Forty-six. That is the amount of time the average American spends checking their phone each day. Whether it may be a quick walk to Greek village and walking right past your best friends because you’re too worried about how many likes you just got on your Facebook post, everything we are consuming is digital. The constant updates and news that we see through our technology every single day makes you wonder what one could miss out on without our electronic components attached to our hip. We have entered the digital age; our lives have become entirely public and our form of communication is through a screen. However, our society has become so advanced that not just any specific age groups or races are being affected, everyone is. Whether it is a college student like myself, my seven-year-old cousin, my grandfather, or the cashier taking my order today, the digital age has affected all of us. The technology take over in our society has made us all wonder how much more advanced can we get? As my research furthered, I have taken insights from professors and businessmen themselves to the most statistical background I can get on the advance of technology in our world today. Why does any of this matter? This is the research that is advancing our everyday lives and the newest way to what our society will be taken over by. This research has given me realization that the web is changing the people in our society, the way we learn, think, work and interact. The advance of social media and technology in our society is benefiting students, the work field, and social life. This impact towards our society ultimately changes our everyday life and the newly generated world.

Being that I am a full-time student, six hundred thirty miles away from home, and an interactive student, it is a necessity to have my digital devices on me at all times. With that being said, I walked around our campus and rarely see much small talk anymore. I watch a group of girls all walking together but their faces dug in their phones or the group of guys sitting at Russel with earphones plugged into their laptops. Whether it be a good or bad thing, how would we possibly survive in today’s society without these devices while being a student? A novel called, New Directions for Teaching and Learning by Mark Taylor writes, “Collaborative read/write tools including social media, also referred to as Web 2.0, have had especially strong impacts on students daily and academic lives” (37). Since student’s education is relied heavily on social media and technology, professors and faculty consider how they may use these platforms as tools of instruction. Taylor stresses, “Social media offer intriguing possibilities for teaching and learning” (38). Most of us up until my generation are all traditionally aged learners, the digital age has avoided issues with learning outcomes resulting from the current instructional methods.  “Much recent and very public attention has been focused on issues in higher order learning outcomes, such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and workplace readiness through media” (39). Student engagement is one of the most important ways to be successful, it’s how to incorporate the type of engagement through social media into classes for success rates. Learning through social media and technology has opened the gate for students to engage in interaction, virtual communities that leads to better content learning, collaborative learning, etc. Taylor states, “Social media can allow and encourage students to be more involved with the material, each other, and out of class. Responding on social media, via posts, comments, and messages, may become the new postmodern active learning” (40). The act of our age is encouraging individuals in our society to develop their sociological imagination. The idea of sociological imagination opens the door of many possibilities for students inside and outside of the classroom. For example, “Blog’s posts today are cited heavily in the traditional media- newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows. One hundred thousand people now follow blogs regularly through Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, as well” (Lee 141). The number of social media networking out to utilize the endless solutions for professors and students is only growing exponentially. 

The work field force is certainly an important part of our society. The digital ads spent to promote the worldwide products through social media and technology is only increasingly rising. The media changes the competition and outlook towards business. “It was predicted that digital ad spend in the U.S. would have surpassed television spend for the first time ever by the end of 2016” (Roberts). Consumers are no longer passive, they are active producers. The YouTube video, Impact of Social Media quotes, “75% of global workforce will be mobile by 2017.” Businessmen and company’s all over the nation are dependent on technology. “41% of business owners said Twitter delivers great value to their company.” Business has never been so well for those succeeding in promoting their products. “The average online viewer watches 12.2 of online video each month.” Meaning, it is simple for business to be successful in our society today due to the constant amount of promotion and ads they can perceive through what humans spend most of their life staring at, the screen. These companies are also saving tons of money because compared to television advertisements, the presence of social media is cheap and effective towards enhancing brand imagine and popularity. Webinars and podcasts have become top resources for business professionals. “83% of all companies use Facebook.” Business take advantage of all the different options of social media for easy business because of the number of users are exposed to something as little as a tweet from the business itself. More than sixty-five million of these users access the site through mobile devices. After reading all the statistics, it’s hard to wonder what traditional advertisements looked like in the newspapers and magazines. “These consultants and marketing professionals are the most active users of social media.” Welcome to the social media revolution. The net savvy companies are taking advantage to advertise their products through social media to build the customer loyalty companies admire.  

