Impact of Social Media on Human Behavior

Introduction

In today’s modern era, social media has become the integral part of human life. Social media has vigorous impact on human behavior by posing potential impact on human thoughts, opinion and perception. This research report is going to discuss the impact that social media has on human behavior by evaluating both positive and adverse impact of social media on behavior, thoughts and performance of human being

Background:

In current digital world, social media has strong influences on the way people think, behave and perform (Bigne et al. 2018). Recent studies have shown that social media is termed as the millstone or the trending forces of new era. As mentioned by Alalwan (2018), social media is not just the digital platform such as Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn that plays important roles in making positive transformation of human behavior by posing vigorous impact on their thoughts and perception but also it is an integral part of human society that assists people to access positive knowledge, understanding and assumption by maintaining strong connection with rest of the world. While discussing the impact on social media on human behavior it is important to analyse the number of people use social media and internet which can depict the clear picture of intensity of impact of social media on human behavior.

The database from Office of National Statistic has shown that in the UK, more than 95% people use internet connection, in which more than 3.5 billion people are social media users, out of which 45 million people are active social media users. The report also states that, more than 389 million people in UK use social media on mobiles devices (hostreviews.co.uk, 2019). Evidences based studies have stated that, the rising number of social media user in the society points out the apparent transformation of human behavior that not only impact on their perception and thought but also influences their activities and performances. As mentioned by Karim and Hassan (2019), social media makes people to have broadminded thoughts, liberal nature and positive perception which eliminate the chances of developing any stereotyped views and presumption in the society. It is evident that, through using social media people can get easy access to all the update regarding what happens in rest of world, which not only improves their understanding about any topic but also enhance transparency in their overall perception regarding any aspect thereby making positive transformation of their behavior and activates.

Recent database has suggested that social media has severe impact on the behavior of young generation people, specially teenagers by improving their intellectual and cognitive behavior (Abbas et al. 2019). In the UK, there are 280 million young population who use internet in a single year. Recent report has stated that, in the UK, the percentage of social media users has been increased from 66% during 2018 to 67% during 2019 (hostreviews.co.uk, 2019). Several social media activities such as posting news, picture and videos, people can get up-to-date information about current social trend, social perception, assumptions and public activities across the world, which make them able to create proper modifications in their thoughts, behavior, preferences and mentality. Social media assist people to get rid of superstitious behavior and thought in terms of receiving the fresh well as positive strategies, decisions and assumption that can improve the overall mental of eth human being.

Literature review:

According to Bigne et al. (2018), the impact of social media on human behavior needs to be discussed in wider behavioral and psychological context that will present the clear concept of how social media influences as well as changes the overall behavioral and psychological characteristics in human being. It is evident that, today people, are so involved in the social media, that it is considered by many researchers that today’s human being lives in the virtual world. Teenagers and young population are highly influenced by social media (Dolan et al. 2016). For example, in the UK, majority of teenagers and young women develop unhealthy behavioral practices, in which they change their perception and assumption regrading that body image. It is evident from recent reports that, social media impact adversely on behavior and perception of teenager population which leads them to suffer from eating disorder and skipping of diet as well as fasting due to their perception regarding body shaming and ideal body image.

As argued by Rajpurohit et al. (2018), behavioral transformation in human being through social media depends on the person that how the person will use the platform. The author also stated that, in majority of the cases social media develops positive behavioral transformation in people by connecting them to creative news, people and groups that bring about useful changes in their behavior. For example, through using social media, it is possible for the government to connect with people , especially women residing in interior villages and suburban areas in a country , in terms of providing them positive advise regarding their health, education, rights, social and government facilities, which can make positive behavioral transformation in these women as well as entry community. On the contrary Sudha and Sathya (2020), argued that it is evident from many researches that in most of the cases people residing in the poor villages have limited as well as no access to social media , which develop superstitious behavior and backdated assumption in these community, that not only affect the accessibility of education, heath, rights and wellbeing but also enhance unhealthy social practices such as rape, abuse, discrimination, racism and child molestation

Many studies have suggested that, social media improves the decision-making process problem solving skill, intellectual ability and cognition of human being which are considered as the important element for developing strong and positive behavior. In this context Lampos et al. (2016) argued that, social media is not all times associated with developing positive behavior, rather there are many cases in which severe exposure of teenagers and children to social violence, brutal activities and unhealthy social practices through social media such as Facebook and twitter pose severe adverse impact on their emotion, soft feeling and thoughts.

