Positive influence of social networks on a person. Harm and dependence on social networks for dating and communication
Jokes about how social networks change a person ( Do you use social networks? Yes, yesterday I wrote on Twitter, and then pooped on Odnoklassniki) just a bunch, but what is really happening to us? , a digital marketing and social media portal, brings you an overview of the “mutations” of a typical social media denizen.
Social networks really get you hooked!
A quarter of all users come here every day and spend several hours a day.
There is such a thing - multi-screen presence
Every fifth user is registered in several social networks at once
It's all about their incredible diversity. If you believe the rumors: Odnoklassniki is a pasture for women over thirty, VKontakte is a “testing ground” for young people, blondies are drawn from Pinterest, and hipsters from Tumblr and Instagram.
Are regular messengers dying?
Fewer and fewer people use ICQ, email or SMS, because you can send a message or file without leaving the social network...
About the nature of communication
The number of communications is increasing, but they are becoming more superficial. Be careful, don’t forget about those around you – you risk turning into a “Hello, how are you?” robot.
Voyeurism is legal
Voyeurism is one of the main motives of users of social space. Well, why are you delaying! Hurry up and see how your ex is doing.
Social Media Residents Do Better Work
It is a fact! Scientists have proven that people who regularly visit social networks while working are 9% more effective. This is due to the unloading of the brain that occurs during these visits.
Social networks increase self-esteem
Oh yeah! Tell about a great vacation, a new home or girlfriend (!!!) to several hundred friends - where else is this possible!
Social media may cause depression. First point: “I was denied a friend request, I wasn’t invited to a meeting - I’m an outcast.” Second: “Everyone in the photos is so handsome, but I’m the only one fat and pimply…”. Don't panic, down with paranoia!
Status update compared to a cigarette after sex!
Users admit that new status gives a similar psychological effect: it allows you to fill the information gap.
Interesting? Go to Not only here Interesting Facts from the digital world, but also practice, which will teach you how to become an advanced social media manager, will allow you to earn digital world, where billions are spinning.
Like? Like!
Today it is impossible to imagine your life without a computer. They surround us everywhere: at work, at home, in the hospital, subway, store. It is an undeniable fact that computer technology makes a person's life much easier. Thanks to her, we work less complex calculations carried out in a matter of seconds. Even the life of the patient during surgery is controlled by devices. However, not everything is as wonderful as it might seem.
What's the harm?
Computers are harmful to human health - this fact has long been proven. Today, it is not radiation that is causing increasing concern, but the ubiquity of the Internet. The World Wide Web can be very useful: a huge amount of all kinds of information is stored there, which makes it possible to find what you need without spending long hours in the library. However, today's youth are not looking for encyclopedic data on the Internet - they are attracted to social networks. The harm from them is already noticeable - how long have you seen a group of teenagers playing football in the yard or just busy socializing on benches? Everything is a thing of the past long ago. And why should they go outside if everything can be said without leaving the room?
To begin with, I would like to remind you about physical harm. Sitting in front of a computer for a long time is extremely dangerous for everyone, especially for young people whose skeleton has not yet fully formed. Pay attention to how you or your child sits in the chair? He slouches or hunches over, squinting his eyes, peering at the monitor - so he can remain motionless for most of the day, endlessly reading what his friends write. Over time, posture and vision become impaired, headaches often occur, and so on.
The other side of the coin
It's certainly great when you can write at any time distant relative or a friend who went on a business trip to Africa. But most of us write daily to those who are very close, with whom we can meet or at least call. The harm of social networks is that people have forgotten about live communication. Everyone is aware of this, but they cannot or do not want to do anything about it. As a result, our ordinary life turns into a virtual one.
The harm of social networks is enormous: children have forgotten how to make friends, do not maintain contact with society, and their relationships come down to comparisons, whose newer computer or a more modern game of who has more friends on a particular network. Many parents do not pay attention to this at first, because the child is busy and does not bother them. The alarm starts to sound when it is too late to change anything. Probably, along with treatment for alcoholism and gambling addiction, computer addiction will soon be treated.
