First off, I think to compare the Industrial Revolution to Social Media is a little ridiculous; so I suppose with that said, I would say that the Industrial Revolution marked a significant turn in the history of our civilization and that Social Media is somewhat of a fad.
The Industrial Revolution brought an incline in our population facilitated by an increase in the average household income; which has even more so evolved over time to where we are now in consideration of double income households. This revolution altered the lifestyle of every household in a significant way on a day-to-day basis by encouraging a by providing such means.
For our society to function or exist at all, we require a market with a stable or fluctuating economy along with numerous other aspects such as government and legislation. To be more specific, nowadays we need financing in some way or another in order to live; households need income in order to survive (i.e. food and shelter), businesses need an income in order to operate and provide those necessities; and, the government needs income in order to sustain our provincial or country’s systematic procedures such as legislation in order to be a civil society.
Social Media has contributed significantly to our society in the sense of communication; we can now communicate within seconds, between large distances, and at any time of the day through numerous different applications. This networking has allowed for old friends and family to reunite or simply keep in touch, for businesses to expand their promotion, for individuals and groups to provide brand awareness, and so on and at a very inexpensive cost.
For me personally, I do not use any Social Media networks and I’m not a huge fan of them; I’ve used many other ones for years and I just have little interest in them now. Nowadays everyone and their uncle has a Facebook account and as a child growing up with the internet I have experienced online predators, and I really hope adults are watching how their children are using the internet.
Today’s society has built a generation of “plugged in” individuals who heavily rely on technology routinely on a day-to-day basis, which has only added fuel to the area of Social Media. Internet, computers, and hi-tech cellular phones were once mainly used for business purposes, but have now become a growing trend for ages 10 and up.
But, the question is what more can you really say about “Social Media”? Yes, you can go into detail analyzing and doing an in-depth study on its application and the pros and cons of the applications, but how dramatically does it affect our society? Can we really compare Social Media to the Industrial Revolution?
In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution lead towards a new way of living, and although so has Social Media, I feel they are definitely at different ends of the spectrum. The Industrial Revolution affected every household for the better where as Social Media does not exist in every household and sometimes it does not have a positive impact, for example bullying and online predators. To sum this up, yes I believe Social Media is a wonderful invention in terms of communication, but it doesn’t pale in comparison to the Industrial Revolution and I don’t see it as a big enough asset to our society to bother considering comparing it any further.
