It is clear that social media is the preferred way for many people to contact each other and access news.I think this development is advantageous and disadvantageous in equal measure.

Regarding the benefits,an obvious one is these platforms are invariably able to break important news much more quickly.For example,Yahoo News,one of the world’s most visited and used news websites,has rolling updates and live feeds of the latest stories,which allows people to know what is happening both locally and worldwide with very little delay.Another is they usually enable users to stay in touch with loved ones over long distances.This is often the case for young Chinese people,who increasingly travel abroad to undertake tertiary studies and spend many months,even years,away from family and friends.With applications like WeChat they can maintain daily contact with them through video calls and reading their posts,thereby fostering their relationships.

In terms of the drawbacks, the first concern for me is the nature and quality of the news people recieve.Facebook,for instance,generally focuses on promoting trending stories in order to engage users and increase viewership,yet they tend to contain trivial content,for example,a scandle involving a movie star.In this way,people may well remain ignorant of events of serious import,such as a natural diaster or an international dispute.Secondly,this trend has the potential to replace in-person interactions.By prioritising communication through social media platforms,people arguably feel less inclied to participate in or organise real gatherings ,with this adversely affecting their interpersonal skills and possibly reducing their capacity to form meaningful bonds with others.

Overall,i feelthis trend is not overwhelmingly positive or negative an on balance,there is little that separates the sides.

It is clear that social media is the preferred way for many people to contact each other and access news.I think this development is advantageous and disadvantageous in equal measure.

Regarding the benefits,an obvious one is these platforms are invariably able to break important news much more quickly.For example,Yahoo News,one of the world’s most visited and used news websites,has rolling updates and live feeds of the latest stories,which allows people to know what is happening both locally and worldwide with very little delay.Another is they usually enable users to stay in touch with loved ones over long distances.This is often the case for young Chinese people,who increasingly travel abroad to undertake tertiary studies and spend many months,even years,away from family and friends.With applications like WeChat they can maintain daily contact with them through video calls and reading their posts,thereby fostering their relationships.

In terms of the drawbacks, the first concern for me is the nature and quality of the news people recieve.Facebook,for instance,generally focuses on promoting trending stories in order to engage users and increase viewership,yet they tend to contain trivial content,for example,a scandle involving a movie star.In this way,people may well remain ignorant of events of serious import,such as a natural diaster or an international dispute.Secondly,this trend has the potential to replace in-person interactions.By prioritising communication through social media platforms,people arguably feel less inclied to participate in or organise real gatherings ,with this adversely affecting their interpersonal skills and possibly reducing their capacity to form meaningful bonds with others.

Overall,i feelthis trend is not overwhelmingly positive or negative an on balance,there is little that separates the sides.