The full picture of the catastrophe will be seen in the near future. The children grew up, but, having spent their entire short lives at the computer, they never received the necessary skills to communicate and survive in society. The harm of social media is now becoming clear. Young people from virtual systems do not know how to make friends, it is difficult for them to build relationships and start families - they are used to hiding behind a monitor. You can avoid this today by limiting children’s access to computers.
More than 85% of respondents admitted that it would be better for them to give up their favorite food than to ban themselves from visiting their pages. During the experiment, it turned out that if addicts do not check their email on social networks throughout the day, they feel discomfort or become hysterical until they are allowed to taste the forbidden fruit.
Unfortunately, this problem affects not only Americans, but also our compatriots. Thus, about 45 million people “live” on the Russian social network alone. This number is increasing daily. The disease of the 21st century is progressing and there are more and more people addicted to social networks every day.
What are the risks?
Who is most at risk of social media addiction? First of all, this is the younger generation – teenagers. They are always chasing the latest innovations on the Internet and are ready to give a lot to improve their skills or ratings. They spend days and nights online for a common virtual goal. The saddest thing is that a person is not aware of his problem and does not distinguish between virtual life and real life. In addition, people who are disappointed in real life and seek solace on social networks are susceptible to addiction.
Analyzing the situation
Addiction to social networks is a new phenomenon, which means that medications have not yet been invented. This requires enormous willpower. If it is absent, a professional psychologist will come to the rescue. Although, you can cope on your own. The first thing to do is to determine the stage of addiction. This is determined using a special test on the Internet or a table. Second, on a piece of paper, write down all the pros and cons of social networks where you can be found.
Pros and cons of social networks
The advantage is that you can always be in touch with your friends. You can find new friends and restore old connections. The disadvantages are the following: you spoil your health. Your posture worsens, your vision is damaged... You waste a lot of real time. If you stay online 24/7, you can lose a lot. By following the comments under your photos, you completely forget about the simple, more important things in life. Sometimes it happens that you forget about real friends and communicate only with virtual ones.
How to get rid of addiction?
Analyze your life, think about it! Do you really want to live your life aimlessly, in the company of virtual friends? After all, in the near future you risk turning into a mentally ill person.
Find your real goal, make an action plan and start living by it. Next, start limiting your access to the Internet. If you cannot do this yourself, ask your family about it.
Force yourself to spend more time outdoors, listen to music, read, sing, take up some hobby... Life is varied and you need to appreciate every second of it. Learn to enjoy every event in your life...
Abstract: the first part of the report talks about general principles social networks, the history of development, the influence of social networks on people's lives, contains fresh data on popular networks and highlights problematic areas of this issue.
1. History of development
Not everyone knows that the concept of “social network” appeared back in 1954 and, of course, had nothing to do with the Internet, and they began to study this phenomenon back in the 30s of the last century. The concept was introduced by sociologist James Barnes: “social network” is a social structure consisting of a group of nodes, which are social objects (people or organizations), and connections between them (social relationships) (more details on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Social_network). More to the point in simple language- this is a certain group of familiar people, where the person himself is the center, and his friends are the branches. There are two-way or one-way connections between all network members. For example, this could be a group of classmates in which a certain Jack is the center, and Bill and Catherine are his acquaintances (branches).
Gradually, the scientific concept gained popularity, first in developed capitalist countries, then in Eastern Europe. As society developed, we came to the information age, in which we created a lot of types of communication, which led to a leap in the development of social networks, and now this scientific concept is used everywhere. I will look exclusively at the development of social networks on the Internet.
A landmark event was the invention of the Internet, which became public in 1991 thanks to the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee.
In 1995, Randy Conrad created Classmates.com, the first social network in modern understanding. The concept turned out to be very popular, and from this year the rapid development of social networks on the Internet begins. Today, this network still remains one of the most popular in the world and has more than 50 million users.
In 2004, Facebook appeared, which within a few years became the most popular social network in the world. It uses the same communication mechanism, but on a slightly different plane, which leads to a revolution in this area. The number of active users as of mid-2011 was more than 700 million.
