The boom of social media over the past decade has made a huge impact on society and in technology. There are apps now which grant you access to social media sites quicker then logging in on your Internet browser. There are a billion users on sites like Facebook and millions of users on sites like Instagram. There have been some highs and lows with social media like an extreme low of bullying and suicide amongst the younger generation which is heavy on social media sites like Facebook. A good thing with social media is that it can help you brand your business and in some ways can make you a huge success When Facebook was released to the public this was like a major prize for people everywhere. Social media was already a thing with sites like Myspace and Friendster but then Facebook came and knocked them out the box like MP3 players did with CD’s.
However, everything is not all fine and dandy with the ever changing world of social media. In an article in the New York Times, The Web Means the End of Forgetting states how everything you do online stays online and it can hurt or help you. But most times the stuff you put online can hurt you because you are living your life without apology and taking pictures and posting or writing what you truly feel about things thinking it’s all within the walls of your “friends list” which is inaccurate. Everything you do on the Internet is not forgotten in the sea of cyberspace just because some days or months have went by. All what you do is right there online. In the article a young women who was aspiring to be a teacher was just having fun and she took some a rowdy picture when she was drinking and it ruined her career. The university where she went to school didn’t want her to obtain her teaching degree all because of her picture which was done in private that the school felt like reflected poorly on her and the students. The article stated on how this can happen, “how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing.” (The New York Times, The Web Means the End of Forgetting).
In the article, taking the You out of YouTube, tells the story of how Google bought out YouTube and a lot of people felt that maybe this was a bad idea because Google would destroy the true basis of YouTube and its meaning by adding what Google does best as the king of advertisements. The article stated, “And worried that advertisements would inundate the site.” (Taking the You out of YouTube) It seems like Google has done okay with YouTube but it was totally understood of the fear of the gigantic Google site as a search engine taking over the You tuber’s world. So, yes in the land of social media there are a lot of issues like the problems with Facebook. Facebook is the biggest social media site and there are some hardcore concerns with this site. Russian interfering with the 2016 presidential election was allegedly condoned on this site; people are dying in droves by committing suicide and murders and live streaming it on Facebook. The founder, Mark Zuckerberg knows all of this but I feel like he isn’t doing anything of importance to fix the issues. The article, Who will Take Responsibility for Facebook, the writer explained how Zuckerberg made a comment which was really deflecting and not taking responsibility for the issues with his billion dollar site. He never acknowledges that he –his brand has some real hard core issues that attribute to these problems and need serious attention.
