Michael James J.

Libre

BSECE – 3

The Digital Self Activity

A. Purpose of the Study

Social media has become a part of our everyday lives. We share photos, status updates,
and even live video feeds on social networks. What does this mean for society? Dr. Adil
Jamil Zaru’s journal, Effect of social media on Society, explores social media’s influence
on the minds of our people and identifies how social networks impact the public’s
academic cultivation, entrepreneurial endeavors, and careers.

Zaru’s purpose for the study, for me, was intriguing and stimulating. It gave me feelings
of motivation from the author on his need to study the impact of such a new concept
and invention that was introduced hardly a few decades and is already grasping the
minds and attention of most of the world’s population. It was hilarious how ironically
the answer for one purpose that he seeks is one google click away, pertaining to the
various social networking sites that society mostly uses. Google would easily regurgitate
the websites with the most traffic on its first page.

As a person who is also a victim of social network conquest, there are many reasons
why I participate in social media activities. Sometimes it is a spontaneous urge, other
times a social pressure or a fear of missing out. Determining its impact on me, the
youth, and society, in general, is debatable. Its pros and cons would also lead to
uncertainty. I view social as a tool. How we use it, how often would use it, and for what
purpose we use it changes the values from its gray shade.

B. Methodology

Zaru’s methodology utilized the purposive sampling technique, consequently making

use of one hundred respondents for the study. Questionnaires containing nine
questions were distributed among Indian citizens and as a Filipino having already read
the journal, my answers in comparison have few similarities. I would point out that the
difference in results is since the study focuses on Indians, fifty percent of which in the
study were around the ages of thirty-five to fifty. These respondents would obviously
have a different set of beliefs, cultures, and demeanors toward social media.

Personally, I find it frustrating how these respondents have such double standards. How
can one claim that social networking has aided them and the world, while also having
great opposite views and standing towards it? To my knowledge, India is an affluent
mobile phone manufacturing country, manufacturing phones from brands like Samsung,
Xiaomi, Realme, and OnePlus. Social networking is an integral part of the functions of a
phone. The responses to the survey, for me, just boil down to all-out infuriation.

Citing back to my previous mention of how social media’s “effect” on society, is but the
fault of the people using it and how they use it. Social media is but a grey area, and
this study should clearly focus more on how people’s use of social media is affecting
others. To me, social networking is a stage where you can tell a joke and make the
whole audience laugh, do tricks to amaze them, or take out an automated rifle from a
guitar bag and shoot them. It is a surprise. There is a slow reaction. The question is,
who is on the stage in an auditorium where everyone has a stage, and everyone is an
audience?

C. Participants
People of all ages made up the participants the researchers selected. Students,
employed individuals, and job seekers. They went to several offices in India, including
the Secretariat for the NYSC, the National Bank, the National Defense College, and
Cyber Cafes.
The age range of the respondents, 50%, was 35 to 50. 20% were between the ages of
10 and 20, and 20% were older than 20. and 35 and 10% for people over 55. The data
suggests that those aged 35 to 50 were most frequently using social media platforms,
this could also mean that people in that age bracket are the ones most negatively
impacted or positively. Social media could be a reason for distraction in the workplace,
but it could also prove helpful in networking with other people in the same interests.
Surprisingly, 16% of respondents are students, 19% are members of the Corps, 24%
were unemployed, and 41% are civil servants. There truly is a noticeable percentage of
people in India that use social media, however this could apply to other countries as
well.
The people of India share similar findings as to my assumptions about what social
media platform is most likely used, reasons why Indians join social networking, their
views on social media impact, and the cons that social media carries with it.

Personally, the findings are not surprising as a person can just ask themselves about it
and achieve close results. If I were to ask my entire family, including my relatives about
what app they use the most, I would bet that ninety percent of them would answer
Facebook. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, share some functions, but offer
the same thing: they are a platform to communicate thoughts, opinions, content, and
creations to everybody. And going back to what I have mentioned before, no matter
how many times I stress it, social media is not a bad thing, it is how we do with it that
matters. Sure, there are crimes committed, and it can ruin your life or relationships, but
social media is nothing but a reflection of the real world.
What I recommend is to change focus and instead of looking at social media through a
magnifying glass or microscope, direct that apparatus to the people. The effects of
social media begin with the person. If we desire to mitigate and stop social networks’
negative influence, then we should begin pruning at the root source. My additional
recommendation that is not mentioned in the journal, albeit farfetched and a tad bit
extreme, is content and user regulation, something Facebook constantly fails to do,
although their reasoning is fair. I believe that we need a workforce trained for the
specific purpose of monitoring, regulating, and protecting the rights of its users and the
community of the platform. I know we already have this but the people in it are small in
numbers and unrecognized. We need to strengthen this department so that users have
more access to reporting illegal, stolen, and harmful content. Remember, what we
share on the internet is either a gift or a weapon.

Recommendation:
If there is one recommendation to be made, the government should order social media
platform companies make their apps less distracting to the populace.