Do you think that social media has the potential to bring about real social change?

I definitely believe that social media has the potential to bring about real change in society. There are so many different things that it has allowed us to do. Social media allows us to get in touch with people that are all over the world. An incredible example of this comes from the disaster that just occurred last week in Japan. A female student is studying at an university in California and was very worried about her family back in Japan, she had no way to get a hold of anyone. She later found out that there was a video posted on Youtube that showed her sister on the balcony in her family home with a sign saying "we are all ok." http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/15/california.student.japan/index.html?hpt=C1#

Another great example of social media contributing to a big change in society also relates to the disaster in Japan. Lady Gaga is known across the world and many people are ridiculously huge fans so they will go to great lengths to follow what she does, regarding the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Lady Gaga created a Japan bracelet where the $5 will go towards relief. In just under 48 hours, $250 000 had already been raised for Japan. That is incredible, and all just because of someone's social media influence. http://blog.muchmusic.com/monsters-raise-250k-for-japan/

These two examples are of course the good side to social change. A few examples of social media having bad influences include decrease in personal face-to-face contact. You hear about people in offices and how they no longer get up from their desks anymore to deliver a message, all you have to do now is send it through an e-mail or other social media source because it is so much quicker.
My sister is 17 years old and she does not even like to call people, she would just choose to Facebook them or text.

Of course the question was not the negative and positive aspects of social media and real change, it was whether there was the potential to bring about real social change. And I believe that including the positive and negative aspects, it has brought about real social change.
:)

Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

I do believe that social media has increased the quantity of news, but at the same time decreased the quality of new that you are receiving. Think about all the people that are posting their version of the news. It is everyone and anyone. They have the opportunity to input there version of the news onto their blog, podcast, or social networking site. And this information may not necessarily be factual. Also it is very easy to ‘Photoshop’ any picture, so if these citizen journalists wanted to make their news seem more real, they could just add there Photoshop picture. But overall news in social media is going to keep growing, whether or not the information is fact or fiction. And because social media is growing and not going anywhere soon, the news in the blogs, podcasts, and social networks is going to keep growing as well.

I do really like the idea of people sharing their ideas, and inputting there journalistic facts and information, towards their social media of choice. I just do not like the idea, that I am getting false information. I actually do enjoy getting my news from the internet. It is much easier and convenient to do then possibly, reading the newspaper. This has also decreased sales for newspaper companies. But I do not enjoy having to search more than one source, just to make sure that all the information I get is accurate. So overall, I am torn between the easy accessibility of the internet, and knowing that it is not all true. And the newspaper, which I know is more accurate then the internet.

What is your perception of social media, do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Social Media has a large impact on peoples lives in today's society. For me it started on Myspace, to Facebook and twitter. I use Google constantly and Wikipedia on a day to day basis. I know a lot of my friends who use dating sites and met their sweethearts on those sites. I use Youtube when I need to get a laugh out of my day and talk about funny clips to my friends. I have a blackberry to keep myself informed of news feeds on Facebook, and BBM (black berry messenger) latest gossip of jersey shore. So do I think social media is fad or the biggest shift since the industrial revolution? Social media is definitely here to stay, and will never leave even if we wanted to. I never once thought it was just a ''fad". Social media isn't just a a new clothing line that's here for a week and gone. It's all over the world, from China to Canada and is used numerous times in a day. Social media is definitely the worlds addiction in my eyes and is constantly getting bigger and better! There's always new things coming out to get the people more excited and involved in social media. Even if someone isn't a fan of Facebook or twitter, their most likely using a cellphone, using Google or going on Wikipedia, and their involoved in expanding the growth of social media it's self. I think it will be really cool to see what impact social media will have on my children's children one day. Will Facebook still be alive? Will Youtube still be the hit to watch videos on? What bigger and better invention will they have to expand the growth even more?
Social media, is the greatest power in this world today.

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