Essay Example on Effects of Online Communities to the Society

Individuality or communitywhich of these concepts is a spot-on aspect? Which concept has the facts on its side? In a society where one is anticipated to follow the crowd, upholding individualism can be challenging. Alternatively, it is a vital task to the personal influences of an individual. In the world today, there are those persons who purely follow the masses, and also there are those people who make every effort to lead their own lives. The first set of individuals usually become mislaid in the shuffle of natural life. They try to adapt to their way of life of which they easily get successful but imperceptible. The other group, on the other hand, commands the reverence of public, they usually have a better understanding of their personality. In the community way of life, a person's life belongs not to him but to the society, of which he is purely part of the crowd, the person has no privileges, he or she must sacrifice his morals and objectives for the crowd's "better good." According to communism, the society is the elementary unit of ethical concern; an individual is of importance only in so far as he attends the group. Online communities such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook have substantially altered the manner in which people intermingle with the public, both domestically and internationally (Koch).

The impacts of online social communities are twofold. On the progressive side, online communities can function as effective tools for various professionalism activities. The online community achieves this by supporting novice professionals to promote their skills and hunt for professional opportunities. On the undesirable side, the platform is weighed down with some risks linked with cyber victimization, which is executed using automated technology. MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are merely a few of the online social platforms that are being used on a daily basis; the platforms have made communication easier than before. There are lots of people with a wide range of characters who are considering to make new friends or to become a part of the community with the aim of sharing information on these platforms.

The online community has positively impacted the social lifestyle of people in several ways. Facebook, MySpace, and other such platforms allow people to express themselves and also bring about composure in shy and low self-esteemed individuals; the community gives them some sense of belonging and worthiness as they are being exposed to a lot of social interaction platforms. Many people have collectively become more reliable on these platforms; currently, the young generation is entirely dependent on this websites since they are easily informed of current trends and happenings in their society. Different communities are correspondingly brought together on these platforms as millions of people from across the world unite and intermingle giving room for active cultural exchange. New families are made, thoughts are traded, and even perpetual bonds are created between different races of people (Gil de Zuniga).

On the other hand, the online community has created challenging impacts on the society. Tyrants have ventured into internet platforms such as Facebook and Twitter where they hide behind the privacy developed by the web to conduct their appalling actions. The young generation is highly subjected to the risk of unconsciously exposing their private and subjective information since on most circumstances; they mostly neglect to read the privacy policies of most websites carefully. Whenever anyone fails to read and understand the privacy policies they are usually unprotected from various exposures of having their personal information unveiled to the public. This is exclusively a thoughtful issue in light of the intensifying circumstances of cyber-crimes like identity theft (Wright).

It is evidently clear that the online community has become part of societies' lives. The young generation is making use of their smartphones and computers to check Tweets as well as the update of social status from their families and friends. The advancement of technology has pressured people to take on different standards of living. Social networking websites help young people to become socially skilled. But then again, they make the users incompetent and clumsy. As a result, it is imperative to work on pre-cautions and restraint when dealing with such matters.

Whether or not the public wants to consent, the online community has several unembellished undesirable effects on their day-to-day lives. Online communities need to be acknowledged as tools which need to be operated with some limit letting it not take over the lives of the public. Platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, are very supportive in updating the public, but the public should not let them become the central theme of their daily lives. People need to, ethnically, opt on how to manage the information fed to them to curb the negative impacts which have been worsening each year. The society should focus on how to limit their usage of online platforms; children should be guided on how to use and manage the platforms as well as social strata (Kirwil).

Work cited

Koch, Bradley J., and Pamela Tremain Koch. "Collectivism, individualism, and outgroup cooperation in a segmented China." Asia Pacific Journal of Management 24.2 (2007): 207-225.

Kirwil, Lucyna. "Parental mediation of children's internet use in different European countries." Journal of Children and Media 3.4 (2009): 394-409.

Gil de Zuniga, Homero, Nakwon Jung, and Sebastian Valenzuela. "Social media use for news and individuals' social capital, civic engagement and political participation." Journal of computer-mediated Communication 17.3 (2012): 319-336.

Wright, Donald K., and Michelle D. Hinson. "An updated look at the impact of social media on public relations practice." Public relations journal 3.2 (2009): 1-27.