Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?
I think social media has decreased the quality of news and information. The dangers of having unreliable news sources and so many social media tools is the small fraction of time it takes for false information to spread around the world. When social media does initiate the spreading of news, it really is up to the reader whether or not they take the information for face value or to do further research to confirm what they read is correct or not.
When I think of social media passing out news, I think of it spreading out in a "broken telephone" sort of way. Meaning, the content of the news travels from person to person, post to post, that throughout the travel the content changes. People like to exaggerate stories to make them sound bigger than what they are.
Just as easily as adding something to a story to make it sound cooler, someone may flat out lie and make up a news story. When it comes to social media and everyday people sharing news and information there is no way in knowing what is true and what is false. I have always considered news content and information posted throughout social media to be similar to tabloids. There may be factual text, pictures, videos, etc. however, it is important to remember that not all of what we see and hear is the truth.
I recommend going to a traditional media outlet to double-check the news we get from social media to find out if the quality can be trusted or not.
What is your perception of social media, do you think it is a fad or the
biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?
I believe it all started as a fad, and then developed into something bigger... As an early adopter of Facebook & Twitter it has had a positive impact on my professional and personal life, from the way that I am able to communicate with friends and family to communicating and sharing information to my colleagues and coworkers regarding school assignments and work-related tasks.
Social Media, Image.
Mark Zuckerburg, first developed Facebook as a school connection platform that widely spread in popularity through colleges and universities across the United States, that was almost ten years ago. Now Facebook, is the biggest social media platform available to everyone worldwide.[see Social Media Today - Ultimate History of Facebook Infographic] We went from obsessing over our friends and colleagues connecting through Facebook to share contact details, pictures and games; to promoting our favourite brands and sharing our favourite videos.
Social media and social media integration has all but changed the way we communicate, connect and interact with each other. Got a product you want to launch? You best have a twitter account where you can give daily updates and/or random PR blurbs directly to your consumers and future consumers.
Facebook likes, twitter mentions and retweets are tangible commodities that are highly sought after; essentially there is great income to be earned in social media. Not only, are companies making money via more targeted advertisements to its users, but second and third party developers are earning an income, creating apps that will integrate with social media platforms for our mobile devices.
Advertising and Promoting through social media platforms, also provide a cost effective way to reach the company's goals. Instead of spending countless dollars and hours researching the target market, marketing execs are looking towards social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get their brand out to their audiences and rely on what consumers are sharing and tweeting about. It has become a quick and effective use of buzz marketing. This has paved a new way for interactions between consumers and businesses. Through each business' page consumers can post questions and/or comments regarding exactly what they want from a product or service; which offers businesses an opportune moment to tailor their products towards their audience.
Luke Wyckoff, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer for Social Media Energy, based out of Denver, Colorado; posted the following video on YouTube highlighting that social media has indeed became the next biggest shift since the industrial revolution. He states that Social Media has taken on the lead spot for activity on the web! We spend at least 15 hours a week on average using social media sites a week! That's enough hours to classify it as a part time job!
Social Media has opened a new window for many new opportunities and opened the door for the development of new technologies. It has pulled us closer to other parts of the world, as it is constantly changing and growing with our views and behaviors - its most definitely the biggest shift since the industrial revolution.
Bibliography:
Social Media. N.d. Photograph. Athgo Blog: Conversation with Dr Armen Orujyan. 26 Apr. 2013. Web. 05 Sept. 2013. <http://www.athgo.org/ablog/index.php/2013/04/26/social-media-events-2013/>.
Wyckoff, Luke. Social Media Energy. <http://www.http://socialmediaenergy.com/>
YouTube. Dir. Luke Wyckoff. Social Media Revolution 2013. YouTube, 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Sept. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQg2DJx0seo>.
Zeevi, Daniel. "The Ultimate History of Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]." Web log post. Social Media Today
N.p., 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 07 Sept. 2013. <http://socialmediatoday.com/danielzeevi/1251026/ultimate- history-facebook-infographic>.
