Social Media

The two social media accounts that I have are Facebook and reddit. For me, I use Facebook for staying connected with friends and family, and for more local information. Community happenings pages exist for almost any place you can think of, and they can be a great source for finding out why you heard sirens last night, why certain roads are closed, what public events are happening, and local news articles. There can be drawbacks to these groups, as people tend to be awfully brave and opinionated when hiding behind their keyboard. Although I will admit, sometimes it can be fun to make some popcorn and spend an evening reading all of the drama from the day. Now when it comes to reddit I consider it a more national or even global news source. Some of the subreddits I follow are r/politics, r/worldnews, and for sports r/nfl and r/mma. The thing that I like about reddit is the organization of the information. I think it makes it really easy to check facts and have discussions with other people in a well informed manor.

The last post that I upvoted on reddit was from r/entertainment and it was an article about Chris Brown being arrested for felony battery. One thing that I appreciate when it comes to the recent media trends is holding celebrities more responsible for their actions. I think that the media is definitely starting to be less forgiving when it comes to assault/sexual assault in the entertainment industry. It's great to have that as an example for the rest of society to follow.

The truth of the matter is, media helps shape society, whether we like it or not. I think that social media in particular has amazing potential to encourage thoughtful discussion and debate, and to keep everyone informed. On the other hand, I think that there is equal potential for social media to do the opposite for people. So often I talk to people and they only follow people that they agree with on social media. I think it's important to broaden your horizons and learn about issues from other points of view, so that you can make fully informed decisions and judgement on your own.

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