Welcome to the Internet! The Internet is full of things that have constantly been changing how we handle everyday events. The Internet and social media have made huge changes to the world around us. The world that we knew will never be the same. The presence of social media has morphed everything from politics, news, and especially entertainment.
With the presidential elections around the corner we see some major presence from our candidates on outlets like Twitter. Every social outlet is digging into every aspect of their lives trying to find any dirt they can. It's even been seen where Trump has made comments towards Hillary that have provoked her to snap back. She was quoting saying "Delete your account" when Trump talked about Obama's personal opinions towards the election, which happens to favor Hillary. This back and forth has received attention by supporters from both sides. This back and forth also wouldn't have happened and wouldn't have been recorded without social media. As much as some people would like for Trump to delete himself from the race, like Hillary did her e-mails, they are both running strong. We will continue to see their presence throughout Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets; maybe even after the final decision of the 2016 elections. This presence can be both a positive and a negative for the candidates and this kind of exposure is one that most presidents did not receive. Social media has also made it possible for an evolution in the news.
With everyone constantly posting, tweeting, and snapping, news is able to spread faster than ever. This is both amazing and horrifying. For one thing, people don't have to wait for reporters to report on major events. They can go online and find news about major events or even small things that reporters don't even report. According to the Pew Research Center, out of the 64% adults who use Facebook they get 30% of their news from Facebook itself. And out of the 16% that use Twitter they receive 8% of their news from Twitter. This is also happening on other social media outlets that may not be as popular. This makes it so people are connected with the world around us and know what's going on in only seconds. However, it's not so great when people drag your attention elsewhere with click-bait titles that consist of false stories or Photoshop. Rumors are able to spread just as quickly as fact and they're hard to disprove them, because once something is on the Internet it is almost impossible to get rid of. Some lives are actually destroyed by social media and the ability to pass on news quickly. According to the Harford County Examiner, "around half of teens have been the victims of cyberbullying." Cyber bullying has become a huge problem since social media's appearance. People are now able to be connected to the world around us, but at what cost? Social media, a disguised evil, has been used as an outlet for bullying and it's terribly difficult to monitor. The possibility of connection is marvelous, but we need to be careful with how we handle it. However, most people log onto their computers not for work, news, or political updates, but entertainment.
These days people don't go outside and spend time with friends and family to conquer boredom, but instead, rely on the Internet. The world of memes, cat videos, and addicting apps have drawn millions of people into the entangling web. According to The Telegraph, "teenagers spend 27 hours a week online". Social media and the Internet have shaped how we keep ourselves busy. Except using the Internet to keep ourselves distracted is actually damaging our attention span. Psych.com claims, "the average attention span is five minutes. Ten years ago, it used to be 12 minutes.". Psych.com places the blame on the Internet for the fact that we are so easily distracted. Since we are constantly watching videos, posting memes, and scrolling through tweets we have damaged our attention spans. We are constantly craving more and the Internet is ready to provide with each update. Social media and the Internet have morphed everything, not just how we keep ourselves happy.
Social media has made it possible to dig deeper into politics, receive news quickly, and even keep ourselves smiling with cat pictures. The world is forever changed because of social media and it is both stunning and alarming. We can have a great amount of fun, but be careful of what could be hidden behind the facts.
