Can Social Media Addiction be Used for More Fruitful Purposes?

It was February 2004 when Facebook was launched in the dorm rooms of Mark Zuckerberg and its growth has been massive ever since. In 2010 it over took the social networking market in India from Orkut and rose to the number one slot. Twitter and Google+ have also shown supportive numbers but not as large as these two. Not surprisingly the majority of social networking users in India reside in the age group of 17-22. All these data have been engineered by allfacebook.com, an unofficial Facebook blog which hosts news regarding its marketing, business, stats etc.Teen and social networking

Teenagers particularly school and college students are the most targeted audience for these social networking sites. Superlative features such as interaction with users from around the world, video chatting, photo sharing apps to name a few fascinate the young of mind. Students tend to spend more time on these networking sites as they find themselves intrigued by the different interactive features. The eagerness to explore the depths of social networking leads the students to stay logged-in for hours. “The reason for prolonged sessions on the sites can be traced to the fact that we get to see more and more people we know from our real life online” says Aryan, a social network addict, who is a college student in Calcutta.

Courtesy of these networking sites the students just need few clicks to sneak a peek at their friend’s lives, their photos and other information.

The desire to have more friends on social networking sites can also be the purpose of longer sessions. With such motives in mind students develop strategies as how to increase their lists of friends. Do not forget they are still young and have immense will power and imagination to build things around them. “When somebody rejects my friendship request, it becomes a challenge for me to convince them and change their minds,” adds Manish a student from Calcutta.

Increasing their fan following or making themselves popular in the virtual world becomes a 24/7 occupation. These students might find interacting with their schoolmates difficult in real life but when it comes to interactions on social media, they have already won many battles. “I do not have to ask for people’s permission to showcase my talent here. If I am good at sketching I will put some pieces on the wall, if they are good enough people will appreciate it or else not. I do not have to beg for their time to view my art”, says Payel who has a deep interest in arts.

“Slowly but steadily social networking is poisoning Indian youth”; you might have heard this opinion from many grown ups, but little do they realize that the tactics the students employ to increase their popularity on the internet can be harnessed into a productive career option.

Leading brands around the world are always searching for social media managers for their businesses, people who can help them in increasing their fan following on different social networking sites. If this addictiveness can be harnessed productively then they might develop a fruitful career in Social Media Marketing.

After all, what can be more beneficial than to nourish a career out of your interests and passions. The rate at which social networks are expanding, the students will have more interactive features to tackle and develop more interesting strategies to popularize them. This might prove beneficial for some brands to gain a few thousand more customers.

Leaving aside the brand part these tactics can also be used to attract companies or post CV’sfor jobs. The new startup culture is increasingly backing away from the traditional hiring session and adopting new social network trends. LinkedIn has shown immense capabilities for the recruiters but Facebook is catching up. “With the increased personal and professional features Facebook can be a good option for recruiters as well ”according to Lighthouse Insights which is an Indian social media news agency.

Maybe social media addiction is not that bad.

Author Credit: Anurag