Social Media Change

I sit down at my computer, pull up the canvas login page.  I then open up a few more tabs:  Facebook, Twitter, some of the blogs I follow, my email, and my YouTube account.  I then begin to check my notifications, read posts, and stalk the people on my news feed before finally logging into the canvas page to start on my homework.  Social media has greatly changed the way that we communicate.  It has created a way for us to reach more people in less time.  A way that people can tell their stories whether they are a humble USU student like me, or Beyoncé. 

            Social media has made many positive impacts on communication.  Investigators are able to find criminals through the post they make on their social media bragging about what they have done.  Politicians and businesses are able to advertise and reach many people in no time at all.  Almost everyone can access the internet whether it is from a public library or your IPhone.  It is the most effective way to keep in contact with people who are spread all around the world.  I am able talk to family members that live in Seattle, San Diego, and Denver all at the same time on Facebook.  In the case of an emergency social media makes it extremely easy for you to notify your friends and family that you are alright, and all that is required is a device and internet access.    

Although there are so many great things that social media has done for our communication, it can make it a little less personal.  It can be very distracting from what is going on around you in the moment, and your in person communication can suffer if you are constantly on your phone or computer.  In communication through social media it can also be difficult to express real human emotion.  One way we have adapted to show emotion through social media is using emoji.  Emoji are little images that are often face expressions to help the person you are communicating with understand your feelings just as your face expression would in person. 

One other problem with communication through social media is that lines between work and home life are becoming blurred.  Many employers have banned social media from their office space because people cannot get any work done when they have their social media out.  For an example of this I could use this blog post.  It took me about a half an hour to get started on it after I sat at my computer because I had to get on my Facebook and Twitter before doing anything else.  You could easily make an argument that myself and others of my generation are addicted to social media.  I am not saying social media is good or bad form of communication, but it has a huge impact on our society, and whether you like it or not it’s here to stay.