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Fighting Global Diseases. HIV AIDS
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Fighting Global Diseases — HIV/AIDS
Since the first time when the first case of acquired immunodeficiency virus syndrome (AIDS) was reported in a clinic in Los Angeles, 5th of June 1981 has remained historic to this date. From that moment when the first case was reported in the city of California as a result of five young men who were having sex with men (MSM) were tested and found to be having an odd immune system, several other cases were reported of all over the United States (Derose, Kathryn 19). These cases went ahead to call for research to find out what the disease was and if possible, look for its cure. Unfortunately, to this moment, the disease can only be controlled but not cured. The pandemic not only affected the immune system of its victims but also gave room for the development of opportunistic diseases that led to deaths of the affected. Upon its discovery from the five young men and the other cases that were reported thereafter, the epidemic was found to affect not only MSM but also heterosexuals as well as mother to child transmission through untainted blood. Several years of research into the disease led to the discovery that Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was the reason that people were being affected by AIDS (Wesley 13). This enabled the researchers to conduct vital blood tests to try and find out if they could detect the origin of the virus. Through these researches as well as tests that were carried out, the United States government gave permission to the researchers of the time adequate support to try and come up with mechanisms with which the pandemic could be controlled, since its cure had not yet been discovered, as well as prevented. As such, the government made efforts to come up with test treatment and interventions of prevention and has since spent many billions of dollars to finance programs that can help prolong life-spans of the affected.
Three decades down the line and the United States government is still struggling with the pandemic. By the year 2009, the state had established that close to 1.148 million people were living with the virus (HIV). Of this population, the age gap of the affected was between the ages of 13 years and the aged as illustrated by Wagner. One year later and the rate of infections were reported to be more than 47,000 people per year and this rate of infection was found to be spreading more among vulnerable groups, which included mainly homosexuals or MSM and injection drug users (IDUs) ((Battle et al 20). By 2010, the percentage of those infected was estimated to be; homosexuals at 61%, injection drug users at 8%, homosexuals and injection drug users at 3%, leaving the remainder of the infected at 25% (heterosexuals). Although IDUs make up a small percentage of 2.6 of the entire United States population, this percentage constitutes of the overall 22% of all people living with the virus with the numbers changing yearly. Latest statistics have shown that the number of people living with the pandemic is on the increase. This has been attributed to the fact that many young people, whose births came after the initial HIV/AIDS scare, are ignorant and tend to live without fear of the pandemic. This is because many of these young people believe that the government has control of the disease. Due to this ignorance, the latest statistics reveal that 16% of all Americans or roughly 1.1 million people are living with the disease ((Wesley 22). The United States government has been on the fore front in combating this disease, it is globally perceived to be the largest national funder of programs that are geared towards fighting the disease. However, there are ways that this pandemic can be effectively put into control. The government has to ensure that it impartially provides all the required information to all the vulnerable groups that are at risk of infections. Through the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, established by President Obama, the government aims to reduce HIV related infections urgently, address different cases of HIV related imbalances, bring close and better health provision to people living with HIV, and work on coordination programs that will improve Inter-state Corporation for HIV victims. In order to achieve all these, the government has to first conduct an analysis of the people mostly affected by the disease; work on the prevention mechanisms of the disease, come up with educative ways to ensure that information concerning the disease is known, conduct thorough HIV testing, treat and care the disease as well as fight stigma and discrimination among the American people.
Since its early stages, HIV/AIDS has been known to affect vulnerable groups in the society. This group of people included homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and IDUs. Due to the changes that are inevitably unending, this group is continuously changing. Latest studies show that vulnerability is more (four times high) in heterosexuals in neighborhoods that are poor than in all other groups. In addition to this, young people have fallen victim to this group. However, this has been attributed mostly to a person’s sexual network in comparison to any other factors. The risk of getting infected with the disease was highly associated with an individual’s access to healthcare, imprisonment, HIV prevalence as well as the speed towards substance abuse (Wesley 33).
