Social media is huge, now with 500 million people on Facebook and 232 million on twitter, what makes them so popular, and do they actually make us more social? The younger generation is becoming slightly obsessed with social media and the way they are perceived on social media, creating their ideal selfs. With the rise of smart phones it has made social media more popular, people constantly connecting, liking and hash tagging. One of the first things that 80% of 18-44 year olds do in the morning is check their smartphones and Facebook, creating a very digital generation.
New media has effected us socially as it keeps us connected, making new friends and contacts around the world, doing things that wouldn't be possible without new media and the internet. New media is in everyday life and we don't necessarily notice it anymore because it is so normal to us.
It keeps family and friendship relationships together and is part of our daily routines, not just within things such as social networking but also within things such as gaming and the use of different apps.
People are growing up nowadays with social media in their lives such as Facebook, but with this becomes some sort of peer pressure to get likes ect. People become obsessed with how many likes they get, the thumbs up symbol, which was once associated with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s film rating system, is now innately associated with Mark Zuckerberg and whether or not our peers support our postings on Facebook. Between the number of thumbs on Facebook and hearts on Instagram, we have become virtually obsessed with garnering the public approval of everyone on the web.
The hashtag is a big thing within social media as it makes others discover your tweet/posts. People love it, but only on twitter. The very first hashtag ever was #barcamp by Chris Messina. Things happen on Twitter through hashtags faster than breaking news programs are able to catch them—the result being that Twitter is now a primary resource for many news stations. The hash tag is a short form of communication developed through the social form of new media.
Social media has both it's good and bad points but wether we like it or not it is forever going to be developing with the movement of new media.
References:
Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings,
Iain Grant and Kieran Kelly (2009). New Media A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed.
Oxon: MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin. 177- 243.
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Jim Edwards. (2013). Twitters 'Dark Pool':
IPO Doesn't Mention 651 Million users who abandoned twitter. Available:
http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-total-registered-users-v-monthly-active-users-2013-11.
Last accessed 28th Oct 2014.
Tyler Gidlin . (2014). Generation
why? Why are we so obsessed with being 'liked'? . Available:
http://elitedaily.com/humor/generation-obsessed-liked/. Last accessed 28th Oct
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