BCP Education & Psychology CEPC 2022 Volume 8 (2023) 249 The Impact and Limitation of Social Media on Literacy Journals Xingyi Zhao* University College London, London, U.K. *Corresponding author: xzhao12@qub.ac.uk Abstract. Social media is a primary database from which more relevant information is accessed from the comfort of the researcher's home. As a source of information on the internet, literary journals have greatly influenced the growth of the internet more beneficially. Many authors' opinions on particular subjects are frequently found in literary periodicals and journals like The New Yorker and The England Review, among others. This enables another researcher or author to have access to a variety of viewpoints and ideas. Literary journals frequently focus on and address a range of issues that have an impact on people's daily lives. It makes the reader aware of the social climate at the time and gives them the tools they need to handle it. Additionally, it allows the reader to gain expertise in a variety of fields without directly participating in the scenarios. Literary journals also provide a voice to the unheard in society by bringing up concerns that concern the weak and have gone unaddressed for a long time. Like other online knowledge sources, literary journals have their limitations. This essay primarily focuses on the influence of social media on literacy journals and also the impact and limitations of these literacy journals on the growth of social media. Keywords: Social Media; Literacy Journals; Impact; Limitation. 1. Introduction A Literary Journal is often a non-profit publication that features innovative articles from various writers or authors. The main aim of literary journals is to address the current issues affecting people in a specific society. It ranges from a wide range of topics, such as corruption, political injustice, and the emergence of certain diseases, among other issues affecting the community. Magazines, periodic newspapers, professional journals, school and research journals, and journals of opinion, among others. The information found in these journals may have limitations for the researcher in many ways [1]. The main limitation is that although journals and periodicals offer new information, the information's range could be more frequently expanded. The usual periodical article only explores one subject element, which may be too constrained to study a large subject. The journals are also limited in time as they only address the current issues in the community. After a time, the information in these literary journals may be biased and outdated. Literary journals are considered a traditional way of publishing literal work and are only sometimes appreciated by many people who have significantly benefited from the topics in these journals. This is mainly due to the development of social media; many people consider literary journals outdated and a waste of time buying them, as they can be found on social media for free. Even if some literary journals are not free on the internet, the news and information about the headlines are usually found for free, hence reducing the need to access the actual journal document itself. Due to this, the rate at which literary journals are appreciated and bought by people is shallow [2]. This indicates that strategies need to be implemented to regulate and keep a contentious flow of these journals available. According to a data report submitted online by Global Social Media Statistics, In October 2022, there will be 4.74 billion social media users worldwide, or 59.3 percent of the world's population, according to research by KEPIOS. With 190 million new users joining social media since last year, the number of social media users has also increased over the past 12 months. An average rate of 6 new users each second translates to an annualized growth of 4.2 percent. According to recent statistics, well over 90% of internet users utilize social media every month. This shows that if these journals are allowed to circulate in social media, more than half of the world's population will have access to them, thereby increasing the average number of people using these sources. This also means that since BCP Education & Psychology CEPC 2022 Volume 8 (2023) 250 most people regard literary journals as traditional ways of publishing literary journals, it may contribute significantly to the further diminishing of the total number of people using literary journals such as magazines. According to Fan, K. W., most people on social media tend to focus on topics that are more interesting to them than social media [3, 4]. Social media headlines are usually brief and straightforward, and their content is easy to read and usually focuses on recent issues affecting society. Even though most people focus on social media topics, some take time to look for these journals. Mostly, students look at these journals as they are sources of information for most academic writings. The information from these journals is more relevant than the information on the social media posts to the learners and researchers [2]. 2. Current Situation Using literary periodicals in social media development requires consistency and approval because social media content creation depends significantly on literary periodicals. This becomes an issue because literary periodicals take longer to release [5]. Internet optimists have pointed out the evidence which shows how engagement on digital platforms depends on the use of literary periodicals. For example, the significant increase in political activities and publications has negatively impacted social media development by dispatching unverified information on social media. According to Saravanan, 2020, the critical limitation of literary periodicals is their inability to foster social life among players.other players also lament the increase in social media, and those who lament the traditional media loss are those who underestimate the internet power [2]. They also view periodicals in a positive and beneficial way. At a national and local level, a study has depicted a negative correlation between literary periodicals and the development of social media, which is attributed to a lack of civic engagement. Through comparing the civic engagement in Seattle and Denver to other metropolitan areas, for example, the impact of literary periodicals on social media development occurs as a result of profound variables. As literary periodicals talk about the impact of politics on job creation, social media developers use the same content to mitigate unemployment by providing alternatives. For example, Shaker controlled for the unemployment level and the advertisement during the 2008 U.S. . campaign election, both from city to city, has potentially impacted civic engagement among