African Americans have been found to be the most affected (46%) with the disease as a result of engaging in unprotected sex. In addition, many in this group abuse drugs and inject themselves, which plays another saddening part in their high rate of infection (Battle et al. 45). The spread of the disease among this race has been as a result of high poverty levels, stigma, and limited access to healthcare facilities that have been the characterizing factor among homosexuals in the African American community. Hispanics/Latinos constitute 17% of the American population, out of these, 22% of them are infected with HIV/AIDS. This percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS among the Hispanics/Latinos has been known to result from unprotected sex among men. According to a research released in 2011, 79% of all HIV/AIDS cases among this group resulted from gay sex, while 11% came from heterosexuals. The remaining numeral came from sharing needles in drug users (Wagner 28).
In a research released in 2011, homosexuals or men who have relations with men (MSM) were found to be the most affected. This group constituted of 65% of all cases of HIV/AIDS infection in the year 2011. This group faces a higher exposure risk than any other since the epidemic has been recorded to gradually increase among them. As a result, the rate of transmission has hit its all-time high (McNamara 89). The reason for this high rate of infection has been associated with unprotected sex (anal), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as well as multiple partners among homosexuals. Sadly, only 66% of homosexuals know their HIV status leaving the remaining 34% unaware and at a high risk of infection to/from others leading to deteriorating health among members of this group. The rate of new infections among drug addicts who use injections was found to be 8%. People who inject drugs (PWID) as they are commonly known account for 16% of all people living with HIV/AIDS. The majority come from the African American race.
Despite young Americans living in ignorance, the 2011 HIV/AIDS data that was released showed that 21% young people in America living between the ages of 13-24 were newly infected with the disease. According to these statistics, the current trend of infection is not very different from earlier trends observed among vulnerable groups (Wagner 58). The reason behind this increase among young people has been unprotected sex and needle sharing among drug users, yet only 40% of those living with the disease know their status.
In order to achieve its aim of combating the pandemic, the government through its National HIV/AIDS Strategy has come up with three national parts that ensures a decline in the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections amongst its people. These parts have been put in place to advocate HIV prevention in areas where the epidemic has spread wide in the country. An illustration by Battle et al shows that contrary to the approach of using condoms while engaging in sex (both in MSM or heterosexuals), learning or going for HIV testing, the government has implemented a new way. In this new way, the government is insisting on prevention, combination as well as overlapping as approaches that work better that the former i.e. use of condoms. This latter approach, having been thoroughly researched on, have proved to be more efficient and can be used to prevent infection in groups such as MSM, IDUs, Hispanics/Latinos as well as African Americans.
The use of antiretroviral treatment has been known to reduce of further transmission of HIV, through this, the rate of new infections is significantly lowered. This method is referred to as treatment as prevention (TsaP). As McNamara explains, globally, the United State government has been the first to introduce such a strategy to its patients and July of 2012 saw the government approve a bill that allows the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis as a preventive method of new infection. Furthermore, the government has made it legal for Truvada to be used among MSMs and more attention is now given to people who are positively living with HIV and states that “prevention for people who are HIV positive is critical to reducing new HIV infections”
Another way that the government is using to stop further infections of HIV among its citizens is prevention through the target. In this way all health authorities are strongly increasing personal role of all people in their social determinant of health. These determinants; living environment, age, race, access to health services as well as class have been found to play a part in the rate of infections. In various parts of the U.S, several communities have been known to take part in education programs that highlight the aged on HIV infections (Nweze et al. 30). HIV prevention through targeting the affected is a strategy that has been proved to effectively reduce the rates of new infections. In addition to this, several campaigns such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CPC) have been known to have more than one campaign that are aimed at breaking from the cultural beliefs concerning HIV/AIDS. Examples of these campaigns are “Testing Makes Us Stronger” & “Take Charge. Take the Test.”