In September 2005, Tim O'Reilly made an ideological revolution by introducing the concept of "Web 2.0" in his article "Tim O'Reilly - What Is Web 2.0", which describes the modern Internet. One of the central parts of the new concept is occupied by social networks.
In 2008, the Groupon project appeared - a service for collective discounts, which, on the one hand, is based precisely on the principle of social networks (call your friends and get a general discount), and on the other hand uses social connections very superficial (only for shopping). The service connects communication and business, which can confidently be called a new level of development of social networks on the Internet, which combines the online and offline worlds.
2. Classification
By region:
- World (hi5)
- Country (Qzone)
- Territorial unit
- Without region (InterNations)
The most interesting classification of social networks is by type, there are many different projects with different types content and for different purposes, each of which occupied its own niche. If we analyze this classification, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that now all the main topics on the network have already been socialized, regardless of the type of content; rapid development continues only in certain niches in which thematic social networks are actively appearing. The last group in the classification of “thematic” networks hides a huge number of communities, each of which is based on thematic content and communication.
The second type of classification shows how accessible the networks are. Now the vast majority of networks are completely open to the outside world, for which they are actively criticized by users, but on the other hand, this is very beneficial for them. Some projects are not aimed at publicity due to their business model, so they were initially created as closed ones. Mixed networks usually develop poorly: their goal is often to gain maximum popularity, like open ones, however, users are not accustomed to barriers and therefore are reluctant to become participants in networks of this type.
The last gradation - by geographic region - is the simplest and most obvious: first, world giants appeared that erased physical boundaries, a little later networks began to develop in individual regions, often copying in whole or in part the world giants, but with a focus on their region. With the development of the Internet, networks gradually began to appear even in individual cities. It is also worth remembering networks that are tied not to a region, but to an organization, for example, social networks of corporations or political parties.
3. People on social networks
The influence of social networks on people’s lives is enormous, many do not even fully realize the scale of this phenomenon, and yet social networks are already the most popular activity on the Internet. Today, of the 100 most visited sites in the world, 20 are classic social networks and another 60 are socialized to one degree or another. More than 80% of companies around the world use social networks in their work. About 78% of people trust information from social networks. Entire revolutions are even organized through them. Social networks have become the very center of the modern Internet.
Information about the person
On this moment social networks are essentially a huge database with a wide variety of information about hundreds of millions of people around the world, which is also well structured. IN Lately networks are opening up more and more to the outside world, and many personal data of users are already available to everyone. How more people communicates on a variety of social networks, topics more information it can be collected without any difficulty. That is why the controversial statement that “70% of information intelligence services collect from open sources” today takes on a completely plausible connotation.
Modern social networks offer users to indicate almost everything about themselves: photo; video; communications (including by type); interests; education; information about work; places where people visit; preferred products; personal thoughts, etc. Most of the information is available without registration, just find the user’s page on popular social networks, the rest can be seen after adding the user as a friend, and all information, including personal correspondence (at a minimum), is available to the administration of this network, and no privacy settings will hide it.
I’ll conduct a small experiment to see if I have information about myself: I’m an average user of social networks, I’m registered in several projects, I periodically communicate in 3, of which I’m active in one, I deliberately don’t show all the information about myself on networks and in different projects I focus on different aspects of your life. By last name and first name you can easily find me on Facebook, Vkontakte, My Circle, Profeo, Habrahabr and some other networks. First we find a profile on the business network My Circle, in which you can find: business photos, professional skills, interests, career information, services I provide, links to other sites. Next, we find a profile on the Profeo business network, in which little information is available without registration, namely, you can find out about your current job, see connections, groups, industry and region. Next we find a VKontakte profile, in which you can see a huge number of my thoughts on the microblog, several extraneous photos and videos, a couple of my unofficial photos, my birthday, a couple of wishes and subscriptions, and by “likes” on the page you can identify friends. Next, we find a Facebook profile, from which we can see several friends and interests. The last thing we find is the IT community Habrahabr, where you can find out my interests, contacts, my friends, companies that interest me, see the materials and comments I have published. All this data can be viewed by any user, even without registering on a specific social network. They can be used to make my full professional portrait and a lot of personal information collect, and if you add yourself as a friend, the portrait will be about 50-60% complete. And this is taking into account the fact that I deliberately do not show on social networks full information about myself, and in general I don’t have much time to communicate with them.