civic groups [6]. Social media is increasingly borrowing many concepts from literary periodicals because they have different perspectives on civil life. The distribution and circulation of literary work have increasingly reduced due to several factors. The number of readers of journals on the internet also reduces significantly [3]. This results from the subscription required to access the journals and periodicals. Since other sources of information in social media are free, many readers focus their research on accessible sources rather than articles. Social media, in this situation, is seen to reduce the rate at which readers access literary journals by introducing subscriptions to them. The distribution and circulation of literary work have increasingly reduced due to several factors. The number of readers of journals on the internet also reduces significantly. This results from the subscription required to access the journals and periodicals. Since other sources of information in social media are free, many readers focus their research on accessible sources rather than articles [7]. Some popular journal magazines, such as The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, One Story, and New England Review, among others, can be found on the internet. Literary periodicals address most of the current facing the vulnerable in society. It acts as a voice for the vulnerable. For example, it may discuss the effects of corruption in a country's economy, addressing examples of such in any case [5]. It, therefore, helps the issues of the speechless to be addressed without necessarily waiting to address them individually, which may be sometimes difficult, in some other severe cases, impossible. BCP Education & Psychology CEPC 2022 Volume 8 (2023) 251 Literary periodicals also act as a source of information, keeping society informed on current issues. These journals can be quickly supplied to society through social media. Social media, therefore, has a great significance in the use of literary periodicals and journals. People can also find out the current situation in different parts of the world by reading journals and not necessarily going to those parts to find out. This enables people to constantly be updated about any issue in any part of the world. 3. Analysis of the Impact According to the current research, literacy journals contribute to 60 percent of the information stored on the internet. The research was carried out through questionnaires, interviews, and field research which was issues to volunteering individuals. From this research, it was discovered. Although literacy journals have a number of limitations, such as time being outdated, they are being used these days significantly by many people to do research. These journals, like the New Yorker, have become popular in the region as they have come up with new ways of improving the contents of the journals. They have added many topics of study, such as parenting and health topics which significantly affect people's day-to-day living [8]. For example, during the recent outbreak of the Covid 19, which affected most people, literary journals were important in addressing the issue. Most of the journals during this period had a great impact on the well-being of the people and hence were purchased at a higher rate. Although the growth of social media has had much influence on literary journals, literary journals have had a profound impact on social media as well. According to UNESCO, literacy journals sustain the personal development of an individual due to the topics present as they affect them directly. They help them get access to the most vital topics which are necessary. Some articles talk about topics that may be affecting them emotionally. Journals that talk about the emotional well-being of people are most appreciated, and their level of selling is very high compared to other journals. Most of these journals talk about relationship wellness, health and how to cope with life in the workplace, among other personal enriching topics which help develop good personalities. Journals have also impacted the growth of society as well. Issues that have not been solved for a long period of time and have been discussed in periodic journals tend to trigger concern among the responsible parties and other bodies, for example, an instance of gender discrimination at a workplace [9]. If someone gets discriminated against in a work setting and nothing is done at that moment, publishing a journal article about that topic will spike the eyes of many people. It will also be a concern of human rights to know why it happened, and in this case, something will be done about the situation. Although journals are slow in conveying messages, they are very much important in such a situation. Social media has also an impact on the circulation of literacy journals. Social media, like the internet, is currently being used to store information on the internet. In most cases, most of the literary journals published and posted on the internet are still accessible from the internet. Even those that were posted a long time ago are still found on the internet. This show that the internet plays a key role in the existence of literary journals. The internet also plays a role in the distribution of these literary journals using social media platforms. During this century, the circulation of data on the internet is very high due to platforms that offer real-time conversations between people, and this may also be the case for sharing of these journals. It has been discovered that the journal's importance sometimes is valued in the current situation of society. People in society will only be interested in a topic if it affects them directly. For instance, during a political period, most people are interested in political journals. Most journals that address political issues will have a higher market compared to those that do not talk about the same [10]. Literacy journals are always, in most circumstances, judged by the content they carry. Those that focus on the issues affecting the youth will be only read by the youth compared to those that address the issues that affect the general society. BCP Education & Psychology CEPC 2022 Volume 8 (2023) 252 The trend of the existence of literacy journals is reducing due to certain reasons. According to the current trends, it has been discovered that the levels of existence of literacy journals have reduced gradually over the years. Most prefer getting information from social media as it is fast and reliable. Most of this information from social media is updated, and it comes in immediately when it is posted. In this case, some journals may not be considered as they are usually published after a specified period of time, like quarterly and yearly and may have information that may not be needed at that time. Although there has been an improvement in producing these journals more frequently so as to avoid them being out of date, it has not significantly helped a lot because social media is relatively fast compared to these literacy journals. According to the information obtained in these findings, there has been reduced use of literacy journals due to the emergence of social media. Literacy journals are discovered to only lower information circulation to society. Social media is seen to be much faster than these journals. These journals only improve the amount of information on the internet. 