Social Media has a huge impact on everything we do today. Most of our major decisions like where to eat, what to wear, from where to shop are all influenced by social media. People even get news from social media and spend their whole life trying to keep up with trends. Social media affects each one of us. And, developers and software engineers are no different.
Programmers, more than anyone, need to keep up with the ever-changing social media platforms and the technologies surrounding it.
Programmers need to be open-minded, adaptable and willing to learn and ready to put their heads down to learn new programming languages and keep up with the latest trends. Social media does influence changes and trends but it is also the medium that catalyzes growth, learning and eases the lives of software developers and programmers alike.
Here’s how social media impacts software development and software developers:
1. User-focused
Everything on the internet and social media is made keeping users in mind. User experience is the prime focus of every social media app. User experience is what keeps people coming back and keeps them addicted. Programmers, software engineers and coders need to focus heavily on the user experience as social media has decreased the human attention span significantly. If your user faces any inconvenience, they will not return. So, it is more than important, especially in this day and age, to make softwares and apps that have good User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX).
2. Data, Data Everywhere
Social media has an abundance of data. This vast amount of data is invaluable and could help in making significant decisions. The programmer or software engineer needs to understand and know how to analyze and mine this vast amount of data to improve the functioning and performance of the app or the software or the platform. Data analytics, coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence, can take your app or software to new heights.
3. Keep Up with Trends
Trends are dynamic on social media. And, this changes everything. From technologies to the most trending programming languages, Software engineers and everyone working in the IT industry have no choice but to keep up with them.
Social media has had a huge influence on these changing trends in the tech space. One tweet by an influential person or industrial leader about a new programming language and next thing you know that programming language is the hot topic. Suddenly, everyone wants to learn that. So keeping up with these trends and news becomes essential for a programmer – to upgrade their skills as well as knowledge of the world.
4. Access to Information
Social media has its own pros and cons. The fact that social media also serves us bounds and bounds of information is what makes it worthwhile. Programmers can follow industry leaders and community groups to help them in their coding journey. Social media can even help programmers to feel like they are part of a community while networking with fellow programmers and taking part in important community discussions, learning new things, and everything related to coding or software development.
5. Collaboration
Social media is a blessing when used wisely. One good way to make good use of social media is to use it to collaborate with your friends and peers on a coding project. It makes for a fun time when two friends or peers get to collaborate on a project. Reddit, Gitthub, Quora, etc facilitates easy collaboration where people can ask questions and anyone can answer them. This helps in creating a community-like feeling which is what all the developers want to do – the most creative and out-of-the-box apps and softwares.
6. Security
Out of all the points, this one is by far the most important one. As a software developer, engineer, programmer, coder or in whatever way you are involved in making software, it is important to keep oneself informed about the cybersecurity threats and how to keep your apps and software cyber secure. One needs to also take robust measures to avoid cyber attacks.
(Author: Karishma Chandnani is a Content Writing Intern at TechDoQuest. She offers refreshing & youthful perspective to the topics she writes about)