What Is Social Media?
For me, social media is a place to share and discuss. Like Clay Shirky discusses in Cognitive Surplus, the Internet is a place for creative endeavors, whether they be amateur or not. It is also a place for conversation. I think there is a lot of exploration of ideas at the root of what social media is and provides. It seems freeing in a way; platforms allow users to explore creativity, have conversations, and learn.
Social media’s relevancy to me is something that comes from the variety of ways I use and interact with it. Primarily, social media is a way for me to keep in touch with friends and make new friends who have shared interests. I have lots of online friends, mostly due to participating in various fan communities over the years. My interests are varied, so it is often difficult to find other people who share them, and social media has given me the chance to have countless conversations that I wouldn’t have been able to have with people I know in-person. This aspect of social media became a lot more prominent for me during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I had time to consume more entertainment, and had more time to think about and discuss it.
In addition to social media bringing me friends, it has also provided a place for me to explore my creativity. Online, it seems like I’m not as afraid of criticism or rejection as I might be in real life, and therefore I am more apt to talk about creative projects I’m working on or share a project in an art form I’m not familiar with, such as painting or drawing (both of which I have shared on social media). Even if no one sees anything I may post, I’m still putting my work out there, which is something that can often be difficult to do. Social media gives me a space to be my most authentic creative self, and that possibility of it is really what interests me the most about social media. How can something that is seen by so many people as a negative thing (and in some cases it is) become something that brings me such a level of comfort in regard to something I’m passionate about?
Social media isn’t just a place to comment on entertainment or create it, though. It’s become a form of entertainment itself. Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of social media platforms are becoming more video-based, or at least more accommodating to video. This seems to reflect society’s attention spans, and our desire for instant gratification. Why watch a ten minute video when someone can summarize it in thirty seconds? I especially notice this trend on TikTok. In instances where a user is posting a story in parts, people have begun to “stitch” the first video in the series, summarizing that video and all the rest. Unless it is something informative, multi-part stories are often the source of complaints. The audience needs an update or continuation immediately.
However, when it comes to informative videos, multiple parts are the preferred route. Maybe this sort of information is easier to digest in smaller portions? Whatever the reason, I think it speaks to social media’s role as a news source. Personally, most of my news comes from what I see online. YouTube, Twitter, and even TikTok have been ways for me to find out what is going on in the world and around the country. This seems to be true for a lot of people throughout society. Social media platforms may one day become the primary way people get their news. I think we’re almost there already.
As a news source, people use social media to get information, but it’s also a place to learn. In the past few years, I have learned so much by being active on various social media platforms. The Internet has connected me with historians and activists who discuss social justice and the nation’s unknown history. It’s connected me with professionals in the field I’m hoping to pursue a career in, giving me so many inside perspectives. It’s allowed me to connect with people globally, to discuss how different countries operate and to learn about global issues, not just the domestic issues I would hear about on the news while watching television.
Social media has become not only entertainment or a place to gather, but has also taken on the role of educator as of late. The Internet and services like Google gave an entire generation (if not more than one) access to information 24/7, and the users of social media platforms have now taken that idea of instant information and made it relevant and accessible to a younger audience.
I’m honestly not sure where social media is heading in the future. I think it’ll evolve, as it has since it began with social network sites (SNSs), but I don’t know what it’ll evolve into. At this point, there’s a mix of visual and textual content on many platforms, and I think the majority of the population enjoys having that variety, so I don’t see it evolving into being only text-based, or video/image-based.
I also think it’s constantly evolving, so this question of what it will become will never be answered. It’s constantly in motion, constantly changing to meet the needs of the society it serves. The roles it has may evolve, but I think that the platforms and formats it takes the shape of at present will remain. Younger generations are too connected and dependent on them, and until they age out of the picture, their need for communication and creativity will ensure that social media is adaptable, but not drastically evolving.
