A few days ago, as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, I saw a video of a few Team USA football players who were playing in China. These players are high school to college age, so they are not far off from my own personal age. These players were talking about doing a complete social media blackout: no FaceTime, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook or any other site. My first thought was, “Well that shouldn’t be that hard. You’re gonna be at practices and games all day.” But, then these boys started talking about how much they wanted to show their friends and their families back home. Also, I then realized… I would never have seen this message if I hadn’t been on a social media site.
I, and those my age, live in the Social Media Generation. In this generation, our main source of communication is via these social media sites. I have met many people from all across the nation, and world, in my life. For most of these people, they live much too far for me to ever see them in person more than maybe once a year - if that. Social media, for the most part, is my only connection to these people. Sure, in the past there was letter writing or even phone calls, but a letter or a phone call is nothing like a video or picture of what your friends is actually doing. Now, with the adaption of applications like Periscope and other live streaming services we can see what our friends are doing in real time.
Additionally, social media has changed what being a celebrity and marketing a brand means. More than just communication, social media has changed how we do anything in our lives these days. I don’t think i can name one thing I've done within this last year that hasn’t involved social media in one way or another. Right now, I’m typing an article on my Google powered word processor, while Netflix is popped up on my TV via my Xbox One, I’m listening to music on Spotify on my smartphone. My Spotify account is broadcasting out the songs I’m listening to by posting them for all the other Spotify users to see, as well as this account being connected to my Facebook. The Netflix account is also connected to Facebook where I can see what is popular among users of that particular site. Finally, this very article that I’m writing will be traced and its success will be measured on how many shares it gets on various social media sites.
Nothing is not connected to social media.
But, to me this isn't necessarily a bad thing. When the whole world is connected the whole world can see the message. And when the whole world can see the message, the whole world can work together for the greater good.
