My use of social media

Basically, the only new media I use is Facebook.  I've always said that I don't think my life is cool enough for Twitter and I need more than 140 characters to express myself.  And I do have a LinkedIn profile, but I barely use it since I don't feel confident in my skills.  However, I would like to be a social media consultant, so I am learning everything I can about all the social networks. 

With the advent of social media, I'm more apt to take things at face value.  When I see something an event happening on my Facebook feed, I'm more likely to take it as truth.  However, at the same instance, I tend to be skeptical as well, because things I see on social media is making me think about things more in depth.  I am definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but I feel that we should examine things more carefully because of our 24/7 news cycle and social media.  The platform has leveled the playing field giving everyone equal journalistic integrity at the beginning.  So it is definitely very important to make sure we truly think about what we read before we form our own opinions.

While that is the negative of new media, the positive is that you can get the news as it unfolds on the ground.  The great thing about social media is that you have real-time access to the news, as where in the past it would take at least a couple of hours to get the breaking news.  For example, social media was very helpful during the Arab uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.  If it wasn't for social media, then the Arab spring may have never came about, since a Tunisian blogger helped to become the catalyst.  Of course, you have to truly vet through the information coming out.  But just like anything, social media has its pluses and minuses.