Applying the Sociological Perspectives: Social Media

Applying the Sociological Perspectives: Social Media

Becky Russell

Soc/100

21 March 2016

Applying the Sociological Perspectives

In the 21st century, social media is a part of a typical person’s day. Social networking is one of the main sources of communication around the world and is involved in anything that can be thought of; business, entertainment, food, and even education. Consistently, more individuals from around the globe are accessing a wide cluster of media such as the web. The amount of time we spend online, with our smartphones, laptops and tablets, we are in touch with the world all day, every day. Social media is great for long distance communication and following the latest trends and entertainment news, but social media also has dangers that continue to consume society. This paper will describe three theories, functionalism, conflict, and interactionism, are associated with social media.

Functionalism

One of the sociological perspectives is functionalism, also called structural-functional theory, sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society (OpenStax College, 2014). It additionally clarifies that our general public is held together through social attachment and accord, where we as individuals from society cooperate and concur with each other to accomplish what might advantage society the most and what might be our general public's best advantage. Functionalism contends that on the off chance that it is not a valuable reason in our general public then it will be eliminated starting with one era then onto the next era. This point of view would see that the motivation behind informal communication has and is each beginning to be valuable in our general public because its use and pervasiveness keeps on expanding. The Functional perspective views social media and social networking as an approach to uphold social standards, associate with each other, and stay connected to everything going on in the world. Many people use social media to keep or gain social status and create a fan base. Some need social media to either create a persona for themselves or upkeep the persona they have created.

Conflict

Another perspective is the conflict theory, which looks at society as a competition for limited resources (OpenStax College, 2014). There are many drawbacks to social media that affect society. Cyberbullying and deception are just a few. Things on social media can be made to seem like something they are not. Case in point, a misguided feeling of association could be as straightforward as mixing up a causal relationship for a significant relationship or not knowing the distinction between the two. Cyberbullying is easy to do and can cause extreme consequences. A person can hide behind any device that connects them to the internet to harm someone. The term "Catfish" comes from a television show about people who communicate with people through social media and they are not who they say they are. Many people are fooled into thinking that they are communicating with who they see in a profile picture but in reality, they could be communicating with someone that can physically harm them.