首页
登录
职称英语
The economy may be troubled, but one area is thriving: social media. They beg
The economy may be troubled, but one area is thriving: social media. They beg
游客
2025-01-20
7
管理
问题
The economy may be troubled, but one area is thriving: social media. They begin with Facebook and extend through a dizzying array of companies that barely existed five years ago: Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, Yammer — and the list goes on. These companies are mostly private, but have attracted the ardent attention of Wall Street and investors, with Facebook now worth purportedly US$75 billion and Groupon valued at close to US$25 billion.
There can be little doubt that these companies enrich their founders as well as some investors. But do they add anything to overall economic activity? While jobs in social media are growing fast, there were only about 21,000 listings last spring, a tiny fraction of the 150 million-member U.S. workforce. So do social-media tools enhance productivity or help us bridge the wealth divide? Or are they simply entertaining socially, and diverting us when it comes to national economic health?
The answers are vital, because billions of dollars in investment capital are being spent on these ventures, and if we are to have a productive future economy, that capital needs to grow the economic pie — and not just among the elite of Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
The problem is that these tools are so new that it is extremely difficult to answer the questions definitively. Flash back nearly 20 years and the same question was being asked about the first Internet wave. Were Netscape and the Web enhancing our economy, or were people just spending more time at work checking out ESPN.com? Official statistics weren’t designed to capture the benefits, and didn’t capture them until statistics experts at the Federal Reserve, urged on by Alan Greenspan, refined the way they measured productivity. As a result of these somewhat controversial innovations, the late 1990s became a period of substantial technology-driven gains.
It is possible that the same gap exists today, that social-media tools are indeed laying the groundwork for new industries and jobs, but aren’t yet registering on the statistical radar. Many companies believe social media make them more competitive. Ford and Zappos, for instance, use Twitter to market their products and address consumer complaints.
One big question is what proportion of that benefit will be captured economically by consumers vs. corporations. Sure, social media allow people to compare prices and quality and assess which companies are good to work for and where jobs might be. They also may enhance education and idea sharing, but the caveat is that the people who use these tools are the ones with higher education and income to spend on technology, not the tens of millions whose position in today’s world has eroded so sharply. According to a recent Pew Foundation study, only 45 percent of adults making less than US$30,000 have access to broadband, which is an essential component of using content-rich social media effectively.
And that is the rub. Like so many things these days, social media contribute to economic bifurcation. Dynamic companies are benefiting from these tools, even if the gains are tough to nail down in specific figures. Many individuals are benefiting too, using LinkedIn to find jobs and Groupon to find deals. But now, the irony is that social media widen the social divide, making it even harder for the have-nots to navigate. They allow those with jobs to do them more effectively and companies that are profiting to profit more. But so far, they have done little to aid those who are being left behind. They are, in short, business as usual. [br] What is the author’s attitude toward social media’s contribution to national economic health?
选项
A、Indifferent.
B、Doubtful.
C、Positive.
D、Neutral.
答案
B
解析
态度题。从文章最后两段的表述可以看出作者认为社交媒体扩大了社会鸿沟,使富人更富,穷人却很难得到益处,因此态度是否定的、负面的。故选B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3920893.html
相关试题推荐
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Theeconomymaybetroubled,butoneareaisthriving:socialmedia.Theybeg
Inthisnewworldthemostdangerousconflictswillnotbebetweensocialclasse
Thegrowthrateoftheregion’seconomyhas______thenationalaverageforsixye
Theprimeministerwas______toseverecriticismaftertheeconomyhadcontracted
Thiswasbutanadditionaltestimonyofthesuperiorityofthesocialisteconomi
随机试题
注销注册商标的途径有()。A.有效期截止 B.依申请注销 C.侵权注销
A.1.8~3.0mg/L B.50mg/L C.100mg/L D.50
骨与关节结核最常发生的部位是A.膝关节 B.髋关节 C.肘关节 D.腕关节
有一段环形路如图所示,每条边均为10米,甲乙两人分别从A、B两点同时出发,沿着路
某苯胺生产企业对技术改造问题进行经济可行性分析。目前企业投产的两条生产线每年生产
对期货投资者的保证金损失,保障基金按照下列原则予以补偿,包括()A.对每位个人
市场集中度与市场中( )的形成密切相关,可以用来作为考察市场结构的首要因素。
与股份制金融机构比较,信用合作社的特点有( )。A.基层社员为合作社最终所有者
A公司是一家零售商,正在编制2020年5月份的预算,有关资料如下: (1)
下列关于标准成本的说法中,不正确的是()。A.理想标准成本指在现有条件下所能达到
最新回复
(
0
)