Social media is no fad it's just a vital change in how we communicate, and it's going to change how we communicate in the future. I remember when my dad got a cell phone when I was 8. It was a large and squarish, it probably looked like he was talking into a microwave. But since then, cell phone brands have gotten smaller and better mobile features have been added.
I think phones are a lot like social media. They will continue to grow and improve with new features added. And just like phones, social media is there for us to communicate. We have fun posting new photos on facebook or sharing YouTube links with our friends.
Just this last year social media played an important political role. Anti-government protesters in Tunisia and Egypt used Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media to help stop attempts at censorship. Through social media they organized demonstrations that got rid of presidents Zine El Abidine, Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. And just recently in the upcoming US election, twitter and youtube have been used to send questions to follow candidates.So it's not just a fad, it's more a free speech tool that can be used to spread awareness.
I think the term "social media" is a fad, but not the platforms like forums, message boards, instant messaging, - social media has been around for ages. it's the term that's new. In the future, social media will continue to morph and change into different forms because like it or not we are dependent on it now.
At the end of the day we use social media to communicate with our friends and to check what they are up to. Communicating and sharing information will always be important, it was important back when cavemen would write on cave walls, and it's still important with people now writing on digital walls.
Funny way of comparing the developing social media world to the way cell phones have modernized over the years. It is true though because as time goes on it allows for people to perfect and slighty add or change characteristics of an invention. When the cell phones first came out they had the same keypad as a payphone (basical numeric) and now most cell phones come with the full qwerty keypad. Generally as time goes on, a product or service changes for the better. Social media is still developing and will forever continue to change and grow and in my opinion it will only improve from here.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Teagan. Quite an interesting way to describe social media and connect it to cellphones/smatphones, things we use on a daily basis. One thing I want to add is the issue that any social platform faces, who owns your content...? As social media grows bigger and bigger the concern for just who owns the content you've published grows larger. Only a few months back there was a big scare with FaceBook. The thing is, anything you post to FaceBook is owned by them, you and your likeness are sole property of FaceBook. So while we definitely need to use social communities to grow and establish a brand, we also need to be aware of the terms and conditions of these platforms.
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