There are diverse, controversial topics that arise when social media is mentioned. The bone of contention is whether social media is beneficial or dangerous. Various opinions have been spoken out and jolted down in response to that dilemma. The mind of a layman tends to gravitate towards the woes of social media such as criminal activities, cyberbullying and robbery (Yalda et al., p. npag). Viewing social media from that angle sweeps a lot of its benefits under the carpet while displaying only a dark image of social media to the public. Conversely, the paper at hand focuses majorly on the benefits of social media as well as providing factual evidence that its significance outweighs the dangers thereof.

Before delving into the explanation of the importance of social media, it is imperative to understand what social media is in the first place. This is a web-based platform that is used to build social relations with people from different parts of the world. Mostly, such relationship tends to exist among the people of similar interests, careers, backgrounds or even other relating factors of life (Phoon et al., p. npag). Some of the common social media sites include the giant Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram and many others.

The benefits of social media to the society are accountable. Social media is significant in all phases of life. First, social media has an incredibly positive impact on education. Social media platforms provide an opportunity of socialisation among people from different cultures, education backgrounds as well as education levels. Socializing allow the students to exchange ideas and knowledge among themselves (Kuma et al., p. npag). Besides that, social media has made it easier for a student to access teachers or other professionals who might offer professional guidance online. Therefore, through the sharing of knowledge, it becomes easier to shorten the learning curve of students.

More also, social media has helped in the promotion of education that is not only formal but informal. Learning process would be described holistic as far as the student is developing in all aspects of life. Through socialization, students and other people learn how to make friends with people from different parts of the world (Yalda et al, p. npag). In connection to this, social media is essential is conveying new knowledge to students as quickly as it emerges. During the dark days when the internet hadn’t permeated deeply into the society of the lives of people, new technologies would be documented and taught in classrooms. Currently, a lot of information trends and students easily update themselves.

Currently, social media sites can no longer be described as platforms primarily meant for social activities. It would be best to rename them to socioeconomic platforms. The rebranding is because; social media sites have become the market place for today’s businesses. Through social media, e-commerce businesses have exploded than before. Entrepreneurs are turning online since the entire globe has shifted from physical life to digital. People are making orders online, and therefore, social media has become a digital market place (Kuma et al., p. npag). To thrive in any market, it is imperative to know the needs, interests and tastes of the potential customers. Social media is best in understanding the requirements of the customers. Through analytics of data from social media, the interests of the customers are readily determined, and therefore the entrepreneurs advertise within a defined path. Social media has become a vehicle for conveying businesses to the entire globe without any limitations. It is also easy through social media for a business owner to know the key information of the competitors. The comments and likes on facebook posts could provide an entrepreneur with the thoughts of the customers towards a certain product. Therefore, social media provides a sharp market insight that helps in the expansion of the business. The success of any business is determined mainly by the marketing strategies employed and the extent to which they cover. Social media sites offer an unlimited market within which advertising could bear encouraging fruits.

The opponents of social media have their pessimism hinged on the hacking; cyber bullying and other fraudulent activities that take place online (Yalda et al., p. npag). It is obvious that such activities happen on the internet. Nobody can deny that the internet has pro and cons. However, the significance of social media cannot be fully blurred from our sight by such activities. Moreover, such activities are preventable. Educating youths and other online users on dangers and the protective mechanisms to be applied is enough in combating against being the victim of cyberbullying. Avoiding visiting suspicious sites and using well-secured laptops deters any chance of hacking greatly.

It is worth to note that the importance of social media cannot be overemphasised. Social media sites are platforms of socialization and making friends, acquiring knowledge, platforms for carrying out businesses as well as sources of information. From the above discussion, the significance of social media outweighs the dangers associated with it.

Work cited

Phoon, Andie. “Social Media and Its Stark Influence on Society,”WRIT: GSW Journal of First-Year Writing: Vol. 1 , Article 8, 2017,  http://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/writ/vol1/iss1/8

Yalda T. Uhls, Nicole B. Ellison, Kaveri Subrahmanyam. “Benefits and Costs of Social Media in Adolescence”. November 2017, VOLUME 140 / ISSUE Supplement 2, 2017, https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/Supplement_2/S67

W.Akram1, R.Kuma. “A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society”, 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323903323_A_Study_on_Positive_and_Negative_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_Society