Blog Post #3: Some pros and cons of sharing news on social media

One of the things I love about social media is the ease in sharing incredible stories. Before the reliance and popularity of social media people just did not get as many opportunities to observe the talents and hear about the incredible stories from others all around the world. Before social media, we were restricted to what the news wanted us to see. Social media has changed our culture. The notorious question though, is whether or not this obsession our generation has with social media is more negative than positive. I don’t believe it to be more negative, it just is about how people use it; everything in moderation. It’s never good to be obsessed with anything… But just as much as I love it though, social media definitely has it’s negative aspects. For one, and I think most everyone can agree with this, it is impossible to get off, for example Facebook, once you get on. I hardly ever even use Facebook anymore, but once I start scrolling through my news feed, I am so enticed by all the posts, videos, etc., it is extremely difficult to log out. Another big issue is that people get to a point where they’ll believe anything they read on the Internet. This is inevitable when relying on user-generated content, there is a lake of a gatekeeper figure within these sites. With the combination of that and algorithmic filtering, it can be difficult to get the correct, or unbiased information. Social media has changed culture. Here’s a video I stumbled upon while (procrastinating) on Facebook earlier today….

The crazy part is that this high-speed chase happened literally right past my house. With my busy schedule now days, I hardly ever sit down and watch TV. If it weren’t this story being shared on social media, I probably wouldn’t even have ever known about it.