When It Is All Said & Done . .

I personally stand on the fence as to weather or not social media does more harm than it does good in our society. I believe that it really just depends on who is using social media as well as what they are using it for. Social media in the right hands can benefit our society in a multiplicity of ways. One way social media can be helpful is by connecting those that have either lost contact with one another or who are in search of someone. For example, Utah native, Jenessa Simons recently used social media to find her birth mother. Jenessa posted a picture with some information about her birth mom and in just three short days the picture had over 70,000 shares. Since then many people have followed in her footsteps and successfully succeeded in finding there birth parents as well as estranged relatives'.

Social media also helps society through many other things such as politics. Many people use social media to keep track of current events in today's politics. Everything from live tweeting debates to Facebook like pages have helped to increase people's interest in politics. Sites such as ksl.com suggest that 58% of Americans get most of their political news from social media. Social media is perfect for those who like to stay updated on politics because they can access it anywhere. May it be via email, Facebook, Twitter or any other SNS for that matter. However, not all people use social networking sites for a positive cause such as Jenessa did or to keep up with politics.

Social media can be just as harmful as it is helpful in the wrong hands. There have been many people who use these sites to cyber bully people. Take for example the Steubenville rape case. The 16 year old victim is constantly being bullied by her peers. They send her tweets and Facebook post saying that they are going to cause bodily harm to her. One girl, the cousin of one of the charged suspects tweeted to the girl "you ripped my family apart, you made my cousin cry, so when I see you b***h it's gone be a homicide". That just goes to show you that he effects of social media just depend on the situation.


Social media is constantly in our faces thanks to the advancements in technology. With so many people having access to SNS its hard to control what affects social media has on society. I feel as if you control what affects social media can have on you. As far as society, social media doesn't corrupt society for it was already corrupted long before social media. Social media just helps the cause when in the wrong hands. In the right hands we can began to better ourselves and our society.