Social Media and Socialization

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Findings 

Socialization and Social Media Matrix

Instructions: Complete the survey by answering the questions below. Additionally, survey four other people in various age groups. Use this data to complete the analysis.

Social Media Survey	Self (your age group)	Interviewee #1 (15-19 years old)	Interviewee #2 (20-29 years old)	Interviewee #3 (30-45 years)	Interviewee #4 (46 plus)
List Demographic Information-AgeSexRace/EthnicityIncome	Age-21Sex- femaleRace- BlackIncome- Nil	17MaleCaucasianNil	26FemaleAsian$350/month	33MaleBlack$550/month	51MaleCaucasian$756/month
What types of phones do you have?What features? Daily usage?	Smartphone CameraInternetCallingTextsSocial media-ApplicationsYes	Smartphone CameraInternetCallingTextsSocial media-Applications Yes	Smartphone CameraInternetCallingTextsSocial media-ApplicationsYes	Smartphone CameraInternetCallingTextsSocial media-ApplicationsYes	Cellular phone CallingSmsCamera Yes
Do you use email?For what purpose? Daily usage?	Yes AssignmentsSocial media- account creationCommunication Yes	Yes Social Media account creation No	Yes AssignmentsSocial media- account creationCommunication Yes	Yes Work related activitiesCommunicationSocial media access Yes	Yes Work reports CommunicationWork-coordination- schedules  Yes
Do you blog?What types of blog?Why? Daily usage?	No	No	YesFashion blogs Related to my jobNo	No	YesFarming blogs Personal interestNo
Do you use Facebook?Twitter or other social networking? Why? Daily?	Yes  Connect with friends Yes	No InstagramSnap chatSkype   Share with friends yes	Yes TwitterFacebookSnapchatInstagram  Observe market trends Yes	Yes Facebook TwitterSkype  Network with other professionalsNo	No  TwitterSkype  Network with friends No
Out of all social interactions you typically have in an average day, what percentage are through the use of social media?	50%	90%	70%	25%	15%
Do you value the social interactions you have through social media the same as those that are not through social media?Why or why not?	Yes  Keeps me connected	Yes Easy sharing and more friends	Yes  Wider market reach and connection	No  There are enough people I interact with in person	No Social media cannot replace the relationships that are already established
Why do you use social media?(List purpose)	Connect with friendsShare pictures and storiesCommunication	Share video stories, pictures and current trendsCommunication	Marketing platform, market analysis and survey, client feedback platformcommunication	Market research and  networkingCommunication	NetworkingCommunication
How do you see social media impacting your life? How might the use of social media impact society?	There’s better connection with friends after high school and college Socialization is broader and more diverse compared to when it was limited to people interacting face to face in a certain geographical area.	Sharing of experiences beyond the geographical borders and society. We connect and make new friends away from the normal social routine. Exchange of social cultures now goes beyond borders with access to smartphones.	Social media makes my job have a broader market and more clients for the company products. Shopping and marketing is done in the comfort of our homes. For the society, socialization is made easier and cheap as well as convenient in terms of logistics of travelling each time one requires to see someone who is far off.	Social media is basically a platform for connecting and networking for purposes of business and growth Social media opens up the world to me in a way that I get to know what goes on in other parts of the globe, what people in my profession do that I could learn. It is basically a platform of learning for the society as whole when used correctly	Connects me with friends who we lost touch due to logistical reasons like job postings and other life factorsSocial media has both positive and negative impacts to the society. Young people are very gullible and tend to give into pressure from peers, social media increases the reach of peer pressure and if not careful the moral fabric of the society will weaken and eventually break.
How do you see social media impacting the socialization of this generalization?	Socialization in this society is made very simple and at the same time complicated. It is not very easy to know who is genuine or not when you meet people on social media. Eventually it gets really difficult to tell apart the intentions of genuine people and those who are not.	Socialization is very easy and fun with social media. It opens the world to you at the comfort of your home or school. Social media is the solution to all the barriers to socialization of people in the world.	Socialization is better with social media and easier. It takes people like us to the clients on a very personal level without costing much or inconveniencing the client. Socialization in this generation is very dynamic with social media and beneficial at the same time.	Socialization with social media has been taken to a whole other level. It is very difficult to monitor what the young people can access as everything on social media is accessible. In as much as social media makes socialization easy, it is hard to protect the young generation from dangerous socialization activities.	Social media when used for the right purposes is very good for socialization. However, social media is damaging the way people socialized before social media. People have no people skills left, hiding behind keyboards and typing away does little good for the social life of people.

Summary

Social media influences the quality of social interactions for humans. It enhances the speed and ease of communication for people but reduces the quality of social interactions. People find themselves in a situation where they are better acquainted with the people they talk to over social media platforms than those people they live around. This is a truth for the younger generation. The older generation values social interaction on a personal level and find it more important than the interactions young people value over social media. According to the survey, the use of social media has taken over the lives of young people and the older generation sees the danger in the development. Young people in their spirit of adventure tend to misuse social media and the cases of stress and depression cannot be controlled just like the activities of the youth on social media cannot be controlled.

Introduction

Social media is a tool of socialization in the society. It is a new form of socialization that the youth has embraced with a speed that the elder people cannot keep up. The survey will therefore be undertaken to evaluate the depth of the influence of social media on socialization.