On supporting this viewpoint many studies have mentioned that social media although is associated with developing positive behavior in people by making them connected to rest of the world, sometimes the social media can pose adverse impact on behavioral and cognitive development of children, teenagers and young population (McNee and Woods, 2019). For examine, the recent report have stated that in the UK, majority of the teenagers and young people suffer from depressive behavior, anxiety and violent attitude, which are result of their exposure to violent approaches, social malpractices and depressive activities of people occurring in rest of the world that are posted on the Facebook and twitter. In this context Al Jasmi and Awamleh (2019) mentioned that social media can be considered as the two sides of a coin which has both the positive and negative impact. Therefore, it depends of human being how they use the social media to develop positive and healthy behavioral approaches rather than involved in unhealthy practices and habits.

Research method:

This is secondary research, in which the researcher has collected secondary sources such as books, articles and journals to get valuable information that can assist the researcher to meet the research objectives. Here the researcher has used inclusion and exclusion criteria in terms of selecting articles which are as follows:

Inclusion criteria:

Selected articles should be published not more than five years ago

Artless should be from the genuine sources to get valuable and authentic information for the research

Selected articles should have the genuine and relevant informational that will assist researcher to meet the research objectives

Selected articles should not have vague information that cannot be used in research paper

Exclusion criteria:

Articles that are more than five years older should not be included in the list

Articles that ate not from valuable and genuine resources should not be included into the list

Articles that has vague and irrelevant information must be excluded from the list

PRISMA Tool:

In this research procs, researcher has used PRISMA tool to select valuable and genuine articles in terms of getting relevant database to meet each research objective. Here researcher first selected 418 articles out of which 240 articles are selected after removing duplicates. Then 89 articles are selected by removing the articles with irrelevant contents. After screening, 31 articles are selected out of which 20 articles are selected by doing extended literature review. Finally, 12 articles are selected by again conducting extended literature review.

Finding and results:

In this section the researcher discusses the funding and results that are gained through above literature review. As this is the secondary research through evaluating information gathered from selected literature, researcher is able to develop some important themes which are as follows

Theme 1: social media is strongly associated with developing positive behavior in human being:

Social media has strong association with positive behavioral development in human being (McNee and Woods, 2019). Social media has wide ranges of social platforms such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, which not only brings opportunities for people to get all the up-to-date news on national and world events that not only enhance in-depth knowledge and understanding of people on different topics, but also develop strong personal and professional skill in them which is important for developing positive as well as productive behavior in human being (Jasmi and Awamleh , 2019). Through using google and YouTube, people can get wide ranges of knowledge and educational support which not only improves their perception and assumption but also promote innovating and creative creative behavior in them. Social media provides people with such an effective platform that assist them to involve in heathy and productive approaches and activities which not only make their behavioral development but also improve their cognitive and intellectual behavior in them (Sutherland et al. 2019). Foe example, through Facebook, women and teenagers can join many creative and employment related groups which improves their knowledge, ideas and thoughts in positive manner which thereby assisting them to develop productive and healthy behavioral characteristics.

Theme 2: Social media brings about potential transformation in cognitive behavior, perception and psychology of human being:

Through social media, people can be connected to rest of the world, which improves their cognitive behavior by influencing their thoughts, understanding and perception. As mentioned by Rajpurohit et al. (2018), social media, assist people to make clarity as well as transparency in their thoughts and perception by strengthening their knowledge on scientific approaches and theories. Through accessing valuable information by using social media platforms such as Google+ and YouTube, people can evaluate as well as interpret the underlying reasons behind any statement by using proper justification and reasons which not only improve their intellectual behavior but also strengthen their cognitive and interpersonal behavior. In addition to this, through using social media, people can improve the interpersonal behavior such as making positive as well as effective communication and interaction with people across the world through using Facebook, YouTube and twitter. Social media acts as import medium for people to share their thoughts, decisions, perception and issues with many people such as organizational leaders, health professionals and governmental officials across the world.

