Advantades and Disadvantages of

Media Information and Literacy

In:
Individual
Education
Politics and
Economy
Individual
 Advantages
Staying Connected
The main purpose of social media is to be able to stay
connected to friends and families in todays fast paced and
ever changing worlds. You are able to rekindle old
friendships, share family photos, and special events in your
life with just about everyone you know, at the same time.
Finding People With Common Interests
Social networking is also a great way to meet entirely new
people. You can seek out groups that are focused towards
your special interests and hobbies and connect with local
people that share the same interests. Online and social
media dating is almost more common than traditional
dating is in todays world.
 Disadvantages
Perpetuates False And Unreliable Information
Just like stated above, anything can spread to millions of
people within hours or days on social media. This also,
unfortunately, includes things that are false or made up.
This information can cause panic and severe
misinformation in society.

Causing Major Relationship Problems

Online social interactions with social networking have not
only been starting new relationships, but ending many
others. It is very simple to communicate and share
pictures or plans with a person on social media and keep
it completely under wraps. This new temptation has been
driving wedges into peoples real life, offline
relationships, often time ending them for good. Social
networking puts trust to the limit.
Education
 Advantages
Social Constructivism In the age of Wikipedia, knowledge is increasingly
becoming a social construction rather than the domain of an individual expert.
Social media provides an easily accessible tool for helping students to work
together to create their own meaning in academic subjects, social contexts, or
work environments. Social media platforms are regularly used in business to
enhance the connections between workers and to allow for seamless
collaboration across distances. Supporting the development of this skill for
students prepares them for real working experiences.
Breadth of Knowledge While shallowness of knowledge and connections was
listed as one of negatives of social media, the flipside of that shallowness is the
broadness of the knowledge and connectedness that students can experience
through social media use. It is now easier than ever to know (or find out)
something about almost anything in the world through connected media.
Additionally, students can be connected to a broader base of opinions and world
views through instantaneous global connections.
Technological Literacy All social media relies on advanced information and
communication technologies that seamlessly work to build and support
technological literacy. Simply put, one cannot be engaged in deep and meaningful
uses of technology without developing the sorts of rich 21st Century skills such as
information evaluation, troubleshooting, mediated communication, and others
that will enable connected learners to become valuable contributors to a
connected global economy.
 Disadvantages
Distraction In his article, Reiner is talking not about the momentary distraction of an isolated text
message, but rather the way in which social media involvement provides an acceptable diversion from
intellectual pursuits. Essentially, he is arguing that it is socially safer to stay connected to peers
through always-on social media, than it is to put oneself out there by having a legitimate opinion
about a serious topic and disconnecting from the social networks long enough to put it out there.
Pressure to Conform Reiner cites examples of students confiding in him that one of the main reasons
behind their 24/7 connection is a fear of not keeping up with peers or appearing like a loser in
public, as one of his students confided in a class journal.
Risk Aversion Reiner is unclear about whether students aversion to taking risks is a symptom of
social media use or is directly caused by it, but the point is no less important either way. Social media
engagement supports a culture of avoidance which operates in direct opposition to the idea that
students need to take risks and fail in their academic endeavors in order to become successful
innovators.
Shallowness This is an addition to Reiners points, but social media does promote a kind of
intellectual and social shallowness that could have long-term negative consequences for learners.
Twitter, text messages, and other social media tools focus on brief, quick, shallow interactions that
do not encourage either deep social engagement or intellectual exploration. There is, after all, only so
much information that can be obtained in 140 characters. While the option to dig deeper may be
present through embedded links in Tweets, for example, there may be little reward in pursuing those
connections for students.
Politics
 Advantages
Whether is the upcoming events, schedules of the parties or their election agenda, it
is easy to get the details on Social media.

There is no need of any middle man on the social media allowing the people to
interact directly with the party representatives. Hangouts have been widely used in this
General election to talk to the local people.

Party can appoint a tech-savvy candidate to handle the social media and use it to reach
to the people and their problems.

Previously people were just voters but now they have become active participants in
the entire process. They can engage in an open dialogue through social media.

No one can forget the importance of social media in the election campaign designed
by Obama. It involved active participation of people.

People can get the latest information on their Smartphones even when they are on
move. Minute by minute information is updated on social media.
 Disadvantages
It still has to go a long way to connect with the local masses and to reach
out the individual voters.

Social media has become a tool of politicians that is used to make more
noise and even is made a way to encourage polarization.

The social media is highly used to blame and criticize the opposition
parties and information is distorted by misleading and inaccurate facts.

More and more number of political minorities are rising and using the
social media to create a political gridlock.

Social media presence and advertising requires there main factors

including money, geography and name-recognition. If you look at Obama
campaign, it was quite expensive spending about $50 million on just social
media.
Economy
 Advantages

The main advantage of social media marketing is cost-related.

The majority of social media sites are free to access, create a
profile and post information. The advantage of reaching your
targeted market for little or no cash investment is substantial,
and the audience wanting your information voluntarily joins or
follows you. Pay-per-click advertisements on sites such as
Facebook are "geo-targeted" according to specific criteria, to
reach the correct audience. The viral nature of social media
means that each person who reads your posts has the capability
to spread the news farther within his own network, so
information can reach a large number of people in a short time.
 Disadvantages

Updating your social media accounts takes time and

effort. A senior person with knowledge about the
company and products should handle your social media
presence, and the cost in time means the media is not
completely free. It is ongoing work to find new angles
about your products continually and to post and re-post
information. The information is only visible for a short
time before newer posts replace it. In addition, publishing
obvious advertising copy is unacceptable in the social
media world, therefore you must present the information
in the form of conversation or you will lose followers.