Sex education plays a very important role in minimizing the rate of new infections among Americans, especially the young people. There are various types and levels of education programs that educate the youth about HIV and AIDS in various colleges and universities all over the United States that depends on state regulations. According to Derose & Kathryn, some of these programs have education on sex and therein compulsory information about HIV. In 1996, the government passed Welfare Reform Law that was aimed at encouraging people to abstain from sex until marriage. Having being found ineffective, 2009 saw the passing of a law that could replace abstinence only education, the state instead passed a “prove they delay sexual activity, increase contraceptives use and reduce teen pregnancy.”
More than half the population of American adults knows their HIV status. This percentage, 54%, is the only sure group that knows whether they are infected or not leaving the remaining 46% unaware of whether or not they are infected or not. According to statistics, 57% of the remaining 46% do not think they have to know their status because they think they are not at risk of getting infected with the virus (Nweze et al. 36). Broken down to race, white Americans are the least to consider knowing their HIV status compared to African Americans as well as Latinos/Hispanics. This has been seen from the frequent visits that the latter two groups make to HIV testing centers compared to the former. By 2010, it was found out that despite regular visits by the Hispanic/Latinos and African Americans to the health centers, a percentage of them (32%) were found to be diagnosed a year later after knowing their status (Hunter, Susan and Donald 56). According to a publishing made in 2006, HIV testing was made automatic to all who visited any health care facility. However, an option was given to all those who did not wish to know their status.
In 2011 alone, after making HIV testing automatic to all who visited health facilities, there was an increase in reported cases of infections from 69-93% with 79% of them being women and 85% men. With the release of the FDA HIV-1 that detects antibiotics and antigens of both HIV-1 and HIV-2, diagnosis has been made simple to every one who wants to know their status. By this process of detecting antigens, the HIV virus is able to be diagnosed earlier enough compared to the former ways of testing where diagnosis had to take place after the body had developed antibodies to the HIV virus.
Although the government had made it a requirement to test for HIV for every migrant, the ban was lifted in January of 2010 and the rule no longer applies to immigrants. Despite this, the government still insists that inmates from specific states as well as military personnel through out the country have to test for HIV (McNamara 109). Criticism have been raised concerning HIV testing among inmates because HIV positive inmates have been known to be cut out of from the society upon their release from prisons simply because of their status.
On a yearly basis, the government sets aside money to combat this disease. In its aim to control the disease, the government spends 55% of the money set aside to fight HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral treatment (ARTs), a form of treatment that is used to prolong life expectancy of those affected (Derose, Kathryn 69). ARTs are therefore available to all affected irrespective of whether they have medical insurance or not. This is funded by Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE). Although this seems taken care of, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy established by president Obama admits that “large numbers of uninsured and underinsured people with HIV mean that not everyone has sufficient access to HIV therapy.” However, there is a strong importance on the effect that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or health care reform bill, that was passed early this year, has on the plans made to ensure eligibility, accessibility of treatment, protection of patients, increased tax credit access as well as provision of future treatment to patients.
A study carried out between 2001 and 2009 showed that only 20% of those who were able to access treatment were able to be retained in health care facilities and were “highly engaged with specialist outpatient care.” This 20% that were found to require outpatient care were mainly females, African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos, MSM, older patients, and those whose CD4 counts were lower (Battle et al 99). Furthermore, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in its way to fight the disease quotes “addressing stigma and discrimination is perhaps the biggest challenge we face” as it works tirelessly to ensure that the disease is under control.
Upon conclusion, it is evident to see that the HIV pandemic’s cure will never be found, however, the United States government has played a major role in ensuring that its people do not suffer much from the impact that the disease has on the lives of humans. By effectively implementing all the strategies it has for its people in the aim of fighting the disease, it is clear to see that the United States government will by far reduce morbidity rates that result from the disease and ensure that very few cases of new infections are reported.
Work Cited
HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Battle, Juan, Michael Bennett, and Anthony J. Lemelle. Free at last?: Black America in the
twenty-first century. New Brunwick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2006. Print.
HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Derose, Kathryn Pitkin. The role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care in
Central America. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2010. Print.
HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Hunter, Susan S., and Donald Trump. AIDS in America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Print.
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. Homelessness in America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. Print.
HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Nweze, C. C., Abdul G. Koroma, and C. Nwachukwu Okeke. Contemporary issues on public
international and comparative law: essays in honor of professor Christian Nwachukwu
Okeke. Lake Mary, Fla.: Vandeplas Pub., 2009. Print.
Wagner, Viqi. AIDS. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Print.
Wesley, Yvonne. Current issues in HIV. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2006. Print.
Impact of the Ancient Greek Philosophers on Modern Thought
Impact of the Ancient Greek Philosophers on Modern Thought
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Impact of the Ancient Greek Philosophers on Modern Thought
Introduction
It has been over thousands of years since the Greek culture emerged, and many rushed to regard it as the cradle of modern civilization. The reason behind that is the fact that democracy, jury trials, and law procedures have first experimented in Greek. Greeks did not only influence the Western civilization as one of the important derive features, but ancient thinkers from Greek provide the basis for many fields of study relating to the intellectual foundation. Ancient Greeks were the pioneers of many subjects and formulas that we often take for granted, whether physics, linguistic, mathematics, geography, biology, to mention a few. The ancient Greek thinkers did not stop their discovering and innovation as they introduced art performance, music, and architectural design. Most of the plans that modern society use in their race to create value and beauty of structures and other things originated from the ancient Grecians. In other words, the contemporary world is more of an ancient Grecian than what many ought to think. Their complicated development of scientific culture and philosophies meant that they championed the impartial idea and insisted on logic as the natural world rational observation. The essay expounds on the contribution of the ancient Greeks to modern thought.
Democracy
Democracy is defined as the people’s government in which people are with supreme authority and directly or indirectly exercise power through a representation system, which involves typically free voting held after some time. The world’s first democracy came from the ancient Greeks. The city of Athens kick-started with the monarchical government preceded to oligarchy and eventually adopted democracy. The assembly members who formed the democratic government were 6000, and they were all grown up males citizens. They were all responsible for voting concerning different issues throughout Athens. Also, to what the modern society concept, they also used the vote of the majority to pass or amend laws. However, exiling individuals required a unanimous decision from all the 6000 members of the assembly (Held, 2006). For instance, the United States uses the democratic system of government where their democracy is indirect. In other words, American citizens have their democracy representatives in which they exercise their voting rights democratically with regards to the country’s decision-makers. The critical analysis on the same shows a simple modification of the American democracy to that of ancient Greece since their government system allowed citizens to vote on various decision-making processes as opposed to electing some individuals to make the decision.
The Alphabet
The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet, which in the western understanding of the word emerged as the first alphabet. The consonants and vowels featured some distinctive letters. The Greek alphabet consisted of a total of 24 letters and was developed in the wake of Dark Ages. The order of the letters was from alpha to omega. The first two Greek letters (alpha and beta) form the word alphabet. The Greek alphabets gave rise to our modern alphabet, such as A, B, E, and O (Poletti, 2002). The ancient Greeks held the formation of every single letter. However, the upper-case and the lower-case letter versions were created later.
The Library
According Shubert, (1993) the library of Alexandria was the first library to have ever existed in the whole world. The library is based in Egypt. By then, Greeks were the ones controlling the whole of Egypt after submitting to the rule of Alexander. The Greek influence and way of life were spread by the Macedonians, who influenced the entirety of their conquered regions, including Egypt. The death of Alexander led to the shambling authority of the Egyptian Kingdom under the rule of Ptolemy, who was Alexander’s army general.
During his regime, Ptolemy was the sphere of influence behind the construction of the Alexandria library, speculated to hold over 700,000 different scrolls (Shubert, 1993). They set the rule that authorized the inspection of ships passing through Alexandrian harbor in search of any works relating to philosophy or even science. In the case where they could find any of the mentioned works, the librarians copied the work and returned the original manuscript to the ship captain. The accumulation of varied areas of knowledge held in the library encouraged and led to many and great discoveries. For instance, the circulation of Earth’s circumference was first done by Eratosthenes, who also happened to be the first in drawing up strategies for steam power. Since then, nations of the world have constructed many libraries that hold billions of pieces of literary works, the ideas that initially came from the Greeks in their construction of the Alexandria library.
