Internet Illiterate

Image via CrunchBase

For being a journalism major, I am about as illiterate with social media sites as I possibly can be.  I am always one of the last people to hear about all the new sites but instead of jumping on the bandwagon, I instead hold out on getting one until I can just no longer “survive” without.  I feel like at this point if businesses people aren’t on Twitter or Facebook they will really suffer professionally, so the main thing I am hoping to get out of this class is an understanding of how to be effective with social media to build my brand.

Currently I am on Facebook and Twitter and I use them pretty regularly but only for personal uses. I love how connected social media allows us to be.  I have friends who have graduated and moved across the country that I still can talk to everyday.  Many people complain that social media sites keep us hidden behind laptops and causes us to lose our communication skills, however I truly believe that these sites if used correctly can only enhance our human interactions.  Most of my life as a child isn’t documented and if it is it’s through a few pictures or videos.  Kids growing up today who are surrounded by computers will have the opportunity to look back once they are older and know exactly what they were doing and what they thought all throughout their lives.

If these sites are used well, people will have a wonderful scrapbook of their entire lives, however there are parts of social media that make me nervous.  The thought that anyone can have access to images of me or words that I have said is a little frightening.  There are so many people out there that would use this information to exploit or even harm others.  This is one of the main reasons I am hesitant to blog or even tweet.  I do have a few blog posts that I had to write for a previous class but I still wouldn’t have gotten a blog unless it was for academic purposes.

Another reason I don’t use very much social media is that it confuses me.  I have a Pintrest but can’t really understand how to use it and I dislike it because if you like something on Pinterest often you can’t find out how to purchase these items.  Instead I like using a site called Wanelo, which is similar to Pinterest but it takes you directly to the sites you want.  Besides Twitter and Facebook, Wanelo is the only site I regularly visit.

My social media habits haven’t really changed much since I originally joined but hopefully this class will give me the tools and knowledge to effectively participate in our changing world.