Social Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The ubiquity of social media has had a profound effect on the way we communicate and is of significant importance to society and business. Social media tools have helped break down geographical barriers that once restricted communication and have led to an explosion of e-participation, virtual presence, and online communities. Professional benefits of social media include sharing of information, publicity, and giving and receiving support and advice (AlAlwan et al. 2017; Dwivedi et al. 2015, 2017a; Kapoor and Dwivedi, 2015; Kapoor et al. 2016; Mills et al. 2009; Plume et al. 2016). Consumers have become increasingly empowered to exert an influence on brands through online communities, while businesses are able to acquire rapid feedback and garner insight into individual preferences without observer effects (AlAlwan et al. 2017; Ismagilova et al. 2017; Kapoor et al. 2016; Plume et al. 2016) and use such data for new product development (Rathore et al. 2016). Social media tools also enable citizens to share advice and information with their local community (Oh et al., 2013), from promoting events to searching for lost pets, and aids government engagement with citizens (Alryalat et al. 2017). The radical transformation of communication that has been enabled by social media presents a fascinating environment for academics from all backgrounds. People browse and contribute to their social media accounts regularly using smart devices; some people even prefer to communicate using social media rather than participating in face-to-face interaction. Yet communication using social media might be more challenging as emotions can be difficult to detect and comprehend. Furthermore, the anonymity granted through social media facilitates harmful and socially unacceptable behaviours such as cyberbullying. The volume of valuable datasets available through social media applications has led to the emergence of automated techniques and systems that can analyse the ‘big data’ generated. Analytics help businesses to ensure their social media activities are adding value and helping to accomplish business goals. Analysis of social media content can also help to safeguard society from organized crime but such uses remain a delicate issue. There are also risks of using social media analysis in terms of generalizability, as people might prefer different social media or refrain from social media entirely, which could result in bias and even drawing of the wrong conclusions. With seemingly endless benefits it is easy to overlook the disadvantages of social media, which are an increasingly important consideration as social media platforms continue to proliferate. Social media has facilitated a loss of ownership and control of content as private, public and institutional domains progressively overlap. There is a need for careful balancing of professionalism and freedom of speech to ensure that posts do not cause offence or harm reputations. The quality of social media content is diverse, ranging from facts to ‘fake news’. Inaccurate information can spread around the * Yogesh K. Dwivedi y.k.dwivedi@swansea.ac.uk