The Olympic Games
The Olympic sports were held in the city of Olympia, in ancient Greece, for the first time in the world’s history. Ancient Greece, its colonies, and city-states were the participants of the Olympic events. These games, in honor of Zeus, were conducted every four years. Zeus was regarded as the king god. Fame and glory were the ultimate prizes for the event winners. At certain times, they erected the statues of individuals who emerged winners or their faces being put on coins. Olympic Games are celebrated even in today’s world, and some old traditions are still practiced, for example, the lighting of the flame, closing celebrations, opening celebrations, among others. Pythian Games were another type of game that took place in honoring Apollo, the god of the sun. Poseidon, the god of the sea, was honored through Isthmian Games.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, through ancient Greece Olympics inspiration, came up with the idea of the Olympic Games. The ancient Greece Olympics dated between 8th century BCE and 4th century BCE. Coubertin viewed the sport as a way of bringing the entire world together, thus creating an International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1984, intending to revive the Olympic sports, and it eventually led to the birth of the modern Olympic Games. During the summer of 1896, IOC held its first games (Chalkley & Essex, 1999). The event attracted a total of 14 countries, where 241 athletes participated in 43 different events. The interlocked rings with different colors are Baron Pierre de Coubertin designed symbol, which represents the five participating continents. The rings have a white background, with their coloring being yellow, black, green, and red. The continents were Oceania, Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. Besides, all participating countries were represented through flags of different colors they composed. The flame is one of the typical Olympic Games symbols. The Berlin Games held in 1936 where the origin of the torch relay and Olympic flame lighting before the beginning of the game. The idea got inspiration from ancient Greece. The fire symbolizes the start of the Olympic Games.
Mathematics and Science
The vast majority of famous scientists and all-time great mathematicians came from ancient Greece. Eratosthenes was the first mathematician to calculate the Earth’s circumference. He was able to calculate by comparing the mid-day sun altitudes at two separate locations. The calculation of the Earth’s axis was also inspired by him, which gave him the title of chief librarian of Alexandria library. A mathematician and astronomer by the name Aristarchus was the first person who comes up with the theory that placed the sun at the center of the universe with Earth moving around the sun (Dossey,1992). Aristarchus managed to put the other planets rightfully concerning how they exist in the solar system. He considered the stars to be just like other heavenly bodies such as the sun.
Archimedes was an all-time ancient Greek mathematician of antiquity. He was able to calculate the area of geometric shapes such as circle and sphere, in addition to his anticipation of modern calculus and geometrical theorems (Paipetis & Ceccarelli, 2010). . He achieved excellent academic credentials as a result of accurately approximating the pi and his efficient and effective designing of levers and pulleys. Lastly, an astronomer by the Hipparchus is the greatest known antiquity astronomer. There are high chances that he was the first person to predict solar eclipse as he also developed the first theory that opposed the movement of the sun and moon around the axis.
Architecture
Column or pillar are modern examples of works inspired by Greek architecture. Parthenon is an example of the most famous Greek architecture. The structure is located in Athens, which is a grand building with pillars. In today’s’ world, many buildings use pillars; for example, public buildings such as libraries and conventional halls. What inspired the ancient Greek architecture is the fact that the majority, if not all, were extremely rooted in religion (Ching, Jarzombek & Prakash, 2017). Many structures constructed in Greece were created by that architecture, with their minds only thinking about gods. The two great examples of Greek structures are Erechtheum and Parthenon. Synergy, precision, donation, and adornment are some of the Greek designs’ patterns. Each model was attributed to applaud one another concerning Greek architectural characteristics. Many modern buildings mimic the Greek style, in which the tales and specific gods inspired their design structures. The irony of the story is the fact that modern buildings are secular government centers. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian are the three styles of classical Greek architecture.
