Access and Equity

Wait you mean there are people who can't use social media?? I am sure that even though I ask that sarcastically there are some people who think this is a legitimate question. There are many people all over the world and the united states who do not have access to little or any social media. These are people who either can't have it because they are less fortunate than others or just flat out have never heard of or have a need for any of it. These people are left out on so many things like Miley Cyrus and Harlem Shake videos I'm sure they are having a really tough life and I'm glad there are things that don't bother their daily lives. Yes I am sure there are a lot of downfalls to not being able to be connected to the world but at least they don't have to deal with a lot of the same problems that we have. I am sure many of the people who don't have social media would look at our lives and think we are the poor ones because we put so much hope into our material things and take for granted all of the crucial things we have in life like food, water, transportation, income. There are negative consequences to not having social media that I cannot deny we have a much simpler and fast paced life that many of the poeple who are not effected by social media are being left behind in this world and don't have a chance at ever catching up with the rest of us.

Business

Business are some of the smartest groups of people on the planet. They know how to use anything that they are given and sell their good or service with it. Social media is one of their biggest tools to get people to interested in what they have to sell. Facebook is a prime example of this in the way you can like a page for your favorite business. I think this is one of the best ways to stay connected to a business as well as become a more loyal customer. Think about it if you like a company's page and you see all of their advertisements and not their competitors you will notice yourself only buying their products. It's great!! Business' know how to promote themselves on these websites and they know how what will make you more excited about their company and what will make you dislike their competitors. Business have a huge influence on social media, I cannot tell you how many times I've seen on facebook someone like a samsung ad, or and old spice page. It is one of the most influential forms advertisements on the face of the planet because for a pretty cheap ad you reach millions of people.

Wrap up and reflections

The future of social media is a very hot topic especially with the things that people post on the web today. I don't know what the next big social media site is or if there will ever be a new one. But I can confidently say whatever the future brings it will effect all of us. Social media is not just a thing young kids do it is something that the whole world does. Whether it is harlem shake videos or duck faced selfies the whole world knows about each and every phenomenon that goes onto social media. The way we live our lives or even interact with others is all effected by the way social media is used. For instance it is now a very common cultural thing for girls to wear skimpy outfits because those get the most likes on facebook and instagram and the most retweets on twitter. Even if it is 40 degrees outside I guarantee you I can walk onto campus and find a girl in short shorts. When we see things on these websites no matter if we think they are the coolest or dumbest thing ever we remember it. Social media is not so much at connecting with others but making memories and storing them later for tweetable moments or the best facebook posts of the day.The thing that is hardest for me to get my head around about social media is how do we come to where we are now How did we get to the point where if you do something very slutty or just stupid you become popular and get all the likes and all the "followers" who will sit in front of screen and hit that like or share button. We are society focused on power and being liked and selling our bodies and thoughts so that people will like us. We are pretty much all prostitutes and our pimp is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter you name it someone has done something degrading or harmful to themselves or just opened up their hearts to people who will only use them and hurt them more or just exploit them and encourage them to do it again by simply pushing a button. I do not know where the future of social media is going but I do know it could be a scary place once you get past the surface of what is just on the screen and actually into the lives of real people.

Politics & Social Media

Well this is such a fun topic!!!! Politicians by far use social media more than almost anyone to gain influence over possible voters. So when you see the old folks tweeting or posting you can almost guess that its some twenty-two year old intern working for their campaign posting everything for them...so much for being in touch with their audience! But one of my favorite things about voting seasons is that there is always one story that gets leaked about some politician screwing up in some form whether it is drinking too much, sexual allegations or a very poorly thought out tweet some one ends up dropping out pretty early because of a dumb mistake. I don't know about you but it bothers me a lot thinking that the people who run our country who are our appointed leaders cannot handle themselves more maturely than Miley Cyrus can!!! Man we sure know how to pick 'em. One thing I will say however is due to scandals such as Watergate or Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" politics becomes a lot more interesting. It is as if they do this stuff on purpose to get people to pay attention to politics. I cannot tell you how many times its gets to November and none of my friends are talking about politics and then all of a sudden there is some breaking story about a politician screw up and then all of a sudden everyone is a critic and has a plan and a backup plan to the problem and every other conflict going on in the government. So who knows maybe it was all a part of the plan to get caught drunk or saying that dumb comment or with that other woman, but I guarantee if you ask any politician they will give you a good ole George W. Bush Jr. chuckle and move on to the next question with some sly counter question.

