Social Media Case Reflection Case 1

 Social media has become increasingly more used and accepted.  I believe that the availability of it and the more people that feel the need to be apart of it has created a monster out of our society.  Corporations have jumped on this opportunity to expand their organizations through social media.  Companies use their marketing skills to excite the public, but with the competition of other businesses they are forced to exaggerate.  We see this most commonly happening with different news sources.  If they want people to look at their news sites and listen to their broadcasts they have to have exciting things to talk about.  All of a sudden in the fight for popularity and capital gain, truth is second best behind fabricated exotic news. 

        After watching the news lately, it seems that the stories they are highlighting are tragic and depressing.  As we discussed in class last Wednesday, the news programs focus on the negative things going on around us because those are the types of stories that catch our attention.  They startle us and we care about our loved ones who are not with us. Sadly because of this, I do not think that the good deeds of the world can entertain our society much anymore.  I think having news articles available to us on social media sites is a bad idea.  According to pewresearch.org, 50% of users have posted or shared news stories, videos, or pictures on their social media platforms.  That means a lot of people are posting news stories and they could be sharing their own opinions along with it.  Social media reminds me a lot of telephone.  You pass the word around and by the end of the line it is hard to not make it come out completely different.  

        I think we are way too quick to believe what we see on the internet.  It is easy for news companies to take a fragment of a quote that someone said and ultimately distort the overall meaning of what that person was trying say.  Article headlines have to be catchy and appealing and they are; or maybe they seem to be.  Have you ever clicked on an article because the headline seemed interesting to you but after reading the first paragraph you lose interest?  I have and that definitely seems to be occurring more often these days.  

        I think social media companies have influenced us to play in their own little telephone game online that has ripped the truth from the ever-so-popular internet, however, there are a few good things that have come out of it also.  Hoping that the news is providing us with the good facts, social media can be useful because it does spread the news quickly.  This can be especially important with global issues because social media users can provide the support to those who need it if they know what's going on.  Also, just simply having that information available to us is so comforting especially while we are trying to keep track of those who we care about and live so far away. 

        While there are good things that come with sharing on social media, there are so many more bad things.  Fake news is a huge issue right now and I hope that as we become more aware of the situation we can get things to change.  It will not be easy because our social media sites are so large and are continually growing everyday but if the users of these sites care and want to start seeing stories for what they actually are, things will change.  I hope that as the news organizations get more and more scrutinized for their deceitful articles and headlines that they will be shamed into providing us the cold hard facts no matter how boring the stories may be.  Maybe if strict guidelines are set for all published articles they won't have to fight the urge to beat their competitors with the most views.  All news sources will be set equal and will make them more valid and reliable resources for us to use and turn to.  I would much rather listen and read the boring stories than be tricked with the false stories that are all around us right now.