Social Media is making the world a much smaller place… Good or Bad?

The introduction of social media to not only the world of business, but to our own personal lives has really opened many new doors and allowed us to explore new areas and people that would never have presented themselves without it.
Yes, we can keep in contact with our close friends and family with Facebook, not needing to send a letter, make a call or even pop round to visit and say hello as their timelines inform us of how they are doing and their recent news. LinkedIn updates us on people’s work movements and achievements and tweets let us know that people are alive and kicking and such things as what shows on TV they are watching by the hashtags they are using… Simple really, have social media and you have an update on nearly everyone you know.

But, has social media made the world smaller or infact bigger? I always compare social media with business networking in that you enter a room / social media platform, you present yourself by what you wear and how you communicate / your profile and then you let everyone know what you do and how well you do it in hope they either buy in to what you offer or recommend you to their networks / your social media updates you share. The big difference between the two is that unless you attend business networking events attended by thousands or millions, you’ll never get the potential reach that social media offers and the speed of which it can share out your message.

I often think the world itself that we live, mostly looking at our lives here in England, has certainly got smaller. I’m sure that if you asked your elder friends and family just how far they explored their home area as children and places they saw (brings back memories of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Series) that it would have been far wider than their children and if you actually look at how far you explored or the distance you allow your own children / younger members of family to go, then that area has greatly diminished further. From children allowed out all day to explore the whole town / village and countryside to children restricted to maybe just the pavements in front of their homes… I am sure that the pull / attraction of video gaming (Minecraft and similar) has also pulled children away from exploring the outside!

Looking at social media I think that for business it has possibly made the world much more easily accessible so made it smaller would you say? Certainly for purely social usage, it has made the world a smaller place. I have an event in France next week to attend and people from around the globe are attending who I have never met, but already we know so much about each other, what we look like, what we enjoy and what we are looking forward to doing that in fact the initial excitement of ‘meeting new people’ has lost it’s edge as we’ll already have that information stored in our minds so little to ask / explore – It will be straight on with business and delivering talks to the audiences we are there to speak to – It will be my first time talking to a large audience within the wine sector, I’ll have an excuse this time to have a glass of wine on the stage rather than water I’m hoping… Despite all that I have mentioned above, used correctly and a sensible mind with consideration for those you know, social media can be great for making the world a smaller and easier to reach place to live and do business.

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

You May Also Enjoy

Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove asks government to carefully consider property tax changes

The UK’s largest property platform Rightmove is asking the government to carefully consider the impact of any changes to property taxation to avoid unintended consequences which would risk stalling parts of the market. Key data National property tax Just under a third (30%) of homes for sale in England are priced at over £500,000, and…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Get Fast and Reliable Basement Flood Cleaning Services

Having water in your basement is awful. It could be because of a storm, busted pipe, or bad sump pump. Whatever the reason, water damage in your basement has disastrous effects if not dealt with. Basement Flood Cleaning Services are what you need. They will dry it out, disinfect the floor, and have your basement…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 21/08/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Providing comprehensive, predictive operational intelligence across all aspects of building operations  JLL (NYSE: JLL) this week introduced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are now available as an add-on to Prism, its award-winning building operations platform. As part of JLL’s property management technology ecosystem powered by…
Read More
Breaking News

UK House Price Index summary: June 2025

The average monthly rate of house price growth in June was 1.4%. The average annual rate of house price growth in June was 3.7%, up from 2.7% in May. As a result, the average UK house price remains at £269,000.   CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented: “June’s figures reflect a market that is steadily…
Read More
Breaking News

Private rent and house prices, UK: August 2025

Average UK monthly private rents increased by 5.9%, to £1,343, in the 12 months to July 2025 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is down from 6.7% in the 12 months to June 2025. Average rents increased to £1,398 (6.0%) in England, £807 (7.9%) in Wales, and £999 (3.6%) in Scotland, in the 12 months…
Read More
Breaking News

Industry response to latest inflation figures

Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, comments: “Unfortunately, any increase seen within the rate of inflation does brings very justified concerns to consumers, many of whom are still struggling with the cost of living, which has been steadily rising over the past few years. “Although there is more work to be done to help ensure inflation…
Read More