We agree with the resolution

We strongly agree with the resolution: On balance, social media has been more beneficial than harmful. ​Framework: By proving social media is crucial and extremely beneficial in several important aspects, we should win this debate. ​Definitions: Social media is a computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social media is Internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content. Beneficial is advantageous and useful, ending in good and favorable results. Harmful is vise versa. ​Contention 1. The first aspect. Social media sites help employers find employees and job-seekers find work. 96% of recruiters use social media in the recruiting process; 87% use LinkedIn, 55% use Facebook, and 47% use Twitter. 48% of job-seekers credit social media for helping find their current job. 67% of job-seekers use Facebook for the job search, 45% use Twitter, and 40% use LinkedIn. 69% of students use social media when finding internships. More jobs create better economies. People earn money, the country gets more taxes and in turn build more trade routes and infrastructure etc. In this way social media is very beneficial. ​Another important but unnoticed aspect is that social media can actually protect people’s safety. Law enforcement uses social media to catch and prosecute criminals. 73% of federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals surveyed think “social media helps solve crimes more quickly. ” A survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that 85% of police departments use social media to solve crimes. The New York Police Department was one of the first forces to add a Twitter tracking unit and use social networking to arrest criminals who have bragged of their crimes online. Social media sites have helped in the prosecution and conviction of a number of crimes, including: a professional soccer player charged with inappropriate activity with a minor in the UK in 2016, a gang charged with the beating of a gay couple in Philadelphia, PA, in 2014, and rioting hockey fans in Vancouver in 2011. ​What’s more, with social media can even help protect the environment. Social media has become a part and parcel of present day lifestyle. With the advancement in industrialization, science, technology, and globalization various environmental issues are taking place locally and globally. This social media can be utilized as a tool to promote awareness regarding various current environmental issues in a much faster way and to a large mass within a very short span of time. The importance of environmental education in determining the value of social media can be done through interaction between environmental educators and students or common people. People are using social media nowadays to support environmental campaigns and to connect people locally and globally on minor to major environmental issues. ​ ​People might think social media would be harmful to students, taking away their time and lower their grades. But in fact Social media sites help students do better at school. 59% of students with access to the Internet report that they use social media to discuss educational topics and 50% use the sites to talk about school assignments. After George Middle School in Portland, Oregon, introduced a social media program to engage students, grades went up by 50%, chronic absenteeism went down by 33%, and 20% of students school-wide voluntarily completed extra-credit assignments. A Jan. 2015 study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology said college freshman should use social networking sites to build networks of new friends, feel socially integrated at their new schools, and reduce their risk of dropping out. For adults and financially limited people, social media provides academic research to a wider audience, allowing many people access to previously unavailable educational resources. Information previously restricted to academia’s “ivory tower” can now be shared with the public who do not have access to restricted journals or costly databases. Researchers from a wide variety of fields are sharing photos, providing status updates, collaborating with distant colleagues, and finding a wider variety of subjects via social media, making the research process and results more transparent and accessible to a larger public. ​Parents and critics are doubtful about social media’s benefits and keep stating they are unreal and can affect your moods and thoughts negatively. But not only is that not true social media actually save your life and is useful for health care. Being a part of a social media site can increase a person’s quality of life and reduce the risk of health problems. Social media can help improve life satisfaction, stroke recovery, memory retention, and overall well-being by providing users with a large social group. Additionally, friends on social media can have a “contagion” effect, promoting and helping with exercise, dieting, and smoking cessation goals. ​As mentioned before, social media can help people find jobs thus boosting the economy. In fact Social media can also directly help the economy. Social media sites have created a new major industry and thousands of jobs. A McKinsey Global Institute study projected that the communication and collaboration from social media added between $900 billion and $1. 3 trillion to the economy through added productivity and improved customer service. A report by Deloitte found that “Facebook added $227 billion and 4. 5 million jobs to the global economy in 2014. ” Facebook posted $5. 38 billion for first quarter 2016 revenue, up from $3. 54 billion for first quarter 2015 earnings. Snapchat was valued at $24 billion the day its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. ​With the above reasons and empirical evidence, we can safely declare social media is more beneficial than harmful in the above aspect which practically makes up the entire society.