The world is always evolving and with it humankind progresses as well. Newer technologies are replacing older ones and with that transition, older jobs are being replaced with ones that facilitate the implementation of the recently developed careers. The concept of this cloud-based social networks isn´t indifferent to this progression, and social media are creating and also destroying work.
It is known that social media are growing and impacting everyone´s lives, social media are prominent in every social environment. Since they are being implemented and having an important role in today´s world, consequences, both positive and negative, are becoming clear. As it always has happened in the past, when a new technology is introduced new jobs are created, for example when the printer was invented lithographic employment was born or when the automatization happened new jobs for specific functions were needed. The same principle can be applied to social media, new people for new positions and functions are needed. Nowadays companies need to maintain a presence in the web to be popular and reachable (see how every corporation has a Twitter or Instagram account) and for that to happen they need a “social media manager”, a person or a collective who manages their social media presence. Another one is the “hacker”, a person who tries to find exploits on company´s or people´s sites to try to fix them before it´s too late, one real example about its importance is “The fappening”, one day in 2014, hackers released private photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence .
There is also a bad side for such things, as I´ve mentioned before, not only jobs are created, they are also destroyed. Following the article of the Washington Post, more than 75 million jobs will be lost as companies move towards automation and 133 million new jobs may be created, it sounds good on paper but we have to keep in mind that those 75 million people who have worked all of their lives in the same field will be left jobless. The same thing applies to social media as newspapers, magazines, radios are moving towards a more digital future. According to BBC, more and more people are using social media as news service and leaving TV for those. With that transition people will lose their jobs as they become unnecessary.
New technologies are always being adopted and leave older ones behind. With that sort of transition, society also shifts requiring more jobs specifically designed to maintain or improve their current needs and wants. A comparison between jobs and recycling can be made: older professions wich aren´t needed are being replaced with newer and more required ones.
Written by Gonçalo Coelho
How Social Media Impacts Our Lives 