The Rise of Social Media
16. Feb, 2010 
7 Comments
How do we communicate? What tools have we used to communicate? What tools do we use to communicate? Evidently, these are questions that pop-up in my head and in the heads of many who are trying to make sense of our ever-changing world.
As students, we can remember growing up in a world in which our only methods of communication was through old medias such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Nowadays, social media has taken over and everything has changed. Now we have blogs (such as Word Press), social networking sites, (like the ever-popular Facebook and Twitter), video sharing sites (I’m sure we’ve all used YouTube once or twice) Photo Sharing Sites (I have way too many pictures up on Flickr), and lastly, crowd-sourcing (Wikipedia is my new dictionary). Evidently, many, many new ways to communicate.
However, in hopes to answer the question of how we communicate, it is also important to understand the difference between old and new media. For this reason I have highlighted these major differences.
Dynamic vs. Static
- Old media is pretty static. For instance, a newspaper or magazine is not able to magically change its stories; even if society believes that something within them is not accurate. On the other hand, this blog can be changed for any specific reason and even one’s Facebook page can change depending on relationship status or even the knowledge that one’s parents have Facebook! So although the newspaper’s article cannot change, many, (if not all), of the new social media is constantly altering and shifting.
Detached vs. Interactive
- You can yell at your television, or punch your radio, but they are not going to cooperate or be affected by it. However, if we tie this situation back again to this blog, there is no doubt that if you tell at me, I will definitely react. Furthermore, Blogs, YouTube videos, and Facebook and Twitter comments all provide the audience a grand opportunity to provide feedback and communicate one-on-one with the author.
Individual vs. Mix
- Check out your Facebook feed and you’ll see a mixture of text, pictures, audio clips, and videos. It is a melange and a mixture of different Medias. But that being the case, could you imagine turning on the radio and having text float in the air? Or even reading the newspaper and then one of the pictures turning into a video? I think if we claimed either of those scenarios occurred, we’d be booking ourselves in to the ‘loonie bin’ in no time. Evidently this proves that old media is very individual whereas social medias involve a combination of different tools all mixed into one.
Limitations vs. Freedom of Speech
- Before I wrote this blog, I didn’t get it approved by a committee nor did I send it to my editor to review (although I did get my best friend to check for grammar mistakes, so blame her if there are any). However, could you imagine if television or newspapers worked the same way? Imagine if they were able to publish whatever they wished! Unfortunately, it just does not work that way; Old media have their limitations, where social media seems to allow you the opportunity to write what you want!
Overall, these distinctions prove how our previous tools of communication differ greatly with those that are gaining power presently. Scarily, however, I don’t know if we will ever be able to pinpoint how we communicate…. as it’s just keeps on changing!
Talk to you all soon (on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, my YouTube Channel or heck, even post away and talk to me right here!! [that might be easier])
About The Author
That’s a very interesting notion April, I’m scared to think what our society will be like in a few years!
Wow! That’s one amazing blog April! I seriously enjoyed reading it and was nodding the whole time! It sounds so professional…are you taking some Mass. Com. courses, becuase if you’re not you def should, I think you’d ace them!
Awesome job again!!
I think we should keep track, Allison, of how many times we tell each other we are awesome. Thanks for reading my post! I am actually taking some communication classes (That’s a lot of what Public Relations i about – which is my field!) So if you have any questions, let me know.
Oh, and Deborah, thanks as well for your comment. I as well am worried what the future may hold, but I do realize that whatever it is, it will be exciting!
Thanks again girls!
Very throughly thought out blog. I love the intellect and how very true it is in today’s society– For better or for worse.
As a quick side note – I found an interesting blog discussing social media that I thought some may be interesting in reading (i.e if this blog was found interesting, this one would as well)
http://iancaithness.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/unsocial-networking/
This is a superb post about the influence of social media and networking on static forms of communication such as the newspaper, magazine and radio. Although it differs from the message I was promoting about the dangers of over-indulging social media as a solution to current problems, it does provide a positive view that is necessary. Great stuff!
Let me begin by thanking Ian for his kind words.
Secondly, let me appologize for bombarding you with links, but I’ve been researching social media and have yet again found an amazing discussion regarding social media.
Check it out if you would like:
http://mybackchannel.blogspot.com/