Context description

The survey is conducted in an area where people have equal opportunities and knowledge about the presence of social media as a form of communication and interaction.

Participants and date collection method

The survey will be conducted among people with a fair chance of access to the social media platforms. This includes people who have access to the smartphones, tablets and internet. They should be people who can afford it and understand its use fairly well.

The methods used to collect data were questionnaires and interview schedules. The questionnaires were issued through email and in person while the interview schedules were administered face to face as well as over the phone.

Description of findings

The respondents presented a picture of the influence of social media on the socialization in the society. Most young people have replaced human interactions with social media as a form of socialization. More of their personality is put out on social media while for the older people, personal interaction is more effective and important. Social media is only important to the older people when they need to expand their business and corporate reach while for the young people it is a platform for popularity.

Analysis of findings

Socialization and Social Media Survey Analysis

Instructions: Once you have completed the surveys and compared the results, answer the following questions:

1. How much of an impact does social media have on the socialization of people that completed the survey?

Social media has a great impact on people as per the survey. People use social media to share their lives with others through experiences, stories and pictures as well as life skills. It is easy to find a person with knowledge about a subject on social media compared to actually being on the ground looking for the same. In as much as social media is seen as a savior of socialization on the younger generations, the older people are skeptical on the advantage social media has over the old methods of socialization. The older generations still believe in the direct socialization methods judging by even their use of social media at the moment. They reconnect with people they already knew before social media took over the socialization (Positives and Negatives of Social Media, 2015). Social media has created a big impact on the younger generations in the socialization methods available in the society today as per the respondent’s responses. However, people do not agree that social media socializes people (Havel, 2013). It is seen as an inhibition to real socialization.

2. How did the impact differ among the various age groups? Why do you think this is the case? Explain.

The younger generation recorded the greatest impact. This could be because they tend to want to do things differently compared to those who were before them, in this case the older generations. The older generations are slow to trust the young people with such exposure for fear of over exposure. They only use social media when it is beneficial to them. The younger people use social media to explore, discover and find some sense of validation from their peers for doing what they deem interesting and fashionable. Everything they do, they share on social media on every chance they get. This difference in purpose of use of social media translates to the level and reach of impact among the generations. For the young people social media is life while for the older people social media is just part of life.

3. Explain how social media affected the people’s social interaction. Using information from your text and the readings, explain why social interaction is so important to humans.

People’s social interaction has changed a great deal with advent of social media. People have shifted many conversations that were formally held on a face to face basis to the social media platforms now available (Q., 2014). People nowadays would rather have a conversation on social media as they go about their businesses rather than meet and converse. People find it easier to use social media to save time and money that would be used in travelling. Social media has dealt a blow to social interaction. People tend to be very connected on social media platforms while on the other hand they do not talk and connect with the people they see every day. Social interaction has been replaced largely by social media interactions (Knight, 2013). People find that they have limited avenues to air their feelings and social media being the only avenue, cases of depression are on the rise according to Knight. Social interaction is essentially important for survival for humans. Social interaction is important for humans to maintain their sanity (latest, 2012). In essence, social interactions shape the way humans learn to coexist and get along.

Similarities and differences in social media usage across age groups.

Similarities

Networking and connection appeared across all age groups. The younger people without intending to, create networks with other younger people across the world. Connection was also common across all age groups as people confessed to using social media to communicate for either social reasons or professional reasons or both. Communication was common to all age groups. Most of the people using social media are comfortable promoting their professions using the various platforms.

Differences

The intensity of sharing on social media was more common and recurrent with the younger people. The older people share less on social media and more on personal basis considering the activity that they recorded on social media usage.

The type of use of social media also differed across the age groups. The younger people use social media for everything they do while the older generation is limited to acquiring and sharing only important information. 

The social media use is rather intense up to early thirties with those below using more than two social media platforms at the same time. This usage reduces as people grow older. This can be largely attributed to the period during which social media was introduced to its users.

Conclusion

Social media has an effect on social interaction. Most of it according to many scholars is negative as it is not well monitored and controlled. It exposes the youth to addiction as well as dangers of being involved in behavior that is dangerous like substance abuse and immorality. Most of the negative effects are on the youth as the older generation has not embraced social media like the young people have.

References

Havel, E. (2013, July 29). The Blog. Retrieved from Social Media Does Not Make Anyone Socialized: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3660549

Knight, R. (2013, Spetember 20). Is social media driving people away from real Interaction? Retrieved from Innovation Insights: insights.wired.com/m/blogpost?id=6544125%3ABlogPost%3A57832

latest, H. (2012, September 14). THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL INTERACTION TO HUMAN HEALTH. Retrieved from https://www.hebiofeedback.co.uk/hebf-latest/the-importance-of-socil-interaction-to-human-health/

Positives and Negatives of Social Media. (2015, May 18). Retrieved from VOICE OF JOURNALISTS: https://www.voiceofjournalists.com/positives-and-negatives-of-social-media/

Q., J. (2014, August 13). What Impact has Social Media Truly had on Society. Retrieved from SOCIAL MEDIA: https://www.business2community.com/socialmedia/impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685#M86bQ7JLDMU9HHjo.97