Social media has positively influenced society for over two decades and allows people to share anything from their biggest accomplishments to simple small details of their daily lives.

According to Statista, over three billion people worldwide have a social media account, using it on nearly a daily basis to interact with friends and family, read the news or  simply enjoy themselves. 

One of the main reasons people download apps such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat is to share fun aspects about themselves. People can post about anything they want from a picture of their pet to their favorite meal.

Social media is based around personalization, making people feel like they have full control in terms of expressing themselves to the fullest. Unlike face-to-face communication, people can be their authentic selves more than they may be able to in real life. For example, teens who lack confidence to share the things they like can make an account to connect with people who share the interests that make them scared of being judged in real life.

And that’s when social media presents the satisfaction of making friends. Many social media users will inevitably find people with similar interests depending on the content they enjoy, features they interact with and even become a part of communities to enjoy common interests in a larger group. For example, accounts and blogs can be dedicated to anything like a movie franchise or a hobby like crocheting. Or, anything from discussion forums to videos can be found and shared, uniting people together to discuss what they enjoy.

This also means people can learn whether it’s about activities they like or simply piques their interest. Oftentimes, researching is inevitably going to make its way into everyone’s lives. Maybe someone’s car needs fixing, or they can’t figure out how to keep their houseplants healthy. Mocial media forums allow people to ask specific questions that a Google search may not provide adequate answers.

Finding information on social media also allows people to hear anecdotal  evidence. If someone was to look up how to get rid of acne, they would likely find repetitive advertisements that only show positive reviews, or the same handful of home remedies that they’ve already tried before. Meanwhile, if they asked on social media, people with personal experiences could respond and describe in detail what helped them the most.

Social media also tends to unintentionally teach people about various topics that they didn’t know would benefit them. If a high school student wants to research colleges but doesn’t know what to major in, social media might expose them to different careers they can pursue.

Not surprisingly, social media can be a source of income  for a person. Often people create content whether to be informative, sell a product or simply to entertain and gain a large following. Markiplier, a youtuber who shares videos of himself playing video games, makes almost $60,000 a month, according to youtubers.me.

Overall, social media has a good influence on society by bringing everyone together to enjoy themselves, learn new information with each other or even make a living off of creating content based on anything they like.