In this context Bigne et al. (2018) argued that, sometimes strong involvement of people with social media can manipulate their decisions, thoughts and perception in negative manner which enhance chance of occurring unhealthy practices in society such as social turmoil, racism, brutal events, and social violence. Although there are many criticisms regarding impact of social media on human behavior, it is acknowledged that, people who are actively involved in the social platform are more updated and open-minded than the people who have no active involvement in social media (Alalwan, 2018). Many studies have reported that through maintaining connection with people across the world, through social media, it is possible to develop own skills, abilities and cognition. For example, in current business landscape, social media has assisted organizational leaders and entrepreneurs to connect with global business official to get proper updates regarding the current leadership style and professional skills that are used in current business landscape to grab high level of success.

In is evident from researches that, social media allows students, young population and women, to show their innovation and creativity in front of million of people across the world through posting their activity videos on YouTube, Facebook and twitter, that assist them to get positive and motivational comments regarding the improvement of their intellectual behavior and cognitive skills. Additionally, through using social media platform, many people are influenced by the positive videos and activities posted on social platform that assist people to make positive transformation of human behavior

Conclusion:

From above discussion it can be concluded that, social media plays important roles on bringing potential changes in human behaviors. Using social media in positive manner human being can get positive transformation in their behavior and perception. On the other hand, improper use of social media can have adverse impact on behavior and cognition of human being. It is up to people, how they can use social media to get the expected outcomes.

Evaluation:

The chosen secondary research process is highly relevant with the research topic, which has assisted the researcher to conduct as well as complete the entire research sucessfuly.in addition to this, the secondary research method has also assisted the researcher to get the relevant information in terms of meeting research objectives.

Reference list:

Abbas, J., Aman, J., Nurunnabi, M. and Bano, S., 2019. The impact of social media on learning behavior for sustainable education: evidence of students from selected universities in Pakistan. Sustainability, 11(6), p.1683.

Al Jasmi, S. and Awamleh, R., 2019. Impact of the Use of Twitter on Social and Academic Behaviour of University Students', Future Governments (Actions and Insights-Middle East North Africa, Volume 7).

Alalwan, A.A., 2018. Investigating the impact of social media advertising features on customer purchase intention. International Journal of Information Management, 42, pp.65-77.

Bigne, E., Andreu, L., Hernandez, B. and Ruiz, C., 2018. The impact of social media and offline influences on consumer behaviour. An analysis of the low-cost airline industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(9), pp.1014-1032.

Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J. and Goodman, S., 2016. Social media engagement behaviour: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(3-4), pp.261-277.

Karim, Z.A. and Hassan, R., 2019. The impact of social media and online booking on organizational behaviour, ethical work climate and employee commitment in a travel agency. Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management, 1(1), pp.46-53.

Lampos, V., Aletras, N., Geyti, J.K., Zou, B. and Cox, I.J., 2016, March. Inferring the socioeconomic status of social media users based on behaviour and language. In European Conference on Information Retrieval (pp. 689-695). Springer, Cham.

McNee, S. and Woods, H., 2019. Pre-sleep cognitive influence of night-time social media use and social comparison behaviour in young women.

Rajpurohit, K., Nishitha, M.S. and Khanna, A., 2018. Impact of Social Media marketing on Twixters shopping behaviour of apparel in India: An Empirical study. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 8(11), pp.602-618.

Sudha, T. and Sathya, M., 2020. The impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumers. IJRAR-International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), 7(1), pp.786-792.

Sutherland, K., Freberg, K. and Driver, C., 2019. Australian employer perceptions of unprofessional social media behaviour and its impact on graduate employability. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 10(2), pp.104-121.