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Question: Discuss about the International Journal of Market Research. Answer: The technological advancements over the past two decades, coupled with the advent of the internet, has revolutionised the everything. Human lives and the societal norms or ways have been completely and irreversibly changed. The way things were perceived or done in the olden times were no longer needed and digital medium completely took over us. With the rising popularity of the social media, every human is connected to the internet all the times (Hudson et al. 2015). There are a number of different aspects and sides of this and the collective human society across the planet has been significantly changed. The current essay discusses this point in a more detailed manner: how has the widespread use of social media changed or altered our lives in a positive manner. Almost anyone can be on social media with the help of any electronic device and an internet connection. This lets every person to be always aware about the activities of their friends or family and see what they are doing, where they are, which movies they are watching, what music they are listening to or which book they are reading. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest all facilitate any person who wants to know anything about any of their friends. While social scientists argue that being connected to the internet has huge implications and often has sever negative aspects to it, there are also arguments in favour of using social media, that can greatly enhance the quality of the lives of the humans (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). One of the most major thing that social media platforms have helped in is, instant access to information. In the digital age, there is a huge amount of data that is created every day and most of it available to the people who have internet access (Hajli 2014). Twitter and Facebook users can spread the news of any event almost instantly, even before actual news media and other sources of news. The raid of Bin Ladens hiding place to the mass uprising in the countries like Turkey or the civil war situations in the Middle Eastern nations, as well as any natural calamity in any part of the world, have all been leaked through users of social media rather than news channels (Houston et al. 2015). This has helped countless people to become aware of what was going on and also made sure that those who did not live in their native countries, could check up on their families and beloved ones through these social media platforms as well. One of the best ways that social media helps humans is by s erving as a platform to promote small scale businesses. Digital advertising on social media costs no money and it can virtually reach a huge number of people at a single go. Friends can be made aware of the new business venture and even their friends can be notified about a new initiative that has been started by a person (Bright, Kleiser and Grau 2015). This can be immensely beneficial for the people who aim to do business with a small capital and cannot invest too much on advertising their products or other services. Business venturers who cannot afford too much physical publicity, can always resort to the social media platforms and promote their own products for free. Exposure to the different cultures of the world and exchange of the cultures can also be done through the different social media websites or platforms. The virtual world has been successful in almost erasing all the barriers and international borders by being accessible by every person. The free mobility of information through the internet and the ability for every person to check it, has made sure that people are much more aware about other countries and their respective cultures than they ever were before (Perse and Lambe 2016). Globalisation has been fast forwarded and enhanced the most by the continuously rising use of social media and currently the global culture has almost become a singular one. This has helped people to be more accepting and more open minded towards other cultures and the difference in their own and others views and beliefs. The concept of a global village has been boosted significantly by social media (Boyd 2014). Granted, there are arguments that say that personal sphere of people has been invaded significantly by this developed habit of being connected to everyone at all the times. However, this very aspect has also benefited our lives in many other ways that were beyond comprehension even just a few years ago (Boulianne 2015). Social scientists have argued countless times that people who live alone can be given some degree of security through social media. In cases of emergency, elderly people and anyone who is in danger can seek help from their friends through social media. Many cases like this have actually happened and social workers and hospitals or social care givers have reported to be notified of an emergency situation by people who learned about the case themselves through social media platforms. Getting the news have helped the social care givers and the hospitals to act on it quickly and this has resulted in a number of lives being saved on a many occasions (Houston et al. 2015). One of the most significant changes that has been prompted by the intense and all-encompassing use of social media is how people view themselves. The social perception of beauty has been altered drastically and the people who are frequent users of social media websites have grown more and more accepting about themselves (Weller et al. 2014). Different cultures have different notions about what is beautiful and what is accepted and which is not correct. All of these perceptions and views have helped people to view themselves from different aspects. In this manner, social media has been able to fight depression and other metal problems of many people, albeit doing so unconsciously in most of the times. Expressing their own views and ideologies or beliefs have become much easier when done through social media and this has made sure that a large number of people understand each other in a better way than ever before. Facebook depression is a term that was given rise because of the mental problems faced by some teenagers due to cyber-bullying. Mental health issues such as this has been also met with resistance. More people have come forward in support of the person who were being bullied by others and the offenders had to step down, eventually. In the older times, when mass media was the only way of communicating and reaching others in a mass level, companies and other organisations had to belt out millions, even billions, of dollars at times to make sure that their voices were heard by everyone everywhere (Perse and Lambe 2016). Today, a simple Tweet or a status update on Facebook can make sure that your friends know what is going on or what a person wants to say or talk about, even if the time zone difference between them are huge. This has radically curbed massive costs and organisations do not have to incur any of it anymore (Weller et al. 2014). Organisations and individual people have been brought down to the same platform and this has been a huge boon to entrepreneurs, because social media does not discriminate and allows a fair competition among every person or company. Social media has also changed the meaning of entertainment and how can it be accessed by the users of the platforms. Social media has opened the doors to a wide range of art in every form, including movies, books, music or fine arts, so that a huge number of people can be exposed to those collectively and pursue their interests through the virtual world (Hudson et al. 2015). Artists have been given a huge advantage by this and they can avail a greater number of audience than ever before. Social media has unquestionably become a large part of our lives, whether we know it or not, accept it or not. Even those who do not use any social media platforms, are affected by it indirectly. It can fairly concluded that, despite all the arguments against the use of social media, or social media addiction as it is called by psychologists and social scientists, it also has some immense advantages in our lives and the excessive or widespread use of the same has impacted our lives in positive ways as well. References Boulianne, S., 2015. Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research.Information, Communication Society,18(5), pp.524-538. Boyd, D., 2014.It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press. Bright, L.F., Kleiser, S.B. and Grau, S.L., 2015. Too much Facebook? An exploratory examination of social media fatigue.Computers in Human Behavior,44, pp.148-155. Hajli, M.N., 2014. A study of the impact of social media on consumers.International Journal of Market Research,56(3), pp.387-404. Houston, J.B., Hawthorne, J., Perreault, M.F., Park, E.H., Goldstein Hode, M., Halliwell, M.R., Turner McGowen, S.E., Davis, R., Vaid, S., McElderry, J.A. and Griffith, S.A., 2015. Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research.Disasters,39(1), pp.1-22. Hudson, S., Roth, M.S., Madden, T.J. and Hudson, R., 2015. The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees.Tourism Management,47, pp.68-76. Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks.International Journal of Information Management,35(1), pp.33-44. Perse, E.M. and Lambe, J., 2016.Media effects and society. Routledge. Weller, K., Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Mahrt, M. and Puschmann, C., 2014.Twitter and society(Vol. 89, p. 447). P. Lang.