Gray 3

Gray 1
Zane Gray
ENG 102
Mr. Salyers.
18 Sept. 2015
Is social media a postive or a negative?
Social media for maybe the last five years or so has become a huge phenomenon for not just the
young minds today but even for everybody else in the world. It can be used for partically anything,
Social media outlets can be great for distributing the oublic information that local governments
generate (Perego,1). The three big Kings that most people would agree on would include: Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram. The use for social media used for several things like entertainment and
keeping in touch with friends and family. They are powerful forms of public debate on issues of the
day (Perego, 1). But the big controversial issue that social media brings up whenever it comes up in a
discussion is that has it become professional or has it become more of a personal attribute? A lot of
times there are cases where people will post or say something that might have been something that
shouldn't have been mentioned. Should the guideline require that the member disclose whether or not
he or she is speaking in a professional or personal capacity? (Perego, 2).
The use of social media can be elaborated in a few different mannerisms. For starters and
probably the most keen and one that most people particually in the young minds is that it is a good way
(poor choice of words) to exploit a cetain subject. Use of social media is a a dilemma (Perego 2),
especially in terms of one's personal privacy. Things like Twitter, Facebook or even things like Pintrest
are versions of blogs for people to see what ever you post. The expectation of privacy is extremly
misleading (Perego, 2).
It's no denying that human beings have a deisre for human interactions with the people around
them, but in regards to face to face conversations it has been limited due to the use of social media.

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73% of adults online use some type of social media platforms, and 42% use multiple platforms
(Wagner, 2). People have been pondering about the use of social media abr have brougthen up
questions like Is social media affecting how we communicate with one another? (Wagner, 3). I think
the answer to that question can simply be put as it's affecting the behaviors of people's everyday
lifestyle and affects how the act in the real world compared to how thye act on social media platforms.
Rather then picking up a phone or showing up to a meeting, people will email or text (Wagner, 3).
Sometimes people will notice that people in public areas like a movie theater, restaurants or even any
sports events and for a good portion people will be consistently looking at their phone every half a
second because it's a certain urge. People would rather update their statuses rather meeting up for a
cup of coffee (Wagner, 3). Now this does not mean humans are being less social, Studies have shown
that people are becoming more social and interactive with one another, althought the style of
communicating or communication has changed drastically (Wagner, 3). So with all these creation like
smartphones, iPads/Tablets, Computers etc it's starting to becom a general concer among the general
public. There is a concern that since the advent of the smartphone, obsessions with texting, updating
statuses, and using Snapchat are sounding a death knell for real conversation (Wagner, 3). This is a
much bigger problem with the youth today, They have yet to learn or to obtain to initiate or carry a
conversation because they will retreat to their smartphones , they will never have to be bored because a
video or a text session is always available (Wagner, 3).
Social media can be used for a bunch of different directions. For example: Many law libraries
use different social media platforms (Jaquette, 1). Like previously said social media should be used to
promote your company, yourself or just in genreal promote your subject to the people who follow you.
For this to occur your company has to make a social media account particually Twitter and Facebook.
If your law library uses social media or is considering starting a social media account, make sure your
work pays off and your messages successfully get out to your patrons (Jaquette, 1). But all of this
brings it to the topic of Algorithms. Librarians are well aware of that algorithms can alter what users

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see in their search results, and social media algorithms present similar challenges (Jaquette, 1). With
Facebook it Utilizes and algorithm to select the Top Stories for inclusion for your news feed
(Jaquette, 1), meaning that you will only get to see the information/news that you want or need to see
that will show up on your newsfeed. Usually posts with a high level of social engaging, as well as
posts that contain certain content types are more likely to appear in your Facebook feed (Jaquette, 1).
Now from a different perspective there's this thing called Treding Topics, Facebook algorithms
boost posts about trending topics, and using trending hashtags appropriately will increase your Tweet's
findability (Jaquette, 1).
A lot of what you post might depend on the time of the day. What time you publish your social
media posts directly impacts whether or not your users see or engage with it (Jaquette, 1). Odds are if
you are going to post something at five in the morning then more then likely won't be awake or fully
energized to engage with it. Recent data on social media use finds that the best time to post on
Facebook or to get users to click on and read your information is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. during the
week (Jaquette, 1).
So in conclusion, social meida has a lot of ups and downs or pros amd cons whatever way you
want to put it. It is used to promote a certain subject but in modern times it's been used for huge
explicity.

Citaion Page
Perego, Martha. "The Good, The Bad and Uncharted." 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.

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Wagner, Lori Ann. "When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media
Alters Human Relationships." N.p., 1 June 2015. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.
Jaquette, Ellen Q. "Good Posting Practicing." N.p., 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.