Week 3 - Blog Posting #5 -Social Media

What is Social Media? Wikipedia defines it as: “media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.” In other words, it supports the human need for interaction.

In an article posted on March 3, 2008 by Claudine Ryan for ABC Science Online entitled “Blogging boasts your social life: research” they state: “that after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who did not blog.” This is exactly what social media is all about.

On the negative side, there are some psychologists who fear that social networking will contribute to the death of emotional intelligence. In a blog posted September 18, 2009, by James Gurd entitled “Does social media kill communication skills?” he responds to this idea by showing that social media merely reflects and amplifies a person’s interpersonal skill, which is a very good thing. He talks about how there is worldwide monitoring of what is said on the Internet. That when something is posted that raises people’s awareness to a topic a conversation grows through blogs and twitters that analyzes, dissects, and looks at all sides. This is conversation and learning at its best and certainly dealing with emotional intelligence. Another point made in reference to twitter is the fact that getting an idea down in only 140 characters actually helps people to focus and become better communicators.

In this following video the question is asked: Is social media a fad? It goes on to show that not only is it not a fad; it’s more like a revolution. The numbers are staggering when you look at how many people are using social media on a daily basis and it continues to grow.





This next video is said to be the number one watched video on YouTube with over 126 million views called: Evolution of Dance. Take a look at it with the question: why is it number one?





Now that you’ve watched it why do you think it’s number one? My thoughts are that it speaks across several generations. When I watched the video it brought back memories. It also encompasses so much of what social media is about. It is very visual and musical that speaks to two of our intelligences. For some that watch it, they probably attempt to imitate what he is doing while watching it. That brings in another intelligence. The bottom line is that connects to us and we connect to it.

To sum up about social media, the hardest part about communicating in text about this subject is the fact that it is so interactive. I just wanted to use videos to explain. In doing the research I also saw that social media is becoming a major topic within the business community with many websites dealing with how to use it. It is connecting from advertising in business to our everyday personal lives to changing the way politics work. That is powerful.