Social Issues: 17+pros & cons

A social issue or a social problem refers to an issue that society has perceived as a problem or an unfavourable situation preventing society from functioning optimally. It is necessary to understand that not all things that occur in society are raised to the level of social problems.

Some Of The Factors That Characterize A Social Issue Are:

The general public should recognize it as a problem.

The situation is against the general values that are accepted by society.

A large segment of the entire population recognizes the issue as a valid concern.

The issue can be resolved or alleviated through the joint action of the citizen or the community resources.

A problem is regarded as a social issue when it is a commonplace for people or burdens the welfare system, violates societal values, and can be alleviated using collective actions and community resources.

Pros of Social issues:

Help society learns a lesson:

When a social issue occurs, we first hear people talk about learning a lesson from the bad that has happened. When a social issue arises, we hear people talk about various aspects of the issue.

This helps the whole society learn a lesson from all the negative aspects. Generally, a social issue from a negative aspect, so no matter what the conclusion of the matter may be, it certainly lets people learn a lesson.

Spreads awareness:

When a social issue occurs, one of the positive impacts of it on society is that it helps the people out there gain awareness. For instance, the “Death penalty” is a big social issue recently.

Some are talking against it, while some are for it. But, it eventually spread awareness in people’s minds regarding the various aspects of the issue. Making the laymen aware of the various aspects of the conflict is always important.

Creates unity amongst the public:

A social issue or a social problem always leads to unity amongst different public groups. One group may support the issue, and one may oppose it.

But it certainly makes a huge mass of people join their hands together to discuss a controversial topic, fight for it or against it.

Break the ice and makes people talk:

Social issues can be of anything and everything. Sometimes the topic discussion may be something we do not generally discuss in public or feel shy to bring forward. Let us take an example here.

Suppose “Gay marriage.” It is a very controversial topic, yet it is very necessary to talk about. Though it gave rise to many social issues, people finally broke the ice regarding one of the most important topics of society.

Reminds the people of their values and ethics:

Sometimes a social issue tends to hurt the values and ethics of the people of a particular society, group, culture, tradition, or ethnicity. This also makes the people remember their own values and ethics and make them raise their voices against any harm caused to their values.

Development of the system:

Most of the social issues out there result in a solution acceptable to the country’s entire society. Various political parties and the government pay their attention to those issues by seeing people talking and raising voices and hence coming to a conclusion or solution that would be acceptable to all.

Cons of Social issues:

Creates conflicts.

Social issues often give rise to various disputes amongst different groups of people, leading to conflicts and fights. This creates problems, harms people and property, and the common people face harassment.

Conflicts in societies due to social issues have become utterly common these days. These people fight amongst themselves and harm the public and personal property. These problems should be strictly taken care of by the police during a conflict.

Violates the values of society:

Most social issues arise because they violate or go against some of society’s other values and ethics. A particular group may not agree with any other group, which often creates over a small topic.

A huge mass of people may get enraged due to the violation of society. Protests and conflicts often arise because a certain issue or a problem tends to harm the or values of society in one way or another.

Go against ethnicity:

Social issues also sometimes tend to harm the ethnicity of the people. Let us take an example of the “Parda system of the Muslim brides.” Many people were against the system, and the government also has taken steps to stop this trend.

But these eventually harmed the Muslim Brides’ customs, rituals, and culture. Many Muslim communities had problems regarding the protest, and laws were passed to stop doing “Pardah” during the marriage.

Harms the sentiments:

Another one of the biggest disadvantages or cons of various social issues is that they often end up harming the sentiments of the people out there.

For example, “beef consumption.” Though there are many campaigns and protests against this, this also tends to hurt the sentiments of various Hindu communities out there as they worship Cows and treat them as ‘mothers’. These create differences, disputes, and conflicts among the people.

Create differences:

When two opinions do not match, they often give rise to differences among people. Different people supporting different viewpoints on the same topic often end up creating differences amongst themselves.

And, in the even worst case, these differences are sometimes beyond repair. Social issues and various contradictory and controversial matters are the ones who are responsible for creating communal, cast-based, and creed-based differences among the multiple people out there.

Affects the daily routine of the common people:

When controversy or a social issue occurs, there are often several protests and rallies on public roads out there, which be an obstacle for the commoners out there who are neither in support nor in opposition to the protest.

Furthermore, the social conflict also becomes a hurdle in the paths of the people whose daily life is backed by a tight schedule. Many public and private firms out there suffer from the social issue taking place.

Social issues are related to society’s perception of people’s personal lives. Different societies have different perceptions, and what may be “normal” behavior in one society may be a significant social issue in some other society at the same time.

Some issues have both social and economic aspects, like immigration, and also, some issues don’t fall into either category, such as wars. Above, some most common pros and cons of various social issues have been discussed.