The Social Aspect
With technological advances on the rise, the impact of social media is hitting society from all angles.
Facebook and Twitter are two of the most widely-used social media outlets by people and the effect they have had on society are shown everyday.
Tanya Hryn, a sophomore at UMass Amherst, has been on Facebook since 2009. She said that it helped her connect with people she might not normally speak to in person.
“Whenever there’s a group project, my group members just find me on Facebook,” said Hryn. “We probably wouldn’t talk outside of class other than what was needed for the project, but on Facebook we would chat or coordinate a schedule to meet up."
Ritika Bhakhri, also a sophomore at UMass, said Facebook helped change her social life.
“Academic related events I learned of through emails, but social activities like concerts and club meetings I found out about through Facebook,” said Bhakhri.
Twitter is slowly becoming popular among society as well. Both Hryn and Bhakhri are not fans of this site because of how time-consuming it is to read each post, but other people like it because of its simplicity.
Cynthia Barrett of Cambridge, Mass. made the change from Facebook to Twitter, deactivating her Facebook account altogether.
“It’s just like a status update on Facebook. And that’s all there is to it,” Barrett said. “There’s nothing else to look at, no in-depth biography section or people writing on your wall. There aren’t pictures or videos. You control everything and only disclose what you want to disclose.”
Many are making the change to the internet instead of phone calls or in-person conversations. No matter what social media is being used, the impact of social media is evident throughout society.
