Impacts of the Internet and Social Media

People on social media platforms use the internet to share and retrieve information. The use of internet and social media has a wide range of impacts on the users. They have both positive and negative impacts on the people that use the web. This paper will be a discussion of the positive and negative impacts of the internet and social media. Positive impacts The use of internet and social media has had positive impacts on its users. In schools, the internet is used to teach students. E-learning has also been introduced whereby people study online without having to go to a physical classroom. The introduction of e-commerce has also improved the business sector. Transactions are conducted electronically increasing the effectiveness of business transactions.

Research materials found online also help in coming up with new strategies that ensure business success (Pearl, 2016). With the increased use of social media, most people are not able to differentiate between the virtual world and the real world. Some people tend to focus more on online relationships with people they do not know of and abandon meaningful relationships in the real world (Jung, 2017). The extensive use of the internet poses the threat of losing real relationships with people around us to focus on unreal ones that exist within us. The use of social media platforms has proved to reduce the productivity of individuals. In many cases, the internet and use of social media act as a distraction to many people leading to decreased productivity levels (Jung, 2017).