Social Media: Making all the difference

News can come from all sorts of different outlets, including social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Whether you frequently view these sites, or not, social media opens up a forum for anyone to post their opinions and share relevant articles that users find interesting. The usage of social media has been researched through millennials and provides younger generations the ability to freely express views without major backlash.

Rebecca Murphy, a senior at the University of Oregon, took a moment to explain her involvement on social media sites and how she stays up to date with the news. Although Murphy is active on over seven social media platforms, she “only shares things that are humorous or that are actually relevant to friends on her social media.” She also tends to discover relevant and breaking news stories through her social media accounts.

Finding reliable news information can sometimes be tricky, especially on social media, but Murphy uses Buzzfeed and Snapchat as a news source. Buzzfeed allows users to access multiple different magazines and news sources on its ‘Discover’ tab and releases new information every single day. For example, one of the magazines is called Vice, a trendy and investigative news source that millennials are taking an interest to. Vice is able to post snippets of interesting videos or facts that draw in viewers and can be compared to the concept of click-bait.

The idea of consuming small and quick pieces of information has become a trend for millennials like Murphy and seems to be the only way that information is being taken in. Younger generations no longer want to read a two page article on the benefits of eating vegetables, but instead want to watch a 15 second video that flashes facts every couple of seconds with interesting visuals. However, since when did social media sites such as Facebook and Buzzfeed become such powerful news sources? Social media has the ability to provide these bits of information to a large audience and supply viewers with breaking news or interesting news stories.

Millennials heavy use on social media influences what gets shared, how often and to what extent. Even though social media has become a news vault that gives users relevant information that they want, it also allows for open discussions and more opinions being shared. “I enjoy social media because I can agree with my own view, but also read what other people are saying.” Murphy said. Although she tends to be more of a viewer and not necessarily someone who posts or shares information a lot, Murphy will social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat. She finds that all of these sites produce different types of information and caters towards a specific audience. Murphy remains active on these sites for several years and has even noted the changes that each site has undergone.

“I think a couple years from now [social media] will completely change because twitter just celebrated it 10 year anniversary and no one was on twitter 10 years ago,” Murphy explained. “When I joined in 2009, that Twitter was completely different than the 2016 Twitter. Social media has learned how to adapt to the user to make it more user friendly.”

Murphy isn’t the only one that believes social media has changed over the past couple of years, according the Pew Research Center, social media usage has drastically increased in the past decade alone. So what can we expect from social media in the upcoming years? As far as Murphy is concerned, she’ll stay up to date on current trends and the gossip that social media takes part in, but will also be able to access news more quickly and efficiently.

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