4. Discussions and suggestions The limitations of literary journals in the development of social media, as discussed, are a result of various factors. Some of the information found in literary journals on the internet may comprise biased or inaccurate information, which may mislead some readers and can be regulated in many ways. The information on social media should therefore be verified as being from a legitimate source before use [11]. Social media administrators can reduce this effect by restricting the content in the journals from being released on social media. They should determine the relevance of the content in literary periodicals before allowing them to be circulated by the writers on social media. It has been discovered that social media significantly impacts literary journals. The impact can be either positive or negative. The positive impacts are its ability to store these journals online, making it simpler to access them anytime, anywhere, with anyone, which can be improved further by creating an online blog site that advocates the importance of social media in the future of literary journals. It has been discovered that literary journals are significant sources of knowledge for scholars. Therefore, reducing their number might have a significant impact on the academic level of these scholars as they might need an adequate supply of information. Social media platforms such as What Sapp and telegram also play a more significant role in the circulation of literary journals. Although these platforms have been discovered to influence the production and circulation of literary journals negatively, they can be used beneficially to market and promote the circulation of these literary journals [12]. For example, writers can develop a WhatsApp group in which they share these literature journals, ideas on how to maintain the circulation of these journals, and how to keep the current trend of social media in line with these literary journals. It has also been discovered that most of the literary journals are out of the market and out of reach of people due to the subscription posed to them on the internet by the authors or publishers of these literal journals sometimes. This may be actually inconvenient as it may prevent those who cannot afford such an amount from accessing these journals as they cannot pay the subscription fee required to access one. The subscription fee is usually higher, limiting and, in other cases, literally preventing some readers from accessing literary journals [13]. The pricing of these literary journals should be reduced to an affordable amount, or they should be removed entirely from these literary journals. Hence, the readers have free access to information. The social media platforms such as the internet should have websites and blog sites where these journals can be found and easily retrieved with much ease. 5. Conclusion Social media plays a significant role in the availability and circulation of literary journals. Although these literary journals have significantly reduced due to social media, social media can be BCP Education & Psychology CEPC 2022 Volume 8 (2023) 253 used positively to help revive these journals. As discussed, social media can use its platform to maintain the flow of these literary journals. They can also be used to connect the writers of these journals to learn from each other the current trends in the creation, circulation, and storage of these journals for future reference by those who will require them at that period of time. These journals can also be stored in an online catalog where they may be accessible by everyone with ease. The social media platforms such as the internet should have websites and blog sites where these journals can be found and easily retrieved. Literary journals have impacted social media as a whole positively by increasing the amount of information available on the internet. The information, however, is affected by various limitations, which may hinder the efficiency of the information. For example, the data found in the literary journals only focused on a small section of a specific topic hence insufficient and inefficient in giving reliable information to the reader. This limitation can be reduced mainly by having a wide range of research. The reader or researcher will have to gather information from different journals and come up with a summary of all of them. This enables him or her to have adequate information about the topic of study. The information found in literary journals may also be outdated and irrelevant to the researcher or reader. Social media can therefore play a role in ensuring that the journals are updated on the internet and giving the correct information to the readers. The journal may be of a situation or case that happened in the past and has been taken care of and, therefore, no longer necessary. The issue of outdated information can be easily solved. The researcher can limit him or herself to information from journals not published more than five years ago. Doing this, the researcher will interact with fresh content of current issues attaining the topic of study hence coming out with relevant and updated information about the same. Although social media have limitations on the development of literary journals, they also have an equally positive impact on the growth of literary journals, as updated journals enhance the growth of social media as a whole, as seen in this article. References [1] Bhimani, H., Mention, A. L., & Barlatier, P. J. Social media and innovation: A systematic literature review and future research directions. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019, 144: 251-269. [2] Saravanan, S. 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Perestroika and Soviet cultural politics: the case of the major literary journals. Soviet Studies, 1990, 42(1): 111-132. [12] Hockx, M. Questions of Style: Literary Societies and Literary Journals in Modern China, 1911-1937 (Vol. 2). Brill. 2003. [13] Parsons, S. A., Gallagher, M. A., & George Mason University Content Analysis Team. A content analysis of nine literary journals, 2009-2014. Journal of Literary Research, 2016, 48(4): 476–502