Social Media Isn't Just Social Media

Social media gets a ton of flack for a number of issues such as lack of socialization, loss of privacy, laziness, etc. But I like to think on the other side when it comes to it.

Yes, social media does have its negative connotations, as does everything in life, but there are so many positive things that it does that I don't think people necessarily realize because it's a part of our everyday lives.

I still find social media amazing for a handful of reasons.

We have the ability to connect with family, friends, and various people from different backgrounds/countries by tapping or typing on your phone/laptop.

You can create your own identity and personify it in numerous different ways, via writing, photography, videography, music, etc.

Different opinions and perspectives help us understand diverse ways of thinking. Social media serves as an outlet for individuals to share their thoughts and a tool to recognize that there are other ways of looking at things.

It's also a means of keeping up with the world. Traditionally, television, newspaper, and word of mouth have been outlets to which we keep up to date with current events. With social media, the world is in our hands. Twitter does a wonderful job keeping people up to date with the world via 140 character blurbs as well as other broadcast outlets such as Facebook and Instagram.

Social media has become crucial to promote businesses and individuals. How extraordinary is it that people that used to post Vines and videos for fun have grown into public figures that have created a name for themselves from nothing? Social media is not simply just social media for many. It's a business.

It's constantly changing, and we have to keep up. However, there are also options. Social media is something in a way sort of a fad. People have moved from Myspace to Facebook, Pandora to Spotify/Soundcloud, Blogspot to Tumblr, etc. I like that we have a choice as to which platforms that we wish to utilize.

In a world where change happens rapidly, social media is something that we use to record what happens in our lives, and I love being able to look back and say "I did this on that day, that's pretty cool." It serves as an archive that we can always come back to.

Social media defines a generation. A generation where technology is constantly growing and we're growing up with it. But as a species that changes, I think that being able to embrace that change is part of what makes us human, not just robots that are glued to our phones.

I don't think that a person's face-to-face interaction/person's personal productivity directly correlates with social media. We make our own choices and I think that social media gets too much flak for the decisions that people make. Yes, it can play a factor, but you can't directly correlate the behaviors of an individual to just one thing.

But despite the possible negatives that come with it, social media does a number of positive things in our everyday lives that we just don't seem to realize.