Since the creation of Six Degrees, the first recognizable social media platform back in 1997, the usage of the social media platforms has grown in size to the point where 37% of population uses them worldwide (We Are Social, 2017). This unceasing mass socialization profoundly influences society today, thus, playing a significant role in shaping its life, therefore, three popular social media platforms are selected to analyze how they affected people intensely within a certain period of time. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have affected our society within the past five years in both positive and negative aspects: Facebook, despite its popularity with worldwide online communication, is challenged with fraudulent security and cyber-bullying; …show more content…
It was first created in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes as a site for Harvard students, but later became the most popular and visited site with 34 million users by January 2008 (Bedassa, 2014). Since the introduction of Facebook, million of accounts were made; many people use it for communicating, sharing worldwide news and for commercial advertising. Communication is made easier since it does not take a long time for other people to receive it, and it is free and much better than sending a letter because it saves more time and can be done anytime and anywhere. It is to ensure that individual connections are not limited and they have the access to share stories or thoughts to different types of individuals around the world. Facebook also offers jobs for net users by sharing and collecting information needed for job finders inside or outside the country and there are no limits on how much information is …show more content…
Because of Instagram, many starting photographers, companies and marketers are able to promote their business and gain recognition (Saravanakumar & Lakshmi, 2012). In addition, according to the recent study, Instagram may help people to eat cleaner and fix their diet. In the study, the participants used Instagram as a way to gain followers and to educate them; there are also people whose health has improved since they started operating on this platform (Chung, Agapie, Schroeder, Mishra, Fogarty, Munson, 2017). However, this social networking website has its problems. Following famous rich people may cause a decrease in self-esteem and body image. In fact, in a report, which analyzed five popular social media platforms and their impact on young people’s mental health, Instagram appeared to be the most negative of them. (Royal Society for Public Health [RHPH], Young Health Movement [YHM]. 2017). The simplicity of creating fake Instagram profiles is also a problem, because it violates the platform’s terms of service (Instagram, 2017). A social experiment revealed how easy it was to