Psy talk contd...

Anmol Singh-Psychologist & Counselor, Chandigarh

First let us discuss the usage of social media. One of the main uses is to interact with the audience to create awareness of their brand or service, with the main idea of creating a two-way communication system where the customer can interact back providing feedback is just one example. Let us highlight some recent statistical data. There are 3.2 billion social media users worldwide. Facebook is the most popular social media applications with 68% subscribers. Users spend on an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social networks and messaging. Does it alarm you? Indeed it does. 73% of marketing is done through social media. 49% of consumers claim that they depend on influencer recommendations on social media to take informed purchasing decision.  500 million daily active stories worldwide on Instagram. 91% of all social media users access social channels via mobile devices. Does this astonish you? Indeed it does. Well that’s the way of life now.

Younger generation indulges to make online connections, blindly following strangers, dealing with hate comments and negativity on public domains ignoring the ones present in real life. Students use mobile more than their books, people greet via messages instead of calling or greeting in person, even pets have their own accounts and many more interesting happenings. Happy slaves of the technology.

This wide scale use of internet has its merits and de-merits. There can be numerous debates about how effective social media is for everyone and is the need of the hour. It is a topic that divides opinions- some people think it’s an amazing tool but others are worried about the impact it has on people’s lives. But keep aside that and focus on what will be explained here. To start with the merits, first up, technological literacy i.e. all social media is relying on advanced information and communication that seamlessly works to build and support across the globe. Everyone has become handy at using mobile devices that anything is just a click away. It provides with a platform for online sharing of abundant knowledge among people sitting miles apart from each other. Secondly students can benefit by enhancing their thought processing after getting exposed to variety of opinions from experts worldwide, which I consider to be an immense boost to their skills. They can form solid global connections and get proper guidance by following the thinkers and great educators at their profiles. It gives them a broader perspective of everything they learn. Thirdly, social media brings people together in the form of different networking applications, where they can converse freely and speak their views. They can form new relations on virtual dating applications, meet their old friends of course, interact with unknown people just to get an insight of their mind and express feeling of belongingness to their loved ones. Social media is a big window of opportunity to widen business, another important point. It could always be a fun and creative method of doing your business to promote or enterprise yourself all over. It allows employees to discuss and share ideas, ask questions, post latest updates and news, and share links. It helps to improve business reputation as well. It helps in marketing one’s business worldwide. Fifth, the perfect advertising spot, it attracts/draws attention. Anything which is appealing to the eye and is trending in society always lures a person to either read, know, explore, venture, use or just plainly follow. It helps bloggers, to influence people by their experiences and work. It also motivates others to follow their passions. Social media is full of entertainment and I think a lot of people are busy laughing their guts out over funny videos being shared. Social media somehow also helps to boost self-esteem for an individual, as being afraid to come out in open, they can express their thoughts online through video sharing domains. Now I’m not much knowledgeable about how finance works, but social media creates opportunities for monetization. Being glued to internet can be comforting too as everything is just within the grasp of everyone. There are actually a lot of things which can be done via social media, but then again that’s not what I’m trying to contemplate.

to be contd....