Sociology and Social Media

social-media
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

When social media first became popular, its general concept was a paradigm between people (sociology) and technology. Public conversations made involvement from outside parties possible. Over time, the purpose of social media has changed.

What sociology is and how it relates to technology

Sociology is defined as “The science of human society.” In many, if not all cases, human roots, organizational skills and the development of society with regard to technology have been key attributes in the field of sociology. Technology introduces advancements and information that plays an important part in helping a society to achieve its objectives. No matter what those goals are, relationships are always at the heart of accomplishing them. In this day and age of advanced (and extremely sophisticated) technology, people seem to be making connections more easily and on a much broader scale. They are interacting in many different ways and in some cases, the interactions are extremely creative. Of course, the bottom line is that it always comes down to the human relationship.

Sociology and human interaction

With the huge number of people who are involved nowadays with social networks, it is very interesting to note how they are influenced by each other in many different ways. Human beings need to network. It is one of the major sources of happiness and fulfillment and the more they interact (on many different levels), the more satisfied they are going to feel. When people engage in social networking, there is no doubt that they start to have a tremendous impact on each other and the discussions that come out of the networking experiences very often affect the decisions that they make in life and in business. It is very important for people to recognize and appreciate how much other people influence them and how much that enriches their own experience. It has been proven that conscious and subconscious behaviors dramatically increase when people are involved thorugh social networking. Because humans are emotionally dependent on each other, many people will share qualities, both positive and negative.

The success or failure of sociology and technology

It is important to understand that if sociology and its relationship to technology fails, the fault lies with the people. Technology is created and maintained by humans. If something goes wrong on the technical side, it is irrational to blame the technology itself. The responsibility always lies with the people. On the other side, the people are the ones who deserve the credit when everything works out well. For example, a huge amount of friends on Facebook, or dozens of followers on Twitter, requires maintenance to keep the interest of those advocates. No matter how technologically advanced your social media channels are, without human involvement, progress is not possible.

The popularity of social media and the reasons behind it

There are often times that one wonders how social media became so popular and why so many people have shown such an interest in it. First of all, it is critical to understand that human relationships are at the heart of social media’s success. By no means does this discount how important the technological aspect is. Without technology, there would be no social media to begin with. One of the biggest reasons for the success of social media is accessibility to people at incredible speeds. The interactivity of social media is what relates to human nature. The sociological characteristics of social media can be credited with its own progress. Human beings’ influence on each other is a part of the phenomenon that is inevitable. People make choices in life (and the same applies to their interaction through social media) in large part due to what other people do and say.

Connecting on a very personal level

No matter what type of business you have, without relationships with other people, the part of your career that involves sales would be nothing short of mediocre at best. The way that any person gets to a point of successfully selling their products and/or services is by building trust and credibility. Interestingly, in many ways, social media has brought people together at a level unlike any other before. Social media, and the interactions that people have through it, allows many different emotions to be expressed and relationships to flourish due to the ease of interactions.

Conclusion

Sociology plays a tremendous role in the success of social media. Technology can be viewed as an extremely sophisticated tool that makes things possible when it comes to social media and human beings. As time goes on, those tools change and new ways are introduced. It is very important to take advantage of whichever technological advances are being offered, as long as they make sense for your business. A devotion of time and energy toward working with new technologies will pay off in business in one way or another.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a free assessment of your online presence, let’s have coffee.

Let's Have Coffee

Author

  • Jonathan Cohn

    Jonathan Cohn is a student of sociology at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ. Jonathan offers a new perspective to the Blogs of CompuKol Connections because of his course of study and because of his experience and interactions with people from a sociological angle.

    Besides having a passion for people, he also has a passion for music. He is a bass player and has played with several local bands in New York and New Jersey.

9 Responses

  1. Donald H. White says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: The Content Wrangler Community

    Discussion: Sociology and Social Media

    I guess that Social Media was thought of as a bridge between people and technology by some, perhaps many. But it rapidly became a telephone party line. After all, people are social. Also, there are many, many out there who are apparently frustrated journalists, so…
    Posted by Donald H. White

     

  2. Meredith Gould says:

     

    Meredith Gould posted via SocialMediaToday.com:

    Delighted by this post. I'm a sociologist who spends way too much time explaining why paying attention to sociological variables is important and having a more nuanced understanding of social worlds is essential for social media strategy.

    Haven't been in academia for decades, but still teaching Sociology 101 to people who seem to have skipped that course in college. Wish 101 and more advanced courses (e.g., social theory, stratification, gender and society, aging and society) were required for in marketing and business programs — undergraduate and graduate level.

  3. Jose says:

    Hi Jonathan, this is a fabulous, thhogut provoking post that has now got me thinking. Not that I need any more distractions! I agree with your comment that influence is largely artificial, and that we need to exhibit caution in how we measure it. Robert B. Cialdini a Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, lists six basic social principles that form the foundation of being able to influence; the rule of reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. These elements are all subjective not objective and we need to be careful we don’t create a set of metrics which are fundamentally flawed and project the wrong conclusions. Reputation should enable spirited conversation, the sharing of key information and intellectual dialogue. Perhaps I’ve been wrong, by commenting in the past that we all need to have huge heaps of influence. Maybe what we really need is huge heaps of reputation. Thanks for sending my brain into a whirl!Reply

  4. Christopher David Kaufman says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Future Social Media

    Discussion: Sociology and Social Media

    Agreed, my degree in Sociology was critical to my career. How many social media experts have taken a university class in Social Network Analysis? Enough said…
    Posted by Christopher David Kaufman

     

  5. Aleksey Polukeyev says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Future Social Media

    Discussion: Sociology and Social Media

    I'm surprised more schools haven't oriented parts of their sociology and anthropology programs towards social media.
    Posted by Aleksey Polukeyev

     

  6. Helen Wybrants says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Future Social Media

    Discussion: Sociology and Social Media

    What about a programme named cybersociology? – any hints of something like this out there?
    Posted by Helen Wybrants

     

  7. Ajish Kumar says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Future Social Media

    Discussion: Sociology and Social Media

    Since social media is influencing everyone. It's better to understand sociology and psychology to understand customer behavior. If you look at social media, it's not been taught in schools and colleges. There is no curriculum. But, it's taking the business by storm. Many people are using Smartphones and tablets for various use, I see a possibility to have social awareness in all dealings.
    Posted by Ajish Kumar

     

  8. Four says:

    This article was very thought-provoking and will help me towards my sociology degree in the near future. I agree 100% but what of sociology and psychology being more important than technology

  9. Brittney says:

    Thanks for sharing this article! I’m currently writing a paper relating the sociology of social media to business and how social media and word of mouth marketing affect business.

    I’m currently an interdisciplinary student at UNLV studying marketing and sociology. So these kinds of degrees are possible! At UNLV you can be interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary which allows you to get a liberal arts degree in the disciplines of your choosing. I chose marketing and sociology with the goal of having sort of a specialized marketing degree, or a marketing degree with a sociology background, haven’t decided how to spin it.

    Anyways, back to my research 😉 Thanks again for sharing!