It is important to understand one feature: on the Internet, as in the real world, people unite in certain social groups(social masks), which do not overlap much with each other. The main global division occurs according to projects, within which the target audience is divided into informal groups based on interests, age and other characteristics. Moreover, there can be several such social masks: during the day a person needs business communication, in the evening communication with friends and family, on weekends communication, for example, related to a hobby, etc. Each person will have their own set of masks, but each of them will have its own characteristics that will influence all behavior. That is why a modern person is often registered in several social networks, in which he satisfies different needs and provides different information about himself, and recently many people even create several accounts in each social network in order to be able to “put on” different social masks.
In addition, a person gradually changes: he gets old, his interests, life priorities change, etc. This means that yesterday’s schoolchildren who communicated on VKontakte may communicate on LinkedIn tomorrow with completely different life priorities and will want to show completely different information about themselves. This is why it is so important to filter information about yourself on different social networks.
Networking
Today, networks have gathered a huge audience, which attracts more and more specialists from various fields. Some networks only provide the opportunity to communicate, some provide work tools, but one thing is for sure - any popular social network has become a workspace for many millions of people.
People whose activities are based on communication were the first to work in networks. These are sales managers, network marketers, researchers and many others. Entrepreneurs and HR specialists came for them. Now people of all specialties work in networks to one degree or another.
It is quite obvious that this feature more typical for networks business communication, which can be said to be created for work, as well as thematic networks, where certain groups of people gather. Networks provide the opportunity to look for work (for example, a special section “Jobs” in the popular network among IT specialists from CIS countries “Habrahabr” - http://habrahabr.ru/job/), the opportunity to sell something (for example, a special section “Marketplace Facebook "- http://facebook.com/marketplace/) or simply find business partners (for example, the XING business network - https://www.xing.com/).
People actively use networks for work and are doing it more and more successfully every year. Many people change jobs through social networks, companies find employees, some groups of specialists have transferred their entire staff there professional activity. In the near future, we can expect the development of specialized functionality that will allow the creation of virtual workplaces, in particular for professional networks.
Information Security
In the last 3-4 years, the topic of information security and privacy in social networks has attracted a lot of attention. This is understandable: networks are increasingly opening up to the outside world, there have been cases of personal data leaks, user accounts are easily hacked, and network administrations have access to any information. But all this is only the external part, which lies on the surface and about which the press writes, but is far from a complete picture of potential threats to personal data.
The most harmless, at first glance, option for using personal data without the user’s permission can be considered the internal mechanisms of social networks for displaying targeted advertising, selecting potential acquaintances or selecting potential interesting content. These mechanisms have become standard in almost all social networks, and no one hides this fact: They all collect and analyze personal data, of which there is a lot on any network, and then use it for commercial purposes. Moreover, social networks transmit personal data to the outside world, and this fact has already been officially recognized.
More problems for users are caused by leakage of personal data due to the fault of the network, which has happened repeatedly in different projects. One of the largest leaks in terms of size can be considered the leak of personal data of 77 million users of the PlayStation Network in April 2011, and the consequences of this incident are not yet fully clear; there may be a leak of user payment data. There are always a lot of security problems and it is likely that most of these leaks are simply hidden from the public.
Even more serious problems can be caused by hacking individual accounts and gaining access to all the personal information of an individual user if the attackers target a specific person. It is not difficult to do this today even for an ordinary user who simply knows the person and can use social engineering, and in addition there are special hacking services, the cost of which is only $20. The motivation of attackers can be very different, from hacking the accounts of officials of a certain company for the purposes of industrial espionage to personal goals. For example, US marriage lawyers are already recording every fifth divorce due to social networks: spouses gain access to their partner’s profile, find correspondence there with their lover, and as a result, this leads to divorce.
