160
characters. That’s all you get to tell the world your extreme political
opinions or your wild Friday night out with the girls or your intense addiction
to Netflix original Orange is the New
Black, at least on Twitter. Twitter is just one of several social media
outlets that consume people’s lives. A main source of information, news and
sharing, social media sites like Twitter have conjured a following unlike any
other area of business…. and I don’t believe this is something to be proud of. In
this blog, I am going to highlight three “positives” of social media that were
discussed in class and explain how they are actually negatively affecting
society.
“Social media
connects people.”
·
Although
social media connects people, we are losing our lack of personal intimate
relationships.
·
Social
media is creating a wedge between how we connect - its harder to connect in
person because its so much easier to connect via device rather than taking the
time to meet up with an actual human being.
·
It
is also creating a lack of connection with the world around us. Instead of
looking up and meeting new people and connecting with the culture of places, we
want to take pictures or text who we already know about what is going on rather
than talking to someone new and learning about new ideas and people.
“Social media is the easiest way to share things.”
·
We
are losing our patience. We want things fast and don’t think on a deeper level
because we are quick to write something and send it or post it instead of take
the time to think about what we are reading/sharing.
·
There
is a lack of privacy. We share so much that we lose intimacy; things are shared
so easily that it's not safe. People can hack into media, and it’s all so new
that we really don’t know all that can be “stolen” from us through what we post
“Social media is the best way to get information.”
·
We
may be able get news quicker and stay connected with the world around us, but
social media has altered us from observing what is around us to being glued to
lit up screens.
·
Social
media increases the ability for false information to be sent out and spread
quicker than someone can spit out the facts and correct any untrustworthy data
·
Social
media makes us lazy. We would rather read a 140-character tweet than read full
details in a paper or magazine. We are at full mercy of the sites we are using
to get our information rather than taking the time to research for the
facts.
Very nice! I completely agree.
ReplyDeleteGreat post on the pluses and minuses of social media. Whether good or bad, though, it's here to stay
ReplyDeleteYou brought up so many good points and interestingly showed how the excuses people use to defend excessive amounts of social media are in reality incredibly flawed. The idea that social media connects people is valid if you are keeping connections, but other than that it is not a social tool or outlet that we should always be using. It is not real. Scrolling through thousands of peoples photos versus a hundred does not determine your social skill or your popularity, so it is bizarre we still define it that way. I think you are dead on about us loosing patience. It takes patience to interact outside of social media, there isn’t always an instant gratification. With our lack of patience our attention span rapidly drops as well. It takes a lot to sit down a remained focused knowing that there is a social outlet one button away. Which in return makes us lazy as you pointed out. We are too lazy to get news any other way then scrolling through something we look at every day. If its not on social media is it really news?
ReplyDeleteI do not think our dependence on social media is a good thing, apparent by the things you pointed out. After all my thoughts of OITNB cannot be contained to 160 lousy characters, so why bother? :)
I actually completely agree with all of this. As someone who has found themselves being lazy and wanting instant information, I know that if an article is too long- I will skip right past it. The biggest part of social media that I do not like it our lack of privacy. My least favorite thing is when someone snapchats a video of someone else without them knowing. I don't mind being recorded, but sending videos and pictures of your friends acting like idiots without them knowing is a terrible form of communication. We've become some obsessed with the lives of people we already know that we don't care about new experiences. Also, people barely trust one another anymore. There are new ways to lie thanks to social media and multiple ways for people to find out if you are lying. It's opened a new tunnel for dishonesty.
ReplyDelete