Future of Social Media.

It is just mind blowing to think where social media is going to take us in the future. To try and grasp even how far it has evolved in the past few years makes you wonder, what’s next? Every few months there is a new Blackberry launched and who can keep track with how many Iphone apps are now available! You can connect to wireless basically anywhere in most cities, and TV companies have now come out with 3D TVs for your very own home! Ten years ago people would have laughed if they had heard about TVs with 3D capabilities.

Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are bigger than ever; the Prime Minister is asking you to join his campaign on Facebook, television commercials will tack on at the end, “Join us on Facebook” and charities will gain momentum by advertising their events on Twitter.  This can either help or hinder the organization depending on how well they are received by the general population and media.

I believe that social media will only continue to grow towards bigger and better things. Our society is so advanced and moving at such a fast pace, there would be no way we could afford to live without these luxuries and who knows what companies like Apple or Microsoft will produce next!

Check out this cool link showing an Infographic about the evolution of Social Media!!! http://mashable.com/2011/01/24/the-history-of-social-media-infographic/

Do you think that social media has the potential to bring about real social change?

I definitely believe that social media has the potential to bring about real change in society. There are so many different things that it has allowed us to do. Social media allows us to get in touch with people that are all over the world. An incredible example of this comes from the disaster that just occurred last week in Japan. A female student is studying at an university in California and was very worried about her family back in Japan, she had no way to get a hold of anyone. She later found out that there was a video posted on Youtube that showed her sister on the balcony in her family home with a sign saying "we are all ok." http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/15/california.student.japan/index.html?hpt=C1#

Another great example of social media contributing to a big change in society also relates to the disaster in Japan. Lady Gaga is known across the world and many people are ridiculously huge fans so they will go to great lengths to follow what she does, regarding the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Lady Gaga created a Japan bracelet where the $5 will go towards relief. In just under 48 hours, $250 000 had already been raised for Japan. That is incredible, and all just because of someone's social media influence. http://blog.muchmusic.com/monsters-raise-250k-for-japan/

These two examples are of course the good side to social change. A few examples of social media having bad influences include decrease in personal face-to-face contact. You hear about people in offices and how they no longer get up from their desks anymore to deliver a message, all you have to do now is send it through an e-mail or other social media source because it is so much quicker. 
My sister is 17 years old and she does not even like to call people, she would just choose to Facebook them or text.


Of course the question was not the negative and positive aspects of social media and real change, it was whether there was the potential to bring about real social change. And I believe that including the positive and negative aspects, it has brought about real social change.
:)

social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

What exactly has social media not done for us?

I believe that social media has allowed for information and news to be more readily accessible to people everywhere. I however do not think that it has increased the quality of it in all aspects. For the news, social media has definitely increased the quality. Think about all of the places you can now receive up to the minute news! Apps on Iphones and Blackberry's for CNN, The Weather Network or TSN. That is all quality news that people want to hear about. An example of this is how closely I am able to follow Journal articles about what is going on in Egypt the past two weeks.
Where it has not improved the quality is the information, the random "stuff" that fills our internet And more than half of the time the information is incorrect! An example of this would be Wikipedia. Anyone can go onto Wikipedia and add their own information and it is not considered a credible source.


So, to recap. I believe that for the news aspect the quality has been increased but for the information, for the most part, the internet is overrun by anyone who wants to write an article.

Social Media: is it a fad or shift?

It is incredible how much we rely on different aspects of social media to communicate. I believe that social media is not just a fad, but a shift in the way everyone on earth thinks. Five years ago, you could list on two hands the number of people who had Facebook, now I can not even think of someone off of the top of my head that does not have Facebook or Twitter. Even my grandma has Facebook! It is being used now by the police to catch suspects, by companies to advertise product and by 74 year old grandmothers to stay in contact with their families.
 When doing research for projects now, what do students do: "Oh I'll just Google it...." Textbooks and references are not used as nearly as often as they once were since the internet came along.

If you missed the last 14 minutes of the Canada vs Russia upset, you can quickly search it on Youtube to re-watch 5 unanswered goals. (Not that any Canadian would WANT to re-watch that) 

If you want to check out what your favourite band is doing or what an actor is up to, all you have to do is sign up to Twitter and "follow" them to get play-by-play updates on their happenings.

Although I sometimes wish the internet was never invented because of how fast our world has now become, you cannot put a price on the positive impact it has had on society. Social media is here to stay.

school

hmm

Just checking to make sure I did this correctly. Almost finished school fellow nurses!