Author: hansvanderlindn

In today’s world, social media plays a huge part in building a business. With its help companies can promote their products and get feedback. There are even services that pay money to people for completing branded surveys so the company can get information on how people feel about a product or service.

But we can’t deny that there are many negatives to social media and how it affects businesses. One of those includes having people criticize your business on forums and really anywhere. A lot of people today, before trying a new product, going to a restaurant or just visiting a shop, go online and read reviews. On the one hand, this way companies get to know what they can improve on, but on the other hand, their competitors may spread false information to get people to buy their products rather than yours.

In conclusion, in my opinion, social media has more positives than negatives and without it some businesses couldn’t grow to the size they are today.

Today, the a lot of people, especially teenagers, can’t imagine their lives without access to social media. For them searching for information means going on Google and typing the subject you want to know more about. At least that’s the first thing that comes into their mind and only if this method fails they’d turn to books and other sources of information. Younger generations can adapt to using a new form of social media a lot faster, while for people that have grown up without it require a much bigger learning curve.

There are both positives and negatives to how social media changes our lives. On the one hand, it enables us to get to know more about other parts of the world and other cultures. As I previously already said, another benefit is how easily the information can be found.

On the other hand, social media can be very dangerous. With the amount of time spent online, teenagers contribute less and less time communicating to people in real life. Nowadays, many would rather talk through the internet than meet up and socialize this way. Another huge danger is related to the amount of fake accounts out there. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that people are more and more careful on the internet is good, but there shouldn’t be a reason in the first place.

To wrap things up, all things in life have their downsides, but we can’t focus only on them. Internet has made our lifestyle so much faster and easier. I personally have no idea how our world would look like without the internet, but I know for sure it wouldn’t be as good as it is now.

The future of retail is a widely debated topic at the moment. Due to a lot of high street stores closing, there are speculations that in the future the majority if not all sales will be done online.

At the same time, people argue that it is simply not possible to remove all physical stores because for some the in-store experience is extremely important. For many, actually seeing the product they want to buy in person and getting the appropriate customer service is key especially if it is something more expensive like a car or luxury clothing or jewelry.

Even though the physical retail stores may still be a thing in the future, the modernization of methods how the product is marketed is already happening. Social media plays a huge role in retail today. A lot of companies advertise themselves through outlets like Facebook and Instagram. Many brands reach out to so called “influencers” and send them stuff for free under the condition that the person will advertise it.

Another way the retail can change or has somewhat changed already is with the implementation of digital assistants. As the AI gets more and more advanced, in the future it may not only direct you to the product you want but also select things you might like through your description. Of course, today it’s also possible but with a person sitting on the other side of the screen. Hopefully it will transform into a completely automated system.

All in all, there are already so many aspects of retail that have changed that we couldn’t have imagined existing even ten years ago. So we could only speculate on what will happen next and how it will affect us as a consumer.