A good place to start in my Social Media class is to break the subject down, and examine social media at its core before I can understand it at a deeper level. While I have never formally studied it, I am a regular user of social media. I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and LinkedIn somewhat regularly, all for different purposes. Facebook is best for keeping up with family members and adult friends, along with a mess of food and travel videos my friends share. My Twitter feed consists of mostly news accounts, memes and angry political discourse (I often find people tweeting about President Trump are actually more annoying than his own tweets). I enjoy Instagram because it provides visually and aesthetically appealing photos and videos, which resonate with a visual learner such as myself. Reddit is likely my favorite platform. Because of its customizable nature and thousands of communities, I can fill my feed with content I don’t get elsewhere, such as unique art, gaming and music news.
I really go back and forth with social media. What I enjoy most about it is the immediate and convenient nature that I am able to receive information and communicate with others. I may not be in front of a tv, (and I certainly don’t have cable) but I can whip out my phone and reach CNN’s page, and access news stories in seconds. It’s easy as pressing “@” on my keyboard or pushing a message icon to send a friend or colleague something I think they will enjoy for one reason or another. For everything I enjoy about social media, there is also plenty for me to criticize, mainly its increasingly polarized tone and propensity to captivate its audience TOO much. It seems that social media does its job too well. It is far too easy to zone into my phone and just scroll on social media for copious amounts of time. To think of the interactions and experiences I let pass me by with my face buried in my phone. I’ve also found that social media, Twitter especially, has become increasingly polarized and aggressive. I believe the presidential election and the American political climate in general have contributed to this. I summed it up well to a friend when I said, “Twitter is full of unqualified people telling me what I should think.” Twitter is no haven for proper debate, and its increasing politicization and plain rudeness by its users has been slowly driving me away.
Over the years, my social media interaction has increased and matured as I have. What began as a fun new plaything as a middle schooler to an increasingly influential part of my life, I believe this transition has happened not just to me but to society as social media has aged and expanded. Personally, I would say I now use most forms of social media frequently throughout my day. While I enjoy being on social media, I acknowledge that I waste far too much time on it. From this class I hope to learn to use social media more effectively and efficiently. I want to spend less time on social media, and the time that I am logged on to be more positive and productive. I’ll admit, upon enrolling in this class, I didn’t quite see the value of learning about something I had been engaged in for years. After the first class, I left realizing that there was an abundance of skills I could take away from the course about both social media and the greater world of journalism and media. My goal is to learn as much from this class as I possibly can, and take what I learn far beyond the classroom.
Media in our World 