Twitter Fingers

Social media is a such a powerful tool that it’s almost scary. How many people do you know without any social media accounts? Don’t worry, I’ll wait…..probably none.

In a recent study published on Statista, “ In 2017, 81 percent of U.S. Americans had a social media profile, representing a five percent growth compared to the previous year.
According to estimates, the number of worldwide social media users reached 1.96 billion and is expected to grow to some 2.5 billion by 2018.”

Those numbers are insane. One social media post could easily reach millions of people if circulated enough times. When looking at these numbers, it makes sense that a large percentage of the population gets their news from social media.

According to a study done by Pew Research Center, “As of August 2017, two-thirds (67%) of Americans report that they get at least some of their news on social media – with two-in-ten doing so often, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center.” What this means is that the majority of people get news from social media. Let’s talk about why we think that is.

One reason that I think that people like pulling news from social media is that they have some control over what they see. When watching the news on television, or even reading a newspaper, you do not really have control over the information that is presented. You have to sit and listen, or flip through, the information that people that work in news organizations find important. People that receive news off of social media have more control over the information that they see. They can tailor the social media accounts that they follow to see the news that is the most interesting to them. They can also search social media for a certain topic. Twitter even has a trending page for people that want to have instant access to the most talked about news.

Speaking of access, social media is so accessible. You literally have it at your fingertips. Why wait for a newspaper to be delivered or for your local news broadcast when you have access to news at any time that you want to see it on social media. It is so convenient. People that look to social media for news have the ability to have instant access to read about whatever is going on in the world. You can also check multiple social media platforms for information on one subject in just a few minutes as opposed to having to read multiple newspapers or sit through multiple news broadcasts.

It is also so much easier to initiate a conversation about the news on social media. You can read an article on Facebook or read information on Twitter and immediately comment on the post. You can share your opinion, and you are presented with the opportunity to interact with other people that are expressing their opinion about whatever the news is. There have been several times that I have read an article in a newspaper (while trying to clip some coupons) and wished that I could respond to the post without having to write a letter to the editor.

I feel like most people end up on their phone or computer anyway, so it makes sense to start there. Newspapers and television news stories have limits. They can only be so long. Often times, if I read an article in the paper or watch a news story on television, I end up getting on my phone to find out more information anyway. I might as well start there and save myself the time.

Social media is also free! You have to have a cable plan set up to watch television news broadcasts, and you have to buy a subscription to have newspapers delivered. I am the type of person that likes to save money in any way that I can, and if I know that I have the option to pay for information or get that same information for free, I’m going to choose free every time.

So, as you can probably (hopefully) tell by now, getting your news from social media has its perks, but not many things in this world are perfect.

Pulling news from social media has its negatives, and to me, one of them is a major negative.

Information that you read on social media can be false. How many times have you read an article on Facebook just to later find out that the article is not real? It makes me so upset when I am scrolling through one of my social media accounts and see that people are sharing a “fake news” story.

When you get your news off of social media, you have to do a little extra research. You have to make sure that the information that you are reading is coming from a credible source….that also means that you have to know how to identify a credible news source. These are issues that you do not really have to worry about when you are reading your daily newspaper or watching your local television news. On social media, anyone can take information from a bogus website and cause an uproar because people do not know that the information is inaccurate.

People can also circulate old articles on social media, and not know that the information is outdated. There have been so many times that I have been scrolling through my Facebook page, and have seen people expressing outrage over an article that they just read. Those people did not take the time, however, to realize the article is several years old.

It is so easy and extremely convenient to pull news from social media. It is always there, there are multiple platforms, and information can be uploaded and updated in the blink of an eye. As wonderful as these things sound, you have to keep in mind the negatives. Unless the news that you see on social media is coming from a reputable source, you will have to do a little extra digging to make sure that you are reading reliable and accurate information.

In the end, it’s all about convenience versus reliability.