Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn: all of these sites have had a big impact on our generation. Being from New Brunswick, I am no longer distanced from my high school friends, and going home is like I never left. Why? Because the majority of my friends from high school use some sort of social network so that I know what is happening in their lives, and they can know what is happening in mine. Without embracing these and other forms of social media, distance could end friendships and you could be disconnected from the rest of the world.
I know a lot of people who have said that they choose not to join websites like Facebook and Twitter because “everyone uses it.” This may have been true when these sites first came out. They could merely have been fads, like MySpace, where people would use it, get bored, and move to something new. Before joining Facebook in 2006, I felt the same way. I thought it would be too much of a commitment to join that website, I would waste a bit of time on it, and then by the next year I would have moved on to the newest fad.
But now that we are in 2011, Facebook has become so much more a part of our lives. With over 500 million people using it, it is a great way to keep in touch with high school friends, friends made from conferences or other events, and relatives. The events application on Facebook has also become a big part of how we know something is going on. On many Friday nights, I have decided what I was going to do weeks in advance because someone created an event on Facebook. Because of this function, where you can easily invite massive amounts of people in a short amount of time, if someone was not a part of the Facebook website, they could miss out on some great events and would need to rely on in-person communication, which thanks to applications like ‘Events’ on Facebook, is dying down. The same concept goes for Birthdays and what is currently going on in someone’s life. Thanks to Facebook, you can know the situation people are in based on a recent Facebook post.
The same thing can be said for Twitter. While Twitter was originally meant for people to share quick bits of information about what is happening in their lives, many companies have begun taking advantage. For example, news groups such as CBC, CNN, Globe and Mail, etc., have made Twitter accounts so that those ‘following’ them can get news articles as they are released on their website.
While I don’t care what the Internet is up to every minute of the day, I do like knowing when something happens in the world at the time it happens, and taking advantage of social network can help with that. Last summer, when Waterloo had an earthquake, I was working on campus in DWE. As one of the people who did not feel the ground shake, the only reason I knew about it was because it began to fill up my newsfeed on Facebook. I then received continual updates through Facebook and Twitter of the size/impact of the earthquake, where it originated, and whether or not they were expecting it to happen again anytime soon. I also heard from Twitter that Parliament had shut down. Had I not had either of these Social Networking sites, I would not have known about the earthquake nor its effect on the world
LinkedIn is another Networking site out there. Though not exactly a Social Media, it connects people in a similar way as Facebook. Connections through LinkedIn are meant to be more professional: connecting co-workers, old employers, etc., to maintain professional relations. As brought up in many CECS workshops and seminars, being a part of LinkedIn gives you a step up over those who aren’t involved because it keeps you connected to those who know of hiring positions available and those who can help connect you to other employers/companies.
By maintaining Social Media, you can connect with friends and family through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, know what is going on in the world through those similar sites, stay connected and one step ahead with LinkedIn, manage your social life through other similar sties, each with their own advantages. I saw this morning that the Facebook Page for Nspire, a student run group across Canada that holds workshops, seminars, and competitions about entrepreneurship and business, posting a link from wired.com, which talked about how the Superbowl last weekend broke the record for number of tweets per second going through Twitter, at over 4,000 when the game ended. As an entrepreneurial group, they noted that “Social Media is fast becoming integral in everything we do. Get onboard!”
Leave a Reply