The Lighthouse
Just like the Alexandria library, the first-ever lighthouse to exist in the entire universe was based at Alexandria, Egypt, which by then was a Greek protectorate. The Statue Liberty was shorter than that structured they often regarded as Lighthouse of Alexandria, which claimed the second position among the tallest buildings, coming as runners up to the Great Pyramid of Giza (Behrens-Abouseif, 2006). It comprised of three layers, where the first layer was at the base was square-shaped, the second layer had an octagonal midsection, and the last segment was around beacon on the top. The lighthouse could be sported from far at night as it could be seen by fire, while during the day by smoke. Earthquakes later dismantled the lighthouse although it did give light to all the modern lighthouses. Many structures are advancing the old Greek designs to place those buildings on the map of the globe. Some modern buildings can be sported from space.
Standardized Medicine
Even though Babylon, China, Egypt, and India had all practiced medicine, the ancient Greeks were pioneers who created a systemized medical approach that involved medical ethics, diagnosis, and prognosis (Longrigg, 2013). . The modern world practice similar medicine systems to those of ancient Greeks. Hippocrates was one figure that instituted medicine advancements in the ancient Greek had he was regarded as the “father of medicine.” Hippocrates did not only play a significant role in coming up with theories and ethics, which guided many physicians but also contributed to the use and prescription of medicine. Hippocrates held that all sicknesses were as a result of some natural cause as opposed to them being punishments from the gods.
Hippocrates also contributed to the Hippocratic Oath, which is a sworn historical statement used by physicians. The physicians swear by mentioning the names of healing gods to certify specific ethical standards of the medical field. Medical confidentiality, together with non-maleficence, are examples of such principles. The principles apply even in the new field of medicine. Some medical graduates still use the Hippocratic Oath as a rite of passage. In the diagnosis of various medical conditions, Hippocrates was able to tell if the illnesses were either chronic, acute, endemic, or even epidemic (Miles, 2005). . He remains the first person in the field of medicine to categorized the above diseases. He first introduced some medical terms such as crisis, relapse, convalescence, among others. In matters relating to the treatment of broken bones or other ailments, Hippocrates provided some advanced therapies to the patients who were useful in speeding up recoveries while at the same time reducing pain. Some methods (cautery and excision) used by Hippocrates for the treatment of hemorrhoids are still used up to date in some cases.
The Theater
The most obvious contribution of ancient Greeks to the modern world is the creation of theatres in ancient times. “Theatron” is a Greek word that gave rise to the term “theatre,” which translates to outdoor arena sections where individuals being watch plays. The city of Athens was the first to construct a western theatre, which was similar to the majority of the ancient Greeks theatres (Carlson, 2018). . They were capable of holding 10,000 to 20,000 seated spectators. A Greek theatre, which was considered standard, had a dressing room, dancing floor, and the scene-building area. One of the most significant features was theatre acoustics that made it possible for the male actors to be heard in the whole theater by everyone within. The creation of theatre structure began in the 6th century BCE in ancient Greek. They were also the pioneers of the art industry, which employed actors from various entertainment fields.
References
Behrens-Abouseif, D. (2006). The Islamic history of the lighthouse of Alexandria. Muqarnas Online, 23(1), 1-14.
Carlson, M. A. (2018). Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey, from the Greeks to the Present. Cornell University Press.
Chalkley, B., & Essex, S. (1999). Urban development through hosting international events: a history of the Olympic Games. Planning perspectives, 14(4), 369-394.
Ching, F. D., Jarzombek, M. M., & Prakash, V. (2017). A global history of architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
Dossey, J. A. (1992). The nature of mathematics: Its role and its influence. Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning, 39, 48.
Held, D. (2006). Models of democracy. Stanford University Press.
Longrigg, J. (2013). Greek rational medicine: philosophy and medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. Routledge.
Miles, S. H. (2005). The Hippocratic Oath and the ethics of medicine. Oxford University Press.
Paipetis, S. A., & Ceccarelli, M. (2010). The Genius of Archimedes–23 Centuries of Influence on Mathematics, Science and Engineering. Springer.
Poletti, F. (2002). Plato’s vowels: How the alphabet influenced the evolution of consciousness. World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, 58(1), 101-116.
