Social media websites, like Twitter or Facebook, have managed to revolutionize the whole idea of how most people interact. They offer instant access to distinct individuals or groups, allowing them to connect with one another no matter the timeframe or geographic location. Additionally to the personal applications, they might serve as a way of connecting potential clients with various businesses. While social media websites provide great benefits (probably the reason why they are so well known), they will also “offer” some important negative “results”, which people should know about before signing up.
Low Cost
A lot of social media websites can be used free of charge, while other ones will only charge a small fee. This will allow a great amount of people to access them, no matter their social status. For most people, social media will mean communicating with family members or friends without having the pay large phone bills. For companies, social networking will allow them to find possible clients and also notice market demographics for a very small investment.
Connections
Social media will often allow people to get in touch not only with their “friends”, but with their friends as well – various individuals who you may otherwise never get to know. Not only will this increase the circle of your friends, but it may lead to various things such as knowledge about new passions which you may not otherwise consider or possible job connections. From the business point of view, this interconnectedness will mean that word about your services may spread quite fast, and satisfied clients speaking about your services may reach thousands of new possible clients in a small period of time.
Harassment
The interconnectivity of social media websites is considered among the biggest selling points, but it may come with a significant drawback as well. If you are not too careful, you may leave your private details open to stalkers or cyber-bullying, as unwelcome people may get in touch with you through social websites. It will allow internet scams to flourish as well, and if you aren`t too careful about your personal info, you may even have your identity stolen. In a lot of situations, social media websites have many security measures in place for preventing this kind of instances, but it may happen.
Addiction
If you will allow it, social media websites may completely consume your whole life. New people may request to be added all the time and old “friends” post updates and polls on a regular basis; all this activity may turn into an important expenditure of time. Most people are laughing about the addiction of social networking, but websites such as ComputerWorld will in fact report that a specific percentage of social users become almost obsessed with social media websites.