SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA

 What is Social Media?

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. The Office of Communications and Marketing manages the main Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts.

Popular Social Media Tools and Platforms:

Blogs: A platform for casual dialogue and discussions on a specific topic or opinion.

Facebook: The world’s largest social network, with more than 1.55 billion monthly active users (as of the third quarter of 2015). Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including status updates. Brands create pages and Facebook users can “like” brands’ pages.

Twitter: A social networking/micro-blogging platform that allows groups and individuals to stay connected through the exchange of short status messages (140 character limit).

YouTube/Vimeo: Video hosting and watching websites.

Flickr: An image and video hosting website and online community. Photos can be shared on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites.

Instagram: A free photo and video sharing app that allows users to apply digital filters, frames and special effects to their photos and then share them on a variety of social networking sites.

LinkedIn: A place where groups of professionals with similar areas of interest can share information and participate in a conversations.

Why is social media good?

Social media and technology offer us greater convenience and connectivity:

-staying connected with family and friends worldwide via email, text, FaceTime, etc.

-quick access to information and research

-banking and bill pay at our fingertips

-online learning, job skills, content discovery (YouTube)

-involvement in civic engagement (fundraising, social awareness, provides a voice)

-great marketing tools

-opportunities for remote employment

Social media can be a good thing, but if teens ever feel uncomfortable about something they see or read on social, they should trust their own feelings and talk to someone – a parent, a teacher, or another trusted adult. Bullying, threats and cruelty on social media are all signs that the person doing those things needs help.

Why is social media bad?

Along with the good comes the bad. With all of its benefits, the nature of social media presents a range of potential issues.

-Online vs Reality. Social media itself is not the problem. It is the way people use it in place of actual communication and in-person socializing. “Friends” on social media may not actually be friends, and may even be strangers.

-Increased usage. The more time spent on social media can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to content that is not age appropriate.

-Social Media is addicting. When you’re playing a game or accomplishing a task, you seek to do it as well as you can. Once you succeed, your brain will give you a dose of dopamine and other happiness hormones, making you happy. The same mechanism functions when you post a picture to Instagram or Facebook. Once you see all the notifications for likes and positive comments popping up on your screen, you’ll subconsciously register it as a reward. But that’s not all, social media is full of mood-modifying experiences.

-Fear of Missing Out. FOMO has become a common theme, and often leads to continual checking of social media sites. The idea that you might miss out on something if you’re not online can affect your mental health.

-Self-image issues. Social media sites provide tools that allow people to earn others’ approval for their appearance and the possibility to compare themselves to others. It can be associated with body image concerns. The “selfieholics” and people who spend most of their time posting and scrolling are the ones most vulnerable to this. In fact, most college girls who use Facebook at least five times a day are likely to link their self-worth to their looks. That doesn’t mean that the main problem is social media; it only provides a medium for it, which further elevates the problem. It also promotes the same sort of behavior to others.