Week1 B: Social Media Use Today

     Social Media. What could possibly be said about it that hasn't already been said. Let's focus on the positives for a moment. Social media is a great tool for reconnecting old friends and for sharing ideas and aspects of your life that you normally wouldn't get to share such as the cliché photo of your lunch, or an important life update and everything in between. You can connect with new people and find new interests, new places to visit, new restaurants to eat at, etc. You can also bring awareness to a cause, like mental health for example. Another positive of social media is you can promote your business and products (if applicable). You can reach a wider audience, sell online and much more.

    Lets look at some of the negatives of social media. The first that comes to mind is time wasted on scrolling through endless feeds, which can promote procrastination. False reality is another that comes to mind. What I mean by this is that not everything you see on social media is truth. People share fragments of their life with us, and its generally the edited good aspects such as vacations, happy events, their day off.. you get the idea. This can lead one to have feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, and even depression. Here are more negatives of social media to consider, bullying and ranting. Nobody wants to see endless rants about drama among friends or family. These things can create a toxic online environment.

    In terms of personal use, I hardly use social media. I don't care for it and I prefer to spend my time doing other things. In terms of professional use, I have accounts on several platforms for promoting my artwork. I believe that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are good for personal and business use. For example on Twitter you can post updates, sales, new products, and other quick info. Facebook offers one the opportunity to create a business page, which can be used to sell items, book appointments and share information such as location and hours of operation. Instagram is good for those businesses that have a lot of photos to share and both Facebook and Instagram have options for creating short videos, or going live, and each offer feedback on post reach, views, etc. This isn't to say that other platforms can't be used for business purposes as well. For example TikTok can be used to post new products or examples of your work to reach more clients. Snapchat I think would be better for personal use rather than business but that's just my opinion.

    Overall I think that most social media platforms can be used for both personal and professional use. Social media has its pro's and con's but I think that when used in a healthy way social media can be a good thing.