Crowdsourcing

Well it is a little difficult to think how crowdsourcing relate to my topic of people being overly public with their user content, but after thinking about it and taking different point of views I believe that there is most definitely crowdsourcing going on. Now crowdsourcing is asking people to give their content to a corporation and then they receive a little cut from the content they produce. Now in my example not everyone gets a cut but lets think about a Facebook or Instagram or and other social media cite, now celebrities and companies are all over those cites and it seems like almost daily there is another competition that they are hosting and one person gets a prize and when you see some of the pictures or videos or poems or blogs posted to these competitions there is quite a bit of TMI in them. People will do anything to win and the people throwing the contest are getting free advertisement every time a person chooses to enter a contest. As far as whether or not is has added any challenges to my topic I believe it does because other people will see it and since it is endorsed by a celebrity or a popular company other people see it and think that that celebrity or company agrees with them causing others to post things similar to it or more out there than the first one. I think what can be done to help out this problem is to filter results privately and not letting people post them and have everyone see the entries.

Social Media and Relationships

No matter who you are or how original you think you are everyone in the social media realm is affected by what people post and who is doing the posting. For instance on my news feed I see a lot of post about peoples faith and very encouraging notes on peoples walls or nice tweets at people. Now i know for a fact not every persons wall is filled with that, there are some that are filled with Miley Cyrus videos or people complaining about life or how drunk that got over the weekend. I want to say first off I don't care what people see on their personal profile that is their business and I'm not going to tell them how to live their life. I will say however that does affect the way I view them. Anyone who says that they don't judge others is lying, I'm not saying we want to judge them I am saying though that they do it. For instance I see people who love drama or drinking and other related things and I think I won't get along with them or that they will think that I'm weird. Truth is the stuff that I post or that you post affects the way people view each other and the consequence can be positive or negative. However, the majority of the time it is a negative affect. You may think that this is pessimistic, but I think it is truth. We as people are naturally selfish myself included, therefore I want and you want things to go your way and when things don't go our way we habitually associate it negatively and our relationship with that person worsens or is destroyed completely. I think things that could improve social media are things that are but a dream and to be honest I think the social media monster is almost too big to be tackled. People want to be known for being the greatest person of all time whether its stepping on others or making an alter ego that makes them the nicest and sweetest person on the surface, people rarely want to go against the current. You make think your a hipster, but have you looked around lately and seen there are millions of hipsters in California alone. People don't want to see conflict end in resolution with both sides coming to terms equally and becoming great friends, sure you make like watching those YouTube videos about uplifting stories every once in awhile, but I'm sure you like to watch those celebrity breakdowns, or gang fights, or mean pranks being pulled.  The thing that needs to happen for people to change their attitudes or even start to move in the direction where we can be civilized people again on the Internet is to genuinely want to think the best of people. That will not come with just a few bloggers or face book posts. It will take a movement of people all stating their opinion and showing unity that they will not stop until we can be a loving and caring people unified all around the world not by a race or moral ethics, but by love of being all the same and uniquely ourselves at the same time. Now l=as much as I want to believe the best of mankind it is going to take a whole lot energy and effort to get the ball rolling on this one.

UGC

Well there are a lot of people who use the Internet now a days and all of these people are capable of posting something or telling someone else what is on their mind. That seems like a scary thought that some maniac crazy killer could be posting death threats or who his next victim would be. Well what are the odds of that happening...not very likely. There is a big stereotype that every person on the Internet is an idiot and is at one point in time going to post something stupid or is going just do something to offend others. Well if your like me you hate that sort of thing because people will post about anything on facebook or twitter or even a blog. But lets really think about that for a second how many of your friends post something like this on a daily basis...my guess not even half of your friends or if you are like me only a handful will post like that. So should there be a general fear that you will be bombarded with idiotic posts or that everyone who is on the Internet is a lunatic? No there are a select few who will go totally crazy on the Internet and will post about their very personal matters or will just rant to get attention. These are the people that make it hard out there for everyone, because that is what grabs our attention, not the average blogger or the normal people on facebook, but the ones who leave it all on the table and you don't even have to have met them but you know all the "terrible"things that have happened in their life. It is the few bad apples that spoil it all for the rest of us. People are not entertained by the normal things, people are entertained by the extraordinary and the things that stick around the longest are usually the things that are negative. Its like the news they might have a few stories that will talk about the good that is going on in the neighborhood, but that is not what will keep the viewers glued to the television they will do headline stories on murders or robberies anything that will make us feel unsafe and feel like we can't even go outside without someone pulling a gun on us. The chance of that happening is little to none. The thing that is really annoying however is that it works! People think the world is so dangerous and that their kids shouldn't play outside, but for crying out loud why do let others tell us how to feel or act. The news and those people on the Internet who blog or post or tweet want you to fall under their guidelines of living. We the people need to find our own identity we are the social norm, but we act as if the crazy ones are the normal ones. We need to start getting a grip on life and stop conforming to those who are being too crazy on the Internet.