It is also worth remembering about viruses and phishing, which can steal logins and passwords unnoticed by the user and then use them for illegal actions (for example, automatic mailing spam on behalf of the user).
However, the biggest threat is that quite a few people have access to all personal information. large group people, and they can view it at any time, even if the person has deleted something from the network. Firstly, these are employees of the social network itself: they have access to databases that contain all the information, as well as special tools for logging into user accounts, such as a special master password on Facebook, which allows you to log into any account . Secondly, law enforcement agencies, such as the CIA in the USA or the FSB in Russia, also have access to information. Not long ago, the famous whistleblower Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, said that Facebook has a special interface that is used by US intelligence, and earlier in Russia popular network VKontakte has already managed to publicly acknowledge the facts of cooperation with law enforcement agencies and the transfer of personal data. All this is quite logical: employees of social networks cannot but have access, this is their job, and employees law enforcement They catch criminals in networks, but this does not eliminate the danger of transferring data to third parties, and often such data can be entire psychological portraits or confidential information.
Lately, users trust social networks less and less and are increasingly beginning to filter information that they are willing to entrust to networks, give false information or are completely removed from the network, but even deletion does not give certainty: often the information is stored on the company’s servers and can be used in the future, in particular, Facebook, VKontakte and other networks do this.
Addiction
Internet addiction has long been a recognized psychological disease, and addiction to social networks is its new form. The reasons for this phenomenon are quite understandable: every person has obvious and hidden needs that he strives to satisfy, this could be the need for communication, self-realization, saving time or something else, and the social network gives a feeling of satisfaction of these needs. And all this seems very accessible, worth writing beautiful quote and 10 people answer you; All you have to do is upload a new photo and 10 people will tell you how beautiful you are; just make a couple of clicks and your friends already have a new interesting acquaintance... However, in essence this is a departure from reality, the replacement of the real with the virtual, which only gives a feeling of satisfaction of needs, but in fact the Internet cannot replace real life, and therefore a person wants more and more , and more, but the more “communication” he receives via the Internet, the more he wants it, and the needs still remain unsatisfied, at least most of them.
A similar addiction gradually develops in many people who once got into a social network. A person gets hooked on the network, and the more time he uses it, the more difficult it is for him to live real life. It’s difficult to feel this, you need to break away from the computer for a few days, and only then a whole bunch of feelings will arise, ranging from a strong desire to go online to serious depression, these are the symptoms of addiction. Addiction leads to many problems: complexes, depression, fears, mood swings and even sexual disorders appear.
This is a psychological disease and, like any disease, requires treatment. It is difficult to treat any psychological problems, let alone addictions. First of all, you need to realize that there is a problem and admit it to yourself. The second step of treatment should be replacement virtual communication to the real, and gradually with the help of friends and relatives it will be possible to recover.
4. Popular social networks
The most popular social network in the world and the most visited site. Since its inception, it has continued to demonstrate amazing growth in both users and profits. The company constantly comes up with and implements new ideas, actively integrates with the outside world, and creates its own Facebook Internet. The rapid growth will continue over the next few years.
Region: mainly USA, Indonesia, UK, Turkey, India, Mexico, Philippines, France, Italy, Germany, more than 5 million users in Russia. Over the past few years, the network has been actively expanding into the markets of many other countries.
Year of foundation: 2004.
Visitors per month: more than 700 million active users.
Increase in attendance: positive.
Problems: Facebook is often criticized for its privacy problems and its extreme openness to the outside world. There are also problems with monetization, and therefore the company is constantly experimenting in this area, although even despite the problems, gross profit grows 2 times annually. Many people don't like the network interface.
Social network for business communication economically active people. The site is actively used by entire companies around the world. In general, the project has very good prospects: its audience is different “ high quality", and all indicators are growing steadily literally every day.
Region: mainly the USA, the network is also popular in the UK, Spain, and India. It is actively gaining popularity in developed European and Asian countries. In total, more than 200 countries of the world are covered.
Year of foundation: 2003.
Type: network for business communication.
Visitors per month: more than 100 million active users.