Shubert, S. B. (1993). The oriental origins of the Alexandrian library. Libri, 43(2), 142.
Impact of Social Media on Business
Paper Topic Evolution of Digital Economy: Social Ecommerce
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Impact of Social Media on Business
Social media platforms have turned the world into a global community. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, for example, have users across all age groups as well as business enterprises that use them to meet certain ends. The platforms facilitate users to post pictures, videos, and virtually any other media format to convey information. Over the past few years, businesses have embraced it as a means to pursue business goals, as will be outlined in this section.
The main impact of social media on business is the improved ease of marketing (Siddiqui & Singh 2016). It is beneficial for internet-based retailers in this regard. They can partner with social media firms to put up ads for their products on a platform interface. Millions of customers can access information about brands, engage with their favorite product manufacturers concerning product use, availability, and point of retail within a short time. They can engage their users with interactive advertisements that can be tailor-made for different target consumers as directed by their marketing teams. This way, they can access a more full pool of consumers and generate more publicity and attention for their products. Besides, some social media platforms have features or properties that can make a business’ appeal explode overnight. For instance, the trending feature on Twitter has the capability of transforming a brand’s publicity from regional to global.
Another impact of social media on business is by enabling firms easy access to feedback regarding their product. They can make use of particular information given by social media users regarding their product performance and general suitability or general information such as the number of likes or dislikes it has garnered over a given time. Using this information, a business can tweak its product to appeal to its consumer base more. Also, a firm can obtain essential information about their product. For instance, a product aimed for teenagers may end up appealing to children more, perhaps due to seasonal changes. This information may be reflected on social media platforms by analyzing relevant data as well as the type of social media users visiting their site. Besides, it may enable a firm to determine which factors lead to an increase in the use of their product. All this feedback can be employed by an ambitious firm to increase its consumer base.
The other way that social media influences business is by improving the ease of networking. Qualified job seekers can use the platform, LinkedIn, to connect with potential employers. A firm can obtain expert advice through social media which acts as a link between the firm and the resource person. Also, firms can use social media to showcase the firm’s activities towards meeting corporate responsibility objectives. Such information can be broadcast to shareholders and other stakeholders. A firm can announce impending plans such as mergers with other firms or new countries where it aims to expand into the benefit of the general public. It can use social media to announce its performance for a specific accounting period if required by law to supply such information to the public.
Effects of Information Systems on Social Commerce
An information system is a framework that organizes raw data into functional units that facilitate decision making within a business (Baghdadi, 2016). The system can store this data for future retrieval, which it subsequently provides to other users. For a social, commerce centered firm to achieve its purpose of online product promotion and sales, it must manipulate the data it receives to obtain valuable information as it aims to sharpen its focus in a particular market. Online retail platforms are the most significant users of information systems, as will be discussed herein.
Information systems are useful to Social commerce because they manage and operate online markets, eliminating the need for physical retailing. Online marketing spaces allow purchases to be made from internet-based retailers at the click of a button. The client’s data is already in the hands of the online vendor, who delivers the product purchased afterward. The entire business methodology just described relies on information systems to collect, accumulate, interact with customers, and offer a product. It is the business model adopted by firms such as Amazon and eBay. Therefore, information systems make social commerce possible. The company with the best-developed information systems is better placed than the rest of its sector. As earlier stated, the more conventional way of doing business that employed human interaction has been eclipsed by social commerce, which spends less on labor, warehousing, and takes on less business risk.
Information systems facilitate social commerce users that require storing user data on their orders to markedly improve their sales. Most social commerce firms rely on the interaction they have developed with their consumers over time to gauge appropriate products that they may be seeking to buy. Amazon, which is one of the world’s leading social commerce firms, relies heavily on its accumulated user data to generate more sales. Sixty-six percent of Amazon’s sales are attributed to repurchases by former customers (Yeon, Park, & Lee 2019). Amazon makes about 20% of its sales volume from generating customer-specific ads and advertising a frequently complimentarily bought product to a recent purchaser. The firm must keep a vast amount of customer data that they use for tailor-made advertising, which is facilitated by information systems.
