Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Use

The internet has led to the development of communication technologies which have
significantly increased the manner and ways in which people send and receive information.
One such communication technology is social media. Apart from providing opportunities for
networking, social media platforms have also become sources of information. This paper
examines the benefits and drawbacks of using social media as sources of information and
how social media use can affect modern workplaces.

Advantages and disadvantages of easily obtainable information
One characteristic of social media platforms is the speed and ease with which it
allows one to obtain information. Such ease of obtaining information has advantages and
disadvantages. One advantage of easily obtainable information is convenience (Drahosova &
Balco, 2017). For instance, one can get information on the cheapest restaurants in town with a
mere click of a button.
The major disadvantage of easily obtainable information is that some of the
information may be inaccurate or unreliable (Chatterjee & Agarwal, 2016). Such information
has negative effects on one’s decision-making. Additionally, social media links may direct a
person to websites that are unsafe and which infect one’s communication devices with
malware. Easily obtainable information can also be disadvantageous if it involves sensitive
information (Drahosova & Balco, 2017). For instance, it can be extremely sad to receive
information about the death of a loved one through horrific images of an auto accident shared
on social media.

Advantages and disadvantages of social media

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Advantages of social media facilitating teamwork and working from home. Thanks to
social media, people can work together without necessarily being in the same physical space
(Drahosova & Balco, 2017). Social media also enables easy exchange of information and
communication. It can also be used to market one’s services.
A major disadvantage of social media is lack of security. One’s account can be
hacked and personal information stolen and used by unauthorized parties (Drahosova &
Balco, 2017). Another disadvantage of social media is information overload. Additionally,
constant use of social media to get information can lead to internet addiction.

Use of social media in career

An examination of these advantages and disadvantages of social media helps one to
improve the way that they use social media in their career. For instance, one can use social
media to market their professional services. One can also use social media get the
information that they need to perform their work. However, in view of the social media use
dangers, such as the risk of internet addition and data security, it is important to use social
media sparingly. When one uses social media for a long time, they risk negatively affecting
their workplace productivity (Chan et al., 2018). Extensive use of social media can also lead
to deterioration of one’s physical and mental wellbeing. It is also important to take security
precautions to ensure that unauthorized people do not access one’s personal data.
Credibility issues associated with information presented on social media
There are significant credibility issues that arise from information found on the
internet. Before the internet became a major source of information, people primarily got
information from reporters, writers, and journalists. Before being presented to the public, the
information had to be verified by multiple people to make sure that it was accurate and the
sources used were reliable. With social media, anyone can be a source of information. A lot

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of information is presented to the public without any form of verification for accuracy or
reliability of the sources (Chatterjee & Agarwal, 2016). Due to these practices, a lot of the
information that is found in social media often lacks credibility.

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References

Chan, T. M., Stukus, D., Leppink, J., Duque, L., Bigham, B. L., Mehta, N., & Thoma, B.
(2018). Social media and the 21st-century scholar: how you can harness social media
to amplify your career. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 15(1), 142-
148.
Chatterjee, R., & Agarwal, S. (2016, March). Twitter truths: Authenticating analysis of
information credibility. In 2016 3rd International Conference on Computing for
Sustainable Global Development. (pp. 2352-2357). IEEE.
Drahošová, M., & Balco, P. (2017). The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of use of
social media in European Union. Procedia Computer Science, 109, 1005-1009.