Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

We, as very opinionated human beings are very open to voicing our opinions on specific topics and events. We receive a lot of information through the web, smartphones and word of mouth but, we don't necessarily know exactly where it's coming from. 

On sites like Wikipedia where information is always supposed to be accurate and up to date you can find that most of the facts being written can be changed. In my opinion, I believe that social media has done both in increasing the quality of news and information but, I also think it takes away from those who base their entire life on searching for the truth like journalists. Social media has allowed every day people to be their own journalist, their own newsstand, their own source but, we forget that unless we do thorough research then we won't know the actual truth. There are so many negatives with being your own source, that you don't realize that you feeding others false information which can be easily avoided by people who are actually qualified to do so. 

It's not all negative though, there are some awesome perks to being able to voice your opinions. In social media, you are able to create your very own personalize blog, website, podcast, and Youtube account. You are able to speak your mind, and give news access to those who may not watch the 6 o'clock news. It's as easy as tweeting a sentence made up of 140 characters. Simple and effective is how it normally should be. There is no such thing as being too opinionated but there is when it's offensive and not relevant to the topic. Social media is a great tool, but it can also take away the truth we all, as human beings search for. 

What is your perception of social media, do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

January 20, 2013 at 7:35pm

Social media is something we can't run away from. Something we can't control, unless it's absolutely necessary but, nine times out of ten it's never controlled by the greater masses. Lastly, social media has become a very big part of our culture and we've embrace it with open arms. Looking at it from a college student's point of view social media is by far the most helpful when it comes down to interacting with people, searching the web for interesting topics and I've been using it constantly throughout my program, so technically it's part of my everyday life. The negative affect of social media is that it can become really distracting and what I've come to realize over the last few years is that people take advantage of it. Social media is supposed to keep everyone happy, or at least content with what's going  on in other parts of the world. I personally don't mind the social media but, I'm sure looking at it from someone who may actually have a problem with it might find it offensive and unnecessary. 

In answering the second part of this question, "Do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?" I had to first ask myself what does "fad" mean? So I googled it and what came up was "An intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, esp. one that is short-lived; a craze". Social media is far from fad because it's constantly evolving and it will never be a brief trend. So, to answer this question, I think social media is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution because we're a technological era that will forever need social media.