In modern life people deal with social media every day. Information taken from it can be used for different purposes, for example, when conducting research for an academic paper. In this essay the advantages and disadvantages of social media use will be analyzed.

Conducting research with the help of social media has some advantages. Social media provides fresh and actual information that changes every minute. However, information taken from books or articles may be outdated. In social media a person can read and analyze opinions of a lot of people about one event or fact. It is easier to analyze a number of sites or blogs than to study several books by different authors devoted to one problem. Moreover, data from social media may be devoted to “taboo” or new problems that have not been studied in books and scientific articles yet.

However, conducting research with the help of social media may have some disadvantages. Social media usually do not provide theoretical information that may be needed to write an academic paper, so people have to study books or articles to find such information. Information from social media is usually provided by common people, not professionals or scientists. Therefore, such information can be incorrect and preconceived, and it may be difficult to decide what data is reliable and what is not. Information in social media changes quickly, and it is not always possible to watch these changes and to study them. The social media does not also represent information connected with all sciences. It is quite easy to conduct research on sociological topics using the information from social media, but it is hard to find necessary data devoted to natural sciences, such as Biology or Physics.

So, social media is an important resource of information for us, including information for writing an academic paper. Nevertheless, people should remember that data from social media must be used carefully and combined with official information from books and journals in order to write a good academic paper.