Far from a Twitter Celebrity

Twitter launched in the year 2006 and has been popular since. It is a popular micro-blogging social site. It allows you to send messages to a large number of people all at the same time. There are different types of users from average people all the way to well-known celebrities. Twitter is different from other social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram etc. What makes Twitter different is its famous hashtags. Twitter is not Twitter if you don't incorporate a hashtag in your post. It has become famous for its unique hashtags for example #TwitterPopularity would be one I would use at the end of a Tweet to describe this blog. Hashtags are nearly impossible to avoid you will see them in your favorite TV shows even the Pope has hashtags that's how notorious they are!

Not only is Twitter a different social site because of its hashtags but also being popular on this site is quite hard. On other social sites such as Facebook and Instagram, it is fairly easy to gain friends/popularity. On both of these sites, you can add friends to the contacts on your cell phone. These sites can access your cell phone contacts with your permission. If you do so the contacts in your cell that has either Facebook or Instagram will pop up and you can add them to your friends. Also, you will get friend suggestions from the friends of your friends that you already have on these two social sites. People can friend request you by these same methods and you can also just randomly scroll profiles and send a friend request. These sites practically throw friends at you!

Popularity on Twitter is a little more complex, at least for me it was. In order to become Twitter popular you must work for it by writing tweets others find interesting, funny, or inspiring. In my opinion, its time consuming, it takes a lot of work to gain popularity on Tweeter. You must have a captivating profile, follow others, engage with other followers, and bust out amazing Tweets that are worthwhile to others in order to gain followers and keep them. In my English 211 course, we had a Tweeter competition. We had to create a Tweeter account if we didn't have one, screen shoot our current followers then had to try and gain as many by a certain amount of time. Just my luck I had never tweeted in my life! I had started out my Tweeter with 9 followers and ended the competition with 26 followers even though I tried to make interesting and funny Tweets. I failed miserably! I think the major thing why I failed was because I wasn’t consistent with my posting. Either that or I’m not as funny or as inspiring as I thought. Bummer! I have to say that I favor Facebook and Instagram over Twitter because I don't have to work as hard on these sites for my popularity but if Tweeter is your thing  More power to you...Tweet away!

Ignorance is not bliss

Social media has its pros but also its cons, unfortunately. Thanks to the Internet there are many people that are able to get away with offensive behavior. Social media makes it so easy and common for people to be able to say horrible unjustifiable things and be shared instantly with millions around the world! It is very clear that social media has a serious downside to digital communications. The Ted Talk video “When online shaming goes too far” brings this online reality to light. Its common to read a person nasty comments that it sadly makes it normal for many people to act in such a disgusting way. It is often very easy for people to hide behind a text, snap, post, or tweet. People that say unjustifiable things don't realize the lasting effects they have on people. 

For most people, social networks such as Facebook, and Twitter are used for social interacting and personal expression in a harmless manner. For others, social media is more than just an entertaining way of engagement to the outside world. There are millions of people addicted to social media attention. They live for likes and unfortunately these people don't care if they get their likes in a negative way. They act just like newborns. Newborn babies are extremely dependent on getting their mothers attention. The more their needs are neglected the more they cry. These attention seekers act up in the same way to get attention. They love drama and will say anything to get the attention they seek.

Can social media be an addiction? The answer is yes. What are addictions about? Well, they are all about feeding into a compelling urge. One of the biggest human urges is the feeling of being connected and being part of something larger. Nothing satisfies this urge than to logging on and being social with people at any hour of the day or night. It is so sad that negativity is more popular on social media than positivity! Just as the Ted Talk video “When online shaming goes too far” says, “Social media gave a voice to voiceless people”.

We all are vulnerable being on social media in some way or another. We invite people to judge us by what we post. We need to be mindful of that and as everything in life goes, there are consequences to our actions. It comes down to our morality. Justin Stucco acted immorally but it didn't make it any better than others attacked her for it. As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right. As Ronson says in the Ted Talk video “We are both clever and stupid” (Ronson, J. 2017). We as a society have to stop giving in to social media negativity, it's a chain reaction and we must stop it. Ignorance is not bliss….

Ultimately you decide

It is true that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are the new homepages for news. Social media has replaced traditional news methods such as newspapers, and television and ways of interacting. Social media news is very accessible and convenient since you can view news stories while scrolling your timeline on Facebook.  Although it is the new way of receiving news, it affects us all. Most news on social media is not reliable. The spread of “fake news” is a big current issue in our everyday lives.

In the article “The Facebook Effect On the News” it speaks to the chronic issue of fake news. This article brings many things to light. The news we read off of Facebook has a very high percentage of being unreliable “fake”. So if it is unreliable news, why do people still favor it? The news off of this site is favored because it is entertainment. A big majority of people fail to realize that the news they read off of social media sites has a high chance of being unreliable and fictitious news and go along with the trend of sharing what they personally feel is important or interesting to them. 

I liked how this article shed light that the Facebook page owner ultimately creates his or her own news feed. An individual’s homepage is created and organized with their friend's likes which makes it an entertainment gateway for stories and when I say stories it is most likely just a fictional one. Even the word “news” itself has a different meaning now a day. The term “news” means newspaper or CNN for a person that knows of a world without social media. To a millennial, the term “news” most likely means Facebook timeline. I personally have a Facebook page and have experienced first-hand fake news off of it.

The most recent fake news I encountered was that of a video titled “Woman go to Facebook live to warn about the department of defense EMP Drill”. In this video two women that claim they are sisters speak of how our department of defense has failed to inform the public of an electronic magnetic pulse (EMP) that would be conducted November 4^th through the 6^th across the entire North American continent. An EMP would cause all electronic devices to fail and how there would be a huge blackout. They claim that the reason why they didn't bring this to mainstream media is to not cause panic. I found that funny since they were making a video to do just that and cause panic. I received this video from a friend, which is a perfect example how fake media spreads. It is November 4^th and I have yet to witness this “blackout” and I highly doubt there will be one but I’m certain a lot of people are still expecting one to happen. Facebook can have all the fake news it wants but ultimately you decide what you believe off of any social media site.  

https://youtu.be/Cx5VwQU-Q1Q