Technological Innovation & Social Media

Does technological innovation improve or corrupt morality and what connection does social media have with technological innovation, and thus influence the world?

In broad terms, technological innovation brings benefits to society by increasing productivity and creates new and better goods and services that improve the overall standard of living (Broughel, 2019). It’s a key driver in economic growth and human well-being (Broughel, 2019). So, what does social media have to do with this? Well, one major influence in technological innovation in recent decades is the establishment of social media. Technology and social media have evolved tremendously over the last two decades each playing a part in the evolvement of the other with technological advancements allowing people to engage with social media on smart phones at any moment of the day, and social media engagement being a driving factor in our computer software programs are societal development (Bhatla, 2020).

With the evolution of the internet, news, information, and ideas now have the ability to travel at the speed of light in comparison to the generations where ideas were limited to transmission by books (Freedom in Thought, 2019). A large part of this reason, is due to the rise of social media which has skyrocketed over the past couple of decades. Social media can be seen to be either good or bad. It is known to contribute to high levels of depression, anxiety, body image issues, and cyberbullying particularly in the younger generation, however it also helps us express ourselves, connect with others like never before, and gives us access to high-quality information (Freedom in Thought, 2019). Human beings have access to information literally at their fingertips, but not all information shared is historically, academically, politically, or morally correct. The growth and importance of social media came with the increase in social media influencers — people who have large social media followings that offer high quality online content that educates, entertains, or encourages their audience (NFI, n.d.). However, influencers can range from people such a celebrities, politicians, digital content creators for marketing purposes, bloggers or vloggers, academics, experts in their fields and so forth. Because of their influence on society, social media influences have a big impact on the information and opinions that is being communicated and how the audience receives that information.

“Influencers shape their viewers and the online social media culture” — (NFI, n.d.)

A large quantity of information or opinions that are projected into the social media world, are not necessarily fact, and can quite often be immoral and dangerous. Take Donald Trump for example and the negative impact his influence had on society. Although Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign can be viewed as innovative as it paved a way for a more interconnected form of democracy through social media, (Hollinger, 2018) his influence left a largely negative immoral impact in the American society.

Just recently, controversial influencers Andrew Tate was banned from social media sites, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube due to his dangerous influence on the youth, especially young men, and teenagers in America. Tate became known around the world for expressing his very immoral misogynistic views and criticising women to the extreme, (Brito, 2022) where his dangerous influence was affective in teenage boys and scarily began to manifest in the schoolyard.

With this being said, technological innovation and social media can be seen to largely affect society through a negative lens, and corrupt our views and opinions based of who we see and look up to online via our social media influencers, however social media also has the great potential to improve our views, opinions and morals. It isn’t necessarily the technological innovation of the platforms themselves that influence our morals, rather the people that have large scale reach through these platforms, that seem to influence us. Social media has the ability of global reach, and when used for the right reasons, it bring positive change to the world.

“Technology by itself is neither good nor bad. It is only the way and extent to which we use it that matter” — Forbes (Loubier, 2021)

References

Bhatla, P. (2020). How Social Media Is Changing Technology [Blog]. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/361871.

Brito, C. (2022). Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate banned from Instagram and Facebook. CBS News. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-tate-instagram-facebook-ban-influencer-misogynistic-views/.

Broughel, J. (2019). Technological Innovation and Economic Growth [Blog]. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.mercatus.org/publications/entrepreneurship/technological-innovation-and-economic-growth#:~:text=Technological%20innovation%20brings%20benefits.,broadly%20across%20the%20entire%20population.

Freedom in Thought. (2019). how social media drastically affects us [Video]. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Atnti70cM&t=5s.

Hollinger, J. (2018). Trump, social media and the first Twitter-based Presidency. Diggit Magazine. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.diggitmagazine.com/articles/Trump-Twitter-Based-Presidency.

Loubier, A. (2021). Is Society Moving In The Right Direction With Technology Rapidly Taking Over The World?. Forbes. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrealoubier/2021/06/01/is-society-moving-in-the-right-direction-with-technology-rapidly-taking-over-the-world/?sh=141c7f8a7c09.

NFI, N. Social Media Influencer — Everything You Need To Know [Blog]. Retrieved 28 August 2022, from https://www.nfi.edu/social-media-influencer/.