Believe it or not, there are critics out there against social media changing the business and customer behavior. In the article, Like It or Not, Social Media isn’t Changing Customer Behavior written by Chris Tomlinson states, “Companies spend billions of dollars each year to produce messages, ads and videos that will entrance social media users. Many companies have a full-time staff that generates Facebook posts and instantly responds to consumers’ complaints on Twitter. But identifying a return on investment from these efforts has been difficult.” Further research went into this research towards customers, a team of professors at Harvard University and several other major universities tested 18,000 people over four years to see if their purchasing habits differed in the absences of social media endorsements. This article argues that one is more likely to buy a product if one of your social media friends endorsees it. But, why would the product be any more effective than standard advertising? “In one test, a group of consumers was invited to like a brands Facebook page and the other was not. Researchers send coupons to both groups and found there was no difference in the percentage of consumers who used the coupon. The test was run 15 more times, changing variables, none of them made a difference” (Tomlinson). Researchers found that combining social media with traditional advertising did not result in any type of boost. This article argues that pulling in customers with social media only works when old fashioned ads is pushing out to consumers at the same time. They are big fans of traditional advertising and how marketers could just be using social media the wrong way to promote. The article concludes with, “Traditional marketing through display advertising or direct mail remains the best ways to attract new clients. Social media is how you hold on to them.” On the other side of things, my argument proves this article wrong. Social media and technology are the new evolution of advertising and making all the logistics possible. Social media allows us to become aware of the newest of the new out in stores, how else would we know if Kim Kardashian bought the newest Adidas sneakers out. Technology is a new age that allows us to these things and were we can take advantage of our social media that is right in front of us.   

To focus on individual impact in our digital age is important to recognize how we’re slowly changing. Our lives have become increasingly more public. The article How Has Social Media Changed Us by Carrie Kerpen states, “Now, over 78% of the U.S population has a social network profile.” She uses individual studies to answer her research, for example, do you think that others having more access to information about you has made you more confident? Do you find yourself changing? Kerpen uses Deena Baikowitz to share the impact that embracing social media has had on her life. “Social media cracks the binding way open. I love using social media to share more of my personal life with my network. Provides conversation starters, sets a friendly tone to lead business talk.” Time Magazine’s article, You- Yes, You- Are TIME’s Person of the Year stating, “The tool that makes everything possible is the World Wide Web.” Time’s articles stresses upon the revolution of being able to read news feeds in a matter of seconds from Bagdad to Boston to Beijing. The instant click of the search bar leaves you with endless results, the media and digital technology gives anyone the power to change the way the world changes. 

“This is an opportunity to build a new kind of intellectual understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It’s a chance for people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who’s out there looking back at them” (Grossman). Who has this energy, time and that passion? We do, all of us. Humanity is seizing the reins of global media, along with founding and framing this new digital democracy. 

Social media and technology is certainly blown out of proportion for some people. The article Stanford News, New Social Media? Same Old, Same Old, say Stanford Experts cites, “If you’re feeling overwhelmed by social media, you’re hardly the first. An avalanche of new forms of communication similarly challenged Europeans of the 17th and 18th centuries.” This article argues that the outrage about the newest social media and technology shouldn’t be such a big deal. They argue in the 17th century conversations exploded and that was their early modern version of information overload. They’re comparing it to our age because updates are bound to happen as time goes on. When the printing press was invented there was a crazy outrage of exploration. It is like comparing it to the newest form of technology, if we had never seen technology before. “Public postal systems became the equivalent of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and smartphones. Letters crisscrossed Paris by the thousands daily, writing 10 to 15 letters a day.” They argue with every age of time there is obviously going to a hype over the newest of the new. Most people wrote and respond quickly due to the commercial postal services whereas now we can just Facebook chat our friends and family. “What is public? Which is private? More correspondence meant that letters could fall into the wrong hands.” They compared the worries and troubles to our digital age and the possibilities of issues and worries that we have through what we post and where we are posting it. This article mentions the exclusiveness life gave without so much media and distraction. “This network may be less agile, but it has created longer and better sustained bonds between members over time. Unlike Facebook networks that almost anyone can join, the brotherhood echoed the older, more exclusive networks that vetted prospective members, such as Frances Jacobin clubs.” They stress a lot on the fact that the traditional side of life was better for the society then being so wrapped up in the digital life. 

Now that we are all aware, social media is benefiting and impacting our culture in many ways. Users of social media continuously have the access to stay alert of the latest global and local news, trade and consider new ideas, connect, and even participate in online events. This advancement in technology and our way of life is giving us progression towards the digital way of life, which is where this is getting us. Professionals are amazed with using media sites that enhance their career and business prospects. Students stay collaborative with peers and teachers to improve academic proficiency and communication skills. As individuals, you can connect with anyone you want, and have the access to unlimited possibilities for the future. As for now, we continue to take advantage of these resources and the digital technologies we have in front of ourselves every day. It is up to each user themselves to use technology and social media efficiently to benefit student, professional and social life. “If you want to influence policy or media, then go where democracy and debate are most dynamic: social media” (Lee 142). Our 
lives have turned into being the change and having complete access to the future that is right in our hands. Media support is where everything is for individuals’ specific needs. The advance of social media and technology in our society has done both good and bad to students, the work field, and social life. This impact towards our society ultimately changes our everyday life and newly generated world. The advance of social media and technology in our society is benefiting students, the work field, and social life. This impact towards our society ultimately changes our everyday life and the newly generated world.
