In society today social media is taking over our lives daily. Nearly everyone is signed up to at least one platform due to there being so many variations with Facebook and Twitter where you write a status to Instagram where you post pictures. Everywhere you go people ask if wifi is available and what’s the password, or take sneaky snaps to upload and normally it’s of food or a sunset. I feel young people in particular do these things to stay in touch with the world and to be recognised in society. This can have its advantages and disadvantages which the younger generation of today are hit by in both good and bad ways.
First thing; social media has no privacy with websites and apps wanting to know every little thing about you and which can track your every movement. They ask lots of personal questions especially Facebook such as ‘where do you work?’, ‘what school did you go to?’ ‘where were you born?’ ‘where do you live?’ These websites are persistent and normally gain the information somehow. What’s worrying is that it’s bound to get worse in the future. In addition, social media can encourage stalking, similar to tracking, and can result in horrible consequences which are seen on the news quite often and should be prevented at all costs. It encourages us normal people to stalk celebrities which can get out of control and become unsafe for the people involved.
Moreover, social media can cause bullying and many people are bullied on these platforms and can end in awful situations which shouldn’t be permitted. The opportunity is created to say hateful things and inflict inappropriate actions upon others which shouldn’t happen and wouldn’t if social media wasn’t around.
So why do we use social media I hear you ask?
On the other hand, social media can have positives offering the opportunity to promote yourself to the world.
Social media is a great way to stay in contact with friends and distant family as it’s quick and easy. You can share what’s happening in your life in just a simple click or tap, share an opinion or a life story. Sometimes you see lovely heart-warming stories of people that promote themselves before charity events saying how you can sponsor them to increase the money raised and informing others of those who have done good for their local community. Many people use social media to remember the things they’ve done with the statuses posted on a particular occasion or a picture of a special memory which the person wanted to share with the world. You mustn’t forget that what is posted on the Internet is there forever even if it’s been deleted.
YouTube is a video platform community which welcomes anyone. It’s free and you can watch celebrities or ‘YouTubers’ videos. Basically, a ‘Youtuber’ is an ordinary person like you or I who posts videos onto the site via their channel whenever they want, about whatever they want (within reason) and you can use the features, like or subscribe so you get a feed of their past and current videos.
In addition, social media platforms have enabled people to live their dreams! A fantastic example is the upcoming band The Vamps- indie pop band that come from different parts of the UK. All four members found each other on YouTube and their videos can still be found of the covers they performed in their bedrooms at home in front of a tiny camera hoping to get noticed and succeed. James McVey (from Dorset) found Bradley Will Simpson (from Birmingham) on YouTube. They got the train to see each other at weekends and wanted to expand from a duo. The two boys saw a video of Tristan Evans (from Exeter, Devon) performing for Young Drummer of The Year 2010. Connor Ball was found after the band signed to Mercury Records and now the band is a foursome signed to Virgin EMI Records. Since then, they’ve been a great supporting act for McFly, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and The Wanted in the UK and this summer will be one of the supporting acts for Austin Mahone on his USA tour.
Therefore, social media can change lives in a dramatic way like this. Right now, The Vamps are touring the world promoting themselves and their debut album Meet The Vamps after it taking them just short of three years to write and record. Currently the band is in Australia after travelling to Japan last week. They are already big in the UK and the States and performed their first headline show in New York which was sold out. Their amazing talent was found through social media and the fame has been boosted by it and will continue to rise in the future with their growing popularity.
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