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SOCIAL MEDIA 3
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Social Media
Introduction
Social media refers to all the online platforms that are used by people across the world to share information, ideas, and views. The discovery of social media has had several impacts on the society. It has made people change the way they use to do things in the past. This paper seeks to explain how the discovery of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snap Chat and Instagram has influenced and shaped the American culture.
Facebook was discovered back in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg as a medium for communication for college students. But eventually, it got accepted in the broader society, and today, it has more than a billion users. However, the discovery and integration of Facebook to the society has had many effects on the American culture.
Employment. Before the discovery of Facebook, American jobseekers had to watch TVs, listen to radios or read billboards for them to learn about new jobs. Some even had to walk to the offices to ask whether or not there were employment vacancies. Actually, it was a hectic process that required a lot of efforts and sacrifice. But with the discovery of Facebook, people nowadays learn of new job vacancies on this platform (Foreman, 2017). All you need is to like Facebook pages of the companies/sites that specialize in advertising latest job vacancies. This has dropped the old culture of having to stay close to TVs/Radio or visit the respective companies, instead, it has created a culture of seeking for employment while resting on your bed. If the current trend prevails, in future almost all companies will stop advertising vacancies via radios and televisions, and switch to using social media like Facebook (RELATIONS, 2018).
Connection. The discovery of Facebook has also changed the culture on how people connect. Initially, family members who had left for schools or jobs in far cities would communicate with their loved ones through phone calls. While that still promoted the family bond among the members, it didn’t do it as much as Facebook. Note that, phone call rates were expensive and so many Americans would only make few calls a day. Moreover, the phone calls did not support sharing of pictures and videos. But with the discovery of Facebook, granddaughters can frequently share pictures with their grandparents, thus increasing the bondage among the family members (RELATIONS, 2018). If this trend prevails, in future family members will hardly be visiting each other, since much of the connection and interactions will be done via Facebook (Read, 2016).
Twitter.
Discovered in 2006, Twitter has had a great impact on the American culture. People no longer do a lot of things that they used to do before 2006. For example:
News. Before twitter began trending in America, people had to stay close to radios or watch television to learn of the breaking news. Those were the only platforms that could disseminate the real-time news. So it was people’s culture to listen to radios or watch TV every time the news was read. But with the discovery of Twitter, the popular media networks like the Fox News and CNN began using Twitter to disseminate breaking news to their followers. Today, all the media networks have twitter accounts which they use to share almost every news that hits their newsrooms (Kennedy, 2016). This has reduced the need for people to watch TV or listen to radios for news outbreaks. Consequently, the number of Americans watching TVs and listening to Radios has decreased significantly. In fact, in future, that number is going to reduce even further, because Twitter is becoming more and more popular.
Political awareness. Initially, citizens were required to attend political rallies listen to radios or watch TVs for them to learn about upcoming politicians and their manifestos. But with the discovery of Twitter, all the politicians can stay connected to their followers by tweeting out relevant messages. All that they need to do is to ask their followers to recruit more new followers. Consequently, Twitter has changed political culture such that politicians now hardly organize rallies to pass information to their followers. President Trump is a good example of politicians who have capitalized on twitter platform. If this trend prevails, in future expect very few political rallies in America (Read, 2016).
Youtube
There is little doubt that the discovery of youtube has changed the culture of the Americans. The effects range from the entertainment field all the way to the education.
Entertainment. Before the discovery of youtube, it used to take upcoming talents years to be recognized in the music, acting and the entertainment field in general, despite putting in a lot of efforts. For example, for upcoming musicians to be heard, they had to be featured in hits by the popular musicians or struggle to ensure that their songs played on the radios and TV channels. The biggest challenge then was that TVs and radios hardly played songs from unpopular artists. This culture was challenged and eventually overturned, by the discovery of youtube. Today, upcoming musicians do not have to beg radios and TVs to play their songs. Instead, all they're required to do is to upload the songs to the YouTube and let the fans decide whether those songs are good or bad (Kennedy, 2016). In future, Americans will not be deciding the best artist based on the number of time their songs play on TV/radios; rather they will be basing on the number of youtube views.
Education. Before the discovery of YouTube, the educators had to play out visual concepts in classes using projectors. But with the invention of YouTube, many American lecturers upload or recommend students to watch specific contents on the YouTube. Besides that, today you can learn almost everything by watching youtube tutorials. If this trend prevails in future, Americans will rarely be attending classes to learn concepts such as “how to play guitar,” (Read, 2016).
Instagram too has shaped the American culture in a number of ways. Today, mode of advertisement, as well as, approach to time management has changed.
Business Advertisement. Before the discovery of Instagram (2010) most of the visual adverts were taken to the televisions. For example, the fashion designers would use TV stations to advertise their products. Failure to do so would not have a significant negative impact on the market. But with the discovery of Instagram, fashion designers find it more effective to advertise via Instagram than TV channels (Foreman, 2017). The designers now have dropped the traditional belief that advertisement has to be done on the mainframe media. Instagram is also helping the aspiring models to penetrate and excel in the industry with ease. If the current trend maintains, in future more youths and fashion lovers will be relying on Instagram to find out the latest models and designs on the market (Kennedy, 2016).
Time management. Initially, youths would dedicate most of their time in studies or interacting with their friends and parents, physically. But with the discovery of Instagram, most of the youths spent significant portions of their time viewing their colleagues’ pictures, as well as, liking photos on the Instagram. Some compete with their colleagues in posting “crazy” pictures in order to garner the most likes. Youths have therefore developed a culture of rating themselves based on the numbers of likes, as opposed to physically competing in games or academic performance. In future, most youths will start aspiring to be celebrities as opposed to excelling in academics and other important aspects of life (Read, 2016)..
Snap chat.
The snap chat was introduced in 2011. Since then, there has been a great change in American culture, as a result of using this social media platform.
Secrecy. Before the discovery of Snap Chat, people would rarely take their secrets to the public. But with the introduction of this platform, people now publicize almost everything they do daily basis, including those which could be helpful if kept in the dark. For example, unlike earlier on when the criminals would hardly reveal their secrets, today it is common to see a suspect bragging on a snap chat video how he or she managed to execute a criminal activity. Also, some utter out abusive or offensive words that could easily be used as evidence against them in courts of law. If this trend prevails, in future people will barely do anything in secret because everything starting from graduating school to engaging, to getting pregnant to dating to even divorcing your partner will be made public (Read, 2016).
Conclusion.
The introduction of Facebook, Twitter, snap chat, youtube, and Instagram has indeed shaped the American culture to significant levels. With many Americans now preferring to find potential love on Facebook groups, as opposed to physical hunting soul mates, there is no doubt the discovery social media has changed the American culture. However, it is recommendable to embrace the positive changes and discourage the negative cultural changes that have come as a result of the discovery of social media.
References
Foreman, C. (2017). 10 Types of Social Media and How Each Can Benefit Your Business. HootSuite .
Kennedy, G. (2016). Social Media: Master Social Media Marketing - Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Instagram. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
Read, A. (2016). Where Social Media Is Headed in 2017: The Biggest Trends to Watch For. Social Media Marketing.
RELATIONS, U. (2018). Communications and Marketing. Tufts UNIVERSITY RELATIONS.
York, A. (2018). 6 Social Media Trends That Will Take Over 2018. Sprout Social .