Social media is everywhere, it's on people's desktops, laptops, and tablets, and it's even managed to creep inside of people's pockets and in their smartphones. Social media has become a necessity in everyone's lives. It's how they connect with the world around them. Social media creates a hub where everyone can gather and share their ideas and interests. Nowadays, social media is an instant bridge that allows them to connect instantly with other people. Social media makes it easier to connect with people because they can communicate in virtual communities, and it can bring people emotionally close. However, social media can also make it harder for adolescents to connect with people because it draws them away from the real world.
Social media makes it easier to connect with people because they can communicate in virtual communities. People share common interests, ideas, and feelings over social media which allows them to create these virtual communities. People can find all sorts of communities that they are interested in. According to Patton's article The Social Networking Express, "Social media presents tremendous opportunities for networking, collaborating, sharing best practices, communicating and connecting to a nearly unlimited pool of people with similar needs and wants, as well as to the information that may benefit you" (Patton). Whether a person is interested in photography, cooking, or fitness, they can always find something of their interest. This allows people to connect to others that share smaller interests. When a person engages him or herself in these communities, it allows them to connect with more people who are like them.
A person's interests are shared by multiple people, when a person tries to find something they are interested in they connect to other people who share their interest. This allows a person to share ideas and communicate with thousands of other people with similar interests. People can even go as far as creating their own pages on Facebook for their interests, hobbies, or ideas and feeling. This lets them make their own virtual community, and this allows them to connect with more and more people that share similar ways of thinking.
Social media makes it easier to connect with people because it can bring people emotionally close. People don't have to be close to each other in order to connect. They can be physically far apart from each other, but social media can emotionally bring them close. According to Narayanan's article SoS Social for Relief: As the Earthquake Ripped through Nepal, Social Media gave rise to a new term: Digital Humanitarianism, "During the Nepal earthquake, as phone lines jammed, Facebook activated its Safety Check feature in large parts of Nepal, and certain areas of Bangladesh, India, and Bhutan. Within 24 hours, millions of people were marked safe, and the safe notification popped up on the timelines of friends and family" (Narayanan). The Safety Check feature of Faceb...
