Social Media and How It Has Changed Our Lives

Social Media and How It Changed Our Lives....

250 million LinkedIN users.... 350 million Twitter users tweeting away..... the new kid on the block, Pinterest adding a million registered users a minute... and of course the granddaddy of them all, Facebook.. 850 million registered users with predictions of the billionth user by the end of this year.  With these numbers, Social Media has changed the lives of nearly a billion people, but how?

Social Media is exactly that... social.  You connect to old high school and college friends and know all about them, their families, their favorite book or movie, without talking to them in person for years.  You advertise social events and talk about your favorite movie or restaurant and receive feedback and comments from friends as if you see them everyday, but in reality the last time you may have seen this person, they had braces. More controversial, marriages and relationships get tested when a spouse secretly scopes out their exes on their Facebook page.  Social Media can also mean getting social with friends all across the globe.  I personally have friends in my Facebook friends list from Australia, England, Luxembourg and Italy.  Most of whom, I have met or worked with in person, but may never see in person again.  They great thing about Social Media, in particular Facebook is that you can chat with them free of charge and keep up on the latest in their life.

Social Media is also the new way of business and professional networking.  Think about the last job you got.  Was it a referral through a social media site like LinkedIN?  With sites like LinkedIN, you can ask questions, post topics, or simply connect to people that may help you in your future career endeavors.  You can follow your favorite companies on Facebook or LinkedIN.  You can connect with past co-workers in case there is a chance to work with them again.   You have access to hiring managers, human resource professionals that you would never have access to back in the days of rotary phones.  Are you starting a business?  The days of cold calling may be over.  You can network online on LinkedIN to scope out prospects for building your business.  Business building for shy people.

Social Media is your official news source.  The days of waiting for the 11pm news or your morning newspaper to get the latest news is dwindling.  Subscribe to your favorite news source Facebook or Twitter page and you will be able to get news and commentary that really is the latest.   Think about some of the recent news events, like Whitney Houston's death or the tornadoes in the Midwest.  The "breaking news" was getting posted on Facebook pages all over the world.  The great thing about social media sites is that you can subscribe to any news source.  Suppose you are studying abroad in Europe and would like to keep up with the news from your home town?  No problem, subscribe to your hometown news station Facebook page and you will be up to speed on all of the events.

With the necessity of smart phones and social media, the ways of communicating and looking up information is faster than ever and it has changed our lives forever.  I provided three examples.  Can you think of some ways social media has changed your life?