I Guess We’re Live…
It is easy to think social media consumes people’s lives. People are on it all the time, especially this generation that is growing up only knowing a world that is populated by Facebook and others. And because of that, we hear about all of the negative effects that have arisen because of social media. But the positive effects? While we hear about the success stories, there are so many smaller victories that happen because of social media. From being able to connect with people when needing that connection or gaining that laughter when feeling down, social media has created so many small victories for people, and with the proper education starting at a younger age, social media has the ability to be one the biggest influencers in the world.
It is crazy to see what social media has become over the past few years. Nowadays, I see teenagers constantly using it, even more than me (I have been using Twitter since September 2011 and have 59.7K tweets) but to see what these teenagers do, using Snapchat or even now Tik Tok, the influence it manufactures on teenagers is wild. Every day, there is “do this dance for Tik Tok” or “take this video for snap” and those phrases alone have become collectively known by many different people, especially by those ages 24 and under. And the data that research showed is fairly accurate with what goes on in today’s society. I can only say a reason why it happens for college students, as downtime between classes or the decompressing from a day of schoolwork, social media is a world that opens up many different doors, a door for almost anyone from any walk of life.
Obviously, opinions differ all the time, but I personally am I a big proponent of Twitter. It’s fast-paced, its connections can be far and wide, and it allows for thoughts to be seen rather than just photos or just videos. It can take all the good things from other networks and combine them into one. With that being said, the amount of people who prefer Snapchat and Facebook compared to Twitter is shocking to me. There are some running jokes that Facebook is behind Twitter regarding different jokes and memes, but I truly think it is a real thing. Twitter does run on a model that focuses on the next big thing and those jokes connect people in real life a way that other social media platforms cannot.
This was truly a mini essay all about rambling on what social media is and isn’t, but the most important thing that social media should be is a fun thing that allows for people to escape and connect. Of course, human nature will inherently have negativity surrounding it, and that negativity can either A) manifest itself in an ugly way or B) can just be done away with the positivity of others. And with the proper educating of social media, especially of those younger who are growing and growing, there can be a future that allows uses social media as a connecting tool that accentuates in-person connections as well.