Increase in attendance: positive, more than 4 million new users monthly.
Problems: in my opinion, the network does not have enough functionality to work.
A fairly young social network based on microblogging. The idea is quite interesting: the creators took old blogging ideas, artificially limited the length of the message and greatly simplified everything that was possible, resulting in modern world, when life speeds up every day, and there is not enough time, a new popular social network has appeared.
Region: Mainly USA, but also Brazil, UK, Canada and Germany.
Year of foundation: 2006.
Type: blogging network.
Visitors per month: 98 million users, while the network has more than 200 million registrations and is growing rapidly
Increase in attendance: positive.
Problems: For all its success, this network also has serious problems. First of all, competition with other social networks, which are also very popular and provide the same microblogging opportunities as Twitter, in particular we are talking about Facebook, VKontakte and other projects, while in addition to microblogging, competitors offer other social opportunities. Many new users, after trying the service for the first time, remain disappointed and leave it. In addition, the network brings little benefit to its participants: the opportunities are reduced mainly to microblogging, which many use for useless chatter and nothing more. There are problems with spam, which makes up 5-10% of all messages. And to top it off, the network still remains unprofitable, while easily rejecting generous offers from investors to purchase.
The most popular discount service in the world, which gives large discounts on products subject to significant demand for them. This is not a classic social network, but the project uses some principles of social networks, the main emphasis is still on e-commerce.
Region: USA, Canada, UK, France, Brazil, India and many other countries. The region is very important for the project; the company sells products in large cities.
Year of foundation: 2008.
Type: shopping network.
Visitors per month: 8.8 million users, with more than 83 million registered accounts.
Increase in attendance: positive, the project is the youngest of all those analyzed and is now in a stage of explosive growth, which will last at least another 1-2 years.
Problems: The company has only one big problem - how to cope with growth and expand its business as quickly as possible regional network. In my opinion, great potential lies in the socialization of the project, adding the possibility of communication within the project and geolocation services. Some experts call Groupon's business model questionable.
In contact with
The most popular social network in the CIS is, in fact, an analogue of Facebook. The rate of growth has slowed recently, especially since Facebook began efforts to localize the site for Russian-speaking audiences and introduced invitation-based registration on VKontakte in early 2011. Over the past year, the network has begun to develop very actively, with new functionality constantly appearing.
Region: mainly Russia, the project is also popular in the CIS countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc. Since 2009, VKontakte bought the domain VK.com, which began expansion into other countries, but so far there has not been much success.
Year of foundation: 2006.
Type: network for personal communication.
Visitors per month: more than 40 million active users, with more than 135 million accounts at the beginning of 2011. The exact numbers are not disclosed.
Increase in attendance: positive.
Problems:: popularity is largely supported by pirated content (music, films, porn), which is why the company has big problems with copyright holders, and the US authorities have included the site in the list of the largest distributors of pirated content in the world. Already, many people go to VKontakte “to listen to music and watch movies,” which is confirmed by the TNS Web Index Report, according to which about 30% of the network’s popularity comes from video. This is, of course, very negative for the social network, people stop using it for its intended purpose, and copyright holders gradually delete their content; this state of affairs over time can lead to a serious decline in popularity. Although the founder of the network, Pavel Durov, denies this, he recently stated: “Addresses to pages with videos account for less than 5% of all VKontakte user activity.” At the same time, keeping silent about what exactly is meant by “hits” - if this is the time spent in the section or the number of pages viewed, then it looks quite plausible, users spend most of their time communicating, and if this is the percentage of unique visitors to the section from the total number of site visitors, then the data is doubtful. Pavel also said nothing about the audio section, which occupies important place from users. The network is also known for poor quality support, and scandalous stories related to this have repeatedly appeared in the media.
Region: Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries.
Year of foundation: 2006.
Type: network for personal communication.
Visitors per month: more than 20 million users, with more than 68 million accounts.
Increase in attendance: positive.
