Week Two: Social Media

And another exciting week of school has finally come to a close. Once more it is time for yours truly to do a bit of reflection on how the week has been effectively utilized. Alright time to put on our try-hard pants!

You rack the disciprine.

Welp, COM125! This time we went through one of the subjects that actually makes me pay attention: SOCIAL MEDIA. yes. Finally we're here. The most hotly discussed innovation since the coming of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, uprooting all sense of balance we once felt we had in the old system of print media and television entertainment. Nope, forget all about that, ladies and gents. Its the age of the Master Race, as the nerds like to call the humble PC. Not that social media is largely limited to it, we just like to use it as a benchmark for all things techie. However, with the coming of the new age heralds new innovations such as smartphones and tablets that enable us to use social media, even on the go. This is the power of web 2.0 and social media, overcoming limitations that we had with traditional media in the past. For example:

1. Social media has a broader reach than traditional media.
More and more people are starting to use the internet and discovering social media as a result is simply inevitable. As opposed to traditional media such as the printing press, whose reach does not extend as much as social media nor has the power to do so.

Ah Angela, how you make me smile. :)

2.Social media is more accessible than traditional media.

How is accessibility measured? Surely all of us reading this post now has access to at least ONE working computer with internet access. If so chances are you have used or have been exposed to one social media platform, the most popular ones being Facebook or Instagram. Right now with smartphones added into the equation, being connected to social media has become so much easier than before. 

3. Social media can be used for a wide variety of needs.
How can we effectively utilize social media so that it fits into our everyday lives? Well the answer to that is arbitrary. Companies and new start-up business are tapping into the information-rich resource social media has to offer by creating Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, promoting a particular product or service. You can probably find advertisements online touting the latest gadget or upcoming theater production.

4. Social Media gives you instant updates(about almost anything)

In the past, we had to wait for the next morning's newspapers to be updated on current events. Even then, we could only read what the press deemed important for the masses, not what we wanted to know. With the inception of social media, and with it the convenience of having up-to-date news at the touch of a screen. With news applications providing users with instant updates on the latest happenings around the world, the need for the printing press has greatly diminished thanks to smartphones and tablets doubling up as a news source. With social media, people are getting information quicker than the newspapers can report. 

5. Social Media allows users to edit and change information online

Basically what this means is, digital media online can be edited and changed. Traditional media like television or radio, once the content has been displayed, it is pretty much permanent, and any kind of editing would take a longer period to be updated. With social media, any content displayed on your wall or web blog can be instantly edited, or changed to suit the users preference, without the hassle of waiting a few weeks or even months. This is the power of social media, and why the power is shifting from traditional media(Television, Radio, Newspapers) to New Media (Social Media, in a nutshell). Powerful stuff.

As we've talked about previously, social media is able to cater to many platforms and thus a wide classification is required. There are 6 main classifications:

1. Communication

2. Collaboration/Authority

3. Multimedia

4. Reviews and opinions

5. Entertainment 

6. Brand monitering

1. Communication

Many users of social media use it for one aim: to stay connected to loved ones and friends, and to do so at a moments notice. What was impossible in the past is now made a reality through social media's instantaneous communication. Apart from interpersonal communication, we can use social media to voice our opinions and other views on current world issues. Examples of sites we can use to do so are blogs like LiveJournal or Tumblr.  For those who prefer blogging but tend to avoid lengthy pieces, there are micro-blogging sites like Twitter or Foursquare, that allow users to broadcast small snippets of their lives, or let others know their current location by "checking in" different locations worldwide. Other forms of social media used for the purpose of communicating are Instant Messaging applications such as Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger.

2. Collaboration/Authority

Many websites allow for users to contribute and collaborate together to create new pieces of data and information, or simply to update someone's contribution, or correct someone's contribution if the said user uploaded misinformation either by mistake or to cause mischief. Websites like PBworks, Wikipedia, and Jottit are websites that allow user contribution and collaboration. Social navigation apps like Waze and Trapster allow road users while navigating with said apps to notify others of the traffic situation, by highlighting areas on the map that are congested or where a traffic accident has occurred, thus helping other road users save time by finding alternate routes home or to work. 

3. Multimedia

Today's smartphone comes packed ready to shoot pictures and take videos right out of the box. Equipped with cameras that easily trump any digital camera on the shelves, it is so much easier for us to take a picture and upload it onto any social media platform of our choice. We all know now about Instagram, the heavyweight in the snap-and-post world of social media applications. But before this monopoly emerged, there were other multimedia sharing apps like deviantART, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa, which allow budding photographers and artists to showcase their latest painting or photo exhibit. I once attended an army training exercise in Darwin, Australia. Our tanks took part in a live firing shooting and one of the Australian soldiers was the designated photographer for the shoot. He uploaded his pictures onto his Flickr account and allowed us to download the images from there once we ended the exercise. This is a personal example of how social media has made sharing multimedia so much easier than compared to traditional media.

4. Review and Opinions
We all want to know as much as we can before doing anything or buying something. That's human nature. That's also called an informed decision. With almost ANYTHING on the market nowadays sporting taglines singing praises about some new brand of weight loss pills or a new car, we all want to know what other people who have used it think and whether buying the same thing will work out for us. That is precisely why customer reviews can either make or break a company's product or service. Good food but lousy service? Get on epinions.com and air your grievances. Singapore has its own food review websites like hungrygowhere.com or Yelp, which helps users navigate the nearest eateries in their vicinity and even tell them the popularity of the said restaurant or cafe. Isn't technology great?

The best things in life are free. Right, Mr T?

5. Entertainment
Finally, the gaming geeks cry out in unison. Since the dawn of the technological era, Man has never stopped in his conquest to create the greatest game for the masses to enjoy. From the humble tetris to high definition three-dimensional gaming, it may seem that this dream has finally come to a head. But to take it a step further, developers have enabled the games of today to double up as a social media platform. Want to gather people for a hunting party in WoW? Start chatting up a crowd and get your impassioned "they may take our freedom" speech going. Perhaps you already have a posse ready somewhere in the cybersphere. Just a click of a button will notify them of your online presence and the party is ready to begin. The online-dating realm has even gone one step further, making online dating into an online social entertainment platform. Those looking for game, now have a game to play, quite literally. Examples of such games are Second Life and the Sims Online, which enable hopeful singles a chance at online love and(hopefully not fatal) real-time attraction. I've actually read stories of people hooking up through Second Life and eventually getting married, though whether they continued their relationship through the screen of a computer is anyone's guess.

 

 6. Brand Monitering 
Brand monitoring applications take many forms: Attensity, Statsit, Sysomos, Vocus, Google, Analytics, Hootsuite, Rowfeeder and SproutSocial. These apps help to monitor a brands particular reputation, how its faring with consumers and track business across the world, all through the comfort of your own home(or office, or both, if you work from home). By imputing your brands name or certain keywords into the search engine of the application, you can track your particular brand easily and conveniently.

Well there you have it, once its all boiled down for you, one can actually start to appreciate and realize the huge scope social media encompasses, and the hold it has on our daily lives. Indeed, many of us around the world now reply on social media to keep up to date on current events and even our personal lives, and the lives of those around us. From an enclosed environment to a global village, social media has effectively broken down the walls of communication around the world, enabling what was once thought impossible: The connectivity of the entire world. Seems a bit too much to handle at this point. Take a breather.

I had to insert a Kurt Cobain meme here. I hope you understand.

And that's it folks! Another week down. Let us await in the absurdness that is COM125, awaiting yet another new week of information to be downloaded into our young impressionable minds. Don't judge me.