Social Media Brings Social Change: 7 Ways Social Media Transforms the Way People Communicate
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…actually it began in this very galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. People first communicated using cave drawings to relay messages to one another. Then oral language developed before the Mesopotamians transcribed their stories and created the first written language.
Today’s text messages hardly resemble Egyptian hieroglyphics. Roman numerals become outdated as seen by this year’s use of the Arabic numeral “50” over the Roman numeral “L” for the 50th Super Bowl game. Communication began as an art form, and while it still exists as an art form today, it exists through different means. For one, most do not understand hieroglyphics, but they do understand emojis.
1. Love
First there were pen pals. Now long-distance couples write their feelings through Facebook.
Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/smartphone-facebook-mobile-phone-586903/
2. Reactions
Forget Egypt and their hieroglyphics. Pac Man-like graphics called “emoticons” or “emojis” are taking over the visual world with their too-cool sunglasses, colorful hearts, and simple smirks.
3. Sharing Pictures
Aristocrats used to sit (uncomfortably) for hours while a hired artist painted their portrait to send to friends and relatives or to hang in their grand ballroom. Today a Snapchat takes seconds to take, seconds to send, and seconds for the receiver to view before it’s gone forever. Unless the dreaded screenshot occurs, which in that case, the picture could be printed and hung up in the person’s grand bedroom, pictures disappear for good.
4. Inspiration
Parties everywhere feature food presented so well it appears they came out of a magazine. Before Pinterest, people actually subscribed to Good Housekeeping and other magazines and used professional decorating tips to add pizzazz to their parties. Today, craft-seekers flock to Pinterest to find the latest DIY (Do It Yourself) food created by amateurs such as yourself (no offense). With these “pinners” as they are called, more people say “Oh I saw it on Pinterest!” than “Oh I saw it in _____ magazine!” thanks to the Internet’s persuasiveness and ability to reach a wide audience.
5. Meeting People
The Internet is powerful. So powerful in fact that you no longer need to go to a local coffee shop or dog park to meet people. You still can do those things, but a new social media app called Tinder has taken over the dating world. Now you have the power to sit in your PJs and judge someone based on his or her cover (photo) as you decide to either swipe right or swipe left. Oh his hair is too long? Swipe left. Her teeth are too big? Swipe left. His voice is too high? Oh wait that’s only something you can do in real life…but Tinder now connects people looking for a fun date nearby quicker than you can ask “Are you free Friday night?”
6. Flirting
The wink. Everyone practiced the art of “the wink” so they could be prepared the next time they saw their crush. Today, “the like” replaces “the wink.” Millenials everywhere lose the art of flirting with a real person and hide behind a screen. Instead of winking at the cutie sitting at the other end of the bar, people sit on their phones and let their fingers do the flirting. They double tap this, they double tap that to send the message to the receiver of “the like” that, “Hey I really like this photo that you shared with all 477 of your followers on Instagram, but more importantly, I really like you, and that’s why this little heart pops up every time I double-tap your photo. I hope you notice and ask me out. I mean why else would the icon be a heart? Like is one step away from love, right?” Or at least those silent words fill their heads as they scrolled down their feed to the next photo.
7. Sharing Thoughts
Before social media, you would sit and ponder all your thoughts by yourself. Some people wrote them down privately in a journal. Others enjoyed them in private. In today’s world, tweets replace journal entries as thoughts condense into 140 characters. If 140 characters doesn’t allow for enough room, you can split your ideas into several tweets. In fact, you can tweet to your heart’s content because society accepts multiple tweets a day. Posting multiple Facebook statuses or Instagram photos might annoy your friends and followers, but not on this social media platform. Twitter even asks “What are you doing?” so that you can tell hundreds, or millions in Taylor Swift’s case, how much you enjoyed the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which by the way, “WAS SO GOOD I FEEL LIKE I DREAMED IT” in case you were wondering. Twitter transformed the private thought into a public opinion and the number sign into a hashtag, whose original name did not begin as the “pound sign” or the “number sign,” but as the octothorp. All the way back to, you know, the Roman Era when octo meant “eight.”
Speaking of numbers, you’ll notice each number gets slightly longer than the previous. Yeah go back and check (good for you if you noticed before I said anything). With attention spans that last seconds, readers want information, and they want it quickly. This pyramid style listicle does not overboard the reader right away, but keeps him or her engaged and slowly adds to the list without him or her noticing the words keep flowing and the length keeps growing. By the end, the reader absorbs all the material without losing interest before moving on to the next listicle. Hopefully that listicle becomes just as intriguing as the previous. Social media calls my name, and I must answer as people await to read my Facebook messages, laugh at my emojis, screenshot my Snapchats, ogle at my Pinterest, swipe right on my Tinder, receive my like on Instagram, and get a snippet of my thoughts with my tweets.