Problems: Classmates have big problem with aggressive monetization, many services in the project are paid, which causes a negative reaction from users, although new team The project is trying to solve this problem. In addition, the network is very open, and a lot of information is available to the outside world after registration. Last big problem is a low-quality interface that is poorly perceived by users. All these problems are seriously hampering audience growth, despite the fact that it is still positive, in the next few years growth may stop, or even become negative.
Region: Ukraine, now entering Russia with the Plirt.ru project, plans to enter Asian markets.
Year of foundation: 2007.
Type: network for personal communication.
Visitors per month: more than 2 million users.
Increase in attendance: positive.
Problems: there are certain problems with the interface, there is a lot of competition in the dating niche with popular services CIS countries.
From the analysis, we can draw quite clear conclusions: social networks have not yet reached the peak of popularity and will grow confidently over the next 3-5 years. All projects now have mainly extensive (quantitative) growth due to attracting untapped users in primary and secondary regions, however, companies are already beginning intensive (qualitative) growth, and very tough competition between projects will begin in the coming years. There are still many free thematic niches on the market in which billion-dollar businesses can be created, which is what is happening now. Today, networks are popular that effectively solve not only the need for communication, but also other global human needs. This year's trends include geolocation and e-commerce on social networks.
5. Problems of social networks.
Many social networks, while rapidly growing in popularity and profitability, also have serious underlying problems. Solving these problems will lead to the enormous growth of social networks, which is what they are now trying to do.
Little utility
The problem with many social networks, especially non-thematic ones, is their lack of usefulness. People spend a huge amount of time there, and in return they receive only electronic communication, most often text, which conveys only 7% of the information, which makes such communication very unproductive, as well as a large amount of data, 90% of which is of no value at all. Understanding this problem, many social networks are trying to create new tools that allow users to buy and sell, work, have fun, etc. within them. Solving this problem will become the basis for the development of networks in the next 3-5 years.
Problems with monetization
Social networks today are not a very profitable business. They require significant resources to create and maintain, and there are few direct monetization tools, and most of them are based on traffic, which does not allow you to overcome the break-even point in the first few years of the project's existence. In this regard, experiments in the field of monetization are constantly being conducted. The solution to this problem will also greatly influence the development of social networks in the coming years: tools will be introduced ecommerce, new ones will appear paid services, a lot of attention will be paid to mediation between users, but I will talk about monetization in part 4 of the report.
Audience Crossing
Social networks have already covered the entire Internet. Today there is a huge variety of projects in many countries. Hundreds of millions of people from all over the world are registered in them. Moreover, each project is unique and solves slightly different needs: in some networks people communicate about their personal lives, in others about work, in others they consume content. This has led to significant audience overlap, with the same person registering on multiple social networks or even having multiple registrations on each project to meet different needs. First of all, this is due to the fact that many networks have not yet developed tools to effectively satisfy different needs, which often interfere with each other, and on the other hand, companies do not want to integrate with each other for fear of competition. That is why people split into different social groups in different networks, and an individual person can be present in several groups at once. In the future, the winners will be those projects that can learn to combine the satisfaction of different needs, and thereby create for themselves a huge competitive advantage or at least begin integration with projects from an indirect competitive group.
Distorted user information
IN last years Deliberate distortion of data about themselves by users is increasingly observed. Many people completely or partially change their first and last names, indicate false information in their profiles, and do not disclose a lot of information at all. The number of such people has not been accurately estimated, but already their number can reach 10-15% of the total number of active users, and this figure is constantly growing. In general, the problem is related to data privacy: it is beneficial for social networks to open up as much data about users as possible, which they do successfully, but people, on the contrary, want to hide some of the information. The trend will continue until social networks begin to provide tools to maintain guaranteed anonymity from everyone, including the networks themselves.
Another big problem in social networks is spam. This is a paradise for spammers who can send personalized unwanted advertisements. Social networks are trying to actively combat this, introducing new mechanisms for identifying spam and blocking it, but spammers also do not stop developing. This problem causes serious losses to networks and inconveniences users.
Accounts of the dead
People are born, live and die. This is a natural process and is not under our control. However, this process creates a problem for social networks: how to determine that a person has died and what to do with their account?
