The Adverse Effects Of Social Media

Social media has taken center stage in the lives of human beings with far-reaching consequences both socially and politically. The advent of the internet and social media almost two decades ago was accompanied by news of joy as it was a huge development in the spread and access of information in the modern age. The advent of the internet and Google created immense opportunities for social, economic and political development of United States and has been instrumental in making the country what it is today. However, not much is being said regarding the adverse effects that social Media has had on the social and political lives of Americans. Social media, has also created its own set of adverse effects that have affected communication, spread

It is true that social media is a fast means of communication especially for a leader covering a nation as large the United States. However much as this is an advantage, it is vital that the people feel that they share a connection with the president. President Donald Trump has been known to communicate most of his messages through Tweeter which has raised a fair share of controversy. Even though some consider him to have good intentions when writing his posts, the failure to meet his people and communicate the messages directly has resulted in the distortion of the meaning of some of his posts. Dobbs (2010) asserts that “Researchers say that the key to successful transformational change is embracing a communication based in the realm of conversation where there is genuine two-way dialogue that is focused on listening and probing for more information’’. Written messages, more so, those that are posted in social media have a way of being misinterpreted and creating a division among the readers.Even though social media helps in connecting leaders and followers easily, one cannot fail to consider the fact that it prevents a one-one contact between the people and their leaders that might result in leaders that are detached from their people. Rather than organize “meet and greet” events with the people on the ground and hence talk about important developmental issues, most of the current politicians choose to either “post” or “tweet” their message and hence lose their core message. Recent incident in which Donald Trump was heard calling certain countries “shithole countries” raised a lot of criticism from the international community. Carr (2009) states that, “For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind’’. Most people depend solely on