Social Media has become a very important part of people’s lives, if we don’t get our daily fix of Facebook status updates or find out what is happening in the world then we may just go a little stir crazy plus we all know if it’s on Facebook it must be true, right?
I work in an office from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. I sit in front of my laptop the whole time but every now and then I take a few sneaky moments to check out what is happening on Facebook or Twitter or I even have a scoop through LinkedIn to see what is today’s philosophical saying. Did you know it has been proven that when someone has a few breaks during the day to check their Social Media pages they have an increase in their work productivity? After taking 5 minutes relaxation away from work, it is easier to concentrate on the task ahead. I think if all our bosses knew the true facts on this then they would allow a Social Media break twice maybe 3 three times a day. If we were lucky!
Once or twice a week most people will receive a friend request or a new follower maybe from someone they know or a friend of a friend or someone they don’t know at all, I believe that all social media channels have a way of improving our social circles. With this method we communicate with people who we may not see as often. For example if I had an aunt that lived in Australia I am able to share special life moments with her via my Social Media pages. Without this it would be a lot harder to do plus it is also possible to have daily conversations that would more than likely not happen.
Social Media has made a very big impact on today’s educational system for example Twitter has become a part of some student’s everyday life for a learning purpose. I recently read how a teacher told his students that for their lesson that day they would be using Twitter. As you can imagine some students were a little confused as I would be. However this was the teacher’s way of making sure that everyone was able to participate in a debate without being too worried about speaking out in the class. This way everyone had a voice.
One popular benefit of Social Media is how it creates awareness for numerous amounts of charities. There have been 2 very high profile charities that have benefited from Social Media recently, both of which are close to me heart. Firstly was the No Makeup Selfie for Cancer Awareness which I very proudly took part in – not at my best without makeup but 110% worth it. This was where woman from all over the world started to post photos of them bare faced onto social channels. This trend spread throughout the social world like wild fire and raised £8million for Cancer Research UK in 6 days!
The other big charity that has benefitted from social media and is still today very present in the media is the Teenage Cancer Trust. And it all started with a blog that was created by cancer patient Stephen Sutton after he received the sad news that his cancer was incurable. He would post daily about his ambitions and how he was feeling in general. After the sad passing of Stephen in May 2014 everyone around the world plus some high profile celebrities began donating and posting online a “Thumbs Up For Stephen” the figure for this rose above £4million. It truly is inspiring to know that Social Media can make such a big impact on the lives of others by clicking a simple button called share.
My niece is a huge a fan of One Direction, the boy band so when I am with her we are always looking for their music and videos on YouTube, they have nearly over 33million likes on their official Facebook page and on their Story of My Life video over 243 million views. Now that is what I call marketing! Celebrities are using Social Media channels like YouTube to promote their music and send personal messages to fans on a daily basis and their fans go crazy for it as soon as there is an update from a group or from their icon it gets shared around the world so rapidly. I too am guilty of this I call it ´my guilty pleasure´!
I was recently searching for a cake company online and this is something that has become the rage over the past 2 years. All over Facebook you can find pages like Carlies CupCakes or Cake & Bake MK where fantastic creations such as the giant cupcake have come to life with fantastic designs inside and out. Housewives, professionals and those who bake as a hobby are selling their wonderful creations online for a small price.
Every day that I use social media (which is a daily occurrence for me) I feel that the world that is social media is growing leaps and bounds there is always a new trend happening like those I have mentioned above. I am able to see what clothes shops have their sales on and if they have any recent promotions that I can take advantage of, this is VERY important stuff right there! I do not believe that social media is a fad I believe it is here to stay and will only grow stronger and revolutionize the way we all communicate with each other on a personal basis as well as on a business side of things.
No matter where I am in the world I can use social media to find out which Chinese restaurant is closest to me and how to get there. All I need to do is post a quick status on Facebook or Twitter mentioning my location and sure enough one of my followers or friends will be able to guide me in the right direction.
Personally I have gained so much from being ´social´ I have been able to reconnect with friends that I went to school with or people that I used to work with that I no longer see. It is great to see how they have changed example take one of the girls I used to work with we would always go out for dinner and a few drinks at the weekends meet up with all those who were in our social circle however after parting ways with the company we lost contact. Now we are two completely different people we both have families and we don’t get to go out most weekends for dinner and drinks. We were able to catch up on Facebook and share with each other what we have both been up to since we lost contact. I have been able to do this with many of my friends.
Social Media is capable of nearly anything if it can do something as simple as reconnect you with a friend then I believe the possibilities are endless and with the way technology is changing every day I only predict positive and great things to come from Social Media.
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