Social media has always been a very interesting subject to me because every individual and every generation views this platform differently. It is a constantly growing platform and is one of the most popular leisure activities among adults (Bányai et al., 2017). Social media can be very job dependent as some people use it professionally, some people use it personally, and some use it for the social aspect of life. In my opinion, there is not an exact explanation for what a perfect social presence should look like. Personally, my social media presence is about myself, my personal interests and to keep in communication with friends and family. My professional identity is not portrayed on any of my social media accounts, as all of them are private and only for the people whom I am close with in my life.
In terms of the professional ethical standards of social media, I think it can be a great tool for businesses if used correctly. As defined by Kaczmarczyk et., al (2013) e-professionalsim is the attitudes and behaviours that reflect traditional professional paradigms but are manifested through digital media. More people are inclined to learn about a business if it is properly advertised on social media, rather than using the daily paper for example. According to Dutta, in the Harvard business review (2010) there are three reasons in which businesses can embrace social media. First being, they are highly affordable and accessible for people to access what your personal brand is within the company. Secondly, they allow for quick engagement with customers and lastly, they give you an opportunity to learn from indirect feedback. Although these are suggestions for a beneficial professional use of social media, if used incorrectly social media can be detrimental to a businesses identity.
Although, the positive ways it can be used, there is limitations to having these platforms become a main part of every day life. Seventy-six percent of adolescent Instagram users visit the site on a daily basis, with 60% reporting that they do so several times per day, consistently 74% of Facebook users visit the site daily, including about half who do so several times a day (Perrin and Andersson, 2019). When using social media, individuals tend to follow their idols, the famous people they think live the perfect life and they strive to be and live in a similar way. This creates an unrealistic world and it leads to people being afraid to show their true side including their flaws and doubts about themselves. This can be explained by stigmatization theory which is defined by Goffman (1974), as something that is socially devalued and associated with negative beliefs and conceptions. For example, many studies show that eating disorders and depression appear to be stigmatized due to a belief of greater personal controllability (Robinson et al., 2018).
As we can see in Figure 1, there is a vast amount of people who visit social media sites several times per day and it is beginning to consume the lives of individuals.
Figure 2 is showing the responses from individuals aged 18-24 who use each social media platform.
The number of ways in which social media can be used is countless, therefore when using these sites, you need to first determine how you want to express yourself and then determine what the purpose of the platform is for you as an individual or business. The digital world is becoming a routine part of everyday life for countless hours and it is paramount t to understand and educate yourself on the positive and negative effects when using these platforms.
References
Bányai F, Zsila Á, Király O, Maraz A, Elekes Z, Griffiths MD, et al. (2017) Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample. Plus One. 12(1): e0169839. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169839
Dutta, S. (2010, November 1). What’s your personal social media strategy? Retrieved from https://eurooepmc.org/article/med/21049685
Goffman, Ervin. 1986. Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon & Schuster, New York
Kaczmarczyk, J. M., Chuang, A., Dugoff, L., Abbott, J. F., Cullimore, A. J., Dalrymple, J., . . . Casey, P. M. (2016). E-Professionalism: A New Frontier in Medical Education. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 25(2), 165-170. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2013.770741
Perrin, A., & Anderson, M. (2020, July 31). Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/
Robinson, P., Turk, D., Jilka, S., & Cella, M. (2018). Measuring attitudes towards mental health using social media: Investigating stigma and trivialization. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 54, 51-58. doi:10.1007/s00127-018-1571-5
Comments