Students Name: Module: Topic: Narrowed Topic: Thesis Statement:

NS Academic Writing 1 Social Media Some Advantages of using Social Media to an Individual Some benefits individuals obtain from social media are increased opportunities for communication, personal development and entertainment

1. Social media allows individuals to effectively communicate and interact with others worldwide. A) Emails are one of the major ways people communicate daily (Rubin and Windahl, 2009). B) Instant Messaging is used to carry out real-time conversations (Kolin, 2007) C) Blogs are online diaries used to share information 2. Another benefit of Social media to an individual is increased opportunities for personal development. A) Individuals can improve their Social Awareness (Kolin, 2007) B) There is a vast pool of information available to users (Lenhart, 2009) C) Users have access to experience minds and opinions 3. Social media also provides individuals with a regularly updated source of entertainment. A) Games are one of the main source of entertainment (Lenhart, 2009) B) Another major source of entertainment is access to recent movie and music releases (Mayfield 2008)

C) Individuals also find the latest gossip to be entertaining (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010)

Introduction Paragraph Social as derived by Apple-Mac dictionary is needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities. Media is derived from the Latin word medium and is the main means of mass communication. The term social media refers to the websites and applications used for social networking. There are many different internet based social medias each with its own unique platform/abilities, the most common of which are Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Skype, LinkedIn, Tagged, Hi5 and more recently; Unthink. Some benefits individuals obtain from social media are increased opportunities for communication, personal development and entertainment. Body Paragraph 1 Social media allows individuals to effectively communicate and interact with others widewide. People in different part of the world are able to have active lines of communication through a number of means. People converse on a daily basis through emails or electronic letters, instant messaging and blogs or electronic journals. Instant messaging allows individuals to have a real-time conversation instantaneously exchanging information in a flexible and convenient way. (Kolin 2007). At the personal level, social media helps to satisfies psychological and sociocultural basic human needs to communicate and interact with others because we are socially interdependent and therefore need efficient and effective means to communicate with each other. (Rubin & Windahl 2009). Body Paragraph 2 Social media also gives individuals increased opportunities for personal development. Through networking via social medias, individuals experience improved social awareness, they

have access to a vast pool of information not to mention access to experienced minds and opinions. Social media like twitter gives you a chance to interact with people you might never meet or give a second glance in real life. These people can not only help you find useful tools, be your sounding boards, provide services, or introduce you to relevant people; they can also become your friend. One can learn about job vacancies and their required qualifications in more details than in a classified advertisement by going on a companys website. (Kolin 2007). It is estimated that 63% of teenagers go online to get news or information about current events or politics, 55% go online to get information about a college or university and about 28% look online for health, dieting or physical fitness information. (Lenhart 2009). Individuals have this and many more valuable resources for self improvement at their finger tips by simply creating an account on any social media website. Paragraph 3 Another benefit of Social media to an individual is increased entertainment oppurtunities. People find many activities to be entertaining, social media gives them access to a variety of games, recent movie and music releases, as well as access to and ability to share the latest gossip. Take for example YouTube which allows anyone to upload or download any media without license restrictions. This means that one can upload or download tutorials, music videos, movies, etc for their personal use which is not offered by other media platforms. An individual can manipulate any movie production in the world by downloading it, converting it in their own media, upload onto YouTube and share with the world as their own. More than an estimated one hundred million videos a day are being watched on video sharing website, Youtube. (Mayfield 2008). 97% of teens play video games, 81% view movies, TV shows, music groups or sports

stars you are interested in and 57% have watched a video on video-sharing site like YouTube. (Lenhart 2009). Conlusion Social media is an ever-changing competitive online environment that yields many benfits to individuals once they tap into it. Different social medias fulfill user needs, take for example, facebook is about having fun and knowing about the social activities occurring in ones social network, whereas instant messaging is geared more toward relationship maintenance and development. An individual need only create and account on any social media website to access the numerous possibilities offered by its unique platform.

REFERENCES Kolin, P. C. (2007). Successful Writing at Work (8th edition). Houghton Mifflin Company Boston New York. Pages 77 and 243 Lenhart, Amanda (2009). Teens and Social Media: An Overview. New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Page 8 Mayfield, A. (2008). What is Social Media? iCrossing. Page 4 Quan-Haase, A., Young, L. A. (2010) Uses and Gratifications of Social Media: A Comparison of Facebook and Instant Messaging. Doi: 10.1177/0270467610380009. Pages 350-361 Rubin, M. A., Windahl, S. (2009). The uses and dependency model of mass communication Doi:10.1080/15295039609366643. Pages 184-199