Blog One: Sharing and How Social Media Has Affected It

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Humans are born to communicate. No matter how much some would like to be alone, to communicate is inevitable. It can be by showing emotions, signaling something, or simply using language. Communicating on its own is a matter of sharing anything to other people. People share things about themselves seeking similarities with people they are acquainted to. This leads to being surrounded by a community in which humans share similar minds and beliefs. Sharing becomes a huge part of this community by wanting to express personal thoughts and learning to what the others think about certain issues or simply what they are like. People also tend to share things because they expect others to share back and maybe gain interest in it. This has become noticeable due to the excessiveness of sharing personal experiences online and the fact that there is nothing to hide anymore and keep private.

With the rise of the Web 2.0, sharing has become a natural routine in every day life. Web 2.0 has allowed everyone to become part of the content that is put on the Internet instead of just reading and being informed. The Times magazine had even addressed the people, “you”, “as the person of the year” back in December 2006 (Wikibooks, n.d.). This is quite the statement, for it portrays the immense involvement of the people and their thoughts in the different online platforms. It also proves that the opinions of the users are what matter the most. With Web 2.0 came the idea of social media which brings us back to the idea of sharing.

Social media is basically connecting people together through the data or information they provide on their accounts to initiate a sort of organizational structure in which they would express things they think is important to them. In other words, social media have had a huge impact in providing platforms in which anyone would create their own identity to share to the people they are connected to or the whole world. Social media have made it accessible for people with different backgrounds to unite on specific causes such as the hot topic of #MeToo that has caused everyone to share personal stories and encourage women to speak up against sexual harassment.

This cause wouldn’t have been as successful had it not been for the hashtag that spread all over. The idea of the hashtag in addition to the likes, dislikes, share, follow and many others buttons that these platforms have invented for people has helped people share how they feel through them. The new options have enhanced the idea of sharing to a whole new level. One gets to tell people of his/her interests simply by pressing the like thumb instead of actually having to use words on Facebook, for example. People no longer need to do any extra effort to convey what they actual mean. The meanings behind the buttons have become universally understood. Other than that, it’s the easiness of it, liking and disliking sources, that has made it so effective to people. On the bigger picture, these features have benefited business immensely. Businesses are now capable of knowing what people want, why they dislike projects, and what to do next when it comes to their products or ideas.

This leads to questioning the freedom and benefits of sharing personal information online. Who is really in control? Cluetrain Manifesto (2000) states, “Markets are conversations. The real power of the web is in connecting businesses with their clients,” but one thing is true, there’s so much more to social media than just advertising and profit. It has become a go-to source for international and local news, a way to communicate to people globally, reaching out for information and organizations that help build knowledge and character. Social media wouldn’t have reached the success and influence had it not been to the people and their contribution.

In brief, even if it feels like everything we do is monitored by the big businesses for their interests, there still is no denial of the impact that social media has on us and the concept of sharing. That being said, it still is important to know the limits of what people should share. Sharing has changed tremendously because of the online involvement. People no longer have the choice of feeling free in choosing what should be private or not since businesses and whoever look into people’s usage tend to want to know the whole identity of someone. However, when it comes to the social part of social media, there’re different perspectives behind it like communication, information, and communities (Fuchs, 2017), so it really all depends on how people use social media to know whether it is actually beneficial or not.

References:

Fuchs, Christian. 2017. Social Media: A critical introduction. London: Sage. 2nd edition. Paperback.

Hinton & Hjorth (2013) Understanding Social Media, Sage, London, p. 17–18.

Wikibooks. n.d. Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies. Retreived from: index.php