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| By Ibrahim.ID [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
1. Facebook
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| Image via Pixabay |
Facebook is a website/application that is used by more than 1 billion people world wide. Because of this, it is no surprise that a lot of collaboration happens on it. Personally, I use Facebook to stay engaged with my family that I don't live by, and to see what people are up to. A lot of times, clubs, fraternities and sororities will make groups on Facebook with their whole organization, so everyone can see what's happening within the group and help to collaborate and plan things such as meetings and events. Another really interesting way that Facebook is used is to campaign and place advertisements. One thing that came up in one of our readings titled "What Makes Teams Really Work: And What We Lose When We Take Groups Online" by Geoff Colvin, is that people were more likely to go out and vote when they received a reminder message that some of their Facebook friends had voted, accompanied with "I voted" stickers. Those random friends that had told Facebook that they had voted unknowingly collaborated to persuade someone else to go vote. Going off of this, I do think that a lot of out of state students would not know where/how to vote if it wasn't for Facebook and their constant reminders and just other people in general on the website trying to help. A lot of people think Facebook is very frivolous and stupid, but I truly do think that it is a great resource for students and non students alike.
2. Twitter
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| By The original uploader was GageSkidmore at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Twitter is by far the social media website I personally use the most. I like it because things get retweeted onto my timeline and I can get exposed to things that I would not be exposed to on sites such as Facebook. Twitter really does an amazing job of spreading things through the retweet feature, and there are many notable tweets that have gone viral. Although a lot of them are heartwarming, there are some that are super funny, like the one in this article. Someone basically started a GoFundMe to get President Trump off of twitter, and it actually raised close to 90,000 dollars so far.
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| Screenshot by Ashley Dubrasich |
I find this so comedic because people are actually collaborating to get someone off of Twitter. Although the actual GoFundMe did not go viral on Twitter, President Trump's tweets sure do and definitely make a lot of people angry. It was only a matter of time before the people tried to ban together and get him kicked off. When things such as GoFundMe's or just funny, relatable tweets go viral in general, they truly do spread like a virus and before you know it, there are multiple accounts tweeting the same exact thing. In "Spreadable Media", the authors say "The promise is simple, if deceptive; create a media virus, and success will be yours" (Jenkins, Ford, Green 2013). I do agree with this statement, but I do think that on Twitter especially, nobody ever expects to "go viral".
3. Youtube
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| By YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
YouTube is probably one of the most underrated forms of social media. Although it seems like it's not a social media website, let's take a look at all of the features. You can upload videos, comment on videos, direct message people, and you can even live stream on it. Those are all characteristics of a social media site. I was curious, so I looked up what the most viewed YouTube video is, and to my surprise it's the music video to the song Despacito, according to this wikipedia page. Although the most viewed video is in fact a music video, there have been countless times where YouTubers have called on their followers to donate to a cause. We all know there have been numerous devastating hurricanes around and multiple Youtubers have called on their followers to donate to the causes, which they did. When you have such a big platform, (i.e. the YouTubers that have millions of followers), they can really make a difference in the world when they come together and collaborate for the greater good. Also, on a less serious note, tons and tons of YouTubers make what they like to call "collab" videos where they collaborate with another YouTuber on a video. This just goes to show that collaboration really is all around us, whether we realize it or not.
GroupMe and iMessage are 2 forms of social media that are also underrated. GroupMe allows anyone to create a group message with whomever they want, with how many people they want. Like Facebook, GroupMe is great for things such as fraternities, sororities, and clubs that want to have a way to message with their whole organization. While Facebook is good for voting on things and announcements, the GroupMe is a way for the people in the organizations to actually just talk and share funny things with each other. iMessage is also an application that is obviously only available on Apple products but groups of friends, or even groups made for class use this as a way to communicate as well. For our first collaborative project for this class, my group made a group text on iMessage so we could al communicate with each other and collaborate on the project better. Applications like this are very helpful especially to students because it's way more convenient to message your group via text message rather than something like email.
All in all, social media impacts our lives as students far more than we can even imagine. We also collaborate in ways that we don't even realize, whether it be intentional or not. I think that students in general tend to collaborate more via social media because it's easier, and it's more accessible. I also think that since our generation is more digitally literate, we tend to gravitate towards social media more than say, my parents generate does. Social media plays such a big role in our lives and I can't imagine life without it.
GroupMe and iMessage are 2 forms of social media that are also underrated. GroupMe allows anyone to create a group message with whomever they want, with how many people they want. Like Facebook, GroupMe is great for things such as fraternities, sororities, and clubs that want to have a way to message with their whole organization. While Facebook is good for voting on things and announcements, the GroupMe is a way for the people in the organizations to actually just talk and share funny things with each other. iMessage is also an application that is obviously only available on Apple products but groups of friends, or even groups made for class use this as a way to communicate as well. For our first collaborative project for this class, my group made a group text on iMessage so we could al communicate with each other and collaborate on the project better. Applications like this are very helpful especially to students because it's way more convenient to message your group via text message rather than something like email.
All in all, social media impacts our lives as students far more than we can even imagine. We also collaborate in ways that we don't even realize, whether it be intentional or not. I think that students in general tend to collaborate more via social media because it's easier, and it's more accessible. I also think that since our generation is more digitally literate, we tend to gravitate towards social media more than say, my parents generate does. Social media plays such a big role in our lives and I can't imagine life without it.
Citations:
Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (2013). Spreadable media creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York: New York University Press.
Colvin, J. What Makes Teams Really Work: And What We Lose When We Take Groups Online. Fortune Magazine.
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