Social Net'g

Social media has grown to becoming a large platform for advertisement. Nowadays you will probably see a facebook icon or a twitter icon on every single ad you see. Another way social media can be used was demonstrated by the Obama campaign. In the article "

How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power" by David Carr of the New York Times, Carr describes Obama's campaign having a database of all his supporters and that enabled him to contact them all via email. Carr also discusses the advantages of using social media versus the the use of old technologies like phone banks and voters lists. By using social media the Obama campaign saved on having to mail voters brochures and having people call numbers from the phone bank.

Another way to put it social media is a great way to get the word out. The benefits being that it is affordable and it is quick. Since social networking and social media is so quick and information gets relayed around so fast it can sometimes create a problem in our youth. In the article "Antisocial Networking" by Hilarary Stout of the New York Times, Stout discusses how a large number of our youth are communicating more on social networks than they are in life. One argument that was argued was that because children are missing out on these interactions they need to develop trust. This can be viewed as the dark side of social networking i guess. Having so much online communication cuts into the time you spend actually interacting with each other.

I believe that social networking is going to evolve into something that can promote real life interactions. Social media and social networking can spark the interactions between millions of people and then bring them together for actually interactions. Maybe things like rallies, or book clubs and community service events.