Blog #1 :
September 24,2012
It has been argued that social media has become far more than a convenient way to stay in touch with friends and family. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
"Social media" as the name implies, connects people all over the world and yes, it has become far more than a convenient way to stay in touch with friends and family. Social media i.e Facebook has taken the lead in the world as the most common media to get connected with people whom you may know. Young people tend to use Facebook more than the over aged people in the world. There is no one in the world ( generally speaking) who doesn't have a Facebook account. It is that popular in today's world.
People have Facebook for many reasons and one of it is to keep in touch with family and friends. For example, it has been a great advantage for me because since I came to Canada I have the opportunity to keep in touch with my relations and friends back in Sri Lanka.
Facebook is the most popular social media where most people in the world use today. When it comes to business , academics and other private companies have there own Facebook page, which helps them to get many people's attention and interests. They use this as a marketing tool to advertise their product and services. This is because Facebook is so popular with many people, ( in this case since I have specified business and academics) it is easier to have such pages and groups in Facebook and to get connected with all at the same time. Most celebrities use twitter to keep in touch with their fan base. This is also a popular mode of conveying messages.
Facebook, twitter and Skype, are the mediums used when it comes to news and events postings. It is much faster and easier to let someone know about a certain incident quickly by updating a "status". This update helps anyone to get up-to date information fast. The recent uprising in Egypt was totally carried out through social media updates and it spread like wild fire across the world. This is a good example where social media was used other than to stay in touch with family and friends. Nowadays, most news reporters use, Facebook, Skype to relay latest information. This too is a relatively a new trend. It is fast yet cost effective and provides a medium to convey both verbal and visual information.
If there wasn't social media its obvious that our friends, family and people in general won't know about us so fast and we won't be able to get current news updates instantly. We have to keep them updated through emails or by talking. which I think will be difficult. Some times we might be busy and we miss informing about us.
Therefore, I agree with the statement that social media has become far more than a convenient way to stay in touch friends and family. It has a wide variety of uses including up-to-date news casts and information about events and people and has become one of the most sought after media to relay current information
