The value of social networks in the progress of sustainable development goals

Abstract

The platforms of preference for all kinds of purposes, not only for relating, but also for marketing, e-commerce, education, cultural creativity, media of communication and leisure, medical applications and socio-political activism, encompassing society as a whole. Multiple social movements from all over the world have made the internet their training and permanent connectivity space, with each other and with society as a whole.

These social network movements, formed in the social networks of the Internet, have acted in the urban and institutional space, inducing a new type of activism that is the main actor of the change in the network society.

Consequently, the phenomenon of social networks is much more complex than a simple digital platform to connect individuals. Actually, the fact that so many people are exchanging ideas, debating and thinking together has concrete effects on the physical world. There is a close connection between virtual networks and live networks, which often leads to action. Access to information, the ability to communicate horizontally and the ability to impact the media make relatively small groups of activists with limited resources reach many people. Social networks like Facebook or Twitter let you know the interests of millions of people

in real time, what stimuly they respond to, when they connect, who they interact with and more. With that amount of data, crosses can be made or, better yet, an algorithm that automatically crosses to find trends and correlations. In this way, subjective experiences tend to flatten into profiles that are easier to manipulate: good or misused can be a powerful weapon.

However, not all social networks are the same, nor do they serve the same. Each network has a specific objective and can be used for various purposes. They are local-global networks, built around the Internet, through networks that can be general, for all types of leisure and entertainment or specific to each issue or cause: environmentalism, feminism, political amnesty, protection of human rights, city of the environment, among others.

Thus, the so-called green platforms arise, that is, those dedicated to lovers and protectors of the environment and are dedicated to disseminating and fostering sustainable practices. These networks stand out for having a more social purpose, since most seek to raise awareness and change habits among their users.

This article aims to show the incidence of social networks in a globalized world and the enumeration of those that were created in recent years, not only to inform and exchange knowledge but to achieve a change in social habits as a contribution to progress of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. To this end, this article comprises two parts: the first one that delimits the conceptual framework and the second that briefly explains the Sustainable Development Goals and examines the positive impacts of social networks and its contributions to the progress of these Goals.