Vivek 2012BB50047

VEL700 Assignment 1
TOPIC : Effect of social media applications (Facebook,Twitter, Skype, Imo
etc.) on value system.
Need served by this product :- I choose social media applicationsas the
product of modern technology because it is affecting our society in so many
ways. Use of social media applications is one of the most recent phenomenon in
the present world every second person around us is using them and all the age
group people who have the ability to use and access them, therefore it is
affecting the whole human race.
These products of Modern Technology fulfill the need of social
connections and interactions on a very wide scale and now the condition is that
it get counts among the needs of a person (not exactly but upto good extent).
The main idea of motivation behind these kinds of applications was that to build
an online platform where interaction between known (and sometimes unknown)
individuals can be taken place. Although ,earlier many applications like gmail,
orkut, webcam existed for the same task but the purpose served by earlier
applications was not so user friendly or very efficient they were more kind of
formal. These new applications was however built specially to create more
friendly environment which can allow users to chat, to share their personal
photos and other stuff with their other users.
Basic / auxiliary need or just on avoidable product :- The need which
this product fulfilling is basically the social connections and interactions which
is discussed above. Although the need in itself is not the basic need, but if we
analyse the importance of it, it rather occupies a relatively higher position in
hierarchy of needs, therefore we can say it is an auxiliary need. If we talk bout
avoiding this product, one has to be take a note that the needs are getting
satisfied/fulfilled in most of the cases, but considering that fact it is not at all
necessary to full fill these needs the medium we need is these products only.

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Product used earlier to fulfill these needs :-The products which was used
earlier for fulfilling these kinds of needs were mostly face to face interaction/
meeting or talking in person as compared to online one. The earlier method is
used today also but this method has so many limitations as compared to
application system and because of these limitations in face to face type of
interactions social media applications has gained a lot of popularity or in other
words you say social media applications has totally discarded the real human
interactions.
Ways is which the newer product better / worse than the earlier one :The newer product has its own advantages as compared to face to face
interaction which I discussed above. The outreach of a person has been greatly
enhanced by social networking. If we look out the factors which shows how the
newer products are better then there are so many like
the number of people which can be connected through social media apps
is quite high.
these apps has remove the limitations like geographical factor, travelling,
a lot of time and many more.
However there is no way by which face to face conversation can be
replaced. However use of these applications is just an easy way to make new
friends and social connections.
However at the same time, these social media apps , has created a virtual
world for interaction and getting socialised but these kinds of interactions stand
no where in-front of face to face interactions. Researchers says and It has also
been identified as one of the most addictive platforms where its users, especially
teenagers, adolescents are most prone to getting addicted to it. There has been a
constant chaos in a particular section of society which believes that social apps,
has created a virtual world among the current human generation and this virtual
world is effecting the human life in a very serious way, in most of the public
places like parks restaurants you can see people accessing these apps which
works as a catalyst for the social interactions and there this is severely affecting
social networking and interactions.
Ways in which the value system of the society was first conceived by this
product and affect the choice of technology for this product :- The value
system can be directly seen effected through this new product. Being developed

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in a western society, basically it was designed considering the culture there. As

People in West tend to be more independent from family compared to Eastern
culture. Therefore some platforms were created where people can chat with one
other, whenever they feel to. And initially these kinds of platform were started
mainly for teenage and young children. Like if i talk about my country here
people love to talk each other (face to face interaction), spend time in groups
with each other in their free time. Taking a specific case, to eat alone and chat
simultaneously can be done quite easily in one part of world, but some other
cultures where talking, gossiping in groups while eating is more favourable may
not be very suitable for this new product to adapt to. But essentially that is what
has happened where cultural practices and customs have been altered in major
way by such product. A family dinner in which kids are chatting online and not
interacting with family, is commonly observed phenomenon. Also, in India,
where independence and freedom of teenager is quite less, the hidden and
constant activity of child on these apps (or internet in general) makes them to
suspect their kids.
Ways by which these newer product directly or indirectly influencing the
value system of the society that adopt these types of products :- I had try my
best in mainly focusing on the drawbacks particularly in communication section
by these products. Other effects also include the extent of wrong, false and
biased information served by these platforms when it acts as a social media. It
is also because the social media as such neither has authenticity, nor the
responsibility to provide accurate and reliable information and therefore it is
used in both the ways.
There are many ways in which the effect of these new products can be
seen, particularly in societies where it was not developed. Taking a simple case
of travelling, it can be clearly seen that conversations among passengers have
dropped significantly after the arrival of mobile phones further enhanced by
earphones and at last by social media apps now. The social interaction has
been affected by this social media tool greatly. Chatting online has been
preferred over chatting those who are present near by or close to us.
My general remarks on this above analysis :- So from the above
discussion it can be said quite confidently that there is a clear shift in the needs
of human beings which can be fulfilled by these kinds of new inventions. Well it

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is quite obvious that these kind of shifts will have advantages as well as
disadvantages, and we discussed and talked about these factors while we were
having the discussion about modern technology in class. The main point here is
that we need to understand the values which are leading towards the
development of such kind of products, the transition of uses of the product and
the effect of product on the all societies where it is used.

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