Discussion 1: Student Exchange, Social Media and Me
At a personal level, I am very passionate but very cautious with what I share on my social media platforms. Despite my love and passion for the social media platform, I have always approached my professional social interaction and presence on social media with a great deal of care. My cautious approach to social media usage never allows me to spend much time chatting or reading through many posts and engagements. I often only have a glance at the trending topics or events that may be of interest to me, such as an ongoing or upcoming cultural event.
On social media technology, I engage and use Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. On preference, Twitter is my most preferred technology because most companies, organizations, and personalities use it as compared to other social media platforms. Due to the influential and vital role of social media, I use the three platforms majorly to remain updated and informed on the latest social, economic, and political events. I never wish to forego any breaking news, and the only way to catch up with the latest trending topics is to stay active on social media. The situation is even though I minimize the amount of time I spend on any social media platform. For example, at any one given instance, if there is no trending topic, I use a maximum of ten minutes to catch up with the latest news updates and messages from friends. However, if there is a trending topic that requires my deep attention, I do use a maximum of 20 minutes. The twenty minutes are majorly dedicated to reading the latest news and catching up with my social circle friends. I believe my perception of social media has changed because the results are very different from my previous impressions. For the course, my primary goals are to understand the impact of social media on student's lives.
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Response
My peers are deep into social media. Compared to my engagements online, I must attest that I have minimal involvement with social media. My friends spend a great deal of time in checking on updates, trending news, latest hashtags, styles, and messages. At the same time, they post pictures, post on their social engagements, and update their status frequently. My peers spend at least a minimum of 40 minutes in a given sitting, catching up on the latest trends and news breaks. They are engaged in many social networking groups, chat groups, messaging groups, and telegram posts. Besides Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, my peers are also on Badoo, Tagged, and a host of other social sites.
Despite the many differences, we share in using social media as a communication channel. We all appreciate the essence of staying connected by the use of various social media platforms. Our goals are all similar but focused on different aspects of social media. While my peers want to understand the impact of social media on the broader context of society, I want to understand the same on only students.
We look forward to collaborating and creating a local platform for students that will help us exploit the gains of social media technology. We may also consider instilling discipline to reduce social media addiction to those peers who spend their entire life and time on Facebook or Instagram.
Discussion 2: Collaboration Activity, Social Media Impact on World Events
The 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections was marked with aggressive use of social media. The then President-elect Barack Obama to communicate, advertise, support, and organize his election campaign in a strategic way that led to his win ( Effing, Van Hillegersberg, and Huibers 2011, August) . Obama exploited social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, among others to plan and execute his campaign strategies in reaching out to the electorates. Obama made use of various social media platforms, a strategy that enabled him to reach a broad audience with his campaign message. Obama's campaign secretariat created a mobile application that was all linked to Obama's Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube platforms. Through the platforms, the electorate engaged with the presidential hopeful interacted with each other and shared their hopes and strategies. The platforms were also used to lure other non-decided voters in addition to all states and organizations. According to Effing et al., (2011, August), Obama garnered over 20 million Twitter followers, 29 million Facebook likes, and 1.4 million followers on Instagram (Effing et al., 2011). Obama posted a lot on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as compared to other presidential hopefuls. At the same time, Obama raised the most amount of donation from online platforms. His donations in the 2012 elections hit the $500 million from online contributions only.
The social media became the center of campaigns as presidential hopefuls tried their level best to outdo each other on the number of followers and donations. The events had a significant impact on the election results in addition to the subsequent election in which presidential, governor, mayors all turned their attention to social media to win votes. At the same time, a large number of people continued to register and take social media seriously to engage with others and participate in national issues.
Read: Selection of Peers Post
The three posts compared had a lot in common. Firstly, all the application of social media involved trying to win faithful's and followers. My peer's post identified the use of social media in spreading religious messages in addition to attracting more followers in various forums. As compared to my post, the primary aim of social media usage was to attract a broader audience. Additionally, it aimed at influencing their perception and mindset. The social media is, no doubt a powerful tool if the two presented scenarios are anything to go. According to Hinton and Hjorth (2013) a large number of people rely on social media to learn, connect, participate, and engage in social activities. From the two scenarios, national election, and religious activity, social media became a vital tool for selling out one's doctrines, policies, agenda, manifesto, and beliefs. The only difference between my post and my peers was, one was a political engagement, and the other was a religious affair.
From the above comparison or similarities, it is evident that social media is a tool that drives change. According to Ahn and Shin (2013) and Coffey et al., (2013) social media is also a powerful tool for building a large number of followers. The technologies have the potential to change people's mindsets, change the course of actions, and tilt social agendas. Within the broader aspect of world affairs, social media has the potential to change and make history (McLean, 2010). For example, Obama made history by being the first presidential hopeful to harness technology to his campaign advantage.
References
Ahn, D. & Shin, D.-H. (2013). Is the social use of media for seeking connectedness or for avoiding social isolation? Mechanisms underlying media use and subjective well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 29 (6), 2453–2462.
Blanchard, O. (2011). Social media ROI: Managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization . Boston, MA: Pearson.
Coffey, A. J., Kamhawi, R., Fishwick, P., & Henderson, J. (2013). New media environments’ comparative effects upon intercultural sensitivity: A five-dimensional analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37 (5), 605–627.
Effing, R., Van Hillegersberg, J., & Huibers, T. (2011, August). Social media and political participation: are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube democratizing our political systems?. In International conference on electronic participation (pp. 25-35). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-23333-3_3.pdf
Hinton, S., & Hjorth, L. (2013). Understanding social media . London, UK: Sage.
McLean, S. (2010). Effective business communication. Communication for Business Success. Retrieved from http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/communication-for-business-success/s05-effective-business-communicati.html.
