How predominant is social media in your life?!

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Hey! long time no talk I know…. Sorry I’ve been busy with ….stuff…..haha…anyways ! I’m back now that’s all that matters.

Ok

Where was I.

Ummm…. Now that we have the basics for this blog (social media in every day life) , lets start proving this zombie apocalypse. First task: If you ask yourself these three simple questions it will give you an indication of how much social media sneaks its way throughout YOUR life and how predominant it is. ( I took the liberty of putting my answers underneath each question for you reading pleasure. )

Your welcome.

1.     List and describe 2-3 the social media technologies that you regularly use (e.g. Facebook, YouTube etc.)

www.facebook.com

The infamous Facebook. A social media platform that allows you to stay connected to friends and family. Facebook, is more than just a book, it’s a universe. This social media outlet allows you to make a profile, and scour pages of business, and people. Many musicians have pages with special links, business with promotions, etc. Every time you go on Facebook, you will find something that will make you grin, frown, cry, laugh hysterically, or angry.  As your friends and yourself like, share, and comment on photos, videos, status’s and just general posts, this keeps you up to date on news in the real world, and personal world of each individual. Some find it a burden, and don’t care to keep in touch with everyone. Some (i.e. travelers) find it very important to document there lives with pictures, stay connected with friends, etc.

www.kijiji.com

Kijiji is the social media site that is a subsidiary to eBay, and very similar to competitor craigslist. Kijiji offers the public to post commercial advertisements, selling their products personally between seller and buyer. This is an off the book, and some say very risky outlet, but I have had nothing but success with this site. Kijiji offers much more than just an online trading store such as eBay. Many take advantage of Kijiji’s real-estate advantages (finding apartments for sale houses etc.); as well as the ability to offer free stuff (one mans junk is another mans gem). Employers use these to post job opportunities, and employees use this to find jobs. If you can find what your looking for in the search, well it doesn’t stop there, you can also post a “want” posting; what you want and for what price your willing to pay, or trade your item for another.

www.youtube.com

This social media outlet is probably used most by me in terms of sheer time spent on the site. Owned and operated by Google, this site is super easy to navigate and has a very simple platform to understand, and with Google at its helm, it just gets better and better. YouTube is an online social media outlet where the public and business can make a profile and upload videos to share to the public. Some videos offered on YouTube can range from humor, news, standup comedies (my favourite), music and instructional videos etc. However, the best feature is the recommended videos section. This is what gets you sucked in for hours. Once you search for a video (say a song), as your watching the video for that tune, YouTube makes suggested/recommended videos that you might enjoy based on the video your watching

2.   Describe 2-3 positive or negative examples of how those social media platforms affect your personal life

Let me tell you, social media outlets are a pain in my ass. YouTube, Kijiji, and Facebook are just 3 of the predominant social media outlets in my life.  I could ramble and talk about all the positive and negatives of these in my life, but lets keep it simple with two positives and two negatives. 

Have you ever run into the problem of scrolling through your iPod and just have no music you want to listen to, or you’re absolutely bored at home and have no idea what to do? No fear, YouTube is here. Name ANYTHING you’re interested in, chess strategies, cat videos, or sports analysis. There is a video for it. I have found some good tunes, standups, and many interesting and funny videos just going through the recommended or similar videos section. Something directly to blame (or thank for all the videos it brought me to) for my mass amounts of time YouTube watching is, Facebook. As I scour through the posts of my 500+ “friends” on my Facebook news feed (I know creepy when you think of it) I see videos, plenty of articles, and posts linking me to new music from my favourite artist, or funny videos people post of themselves. This also helps me keep in touch with my friends that live in other countries, provinces, cities etc. They message me for up and coming camping trips, concerts etc., and this also helps me in remembering when they are as you can “attend” the Facebook group page that is created for the particular event.  

Man though, the amount of time it takes up is horrendous. I never really realize how much time I spend on it until it’s too late. End up on YouTube searching how to do whatever it is, and you end up on there for 3 hours watching stuff completely unrelated to the main task at hand. Not only that, yea I get a lot of great videos from people, but the amount of “friends” I have is ridiculous, and it’s so out of hand, that I don’t have the time or patience to go through and delete the unnecessary people, so this is a little of a hindrance to my enjoyable “Facebooking” (is that a verb yet? tweeting is, I’m pretty sure.) All this doesn’t matter though, because in the end, the future will only change this by making social media a more predominant thing in my life, not the other way around.

3.   Describe 2-3 positive or negative examples of how those social media platforms (may) affect your professional life

We all know I’m not in a “professional” life as per say right now. However, I do know many ways this will affect my personal life and you can probably agree as well. In terms of just finding jobs, it is light years easier in this day and age with all these social media outlets such as monster, Workopolis, Kijiji etc. Although, as much as you use all your Twitter, Facebook sites for your personal life, your employers that you’re applying to can see these as well. I try to simply avoid this negative aspect by not having my last name on Facebook, and my privacy settings on high. On the plus side, having these social media sites that keep us linked in on a personal and professional level; this lifestyle will aid us in keeping opportunities and relationships alive and help stand the test of time.