Digital culture and social media transformations

What are some of the transformations brought about by digital culture and social media? Also, describing some of the areas where tensions between old and new are evident and finding three, credible, academic sources that discuss the world of yesterday as compared with today.

The digital culture and social media have created a litany of changes related to the manner in which society communicates. In many respects, these transformations have been a net positive for society, allowing information to travel in a much more rapid fashion. By communicating quicker, society overall becomes much more efficient. These efficiencies have resulted in an overall increase in societal productivity. Business approvals can occur through email or fax. Supply chains can better communicate consumer demand and produce products in anticipation of higher order counts. Governments can better distribute stimulus payments and communications quickly. Even routine tasks such as a opening a bank account can be done online and in a much more efficient manner. All of these improvements ultimately help improve the quality of life for society through efficient communication (Bradshaw, 2018).

However, the digital transformation has also created areas of tension, these areas of tension often revolve around blatant misinformation designed to obfuscate the truth, a deliberate disregard for fact checking, and a need to embellish information in order to garner “likes” and “followers.” In the case of the latter, many consumers and users of social media often lie about their lifestyle in an effort to appear well off. These lies often manifest themselves through the social network as followers compared their own status in life to those of the false lifestyles perpetrated by others. This ultimately helps to contribute a large amount of misinformation and adverse behaviors online. Those dependent on the approval of others often look to change their own behavior in an effort to garner favor. This concept of “group think” in order to appease others permeates throughout social media, which can be used as a detriment to society overall.

To begin, the digital culture has improved overall efficiencies within society. For example, many processes that once very antiquated methods have now been improved through digitization. The internet allows consumers to access information in the manner and substance that they demand. This information improves the ability for consumers to serve clients, improve their own skills, or even communicate with geographic boundaries. Currently, the United States is undergoing what many pundits term, “The Great Resignation.” Here, many employees are simply quitting their traditional jobs in pursuit of careers that have been enabled by the digital revolution. For example, employees do not need a physical office to complete their work. Instead, the digital transformation has enabled innovations such as working from home. This innovation has allowed employees to purse careers and endeavors without having to be in a physical office of space. This freedom is particular welcomed by younger millennials and those of generation Y who value experiences over money.

Likewise, the digital transformation has enabled those in society to pursue more entrepreneurial endeavors. The digital transformation has created jobs, positions, and income streams that were once though to be impossible. For example, social media influences, with large following can command million-dollar salaries simply due to their online presence. Professional gamers who stream their gaming experiences online have been known to garner millions of dollars in sponsorships. Other, more traditional jobs have also emerged such as coding, website design, transcription services, ride sharing, and more. Each of these businesses offer employees much more opportunity to make money or establish a career outside of the more traditional sectors that permeated society. This has ultimately caused many employees to simply leave their more traditional jobs to pursue careers that offer more freedoms brought about by the digital transformation

The digital transformation has also created unfettered access to individuals around the world. This communication has ultimately manifested itself in the ability to maintain relationship with others irrespective of geographic boundaries. Here, the ability to communicate, exchange ideas, and even date, have created a vastly interconnected society. This has its benefits in that information can quickly spread online enabling quick action. However, it also has the potential to spread misinformation (Bulger, 2018).

Tensions between old and new forms of communication become much more apparent when evaluating the merits of social media and its place within the discourse of society. Social media in many respects have created a lazier population that does not conduct due diligence on the information they consume. For example, research has shown that nearly 64% of people lie about themselves on social media. Likewise, nearly 44% of consumers have reported seeing fake news within their social media. Interestingly, according to studies only 26% of Americans are confident in their ability to recognize fake news, while nearly 14% of Americans have knowingly shared fake news (Anderson, 2017). The primary tension between the old and new forms of communication is that the overall speed and quantity of information often makes it difficult to properly vet its merits. With the overall inability to properly vet misinformation, the critical tension between the old and new form of communication hinge primary on personal responsibility. Here, consumers must be willing to conduct their own due diligence to properly determine the merit of digital information. Unfortunately this has not occurred recently as evidenced by latest misinformation campaigns surrounding the “stolen” election of Joe Biden, rampant election fraud, and even COVID-19 vaccination misinformation. Each of these accusations have repeatedly been debunked. Studies have shown that no election fraud occurred, President Joe Biden did not “steal” the election, and many of the negative side effects of the COVID-19 vaccination are not as common as social media would have society believe. However, did in part to the speed of information and the inability of consumers to fact check the information they consumer, many of these accusations are still believed today (Allcott, 2017). The negative consequences of misinformation manifested themselves on the January 6TH attack on the capital which was caused heavily by misinformation from President Donald Trump. Here, it became blatantly apparent how misinformation, if left unchecked, could undermine the entire civilization.