Social Media in 2016

Karwoski, O. (9 April 2016) Top Sites. [Screenshot]

Today, in the USA, it is practically impossible to avoid all forms of social media. It is everywhere we turn. Everyone has it, even our grandmas. Business also use it as a major platform in their marketing. I am guilty of checking my numerous accounts 10+ times a day. But who could resist, you can keep family and friends up to date on the latest events in your life, both the big such as getting hired for a new job and the small like what you had to dinner. You can follow all your favorite brands and celebrities so you don’t miss a thing. Business can promote themselves and ongoing promotions. The possibilities and benefits are endless.

Although social media comes with many benefits, it also comes with consequences. Ann Smarty pointed out some of “The Bad” associated with social media in an article called “Social Media and Society: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” She brings up the valid point that often people hind behind their screens because it gives you a feeling of being social without actually socializing. Some additional issues include the permanence of everything you post. Jenny Q. Ta talks about what a large issue cyber bullying has become using social media as an outlet.

Personally, I use social media as a way to keep friends and family up to date on my life. More recently, I have started using it as a way of branding myself in my photography such as sharing links to my websites on my various social media accounts. In general, this is the way I see other use social media too. But larger business maximize social media by advertising directly to their target audience.

Ann Smarty points out that 10 years ago there was no Facebook or Twitter, and 15 years ago, email wasn’t even that popular. It is hard for people in our generation to imagine this because we were brought up along side social media. Even watching our parents struggle to use social media frustrates us because it comes to us so naturally. I can only imagine this will get exponentially worse as our generation starts to have children. Jay Scott touches on this in an article for the Huffington Post. He talks about all the great changes social media has already made for our society and hopes this will continue to grow.

Over all, most people are in agreement that social media has both its advantages and disadvantages. I think that if you use it in appropriate ways, it can be a great tool in almost all aspects of your life, both professionally and personally.

 

Sources:

Ta, S. Q. (13 August 2014) What impact social media truly had on society. [Web Article.] Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685#l3IQysp51CLqjfaR.97

Smarty, A. (N.d) Social media and society: The good, the bad, and the ugly. [Web Article.] Retrieved from http://www.seochat.com/c/a/social/social-media-and-society-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Scott, J. (30 May 2014) Social media makes an impact on society. [Web Article.] Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-scott/social-media-makes-an-imp_b_5406126.html

Hootsuite

As an assignment for my CAP 105 class I learned how to use Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a website where you can schedule social media posts in advance and it can also analyze results for you. Before this assignment I had never heard of such a program and I found it fun, easy and very useful to work with. Our assignment was to twitter, but seeing as I am a photography major, I got the go ahead to use Instagram instead because I saw it as more fitting.

Karwoski, O. (2016, May 23) Screenshot. [Screenshot].

If you want to see the full posts, you can go to my Instagram here.

I read an article about the best times to post on Instagram. It said that generally, Wednesday posts received slightly more likes than other day’s posts and around 5 pm usually got the most likes. I used a few of those times to see if it would make a difference. Over all, I really enjoyed using Hoostuite for this assignment and plan to try and learn more about everything the website is capable of doing.

Update: I learned that even if you have scheduled your posts, you have to be available at the time  to confirm it. I had my post scheduled for 10 am and did not realize this, so my actual post did not go live until noon when I did some research and figured it out. It also made me copy and paste my caption into Instagram . This is a strange feature because it then becomes basically just a timer reminding you to post, and if you’re not around at that time, it does not get published. I was very impressed with this site at first, but this feature makes me not as excited to use it.

 

Facebook vs Instagram

Karwoski, O. (22 February 2016). Facebook vs Instagram. [Infograph]

      As an assignment for my CAP 105 class, we had to create an infograph showing a representation of creating and sharing content. I chose to compare the two social media outlets I use the most, Facebook and Instagram.

 

The statistics I found out about Facebook were pretty much what I was expecting. It seems that everyone is on Facebook now, even our grandparents. The Instagram statistics also seem to match what I see day to day on the site, a large amount of young people and a few older people.

All of my information was found at Pew Research Center.

Duggan, M., Ellison N. B., Lampe, Cliff., Lenhart A.,  Madden, M. (9 January 2015). Social Media Update 2014. Website. Retrieved from http://www.pweinternet.org