Does Social Media Have the Ability to Bring About Real Social Change?

                 Does social media have the ability to bring about great social change? In my opinion, yes it does and it already has. Social media has affected the way we connect and communicate with others. It has changed the way we speak in everyday life, bringing new words into our ever growing dictionary. It has given us the ability to have an unlimited audience and be able to reach them within seconds. If social media can do all of this then of course it can bring about social change.

                There have been many great uses of social media within the past few years alone to show that it has the ability to bring about social change. When the “Occupy Wall Street” protests were happening, all you had to do was click on the twitter hashtag, “#Occupy” and you were directed to endless tweets about people all over the world participating in these protests. The protesters also relied heavily on Facebook and other social media websites to spread the word about different activities that were going on within the protest. Without people having access to this information through social media it can be said that the protests would not have been as large and widespread as they were.

                Another great example occurred within the past few weeks. The now infamous “Kony 2012” video made the rounds on millions of peoples Facebook’s and Twitter’s. It was a video which had over 82 million views in one week because it was shared through Facebook. It made thousands of people go and buy “action kits” or donate money to a cause simply because it was passed along to them on Facebook. It can be said that not even a quarter of the people that are aware of “Kony 2012” now would have had any idea about the movement if it wasn’t for social media.

                These two examples alone have proven that social media does indeed bring about social change in our world. Whether it is for better or worse, society has now effectively used social media to their advantage when it comes to bringing about a shift in our society.

Is Social Media a Fad or the Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution?

Is social media a fad or the biggest shift since the revolution? In my opinion I think it is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution. Social media has been around for more than a few years now on the internet and has only continued to grow. Yes, many social media sites do lose popularity and become obsolete, such as myspace.com, but I believe that is because they were not catering to what the average social media user wanted. Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Twitter give the user what they want. It allows people to stay connected constantly and from everywhere on their mobile phones. People in this day and age are constantly on the go and want to be able to access all of these sites while they are mobile.

Social media has taken over in pretty much every aspect of our lives. Businesses are now using LinkedIn to find candidates for jobs, people are using sites like Facebook to find potential dates, Twitter can update you on the news, weather and even sales that retail stores are having. With the use of these social media sites, we have seen a shift in the way people communicate. With the use of blogs, now everyone has a voice, everyone has the ability to get their thoughts and beliefs onto the internet for anyone to read from anywhere in the world, you no longer need to have money to get your opinion out there.

Social media is a phenomenon that has and will continue to grow whether people like it or not. It has become a daily part of everyone’s lives. 34% of American women check their Facebook before they brush their teeth in the morning and over 40% are self-confessed Facebook addicts.

Whether you believe social media to be a dynamic tool for communication, or think it has taken the personal aspect out of communicating with others, it is here to stay. 

Corinne Pound

First blog entry. Exciting.