Globalization, Social Media and the Culture of Virtual Reality: Some Sociological Challenges and Formulations

In the era of globalization the role of social media has of gained an important place and this trend is irreversible. The researches in the field of social media have indicated at least two important trends, one, the number of users of social media has grown exponentially and two, the creation of virtual reality has become a phenomena as well as a cause for the creation of new forms of relationships. This changing scenario in the entire world has put forward some challenges before the sociologists for its theoretical and conceptual comprehensions. The emerging trends have been analyzed from social media like face book, You Tube and Quora and some interpretations are offered. Additionally, an effort has been made to address to the sociological challenges and the concepts like gratification consumerism, depression and social networks have been re-examined. Some of the main findings are discussed towards the end of this paper like : (i) the emergence of social media has put forward some new challenges for its sociological comprehensions; (ii) the educated youth has come up with some questions which were tabooed to have been asked otherwise ; (iii) the answers given to some of the questions indicate frankness and openness which was hitherto not seen earlier; (iv) The social media its self is undergoing transformations in the era of globalization and (v) the social media has thrown up ample opportunities for its conceptualizations in sociology.