Essay Sample on Social Media's Effect on Community Involvement

Introduction

A community is made by a network of groups and individuals who have unique relations and linkages amongst them. Social media today plays a significant role in increasing community engagement in different aspects such as communication, education and social ties (Holman 525). Social media promotes relationships beyond immediate kinship and geographic proximity which increases the overall role of social media in community engagements. Social media expanded the scope of a community regarding geographical proximity and acquaintances to greater community relations who share relations despite having different ideologies, gender, religion, and political orientation. Social media has increased cooperation in the community and more significant social action by creating opportunities for exchange of goods and services and cooperating towards solving community problems that require community members to pool resources together (Jayakanthan 12).

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Social media influence in the community is very significant regarding rallying the community together to deal with issues that are common to them. Today, social media is a platform that allows members to share their thoughts with those that they share a common platform on matters development, community problems, health, and even political ideologies. Social media networks are an opportunity to expand community engagement and also mobilize people towards working on issues that affect them in the community such as disease sensitization and even philanthropy. Larger community groups today can successfully be engaged through social media compared to using traditional means (Wattam 4). Therefore, social media provides a forum for community communication and also helps to sustain relationships beyond traditional communication methods which provides an avenue for partnerships to conduct community projects such as raising funds and also promoting health through community health education.

Despite the benefits of social media networks in community engagement and building it has ruined immediate relationships and reduced communication between people who are physically close to each other as more people spend time on social media (O'Keeffe 843). Although community engagement should take place through social media networks, there are some aspects such as family relationships and individual privacy that have been undermined by social media by decreasing communication as well as the quality of time that family members spend together (O'Keeffe 842). Fake news and hate speech in social media has significantly undermined the positive aspects of social media in areas such as environmental protection and philanthropy. Fake news lead to racial hate crimes and political conflicts that increase tension in the community and can destroy community networks and cohesion by facilitating the ability of people with bad intentions to spread negative messages (Baccarella et al., 431). Research should be put in place to understand the overall impact of social media on the community and the different measures that can be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of social media on community engagements within families and greater society due to fake news and hate messages that can easily be shared on social media causing chaos in the community.

Baccarella, Christian V., et al. "Social media? It's serious! Understanding the dark side of social media." European Management Journal 36.4 (2018): 431-438.

Holman, Nancy. "Community participation: using social network analysis to improve developmental benefits." Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 26.3 (2008): 525-543.

Jayakanthan, R. "Community Engagement through Social Media." Social Innovation and Social Media. 2011.

O'Keeffe, Gwenn Schurgin. "Social media: challenges and concerns for families." Pediatric Clinics 63.5 (2016): 841-849.

Wattam, E. N. Integrating social media for community empowerment: A study of community reporting in two Greater Manchester urban regeneration areas. Diss. University of Salford, 2013.