On this, the second annual Social Media Day, here’s a list of (some of) the positives and negatives that have come from social media.

The Cons:
- Huge increase in advertisements inundating every sphere of our lives
- Possibility for constant distraction
Ex: We watch TV, text, and surf the Internet all at the same time
- Global homogenization
- Impersonal nature of Generation Z communications
- Increased redundancy: there are now hundreds of people all talking about or doing the same things
- Loss of privacy
- Less reliable information (due to lack of oversight)
- We now know too much about people
Ex: Anthony Weiner’s Twitter photograph debacle; people’s constant status updates
- Dangerous
Ex: Social media updating and driving

The Pros:
- Popular!
- Global
- Universally accessible / open to vast numbers of people
- Facilitates mass communication
- Fosters (global) sense of community
- Enables people to see what’s going on / what people are thinking about in a completely different culture
- Allows for free exchange of ideas
- Created an entire industry of new job opportunities
- Maintain relationships with people you might not otherwise
- Large numbers of people are forging relationships via social networks (dating, marriages)
- You better hop on board because it’s where we’re headed anyway

Qualities that can be both good and bad:
- Powerful: Able to topple governments (revolution) vs. highlight injustices
- News spreads faster!  Whether it’s true or false…

Most of the above can be subjective as pros or cons depending on each individual’s opinions.  Please take our list as such and feel free to suggest any others you may think of, or argue for the movement of one from one list to another.

It’s clear that there definite positives and negatives associated with social media.  There seems to be no need to come down on one side or the other in terms of whether social media itself is good or bad…because it’s not going anywhere.

Here are a couple articles from today about the effects of social media:
8 Ways Social Media Has Changed Our Lives
Social media day: Did Twitter and Facebook really build a global revolution?
The Positives of Social Media

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