What impact has the evolution of social media had on our society in regards to the products we buy and how we receive information

Impact of the Evolution of Social Media Social media have moved from the status of a “ buzz word” to a strategic tool for communication. More people in the society are acquiring skills in relation to this way of communicating online. Social media have become an important factor in the day to day activities. It is extensively used in advertising, public relations industries, political campaigning, and other several areas in the society (Al-deen and Hendricks 4). This essay will discuss the basic elements of social media. It will also discuss the impact of the evolution of social media in the society. These impacts are in regard to the products bought and how information is received. Consequently, it will discuss the influence that social media has on the decisions that people make.
The elements of social media are digital objects. They vary in sizes and are of different types. Twitter post also known as tweets have a limitation of up to 40 characters, while email messages are only a few lines of a few paragraphs in length. The variation in sizes causes dramatic patterns of interaction. MediaWiki, gives support to six levels of headers and automatically generates a table of contents, easing the creation of large pages. Social media have developed around a significant kind of a digital object. These objects include You Tube videos, Flickr photos, bookmarks at delicious, books on Amazon, music or podcast at iTunes, TV shows at Hulu, and people at facebook. Tweet at twitter, messages at discussion forums or email lists, pages at Wikipedia, products at eBay, presentations at Slide Share, 3D objects in Second life, and career professionals at LinkedIn are also some of the digital objects (Hansen, Shneiderman and Smith 15).
Social media provide avenues for people to take part in presenting their identity themselves (Al-deen and Hendricks 4). There is a great difference between online social interactions and one on one interaction in offline social networks. They offer avenues for expressing minimal restrictions. Those, that use online social networks, can give their views and ideas quite freely than in conversing one on one. The internet has improved buying and purchase power and reduced costs, reduced the barriers to enter markets, increased competition on a globally and reduced intermediation. The Internet has made every company regardless of its location easy to enter the competitive market. The internet has made it easy and less costly to advertise and for various firms to connect with their suppliers and customers (Muller 2). Users go to social media to seek information, share information and experiences. These exchanges of information and experiences between different people who could be consumers of certain products, raises a likelihood of people recommending products to others and hence making it popular. This in turn increases the sales of the said products. Social media have greatly enhanced the way people think and how they act and make decisions.

Works Cited
Muller, Christopher. The impact of the internet and social media on the hotel industry. Norderstedt Germany: Grin Verlag, 2011
Al-deen and John. A. Hendricks. Social media: Usage and impact. United Kingdom: Lexington Books, 2012
Hansen, Shneiderman and Marc. A. Smith. Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world. USA: Elsevier Inc, 2011