Smart phones have brought the internet to our fingertips by giving us access to all of our favorite websites, news sources, social media, and the ability to search for anything at any time at all, providing there’s cellular service. The world as we know it would be different without social media just seconds away, sitting in our pockets as we talk to our friends or work at our jobs. We find out the scores of sports games, what our friends are up to, and updates on national news stories in seconds. While the first intentions of social media were positive, in my opinion, it has now turned into a negative platform.
Social media has informed thousands of recent events such as the Dallas shooting, updates for the presidential election, and worldwide news such as Britain leaving the EU. While I believe it is a great thing to be informed, I don’t think social media should be the source people choose to justify their opinions on things. I have seen time and time again where people use twitter accounts such as WorldStar to back up their argument on issues like the Dallas shooting. By no means is this a valid or trusted news source, so I don’t understand why people take it so seriously. Accounts like this are also used to slam Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. People then make misinformed opinions about the candidates because they assume social media is the be all end all of news sources.
Social media should be used as a starting place for information. Topics trend on Facebook, Twitter, and even Snapchat now. When an important news story pops up, click on it if it sparks your interest. Social media is great for giving out the great, big details about an incident or story that is developing. However, don’t just use that one story to develop an opinion. Take the time to get informed and google the issue before getting into a heated argument on the internet with people you don’t even know. Use different news sources, as they’ll have different perspectives. One of the worst mistakes I see people make is putting all their eggs in one basket; they build their argument on one fact and then when it falls through, they look ignorant.
Since social media platforms are such open and non-private places, anyone can see what you put out there. I once thought that it was only my generation that was misinformed, but strongly opinionated with what is going on in the world; but while scrolling through comments on news articles and friends’ posts, I’ve realized it’s a problem among all people. Since the internet has been at the world’s fingertips you would think it would be easier to be informed, but fewer and fewer people really seem to know what’s going on. People take the lazy way out and form opinions based on other people’s opinions.
If we ever want change, we need to change things ourselves. And in order to that, we need to be properly informed.
