Social Media or Conventional Media

"Necessity is the mother of Invention" this quote aptly describes a situation where people expect for a change, "Media" is one such change in the field of Technology which has grown over the years by leaps and bounds.

A question might haunt the mind of my readers that why the word "Media" holds importance in the present context. The reason being it has the power to change, to communicate and it provides a platform of variance. "Media" in itself has come as a boon for the entire world provided it is used in a proper way.

The world is shrinking, its boundaries are slowly being invisible and the people are better connected than ever. The reason being "Social Media" which provides a platform for interaction, pooling in ideas, pouring news from all over the world, updating one's intelligent quotient and increasing interactivity and globalism within the touch of a button. Social Media has a great impact on human life. It is a platform that gives one immense freedom without any set of rules and regulations. The use of Social Media is on its hike nowadays, it has driven the world through a new surge of applications that helps in communicating and leads to growing connectivity starting from Facebook , Youtube , DailyMotion , Twitter, Tumble etc.

PROS OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

1) World wide connectivity: Sites like twitter, facebook, pinterest, linkedIn, Skype are some of the famous sites that are popping out over and over again to increase interactivity over the web with multiplying effects like

1. Seeking new jobs.
2. Locating Assistance.
3. Accessing news in real time.
4. Receiving support from likeminded people.

In many ways these connectivity helps us in building innate relationships with the world as a whole just like we develop our relations with our family members.

2) Commonality of Interest: Social Media is a media which does not force an individual to go beyond the interests of an individual for example if one is a book lover, a chess aficionado or a game lover one can interact with those who share the same interests.

3) Real Time Information Sharing: Nowadays we find that each and every individual prefers to navigate through the web pages for fulfilling one's own demands. These may include teachers-students studying online through various sites then patients searching for some of the best doctors worldwide and so on.

4) Promotes Electronic Commerce: In modern times people seem to be least interested to go to the markets for shopping when sites like 'Flipkart', 'Amazon', 'Shopclues' and 'SnapDeal' can serve their purpose within the click of the button. Thus people are giving a shift from the conventional media that includes pamphlets, brochures or posters to various advertising sites to increase their business.

5) Increased news cycle speed: Recent reports states that 'Twitter' is one of the main sites for breaking news. This statement makes it evident that we no need to wait for one long day to know what is happening globally as we have electronic papers coming up that has led a shift from the normal black and white papers. This has also led to the development of an instantaneous news cycle as everything from terrorist attacks to local area news are available on the social media creating awareness amidst the masses.

CONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

1. Backlash: This happens when we are not aware of our usage of freedom of speech which includes posting of some highly offensive views in the social media that might hurt the religious sentiments of a religion creating a long term impact on the minds of an individual. So an individual must keep an eye on his or her speech because words once spoken cannot be taken back.
2. Diminishing privacy: Certain networking sites require constant upgradation in their security settings which makes it difficult for the users to enable their settings for appropriate privacy.
3. Cybercrimes or Bullying: One of the major disadvantage of social media. Providing relevant details of an individual can pose a major threat to an individual like hacking an account, creating false identity which might harm an individual.
4. Isolation: Social media creates complete isolation from ones surroundings even though it provides a platform for global communication. Seeing the pros and cons of social media, it depends on us where we drive the technology. But yes Social Media definitely has an upper hand over conventional media and our drive for 'Digital India' will be successful if we have Social Media in our pockets and not the Conventional Media.

-Satarupa Mukherjee