First Post - Welcome Minions!!!

So, this is my first post in this blog as part of my Social Media & Society GenEd class, and the question posed by the teacher for this post is,

          “What is your perception of social media?  Do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?”

Well, considering I took a Sociology class during the summer term where we in fact discussed the Industrial Revolution, I’d have to answer that with, “Possibly.”

A revolution is usually some form of rebellion, or an action that brings about a new age, but the true definition of a revolution is something that keeps moving around and around.

Social Media indeed brings a new age to mankind, building upon the Digital Age, and all the technological advancements in information creation and control from that era.

Twenty years ago, the word “Blog” didn’t even exist yet.

But then again, twenty years ago, people didn’t think the Toronto Blue Jays could beat the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 World Series.

My point is, some people would consider Social Media the biggest fad since neon hot pants, but the truth is, Social Media is both a bridge AND a tether.

While it brings people closer together, proving six degrees of separation truly exists daily through Facebook, it’s also not unlike a dog’s leash, with the ability to link your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites and apps to your cellphone, it truly eliminates the illusion of personal privacy, where people can not only text or e-mail you to your cellphone, but also contact you on social media and it’ll show up on your smart phone or wireless device.

Parents can easily monitor their children this way, since teenagers are very vain these days, and couldn’t care less about what they post, thus showing their parents exactly who they are, unlike the pre-internet age, where a teenager actually possessed a level of secrecy about their personality to their parents.

Gone are the days when a teenager would go off to drink beer in a forest with friends, and their parents would be totally in the dark about it.

Now Lil’ Johnny goes to drink with his friends, and wakes up the next morning to his parents in his hungover face, because Lil’ Suzie tagged him in pics from the drinking session when she got home.

Oops.

There are some upsides to Social Media, although I use the term “upsides” loosely in this case, and I’ll tell you why.

One major upside is advertising; when I said I use the term “upside” loosely, I’m referring to the music industry.  They can get the word out about Justin Bieber or Nicki Minaj’s new album a lot faster now than they could twenty years ago thanks to word-of-mouth over Social Media.

It used to take expensive TV, radio, and print campaigns to promote musicians’ new offerings to the public, over a span of weeks, where now, it takes a mere day and one simple post on a fan’s page to spurn the interest of literally millions of fans towards the new album up to weeks before it even hits the shelves.

Not that the shelves matter.

In this age of digital media, more and more people are buying/downloading their music online, thus eliminating the need for a carbon copy, like a CD or cassette tape.

This is not the world I grew up in.

But then again, this is not the world my parents grew up in either.

They watched TV get colour, vinyl give way to 8-track, and eventually audio cassette.  And eventually playback technology came home, from the BetaMax, to the VHS, to DVD, HD-DVD, and now Blu-Ray.

Next.