Benefits of Social Media and Blogging

Throughout the past four months I have been keeping up with multiple blogs for multiple classes. I have found that not only has this been challenging, but rewarding as well. As technology is advancing, so is the work-place I will soon be entering. Having an online blog allows students, and anyone interested, to put themselves onto a much larger platform where they can showcase their work freely. I have uploaded content I have created and received feedback, I have learned how to embed items into my blogs and posts and have overall launched myself into the online world.

Older generations talk about putting too much information onto the Internet; it is easy to go overboard and cross the line. But, because technology and social media have become so predominant in society today, it seems as if blogging and posting content online is the only way to put yourself out there in order to create a career for yourself.

Content With Meaning

Generating content is fairly simple; the Internet allows us to create anything and post it onto the web, but what makes great content is the effort put into it. After doing research, and weekly assignments for my Understanding Emerging Media class, I was able to see how effective meaningful content is.

Bloggers have become fairly popular within the past 5 years, with new ones popping up each month. People who blog are great examples of successful content -- they have analyzed and researched their audience, they understand what to post and how to post it to directly cater to their readers. Popular content is produced when a story can be found within it; stories are what ties everything together. Being able to make a post about a restaurant is great, but posting about your entire experience is what readers want -- they want to imagine themselves there and stories are how bloggers create that. By creating relatable content bloggers can create an experience for their audience.

The Benefits of Social Media

Social Media has made a splash in the past years, with new applications and updates becoming available in a matter of months, it seems as if social media is here to stay.

Although there are many people, myself included, who are weary of social media and all its perks, it is inevitable to say that philanthropic events and causes have benefitted tremendously from social media. The power of a share or like has the ability to generate a ripple effect, allowing content to reach thousands of people within hours. Twitter and Facebook seem to be the most popular for this trend; these sites allow users to launch their content, information, etc. into an audience filled with thousands of peers wanting to contribute.

A clear representation of the power of social media was the ALS Ice Bucket challenge that surfaced in August 2014. It was a challenge to raise awareness and money for Lou Gehrig's disease. Participants were required to donate within 24 hours of being nominated for the challenge, by social media friends, or they must pour ice water over their heads -- most participants did both. Not only did it raise over $115 million dollars since July 2015, but it generated a huge awareness for a cause that many people may have not known about. Overall, as social media has progressed over the years it is hard to see all the good that has come from it, but in retrospect social media has given the people in need a voice.

Generation Likes

This week I watched a documentary about the current effects social media has on this younger generation, known as Generation Likes. It was extremely eye-opening, and alarming, to see how dependent young teenagers are on their social media success.

While watching this video I saw how driven teenagers were to create the best content possible to achieve the highest level of success. They base their worth on how many views or likes they receive and hope that by creating the best content they will be perceived worthy by society. Although social media has become a huge success for companies, the dangers are becoming more apparent. Children are born into media, where-as older generations had to conform and learn it. Today, we are seeing how dangerous the media can be -- children are committing suicide from cyber bullying.

In the documentary, it will give you a better understanding to what the dangers of abusing social media are and shows a clear insight into how young adults perceive themselves through it.

Vanity Analysis

When searching my name into Google I was surprised at what had popped up: the Internet saves everything. My search pages consisted of old photos of me and my friends, my old web pages and documents that I have been mentioned in. It is surprising to see everything, in one place, that your name is attached to. I was excited to see what I would find and was happy to see some of my accomplishments put up onto the Internet. Although some items may have been squirm-ish, old photos from 10 years ago, it was nice to see that I have maintained my composure even when not knowing what affects it would have on me in the future.