The Role Of Social Media In The Life Of Modern People

As Generation Z, we grow up in a heavily mediated world. Communication media have a significant meaning for us and bring much convenience. Showed by a research, Media users are continually increasing year by year. The number of mobile phone users in 2018 is 5. 135 billion, up 4 percent year-on-year, and The number of social media users worldwide in 2018 is 3. 196 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year. (引用）It’s true that media technologies are almost everywhere in our daily life. FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, basically, those social media Apps can be found in almost every smartphone. Through those new media, people do not have to meet each other frequently as they did before. Obviously, media share a large amount of information for people to know each other well, and communicate effectively.

Media is a means or instrumentality for storing or communicating information, or, it is an intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication. The most important is, a means. The media is for an instrumentality for accomplishing some end, by spreading information. As we all know, it is the time of information. Apparently, the information plays a significant role in our life. Because of advanced technology, the information is everywhere. As Denis Mcquail said, the internet incorporates radio, film, and television. It breaks the limit of the print and broadcasting models.

As long as I am concerned with the internet, I am connected with the latest information now and then. On my way to the class, I usually listen to the radio or read news; while listening to the lecture or doing a field trip, I get new knowledge; when discussing with my classmates, I share and exchange information with them; even when I go to bed, I might spend an hour on Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, surfing new trends that I am interested in. All in all, every day is filled with a large amount of information. Without such information around, we cannot communicate with others effectively. We don’t only receive information passively but also produce content by ourselves actively as “produsers”.

Under such a circumstance, we cannot emphasize the importance of communicating media too much. In the past, when people wanted to do something, face to face communication was the only viable way to interact and communicate.

Undeniably, this way of communication has advantages. For instance, people can not only get the content but also will see facial expressions and body languages, which means more measurements can be achieved during communications. Nevertheless, a great deal of time has to be spent on the way. Fortunately, at present, with modern technologies, media save our time and offer more opportunities to connect with people immediately. As Pavlik and McIntosh said, it enables us around the world to participate in a conversation, bringing individuals separated by thousand miles into direct contact with each other.

For me, an App I use the most frequently is Wechat, a Chinese version of Skype. It has features such as chatting in individuals or groups, video chats, sending money among friends, uploading files, and posting pictures. Wechat helps me connect with friends without actually meeting them. Since most of my high school friends are in China, chatting online becomes the only option for us. For the past 3 years, we have been chatting in a Wechat group several times a week mostly through video chats. By seeing and hearing each other through the screen, we all feel that our friendship will never fade away.

For this, our life is much more effective and efficient, and so are business and politic. Speaking of which, President Donald Trump’s tweeter can totally justify this point. Through tweeting what he claims and what he believes, the current US president rules the largest economy of the world, in the meantime, he creates himself into a burning celebrity, and the whole world can know his particular perspectives. From the construction of the wall between America and Mexico, to the new US Embassy in Jerusalem, from the trade war with China to the sanction towards Iran, President Trump’s twitter shows it all. All around the world, we can know what is happening around the world immediately, just by reading US president’s tweeter. One more thing cannot be ignored. Through communication media, we live fresh life and every day is brand new, because it connects us to the whole world and helps us get to know interesting strangers. A common phenomenon is, without waiting for a long time, most people will feel bored in their twenties or thirties. Every day, they meet the same people, and they do the same things, and it is not unreasonable to describe this way of life with the word of “despair”.

Even by knowing strangers continuously, things would not get better. Because, in 10 minutes, a person’s perspectives, experiences and even preferences, all can be shared completely if the chat is efficient enough. Next, a communication will be transformed into an awkward conversation, which is such a waste of time. However, communication media are available everywhere, whenever we get bored, we can directly lead ourselves into a place full of strangers, the Internet, and modern technologies guarantee us to be there as soon as possible. For me, I am a fan of Japanese popular culture, but barely none of my friends have interests about it. I used to feel sad that I couldn’t share thoughts with them. However, ever since I started posting on twitter and Weibo(a Chinese version of Twitter), and making videos on Youtube and Bilibili (a Chinese version of Youtube) about Japanese anime, I have hundreds of followers now and get hundreds of thousands watchings of my videos. Strangers comment and chat a lot under my posts, and I feel excited that there are so many strangers online share similar ideas with me, which enlightens my life. Moreover, a persuasive example can be found in the experience of everyone like us, when we are waiting in line, the time is not easy to pass, and it is not easy to chat with strangers with a pleasant mood. But, with a smart phone in the hand, definitely, we can enjoy others’ comment of the Instagram, we can give a “like” of others’ FaceBook, and we can even read news through the APP of CNN. Nevertheless, negative effects and potential problems of media cannot be overlooked. As Mcquail stated, media might influence personal attitude and the degree of optimism or pessimism in their social outlook, and there are concerns about the lack of shared values or the lack of social participation.

Also, the perception of responsibility is a serious issue. Communication media, obviously, allow people to say something easily, even the things they said are not real, still, no responsibility to undertake. But, to those who read and watch, it is so unfair, because they will be misled, and even be led into astray. The worst is, some people’s reputation will be badly hurt, which is impossible to recover in a short while. After all, writing several words and sentences online is much faster than writing a letter. Naturally, writing a letter takes more time. The write has to think about which are appropriate or which are inappropriate. Long or short, they must be concise, and they must care about the feedback and response. However, when they comment or post, they do not have to be that considerate, which is why people usually post something randomly, but get regret later, and it is too late to delete when everything sees it all. Once I posted my thinking on Weibo about distributions and free use of artwork. I wrote that I felt Westerners had a more open attitude toward this issue than Asians because I saw most artists on Deviantart(a media platform for artists to distribute artworks and chat with others) were more willing to share their works than artists on NicoNico(a Japanese media platform similar to a combination of Youtube and Deviantart). Then, a stranger commented under my post and said some unreasonable and irresponsible words. She judged rudely that I must be crazy with mental problems simply because she was holding different opinions from mine. I sent no bad words back. I just deleted the post, and became more careful about posting words after this issue. Even though I don’t think I wrote anything wrong, that stranger showed me a signal that I should never wish the others sing the same song. I think maybe that is the cost of freedom of speech on social media. It is not rare that people are under attack because of those irresponsible words, just like the song named Tabloid Junkie from Michael Jackson, King of Pop wrote this song based on his personal experiences, the slanders, the back stabbers cost him too much, and he even was put into prison for some accuses never existed. The most importantly, it was more than 10 years ago when communicating media was not as popular as today, which means, things are only getting worse day by day.

According to all illustrations above, it is not difficult to figure out that communication media contribute a lot to spreading of the information. On one hand, they save people a large amount of time and improve the standard of entertainments. On the other hand, they cause something terrible when people are not willing to think and write with logical reasons. Generally analyzing, this kind of new thing is more helping than hurting. From the vision of overall situation, the individuals, the families and the societies are getting great benefits from the information. However, considering the drawbacks, people are supposed to have some senses of responsibilities. To be more specific, before writing anything, please be thoughtful and careful, and try to predict what those words will cause, and whether they can afford the aftermath or not. If the answer is YES, just do it.