Social media is not a fad, and is not only here to stay, but
will shape and change the way the world operates in almost every fashion. It definitely is the biggest shift since the
Industrial Revolution and is changing the playing field in many different
aspects. The way we communicate with
friends and family through tools such as facebook, (in my personal experience)
I have found that an invitation to a social event is usually done through this
site. Friends and family not on facebook
tend to miss out on such events as they are overlooked when the gathering list
is compiled. We are forging new bonds
with like minded individuals all over the world through other tools like
blogging, twitter, or online groups and forums, and are seeing a new form of
communication that truly is making the world a smaller place like it has never
been before.
Social media is providing cheap and accessible tools that
blur the boundaries between the haves and have nots that has allowed more and
more people to connect in ways never known before. It is giving a power to the people that were
probably best illustrated recently in the Arab Spring protests that began in
2011. The social media tool of Twitter
provided the backdrop for the gathering as well as the news reel for the
uprising. The new age of this type of
media has brought about a dilemma for governments around the world in their
ability to control media and information.[1] The use of social media in these uprisings
demonstrates how this new age of communication is shifting power from the few
to the masses. In many instances, the
use of social media to report events happening in the moment is surpassing the
ability of traditional news and media outlets to cover certain events as they
unfold. These same outlets will rely on
the various forms of social media to begin the story well before they can
mobilize crews to the events and as a result the traditional media outlets have
shifted from breaking news to a more in depth coverage.
Social media is giving more people control over how, when,
and who they communicate with and it is connecting people with like minded
ideologies, interests, and passions on a grand scale. As with any tool or invention, there are
positives (an example would be forming a group online for dog lovers) and
negatives (for example, the proliferation of child pornography rings) to the
rise of social media. Although there is
a certainly people and groups who utilize this new form of communication in
negative ways, I am an optimist and believe that the tools of social media have
and will continue to make the world a better place for all.
Social Media is a great tool for like minded people to gather at any time to share ideas or knowledge about a certain topic and because of this Social media is a good thing, but it does have its down side. Unless we employ it properly, it has the potential to cause great harm as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the majority of this Chris, but I had a thought about this point:
ReplyDelete"Social media is giving more people control over how, when, and who they communicate with and it is connecting people with like minded ideologies, interests, and passions on a grand scale."
I'm not sure that this is necessarily a positive thing for a society as a whole. In fact, I feel that often people use social media to ignore other points of view or philosophies. People will group themselves by shared ideology, which allows them to completely shutout different ideas.
Your post prompted me to have two different thoughts while I read. The first after reading: "Friends and family not on facebook tend to miss out on such events as they are overlooked when the gathering list is compiled." I completely agree with this statement, but am concerned that this occurs at all. How far have we come from communicating with our loved ones in person, when we cannot remember to include those who choose to not live their life virtually? Do we value our online relationships more than offline because we need our social media contacts to remember who we want to actually be social with in real life?
ReplyDeleteThe second point you made was with respect to the news and how social media allows us to be more in the know, up to the second, when breaking news occurs. This is an excellent advance I believe, as people are able to be more informed now than ever before about what's going on all over the world. However, the immediacy also lends itself to much more error than ever before. For example, when the Newton, Connecticut shooting occurred, there were multiple news-media outlets posting headlines that alluded to there being two shooters, among other false details. Before news went social, readers could believe what was in the newspaper because journalists had done the research, verified their facts. Now they post and then retract, too late after word has spread like wildfire. Social media allows people to inflect enough of their own opinion on the news without the news being incorrect to start with. I believe this is an issue that should be addressed by news-providers to ensure accuracy and integrity is maintained over being the first site to post a breaking news headline.
I agree that social media has brought us all together in many ways as artist(musician) social media has opened the door for me in many ways introduced me to other musicians, artists, fans and writer’s. recently a friend of mine arranged an independent comic book convention that would have been hard to put together with the use of social media a far cry from a political movement but still an accomplishment. Even in our daily lives I’s become very important I plan most of my social life around facebook, just this past summer I planned an event for my family(aunt, uncle and, grandmother) using social media. All and all I hope social media will become something in everyone’s daily life.
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