Implications of Wide-Spread Media

Facebook, Formspring, Twitter, Myspace are taking over. Teen’s lives are filled with social media. Computers are easily accessible, in fact more teens than not have their own computer. Social media started out as a way to stay in touch with people and has developed into the lifeline of social life. If you aren’t connected to multiple sites, you’re not in the loop. This new trend is making waves in the social community and in the business world.

                In the social community the verbal speech and even email is a thing of the past, and the way of communicating has become more immediate. Practically all phones these days require data plans allowing everyone access to the internet, therefore social media, at any time of the day. No matter where we are there is usually a way to check Facebook or tweet a status. This ability to become dependent on a website is growing, Facebook especially, has been called “addictive” by many teens. The dependencies will most like grow, too. Facebook and I’m sure other, less-popular networks will soon begin email within their sites. Everything one would need would be found on one site. Wide spread social media ultimately will mean unavoidable dependence on it.

In order to be successful these days, people have to be “LinkedIn” or up to date with Justin Timberlake’s Twitter page. Since there are no signs of declination the dependence, as I said earlier will only increase. Careers are being created from the sudden rise of social media; for example, Perez Hilton and businesses are starting to advertise specifically to people in certain Facebook groups. I read an interview from a man who depended on social media for his profession and personal life. He had said in the interview how he used it professionally, he said, “On the IT journalism side, I use social media to find sources, provide live coverage of events, gauge sentiment, distribute content, track news and fact-check stories.” Obviously this is quite an expansive list, if just one person uses social media for all of these tasks, sounds like they would be on Facebook most the day. Then he had continued on to say how he used Facebook on his own time to stay in touch with his family and friends. This shows it reaches people of all ages, making it a fabulous place to advertise. Small and large businesses alike are taking notice. Based on what companies, activities, and groups people “like” or belong to makes them a target for certain companies. The create platforms for ads. Facebook has specified areas of the screen for advertisements. In example, If I belong to Eastview football team they may direct me to an ad for Nike equipment or a small fan t-shirt printer. Not all social media has hopped on this train, however. Twitter and Formspring are still free of cost with no advertising all over your screen. Rather, they have the capability to let businesses have their own account so people can stay up to date with them, and keep in contact if necessary.

Social media will eventually fall, once people decide they would rather have face to face contact again. Until that day comes, social media will strengthen its hold over teens and expand to other generations. It will also become a better way to reach target markets for companies. It is much easier, cheaper and more effective to send a message if you can narrow your list to a specific group or team or business. Although it is an effective way to keep updated and to advertise, social media implicates a much larger amount of dependence on the internet than society has ever seen. This may end up being it’s own death, when people break free of the addiction.

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/01/18/alex-howard-interview

All about blogging

On the topic of blogging, we talked in class mostly about how people are fired and punished for blogging about work; their boss, co-workers, pictures in uniform. If the rules and regulations of the company do not clearly state what is not allowed I don't understand how they can terminate with out warning, especially for someone who has had no previous disciplinary problems.

Blogging is a form of therapy to some, and outlet, to voice opinions and complaints about their daily life. Blogging becomes useless if we are not allowed to speak our minds freely without punishment. The same constitutional rights should apply, freedom of speech and press until it becomes violent or slander. Careers should not be on the line when blogging.

The other side, however, has a valid point. If you have complaints about your job, take them up with your boss. If they are day to day miniscule problems, write them some place else where the public eye can't see. If this is so, blogging becomes obsolete. Which is maybe the end goal anyway.

Is social media a fad?

From watching a video on youtube listing all the different fun facts about social media I realized how vast and consuming it really is. It had said if facebook were a country it would be the third largest, behind China and the US. 100 million users in less than a year. The times will change from now on, like it said the news and advertisements no longer have to be sought out. Everything is at our finger tips. More people have watched a video on their phone or tv on their computer than people watching tv on a traditional television. You can tweet, flickr, post on facebook and myspace from anywhere at anytime from mobile devices. They dont even need to be high tech smart phones. Just through text you can send in pictures, post statuses, and comment back. Another awe-inspriring fact is how the population of Ireland, Norway, and Panama combined is not equilvalent to the amount of tweets Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degenerous have posted in the past couple years. This shows how consumed we are in these sites. The population is not only growing fast, but it is also beating out other websites in the process. Newspapers are suffering from this, no longer are people having papers dropped off in the morning or buying subscriptiong online, they have them on Kindle or iPhone or iPad or AOL etc.