Web Mediated Communications – Positive and Negative Effects

Abstract: Web mediated communications revolutionized traditional social interactions. It is designed tofacilitate information exchange between individuals and to enable people to connect with friends,family, classmates etc. virtually. By the formation of virtual communities, “web mediatedcommunication” is defined as a wider concept known as “social media”. Social media enhancesthe volume of communications and interpersonal interactions based on the power of web 2.0technology. People join to the virtual communities of online social networks to procureinformation from everywhere, share ideas, experiences, photos, videos and memorable momentswhile extending friendships beyond the geographical and cultural borders. The emergence and fastgrowth of social media among people added value to the web activities and convinced web mastersto integrate web services such as e-mail, chat, discussion rooms, forums and third partyapplications to the social media web sites. Many of social media web sites are hosting millions ofmembers, equipping their web sites with communication tools, sharing options, dynamic contentcreation and collaborative authoring facilities which never experienced before. Facebook, Twitterand GooglePlus are examples of most known social media web sites which gained popularityamong people so fast.Social media helps people to make new friends, find lost friends and old classmates whileproviding an opportunity to build new friendships. This new communication technology empowerspeople to collaborate in authoring of the web content and causes the information sharing synergy.Such positive aspects are enough for people to ignore the consequences of joining social media.Despite the rise of friendships in number, the physical encounters are substituted by virtual oneswhich causes weak friendship ties. In addition, social media platforms promise the security andprivacy of users, but issues such as identity theft and worm attacks threaten users' privacy andsecurity. Social media is in its infancy, adopted among people for less than a decade whereas a lackof research in this field is evident. The author of this thesis aimed at filling this gap byinvestigating the positive and negative effects of using social media through collecting the users'experiences and professionals' viewpoints. Theoretical study primarily illuminated the mainpositive and negative aspects while the findings of empirical research verified by theoretical studyidentified other practical effects and aspects of social media.