Social Media Blog #5

Social Media is taking over the globe. It is making a difference in how we communicate and share information to the world. In doing so, we have changed the world. Social media is about change. Changing how we think and feel about communication with each other and to ourselves. How did we get answers to questions before Google? Google it and find out. Then write a blog about it so others will know. How did we make friends in other countries? Answer. We did not. Social media has made it possible for the internet user to create blogs, podcasts and friends as well as find jobs, network with other colleagues, share information in real time with co-workers. This change is spreading rapidly and there is no stopping it. What does that mean for the future of social media? More. More people sharing, more blogs being read, more web sites being created, more videos and pictures being shared across the universe. This social phenomenon brings on change. Change in ideas, thoughts, actions. How we see things now will be very different two years from now when social media has expanded its followers. Social media continues to grow and change, becoming more accessible and more interesting to the masses. With that will bring new ways of expressing, new ways of learning and worlds uniting. Social media is the future. We are the future. The future is waiting for us to catch it, ride it and explore it.
Social media is networking; using the new media to communicate. A great example of this is a story written by Clay Shirky about a stolen cell phone and one persons tireless efforts to get it back. It began with a web page about the person who stole the phone and would not return it. The web page grew an audience. There were Facebook blogs that began to circulate. Digg, a collaborative news web site wrote about it which attracts millions of readers everyday. Soon, the polilce were involved, the media got involved and millions of readers were blogging about this woman who had stole a cell phone and would not return it. Within ten days of this social networking the police tracked down the woman, arrested her and returned the cell phone. The use of social media can have a huge impact on socialization and how we should act as citizens. Stealing a phone is certainly wrong. Stealing it from a social media buff was definetly wrong. The truth of the matter is that by using this social media to network a desire, belief, idea, crisis or whatever you desire, can get quick results, solve problems and change the world.

References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSP8xm_gaK4 New Media Douchebags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZEvnSk9aOE What is Social Media
Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody. New York: The Penguin Group