Blog Post 2A

Social media, according to Professor Claudia Faulk, at its most basic level is about communication. It is used by everyone - individuals, businesses, and even governments. It is the "new" way that people communicate; although it is really not so new, as sites such as My Space and LinkedIn have been around since the early 2000s. There were even platforms such as AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, which could be considered early forms of social media, that were developed in the 1990s.

The social media platforms that seem geared towards personal use, by my observations, are Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat also appear to be popular personal social media platforms. In the dating realm, Tinder and eHarmony have been long-time favorites. There are many newer, and popular, entrants in the dating world that have gained their popularity only recently. An example here is Bumble.

Social Media Platforms that are most geared toward businesses are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and the various Google platforms that have been created for business. In the case of LinkedIn, it was developed specifically for business use in 2002. Facebook and Twitter were not developed specifically for business use, but have become popular social media platforms for business nonetheless.

In the realm of personal social media platforms, their use and popularity seem to be fueled by some basic human needs. Examples are the need for recognition, the need for association, and the need for instant gratification. People are social creatures and have always had a need to form into groups for survival and basic socialization. In the case of the need for recognition, everyone wants to be known and liked. Social media has enabled everyone to be a "star" in their own community of friends and acquaintances. And social media meets the need for instant gratification, as people can post anytime, anywhere, and in a variety of places.

As I have discussed, many of the platforms were initially developed for one use or one audience and have found their way into other uses and audiences. Twitter is a good example of this. Even our current and most recent United States presidents, Trump and Obama, use Twitter extensively. Twitter has been credited as a significant factor in Obama's election and re-election success. And we all know how prolific the use of Twitter by Trump is. In the case of Trump, he uses it effectively as a way of communicating his ideas. The controversy that he creates in his Twitter feeds only serves to get his message across more effectively. In general, the cross-over of use between personal and business use of social media can only be expected to grow as the current and new platforms come into being and  are developed.

Comments

  1. Good afternoon Paul,
    Wow your post regarding the use of social medial is insightful and interesting to read. I can tell you put a great deal of thought and effort into this posts.
    Sincerely,
    Your CSIT 155 Classmate
    Jesus E. Origel

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love twitter and its ability to connect. I feel it has also been ability to act as soapbox for people whether it is the president or Joe Schmoe can be insightful as well as dangerous. Thanks for your great insight.

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  3. Hi Paul,

    Excellent response to this week's topic, it was very concise.
    Do you think there are some downfalls to how fast social media can be?

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  4. Hi! I really enjoyed reading your blog post and communication is key. It is interesting to see how leaders of America like Trump, use social media today even with a career like his. I actually enjoy it and think it reaches out to a larger audience/age group since more people in my generation use social media to find out news rather than watching the actual news. Overall I think you did an excellent job explaining the different uses of social media and like how you included dating sites, because they're still forms of social media that I think are sometimes forgotten. Look forward to reading more of your posts soon!

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