The Social Media

In the contemporary world, social media is becoming more popular,and people widely use it for a variety of reasons all around the world. It gives its users a platform through which they get to connect with different kinds of people all over the world. They get to make new friends, send messages, and share favorite pictures, songs, and sayings. Others use it to promote their businesses or offer detailed information to their clientele. With all this, it can be said that the social media has become a medium through which information is shared among people, thereby enhancing the speed and efficiency of communication. These are reasons for the statement that the social media has improved all spheres of people's lives and communication in particular.

            In the past decades, people have used mailing, phone calls and emails for communication. These ways were inconvenient regarding the delivery of the intended message. Many people did not own telephones, and it was still difficult to contact them. This was the same case with emails. Mailing was a trial and error method; sending a person a letter was a probable chance that the intended recipient would receive it or not. With technology advancement, the social media emerged, that transformed the whole aspect of interpersonal communication. With social media sites, for example, Facebook and Twitter, one can get to chat live with other people. For instance, the former has a chat tab through which a user can view his or her friends who are online and get to chat with them. Therefore, social media has made communication more easy and convenient.

            Moreover, the social media has made it possible for a person or a group of people to reach out to many others instantly. By using a single Facebook post or Tweet, a person attracts the attention of many other people, getting their opinions or responses to the message. For example, people get to ask opinion from others about the logos they can get to use for various businesses or the kind of outfit they can get to wear during certain events. Social media has become a platform through which all this is done in a fast way. In some instances, the scope that this crowdsourcing takes has been known to go beyond personal opinions. For example, in the year 2010,  when Haiti experienced an earthquake, "CloudFlower" was created, a platform used in translating the messages sent by the stranded, trapped and injured people. The messages were translated by workers and volunteers. They got the locations where the messages were sent from, and the necessary help was assumed. However, if there was no social media and only old means of communication, these activities would be impossible. Therefore, the social media has increased the amount of possibilities people have to contact each other.

            At the same time, many people all over the world are isolated from those close to them by aspects such as busy schedules, distance between them and financial constraints. In the past decades, one needed to spare some of his or her personal time to write emails and letters. Time is considered to be an expensive factor that needs to be utilized in a manner that is responsible and efficient. With the emergence of social media, time constraint has been overcome, making it easier to be in touch with distant acquaintances. One does not need to spare ample time to write emails and letters. Social media is usable in almost all forms of settings and does not need any form of preparation. For example, one can send a distant friend a message on Facebook or Twitter when traveling by bus or in an elevator. Research undertaken by the Pew Research Center  affirms that the amount of social media users has significantly increased in progressive years beginning 2010. This is due to the ease and convenience that the platform has brought to communication.

            Furthermore, the social media has transformed the style of communication making it a thing that deals with connections. The latter are made in its Web vehicles, links that connect to other sites, people, automatic feeds, and resources. Through these connections, it has provided a basis on which a community has been formed. The latter is based on relationships and fellowships with people who seem to share common goals, attitudes, and interests. Besides, the communities have been known to create goodwill of the members of the organization and those that host these communities. This can be rooted back to effective and quick communication. No one wants to be a part of a community where communication is faced with many barriers and is not frequent. Many of these communities are 'virtual',  and their members seldom meet in person. They are robust in many ways as most of the barriers have been eliminated. For example, many business people use the social media to hold official meetings online without them coming together physically.

            One of the main problems that people had previously had was the manner in which picture messages were sent from one person to another; the most common means at the time were emails and letters. The latter took a lot of time depending on the location of the recipient. With the emergence of phones, the issue was not solved. They did not have applications that could support picture messages. However, with the advent of the social media, this issue was resolved. It created a means through which picture messages and other multimedia contents can be sent. For example, during the 9/11 attacks, pictures and videos of the accident went viral and circulated in the social media throughout the whole world. People did not have to rely on TVs to get a glimpse of the same. The speed at which the multimedia content can be spread is fast hence people are always updated with the events and happenings that occur in the world. Being updated implies that the media of communication is fast and convenient.

Conclusion

The social media has transformed communication in many ways. It has made it more fast and convenient, hence making it reliable. Regarding convenience, time factor has been solved, the need to travel has been reduced, the cost reduced, and the number of people reached has widened. In being fast, the message to be sent is delivered instantly and got by the recipients, thus, there is no need to wait. Therefore, social media has transformed the communication process and made it easier, more convenient and fast.