What is Social Media?
Social media to me is a place to share special moments as well as share funny memes and videos with friends. It is relevant to me because many of my friends whom I have grown up with have had to move to another state or area. Interacting with friends far from home when I was younger was a more difficult process due to social media not being a thing. I find myself using social media every day in my free time to connect with my family and friends from home while in college. Before video calls had become advanced in social media apps, I would use a third-party app to video call more than one friend at a time. I also used social media to post my basketball highlights to get myself out there for college coaches to showcase my skills.
In our society, I believe social media is a double-edged sword. One on side, you see viral videos spreading positivity, motivating people around the world through various acts of kindness. On the other hand, you will see negative interactions all across social media. For example, if a highly popular person says an unpopular opinion on a certain subject, they will be scrutinized by millions through the different social media apps. This negative reaction can not only hurt the image of a person, but it can also hurt their career and potential future business opportunities.
If I had to choose one aspect of social media that interests me the most, I would have to go with the positive impact social media has on us. It’s amazing how someone who posts something positive can trigger a chain reaction of positive actions from around the world. Another situation is people sharing their stories of adversity on social media in order to bring more awareness to a certain situation. In my opinion, the message spreads at the fastest speed through social media. Another thing that absolutely blows my mind is how often people gain an absurd number of followers after a viral post. You then see those influencers sign big-money endorsement deals. It has made the younger audiences involved in social media get business opportunities that they otherwise would not be able to acquire had they not gone viral on various social media platforms.
In the future, social media is only going to invade our daily life more and more. The introduction of the metaverse is only going to become more immersive. Technology surrounding social media will also improve to become more addictive than it already is. We will have to see if the improvements of social media and the technology surrounding it will have a positive or negative effect on the way we interact with the world.
