Social media being by nature social, we wanted to take a critic look at what the impact of our favorite platforms could have on society: in today’s #LongReads, you will learn about five societal challenges induced by social media.
If you are familiar with this blog, you know we always try to feature long-form articles from various media outlets and today is no different as we have selected five pieces from business and market-oriented publication Bloomberg:
- SOCIAL IMPACT : Alex Webb highlights a key message from Apple CEO Tim Cook’s address at MIT’s graduation ceremonies in Cambridge, Massachusetts warning young graduates about the risks of focusing on the wrong things, such as “numbers of likes” and “popularity”, rather than actual impact on people’s lives. You can also watch this particular segment here in video.
- JUSTICE : Noah Feldman explains why two recent Supreme Court rulings mean that the US Government is not going to legislate about what can and cannot be said online, delegating this responsibility to social networks themselves.
- DEMOCRACY : Leonid Bershidsky reports a perception among European activists and officials that the basis of social media platforms’ business model — targeted advertising — can be a threat to democracy.
- LEGAL LIABILITY : Polly Mosendz decrypts why libel insurances, which used to be a necessity for journalists, are now seducing more and more American individuals, willing to protect themselves against potential defamation lawsuits for what they say online.
- FINANCE : Eric Lam shares the perspective Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group’s Mark Mobius on how social media can misinform and conguse investors, to a point where they could be blamed for market slumber.
What’s in it for Social Media Managers: a reminder, as professional users of social media, of our responsibilities to leverage these platforms wisely and our power to face up the societal challenges induced by these social networks we care so much about.
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