-December 16th, 2020
Who uses Social Media?
Social Media is everywhere in our current world. Social is a huge part of many people lives ranging from all ages. Teens especially, use social media such as snapchat to communicate with their friends. It seems as if the "25-34"(Social media audience profiles: What ages use social media the most?) age groups controls many other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. People love social media, and all for different reasons. Social media can be used for a huge amount of purposes, like communication, news, fundraisings, etc. Currently, about "3.96 Billion" (Simon Kemp) people use social media, which is about 51% of our world. Clearly social media is a huge part of everyone's tech lives, but is social media good?
(LoboStudioHamburg.)
Social Media Problems
I spent part of my week watching three ted talks, two of which concentrated on the negative effects of social media and how your life would be much better without it.
One ted talk known as We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads by Zeynep Tufekci doesn't talk about how social media negatively affects you but just negative things that social media does. For example,Tufekci talks about how companies like Facebook and such, use your data and information to sell to others and make money off of you. After hearing how this company is making money off of my data, I wanted to know exactly how much my data on Facebook is sold for. Although when researching I came to the conclusion that there is no exact price, and in reality it’d be almost "impossible for anyone outside the company"(How Much Money Facebook Gets From Selling Your Data.) to figure out exactly how much your data was worth.
Another one of the ted talks, titled Cal Newport: Why you should quit social media, talks about what it's like not having social media. Newport is a man who looks to be about in his early 30's, and he has never had social media. Newport talks about how he doesn't need it for work communication or anything. In the ted talk, social media is described as just an entertainment source. Social media isn't anything but a source of entertainment for our mind. Not only is there no purpose for social media, but it also shortens your attention span. Cyberbullying, also occurs on social media all the time, which can lead to being sad or even depressed. Newport says that he is way happier without social media and believes that everyone should delete social media as well. Although, maybe social media can be a good thing as well.
(Entering data into Facebook.)
Social Media Benefits
Social media can have benefits too. Some benefits were discussed within the third ted talked I watched, How social media can make history, By Clay Shirky. Social media is always changing and advancing, and there is so much potential just on your phone. Social media is used for all things like, communication, entertainment, and even expressing yourself publicly. A huge hidden use for social media is news. Social media can be used for distributing the news around the world faster than any news channel. In fact, twitter was able to announce an earthquake in china before BBC was even able too. This shows that social media used in the right way could save lives. If we notified families to take cover and shelter for the earthquake fast enough, then they would be much more safe. The only way to get that notification out fast enough is through social media.
After hearing about the earthquake incident, I wondered if social media played a role in a lot of news. I found that social media plays a huge role in news currently. In fact, the news is often controlled by social media and altered to the narrators perspective. Currently about "55%" (Paige Cooper) of Americans get their news from social media already. While this does distribute fake news, it shows that social media has potential to be one of the fastest news channels there is, in order to help families in crisis. I also found that social media even starts donations and fundraisers online, to help crisis's already.
(Casezy.)
What should we do?
I use social media everyday of my life. I use social media to communicate with friends, family and anyone. During this time, when I'm constantly limited to seeing others, social media helps me communicate and see them through snapchat, facetime, or even Instagram. In the end, I would keep social media in my life, but maybe limit myself to certain times or certain apps in order to help with some of the negative affects of social media.
After considering both the negatives and positives of social media, what would you do with social media in your life?
-Quinn W
Works Cited
Casezy. "Hand using smart phone with Social media concept stock photo." Istock, 13 Sept. 2019, www.istockphoto.com/photo/hand-using-smart-phone-with-social-media-concept-gm1173146314-325726020?utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=SRP_image_noresults&referrer_url=https%3A//pixabay.com/images/search/social%2520media%2520good%2520things/&utm_term=social%20media%20good%20things. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Cooper, Paige. "How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications and Emergency Management." Hootsuite, 27 Mar. 2020, blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-crisis-communication/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Feyissa, Solen. "Entering data into Facebook." unsplash.com/photos/iurEAyYyU_c. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
"How Much Money Facebook Gets From Selling Your Data." Popular Mechanics, 19 June 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a21272151/facebook-data-money-value/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Kemp, Simon. "More than half of humanity now uses social media — here's what that means for brands." Growth Quarters, 21 July 2020, thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/07/21/more-than-half-of-humanity-now-uses-social-media-heres-what-that-means-for-brands/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
LoboStudioHamburg. "Social media apps." Pixabay, 23 Mar. 2014, pixabay.com/photos/twitter-facebook-together-292994/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Newport, Cal. "Why you should quit social media." Ted Talk, June 2016, www.ted.com/talks/cal_newport_why_you_should_quit_social_media. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.
Shirky, Clay. "How social media can make history." Ted Talk, June 2009, www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_social_media_can_make_history?referrer=playlist-the_power_of_social_media. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.
"Social media audience profiles: What ages use social media the most?" Big Foot, www.bigfootdigital.co.uk/social-media-audience-profile#:~:text=As%20an%20overview%2C%20the%2025-34%20age%20group%20seems,older%20audience%2C%2035-44-year-olds%20use%20Linkedin%20the%20most%20frequently. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Tufekci, Zeynep. "We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads." Ted Talk, www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Speech.