All this common problems, inherent in almost all social networks. At the same time, we should not forget that each region will also have its own local problems, of which there are also quite a few.
6. Features of development in North America, Europe and Asia.
The whole world is not developed evenly and social networks, accordingly, too. The most developed region can be called North America, primarily the United States, where the penetration of social networks per capita is very high. It is in this country that many popular social networks are created and developed, and its residents become the core of users of popular projects.
North America and Western Europe
These two geographical regions are the most developed in the field of economics and IT, they have a large number of social networks of all popular types. The regions can be called innovative; new ideas are actively generated here and strong startups are created, which in a few years turn into large corporations.
Now this market is already crowded with general social networks that solve a person’s need for communication. Much attention is paid to thematic projects, which are based on thematic communication, narrowly focused content and unique services, although there are still free niches.
Existing projects are seeking to expand into other regions (for example, Facebook recently announced its plans to enter the Chinese market) and at the same time intensively improve from a qualitative point of view. Much attention is paid to monetization of projects.
A very closed market with a lot of features, which is also characterized by large volumes, which makes it attractive to many companies. Many world-famous projects have tried and are trying to enter the Asian markets, but this is extremely difficult.
Asian countries predominantly have their own social networks, which largely clone their popular counterparts from the United States, but there is also a large share of innovation. The only exception, perhaps, is India, where social networks from North America and Western Europe are actively developing.
The market is quite full and there are fewer and fewer free niches every year.
Eastern Europe
An actively developing market with already impressive volumes. It lags behind more developed regions by 3-5 years. Social networks are mainly copied from popular analogues in the developed countries of North America and Western Europe; in the last few years, a lot has been copied from Asia, which has saturated the market with clones; there is very little innovation. The most developed in the region is Russia, where almost all popular social networks in the region are concentrated. The market's lagging has also energized investors who are happy to invest in clones.
Local projects are mainly developing within the local market; several large companies have begun to think about expansion into other regions.
Conclusions: of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg; entire encyclopedias can already be written about social networks. Networks have already penetrated very deeply into our lives and continue to gain popularity; their influence on people is still underestimated. Currently, mainly general networks are developed, but in the near future new projects will be developed, both in topic and functionality. As in any fast-growing segment, there are a number of tangible problems, but all of them are completely solvable. Soon, social networks on the Internet will change the world quite a lot; they have already become an influential instrument of power.
The first part of the report: “All about social networks. Impact on a person";
The second part of the report: “All about social networks. Development prospects " ;
third part of the report: “All about social networks. Technologies " ;
The fourth part of the report: “All about social networks. Monetization »
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Until recently, this entertainment was a curiosity, but now almost all young people, their parents and even grandmothers, have their own pages on one or another social network. But how useful are such contacts? What do they bring more: benefit or harm?
The benefits of social networks
Of course, social networks allow you to receive a large volume of information in a fairly quick time frame. necessary information. They provide the opportunity to communicate at a distance with a huge number of people living in different parts of the world, help to meet people, find friends, fall in love, discuss news and events.
Social networks help find lost friends and classmates. Thanks to popular sites, people resume communication, and subsequently keep in touch with each other, find out news, and congratulate each other on the holidays.
Networking also helps in finding a job because it allows you to find out useful information about the employer and the organization itself. In addition, a large number of interest clubs have been created there, which help you spend your leisure time profitably and not waste time on useless watching TV or computer toys.
The evil of social networks
Virtual communication replaces real interaction with people; a person has the illusion of a huge circle of acquaintances. However, this communication is not lively, fragmented, devoid of emotions in their usual sense.
Social networks kill time modern man, because you can communicate endlessly in them, but to the detriment of your personal life and even mental health. They are capable of immersing a person completely in an unreal world, displacing the desire to live an ordinary life not connected with a computer: playing sports, reading books, going out into nature with friends.
In addition, there are many scammers on the Internet hiding behind the masks of respectable people, sectarians recruiting followers, perverts with abnormal fantasies, seducing children.
Thus, one must be careful not to fall into the evil nets of the internet.