Social Media Users

Social media users

Reasons why people use social media...

• Social interaction – social media, not surprisingly, allows people to be social. They meet new people and keep in touch with friends, acquaintances and family.
• Information seeking – this refers to the process of finding information about products/services, keeping up to date with real-world social events, and learning new things.
• Passing time – social media is a great time killer and can cure boredom whether at home, at school, or in the work place.
• Entertainment – games, music and videos are all accessed through social media. Watching the stream of updates from people is also a form of entertainment – whether intentionally humorous or not.
• Relaxation – whilst people find others updates humorous, they also find them relaxing. Social media is a way to alleviate stress and escape from reality.
• Expression of opinions – expressing thoughts and opinions, criticizing others and blowing off steam (either anonymously or named) is regularly undertaken through social media.
• Things to talk about – like the daily newspaper, social media provide subject matter for people to talk and gossip about with others.
• Convenience – social media is readily accessible, even more so as mobile devices become ubiquitous. Furthermore, people can talk to several people at the same time.
• Sharing information – people can use social media to broadcast things about themselves. By publishing updates, videos and pictures, people market their own personal brand or business.
• Knowing about others – social media allows a window into the lives of others. By checking out other profiles, they can be nosey or ‘keep up with the Jones’’ Connor, O. (2013)

But why should people who use social media automatically become a subject of online harassment and abuse just because they want to socially interact. 

What will it take for it to stop?
It only becomes a known issue when something horrid has happened for instance when Hannah Smith committed suicide it reminded the media of the monstrosity of online abuse and the seriousness of it. So how many more people does it need to affect before someone realizes that something needs to be done, how many more lives need to be taken before it all stops?But who will be the one to stop the craze of online abuse? The social networkers, the police, the government or the public?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/29/police-chief-social-media-abuse

In this article it explains how the chief of police struggle to examine all allegations made on social media sites so think that it is up to the site companies themselves to filter their sites enough to know when serious cases of online abuse is taking place. The police believe that the sites should take responsibilities of what the outcomes can be and face the fact that some users are only using their sites to troll.