Steemit Engagement Challenge Season 8 (Week 1) || "The Power of Social Media"

This is my first time posting to this noble community and I am delighted I'm doing so with great enthusiasm given the contest topic -" The Power of Social Media" in view.

It is no longer story that social media wields greater influence in our everyday lives. It has come with a lot of displeasure, discomfort, and insecurity. And on the other hand, it has brought development, upgraded lifestyle, and advancement to all frontiers.

I started using social media sometime during my University days. I was already in my twenties (20's). My country Nigeria had access to telecommunication services around 2001 with the land breaking that saw the presence of MTN before the emergence of Globacom in 2003 and others in the subsequent years.

Therefore, some of us citizens during the same era, have access to both the internet access as well as the social media platforms in the same period. It was a quite an exciting experience for me at that time. Firstly, it was my initial time to have such technology in play before me.

It was all occupying and the enthusiasm to know more was developed during this period. This came with a lot of swiftness that relegated the use of postal agencies for mailing and other services. It was quite refilling to have such a first-hand experience.

Having started late from the use and having access to the internet and social media platforms in my twenties, this does not place the same pedestal for others. However, I feel the teenage which is between 13 to 18 years is an ideal time for a start. Anytime from this period is supposedly ideal.

Now we've ascertained the time to start engaging with the social platform which is ideally from the teen period, we have to be aware of what is put in there. This is necessary given the bio-data and other private information used and stored on our social platforms People who carelessly jeopardize their media accounts. This brings unwarranted exposure to their private information that hitherto may likely lead to blackmail or unnecessary leaks.

However, there are the best and ideal ways of managing a social media account. Since most of them are running on a centralized platform, we must come up with Strong Passwords. This password should be routinely changed and at intervals with second-line security layers activated.

The two-step verification mostly seen in social media platforms is the second layer of security measures to help protect user accounts against third-party access or hackers. Also, we need to keep private information private than the other way.

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Social media wasn't a mistake, neither was its emergence an error in creation. Social media has brought the world to a point where people do not need to be physically present at a place to carry out activities. This makes the future of social media power.

It has been observed to be instrumental to the development of major frontiers in our space. The marketing unit has received a tremendous boost in this platform as commodity advertisements and online ads are palatable ways to drive product penetration and awareness.

What about strategic meetings, interviews, and other gatherings that are done through social media platforms? The Zoom app has since been seen as the most improved platform for this project's advancement.

The emailing platforms also have improved our mailing platforms where correspondences do not need to take longer periods than necessary before they are delivered. Sending mail from one location to another irrespective of the location does take seconds to deliver.

Despite the fact that the advent of social media has brought about the loss of jobs and paralysis in some of our institutions; like the postal agencies, and marketing and communication outfits, it has been perceived to bring about improvement in the same sectors by improving better ways of achieving same deliverables.

Interactions with one another have become seamless irrespective of distance. This brought about imaging and messaging to just one touch. Though many are of the opinion that, this has brought about untold exposure to the younger ones with the rise of pornography on the increase. But this can not annul all the good deeds it has brought to the space.

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In my country, there are a number of these social media platforms in use which include the following; Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, Zoom, Steemit, Hive, etc. They are currently witnessing one of the largest interactions of users given the population therein.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that social media platforms have taken over the space in different frontiers. They have their limitations but however, have brought in several developmental and upgraded ways of carrying out duties. It has simply made the world a community where everywhere at different locations can interact seamlessly. However, it is important to know when best to introduce our younger ones to them just as stated above.

Thank you, friends. This is my submission.