Competitive uses of Social Commerce
Social commerce is the use of online social platforms to facilitate e-commerce. It can be a way to send customer feedback to an online vendor or to provide a platform for the actual trading of goods online, after which the online retailer can make arrangements on how the product will reach the consumer once the payment has been processed (Wu & Li 2018). E-commerce firms also use information obtained from an individual’s social media to generate customer-specific ads.
A social commerce firm can use its delivery dependability as a competitive tool. The margin for error is minimal as the buyer can always report inefficiency to other prospective users through social media platforms, which is detrimental to the firm. Firms such as Amazon Prime have to ensure they have accurate information concerning people’s residences, which they must obtain from the customers. It also has to develop a well-coordinated delivery branch or outsource a specialized logistics firm that will ensure its products reach their consumers. A firm that intends to stand out from the rest will check the orders carefully to ensure the deliveries made are on time, the right quantity, and as requested by the consumer. It will translate into positive social media ratings that will, in turn, generate sales.
Another competitive use of social firms lies in the app or website from which consumers access their products. The level of user-friendliness matters a lot to consumers. They often wish to search through all available brands of a specific product, before making a decision. Sometimes, an e-commerce firm may select to put up their product on social media with an explicit invitation to sell attached. The digital vendor can reach more consumers through social media and on a platform that most users understand better. Social media websites also come with added credibility that is not present for a person using their site to try and sell a product, especially if the site in question is relatively new to users.
Advantages and Challenges off Social commerce
One advantage of social commerce is that it is an avenue for two-way feedback between consumers and the firm. A firm can obtain information through metrics such as the number of likes and dislikes, the number of users visiting their sites, and detailed information from a product review by the customers. Consumers can get value shop services and obtain product advisory information and support from the online vendor. Complaints can also be posted on the seller’s social media firms entities. It is crucial information to a vendor who wishes to develop a long lasting relationship with the consumer. This way, they can guarantee further sales.
Another advantage of social commerce is that it gives the company advertising through its greater customer reach. Users of social media apps can share a product or company’s information with other users which can spread into a network of users invested in the information being shared. The business can reach a global audience within a brief period starting from any time of level including startup. The expansion of the firm can be achieved much more quickly. The firm involved can advertise aggressively in a country it is just about to venture into through its social media platforms and attain a level of cognitive legitimacy before it physically moves into the state.
Challenges facing social commerce include the violation of user privacy rights (Chrimes, Boardman, & Henninger 2019). Most social media sites will keep the data on what information one searched or clicked on during a visit for future use. It constitutes a breach of trust between the two parties as the users often have not consented to the storage of their data on social media or the advertiser’s information systems. People afterward often notice a rise in adverts concerning a product they recently searched on a site such as Amazon Prime. Recently, it has become a concern for many shoppers who have felt ta duty to protect their data from profit-seeking social media firms who sometimes sell users data to parties with hidden motives.
Another challenge facing social commerce is the cognitive responsibility it places on buyers. Before making a purchase, one is presented with a wide selection of products to choose from. After making a decision, the buyer has to understand a transaction process that is sometimes long and winding. They have to enter several types of information, a time-consuming process. All through this process, the buyer can change their mind at any time. The use of a social media app such as Pinterest to sell goods may be unfamiliar to consumers who may choose to leave a transaction incomplete or what is commonly termed as abandoning a “shopping cart.” Social commerce and e-commerce sites may record a lower-than-expected conversion rate for their firm’s products.
Reference
Baghdadi, Y. (2016). A framework for social commerce design. Information Systems, 60, 95-113.
Chrimes, C., Boardman, R., & Henninger, C. E. (2019). The Challenges and Future Opportunities of Social Commerce. In Social Commerce (pp. 255-272). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 71-75.
Wu, Y. L., & Li, E. Y. (2018). Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social commerce. Internet Research.
Yeon, J., Park, I., & Lee, D. (2019). What creates trust and who gets loyalty in social commerce?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, 138-144.