Friday, December 17, 2010

The Impact Of Social Media On Our Popular Culture

Today, communication has evolved tremendously since the creation of "newer" forms of social media. Traditional social media like the television, newspaper, and the radio are surrendering faster and faster as more forms of social media takes their place. People began to take on the core ideas of social media and embraced it in a rapid pace where we have not seen ever in history. For that reason, it has lead to numerous changes in society which includes the social culture change, the increase in online presence, and the trend in marketing cell-phones, just to name a few.
Over time since the turn of the century, new forms of communication are being developed faster and faster by years. Websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and more began to emerge during the last couple years. Next, these new social services would soon to alter the way we socialize with our friends, family members, and colleagues.  Today, these popular websites have earned themselves a worthy position among social media. Many folks can tell that there are tons of differences in today’s social culture.  This is due to the extensive exposure to social media that is literally integrated into our daily routine.  According to the encyclopedia, this change can be directly related to the way we communicate, First, cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is the means of human interaction through which cultural characteristics— whether customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws, or other patterns—are created and shared… In a sense, cultures are the “residue” of social communication.” With this being said, it is very important to understand that the changes we acknowledge today is obviously the by-product from the increasing use of social media such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. To this date, the evolution of our culture has yet to slow down because the market still has the potential to capture more users and maintain growth rather quickly. To emphasize, the number of Facebook users are increasing from millions in the single digit to almost 500 million users at rates from 15.4% to 2872%, depending on the country’s statistics.
Apart from after effects of social media on our culture, it has also created a great impact on the cell-phone business. Cell-phones you see today can range from an old fashion flip-phones to sophisticated smart-phones focused on utilizing social media services. Due to this reason, cell-phones are no longer used merely for oral communication, but also for text messages to alert the friends of the user about the activities they are up to. Slowly, many other features such as a camera, Facebook mobile, and Twitter services became available on smart-phones to assist the people more easily communicate with their close ones. These signals are clear to indicate the rise of social media .
As of the moment, it is safe to bet that social media is here to stay, and to integrate completely into our popular culture. From the information in the encyclopedia, our increasing use of social media is expected to alter our culture. Soon, the market that revolves around this new found culture such as that of cell phone and other media devices will surely move forward as well. All in all, social media would definitely be consider as a major impact we have seen so far in the 21st century, and according to the statistics, its growth rate is not going to slow down any time soon.