Social Media Is Affecting The Millennial Generation by Miranda

Social Media Is Affecting The Millennial Generation by Miranda - October 2015 Scholarship Essay

The Millennial generation is a diverse, tolerant and influential generation. This generation ranges from people born between the early 1980s and the 2000s. Social media has not only been invented, but has been changed many times through the upbringing of the millennial. This rise in social media presents rewards and consequences to human interaction, communication and judgment.
Human interaction is slowly dying off because of the rise in social media. The face-to-face interaction that used to be the "norm" is being replaced with tweets, posts, and tags. This is not just a curse, but to some this is a blessing. It is not unusual to have families that live miles and miles apart. With the help of social media, these families are able to communicate faster and easier. According to Elon Journal of undergraduate research, 97% owns a computer, 94% owns a cell phone, 56% owns a MP3 player, 76% use instant messaging, 40% rely of TV for news, and 34% use internet as a primary news source. Social media within our generation shows the same withdrawal symptoms of a drug addict. Our generation is glued to technology. iPhones, computers, and many social media sites were invented before this generation was established. Thus, it was assumed that the millennial would be a "tech" generation. However, no one expected for this generation to get so hooked to these social media sites that it would cause everyday life to completely change.
Communication has improved significantly, especially between consumers and businesses. Social media has helped businesses advertise world wide, and shop online. Customers can get what they want easier and faster online. For example, when designing a house, the designing companies now have there choices online. This makes things easier for the home owners if they can not be at the design center. Although, with benefits come consequences. Having everything done on these media sites, sometimes creates a delay in world wide commerce when there are internet troubles. Not only this, but things are easily mixed up or confused. According to techcrunch.com sending messages through Facebook is becoming more popular then sending a simple text message. More then four billion messages are sent daily, and it is predicted that a quarter of these messages contain business related things. Talking in person used to be more of a professional thing, but now with the help of social media, it is not..
Social media is changing the judgment of employers, admissions offices, and sometimes clubs or organizations. Social media can be a main factor that decides if you are going to become successful or not. Many employers will not allow the employees to even have social media, to prevent assumptions or a change in judgment. Inappropriate posts, pictures, rude comments, or bullying could keep you from the school or job of your dreams. Not only do these employers or offices look for the bad things on your pages, they also look for the good things. Family pictures, birthday wishes, achievements, or confidences boosts to others could give a good impression. Social media is the good way to get an impression of a person you are interested in hiring. Millennials should then use caution and make sure what they post is appropriate.
Many scenarios play into which event has influenced the millennial generation. Each good and bad factors with each scenario. Social media is only going to become more controlling of peoples lives as it gets more complex. Generations after the millennial won't know anything more then social media and technology. It will be left for speculation as to whether this truly helped or hindered the millennial generation.