Citizen Journalism: Quantity is Quality

Now that people on a large scale are able to share their ideas by creating sites or gaining followings, how we receive the news has changed significantly.  

In the past “most of our daily news [was] inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.” – Neil Postman

The news traditionally was something we could not interact with and was projected to us by few sources, now that citizen journalism is possible the news can become much more dimensional and personal.

Apathy towards world issues is considered a significant problem that was on the rise, but social media has given our populous a reason to care. It is within human nature to strive for a sense of belonging and social media has made it possible for virtually anyone to connect with a community that identifies with them.

The news projected to the public on national television stations is very general, and is not the place people go if they would like to find out information on a specific story. These broadcasts later inform viewers of sites they can access to discus and find more information on topics, and encouraging them to get their own scoop.  Even official news networks depend on citizen journalism.

Online communities allow others to then gain farther insight on issues and present them in ways that are accessible to like-people. It’s the depth and breadth of their analyses that give people the incentive to take action.

I agree completely with Neil Postman’s statement regarding how the daily news does not lead to meaningful action, this is true, but daily news in this sense is rather dated. People are still motivated by the news to tackle tough issues, and very much care, simply the community they are a part of has changed. It is the social media based news communities who become passionate enough to take action. The main objective of the news is to seek help from the public; therefore social media has increased the quality of the news.

Facebook: The Dating Site You Did Not Know You’re On

The means of how we connect with people is ever changing as technology develops. 1 in 8 people meet their partner online currently and this statistic is proven to be growing. There are many dating services exclusively dedicated to finding you a partner with objectives that can be part of your profile such as: dating, seeking a long term relationship or even strictly casual encounters. Many of these websites will charge people who wish to become a member, which adds an extra expense and can feel dehumanizing.

Social media is no longer simply a place to communicate with friends and family and one of these functions is to seek love. Facebook unintentionally serves as the world’s largest dating site, and in many cases is overlooked when providing personal information when filling out your profile. The general ASL (age, sex location) is provided along with other information such as a visible relationship status, what sex or sexes you are interested in, and what you are looking for (friendship, relationship, networking et cetera)

An example of an eHarmony dating profile

An example of a Facebook user profile

Facebook much like sophisticated dating sites has sections where you can insert a biography on who you are,  “likes” are sectioned off and available with links to specific pages. These little insights can prove to be helpful when getting to know someone. Dating sites have limited amounts of pictures that can be posted. Facebook allows people to post many pictures that can show many different dimensions to a person, giving potential daters clues on how the potential person lives their life before pursuing them.

There is a social stigma surrounding dating sites. Many people fear coming in contact with someone they may know and are embarrassed to talk openly to friends and co-workers about the topic. There is a sense of security around meeting people through friends; Facebook makes this possible with the “Mutual friend” feature.

Many dating sites are not very accommodating to all users of various demographics, you must provide a gender or sex. Religious sites such as Christian mingle only allow heterosexual users to take advantage of their services and many sites only allow you to set your preferences to seek either men or women. Facebook is rather progressive in this sense and even allows users to announce when they are in an open relationship.

People are comfortable with Facebook because it has multiple uses. When striking up conversation with someone on your friend list your intentions can come off as rather ambiguous, feeling very natural making Facebook a favored place to find love online.  This does however bring up the difficult question “Does he, or she actually like me or am I in the friend-zone?”

 I am Kevin and this is where I will be posting tidbits about social media and society!