Essay Sample for You: Social Media and Its Effects on Family Life

Social media gets construed as a series of applications and websites which are designed in such a framework that allows people to share information efficiently and without wastage of time. Other people may also define it as a platform which is internet based and allow users to have easy electronic communication specifically on personal information and other related contents, for example, the videos and photos. In the family setup, nearly every person is knowledgeable about what is going on in the technological world. Children of the age of four or five to the old adults are all using various social media devices like the mobile phones, emails and other social media gadgets to communicate to their loved ones instead of having a one on one conversation. It is from this argument that concerns arise on the effects of social media to the family structure. The paper is, therefore, premised on advancing the argument about the effects of social media on family structures while also taking a neutral stance in addressing the positive and negative effects that come with its use. Some of the concerns that will be used in arguing out the case are based on the family behavior, attitude, social interactions, gatherings and other stuffs that share in the argument.

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In addressing the effects of social media on family structure, it is worth noting that the effects can be addressed in both positive and negative dimension. The family structure is opined as one who stays together and can exist in either the nuclear on extended dimension. One of the positive effects is based on strengthening the relationships in the family structure. For example, it nurtures a behavior where family members can send emails or text messages to each other and meet in a popular joint or restaurant and share some delicacies. It also allows the family to take candid photos, have liked them and comments. Still, on behavior, social media inculcates a behavior which allows people to have constant communication through What Sapp, emails and text messages (Laroche, 1755-1767). These platforms offer opportunities where people can check on each other almost on a daily basis and improve their relationship. The influenced family behavior also has a direct effect on the attitude of the family members. They will always have a positive attitude towards each other and develop a culture that takes to account every person's concern rather than the individual interest.

Another positive effect of social media which allows for social interactions and gatherings is noted for its purpose of providing a common topic to the family members. They can talk about a common trending issue, for example, the comic video which has gone viral on the internet and everyone within the family structure has access to its content (Shirky, 28-41). Such events call people to gather and interact while having a common discussion. Other positive effects are noted on its ability to allow networking not only to the family members but also to those conducting businesses in different parts of the world. People can hold meetings from different localities through the video-conferencing devices or even the already mirrored Skype. This leads to the creation of a global village that exceeds the family structure. Every person can communicate freely within the family structure and also participate in the activities associated with the global economy (De Vries et al., 83-91).

Even though social media gets construed to positively affect the family structures from the dimension of behavior, attitudes, gatherings and social interactions, it also has negative consequences when opined from the same dimension. Social media encourages privacy thus making the members of the family structure to develop the behavior of keeping personal information particularly those that affect their personal lives. They feel insecure and have the notion the details about their intimate lives may leak and get posted to other social media platforms like Facebook and the What Sapp groups where many people can have access and know what is going on in their daily lives (Quan-Haase, 350-361). Even though the privacy may be opined as a security measure, it destroys trust within the family and at times may lead to people breaking up or having marital conflicts.

The other negative effect is based on the productivity level of the members of the family structure. Social media inculcates a behavior where people prefer having most of their tasks or activities accomplished with the help of technology. Therefore, chances of physical exercises are also limited, and the productivity level of most people is affected. Even as some discussion may have it that the use of social media in businesses may increase the output by reducing the task of the employees, it is conquerable that personal productivity must go hand in hand with physical exercise. On the part of the social connection, a false sense of relationship may be nurtured. It may difficult to differentiate between meaningful relationships that people have in the real world and those formed in the social media. Many at times people focus their energy on Facebook, What Sapp, Twitter and other social media platforms where they meet friends from different parts of the world. The excess time and energy spent on these platforms interfere with the real world relationship particularly those that exist within the family structures. It is not unusual to pay a courtesy call to nuclear family and find every person busy on their laptops or the mobile phones (Perloff, 363-377). Every person is concerned about the friendship and the connection they are having with their friends on social media rather than that of the family. At times someone may decline a call based on chatting with a distant friend her or she has never met.

Another negative effect which may come with the social connection is on cyber-bullying particularly to the children in the family structure. They may meet anonymous people or perpetrators whom they may trust and later fall their victims. These people may terrorize them in front of their peers and leave mental marks on them. In some scenarios, such children end up committing suicide or have severe effects on their daily lives. The attitude of the members of a family structure may also be affected negatively based on some of the violent video games they play or other social media contents which do not nurture positive relationships within the family (Hudson, 68-76). In most events, those that are usually affected are the youths and the children who grow up with an attitude that encourages violent behaviors or those that go contrary to morality. It is, therefore, advisable that parents should take a leading role in ensuring that they supervise the activities of their children to guard against the occurrences of such scenarios.

In consideration of the argued, social media exist as a platform that has both the positive and negative effects on the family structure. Most of the positive effects are premised on making life easier, for example, facilitating ease in communication through sending emails and text messages among other options. It also allows people to advance their knowledge in technology thus contributing to the expansion of a global village (Vinerean, 66). Even as these positive effects get noted there are numerous negative implications which it has on the family structure. For example, interfering with the normal family behavior where every person gets closer to the social media gadget and move further from the family members. Young people like children may also become victims of cyber-bullying due to the false relationship developed in the social media. Privacy may equally interfere with the family trust hence the genesis of marital violence or complications. It is somewhat difficult to take a stand that favors or disagree with the use of social media particularly when the argument delves into a family structure. The topic is one which is maybe opined differently by various scholars, but it is important to note that regulations need to be considered for efficacy to be realized on the manner in which social media is used. In case the platform is well used and the activities of the users given proper guidance then the merits will outdo the demerits, and many people will profit from the platform.

Conclusion

In summary, social media exists as an important platform where the users can advance their technical knowledge as well as bring the world closer to them. In the scenario of a family structure, it enables people to connect freely and nurture those behaviors that strengthen the family bonds as mirrored in the paper. Other arguments have also covered aspects of social connection and gatherings. Even though the positive effects have been noted, there were the negative implications which seemed to outdo the positive hence the recommendation for regulations and guidance to be put in place for efficacy in use to get realized.

Works Cited

De Vries, Lisette, Sonja Gensler, and Peter SH Leeflang. "Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing." Journal of interactive marketing 26.2 (2012): 83-91.

Hudson, Simon, et al. "The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees." Tourism Management 47 (2015): 68-76.

Laroche, Michel, et al. "The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty." Computers in Human Behavior 28.5 (2012): 1755-1767.

Perloff, Richard M. "Social media effects on young women's body image concerns: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research." Sex Roles 71.11-12 (2014): 363-377.

Quan-Haase, Anabel, and Alyson L. Young. "Uses and gratifications of social media: A comparison of Facebook and instant messaging." Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30.5 (2010): 350-361.

Shirky, Clay. "The political power of social media: Technology, the public sphere, and political change." Foreign affairs (2011): 28-41.

Vinerean, Simona, et al. "The effects of social media marketing on online consumer behavior." International Journal of Business and Management 8.14 (2013): 66.