We live in a day and age where the world is at our fingertips. You can know a person from the other side of the world without ever meeting face to face. By combining Twitter and GIS (geomatics information system) urban planning becomes more efficient than it has ever been. Social media is changing the world. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Blackmail exists, cyber-bullying exists and identity theft exists. The worst part these problems are not even the tip of the iceberg. However there are positive impacts that social media has made. For example giving people jobs, strengthening relationships, and more. Let's start with the positive side.

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If you are a youtuber you could make a living out of it. With a little bit of skill and a lot of luck, your job can be filming, editing, and posting videos for ( potentially) millions of people to see. If you are Instagram famous, you take artsy photos and take sponsor deals. If you have enough followers you could (if you’re lucky) get sponsoring deals with big brands like Disney, YouTube Red, etc. You will be your own brand. One example, Zoe Sugg (better known as Zoella), has over 15 million subscribers on her YouTube channels. Because of her Youtube fame, she has started a beauty range, penned three books, and started a clothing line with her brother ThatcherJoe (Joe Sugg) called Sugg Life. Zoella is more than a name: it’s a brand. But there are other ways that social media is changing the world.

 

Professor Monica Wachowicz from UNB (University of New Brunswick) has figured out a way to take urban planning to the next level. Tweets based on language, positivity, negativity combined with GIS lets her find clusters of people. Knowing where the clusters are can help civic engineers plan a city in a more efficient way. For example if she finds a cluster of french speaking people then all the ads in the area will be french. Or if there is a cluster of negative people then someone can look into why the people are so negative. Is it the environment? Is it the lack of jobs? But social media is also changing relationships.

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If you make a Facebook account you are bound to meet new people. You could meet your new best friend through social media. Or like it happened to Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordeer who identical twins and separated at birth. They found each other through Facebook. They now even have a Netflix documentary called Twinsters. Social Media helped two people get together but it can also help thousands. A person who helps with this is Molly Burke. She is blind and with her YouTube channel spreads tips and tricks on how to go through daily life blind. She was also bullied and decided to make her bullying experience into something positive. By speaking about it at WE DAY she inspired people to take action by the masses.

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But social media can also have a negative impact. Here are two words that everyone on social media knows: cyber-bullying. Before social media cyber-bullying did not exist. User x went on a knitting website recommended by her club at school. She was called an idiotic moron. When user x did not respond, the bully would get mad and when they would meet face to face the bully would make even more rude remarks. This website was also very popular to spread rumors about user x. User x was ten. The most upsetting thing is that this is a mild form of cyber-bullying.

       

The story of Amanda Todd is truly a sad one. One day when she was on webcam, a stranger (later found out to be Aydin C. A thirty year old man from the Netherlands) asked her to flash. After moths of persuasion she finally caved. He then proceeded to blackmail her, writing ‘Unless you send me more pictures, I will show everyone you know the photo’ she was worried and scared. During Christmas 2010, police informed her at 4:00 am that the photo was circulating the web. She wrote on a YouTube video that has received millions of views that she experienced depression, anxiety and panic disorder of being cyber-bullied due to the photo. She changed schools after that. A year later the individual re-appeared. He pretended to be a new kid who was going to go to Todds school and wanted to make friends. After he got all of Todds schoolmates as “friends” on Facebook he proceeded to use her image as the profile photo of his Facebook account. Everyone at her new school saw the photo She was teased and bullied again. She had to change schools again. Things like this kept happening for a couple more moths until on October, 10th 2012 at age fifteen she was found dead at her home. The cause of death was never released to the public but it is believed that it was suicide. Aydin C. pretended to be a fake person but he could have pretended to be a real person.

 

This is called identity theft and it’s a real problem. Victim of identity theft or fraud can experience financial loss, difficulty obtaining credit or restoring there ‘good name.’ The criminals gather profiles of potential victims by skimming, phishing, hacking and/or computer viruses. These criminals can use stolen or reproduced personal information to access bank accounts, apply for loans, make purchases and more. The good news? There are ways to minimize the likely-hood of getting your identity stolen. You could have a strong password, don’t put any personal information online, etc. You could also purchase a RFID credit card protector. You should take all the necessary precautions because each year in the United States alone there are financial losses up to $50 billion caused by identity theft each year.

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But social media can turn a really unfortunate situation into something for the memory books. This happened to Davis Carroll. His guitar was broken by United Airlines custody. He alleged that he heard a passenger exclaim that baggage handlers were throwing guitars during a lay-over from Halifax to Nebraska. When he arrived he discovered that his $3,500 guitar was severally damaged. He made a song called “United Breaks Guitars.” It went viral. In its first twenty-four hours it amassed over 150,000 views on YouTube and now has over 16 million views as of February 2017. This was humiliating for the airline and united's managing director of customer solutions called Carroll. He apologized and asked if the carrier if the video could be used internally for training. It gets better. The owner of the guitar company gave him two new guitars and other things for his second music video. Clearly Carroll got the better end of the stick.

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are taught throughout our lives that social media can and will break you. After reading this article I hope that you know that while this is a very real possibility, it is not the only outcome. Social media can bring you millions of dollars, help connect people in new ways that were impossible just ten years ago, AND social media can save lives. But we must not forget that there are downsides too: social media can be used to take lives; to take all of your funds; to bring great sadness into your life. Social media is based on a lot of “if’s” ...but it is only luck that will determine if you get the right if.