


September 10, 2020

How to Maximize Impact on Social Media During COVID-19




Marketing