Social Media- Fad or Biggest Shift since the Industrial Revolution?

           Social media, over the years, has continued to grow and evolve constantly. The internet has come such a long way; not only do we use it for research, for the majority of the population, it is the main way of communication. Take this social media course, for example; it is an online course; more and more people are using the internet for communication and learning because it is convenient. This has led into the world of social media expanding. In my opinion, the perception of social media is much more than just a fad; it could perhaps be the biggest shift since the industrial revolution.

            In my opinion, social media is so much more than just a fad because it is growing and evolving constantly. A fad is something that is popular for a period of time, but then people begin to lose interest and it starts to fade out of society. When it comes to social media, however, there is absolutely no sign of people losing interest. There are constantly new social media sites emerging. Just a few examples would be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, SnapChat, and many more. If people start to become disinterested with a particular social media site, they move on to the next. Social media has not slowed down in any way; people rely on it to stay in touch with family, friends, and current events. During some research, I found that in 2013, the total users for Facebook reached 1.11 BILLION (A Brief History of Social Media, 2013)! Just take a second to think about that... Further, according to Universal McCann’s Global Social Media Survey from this week’s readings, the three most popular social media participation activities worldwide are watching videos, visiting social network pages, and reading blogs (July, 2010); therefore people are actively and constantly using social media. It has become a way of life for people. Today, people do not pick up a phone as often, they go to their friends Facebook page to see what is new. I know personally, if I want to get in touch with friends, I go to Facebook and Instagram, I send personal messages or comment on pictures; especially since I have family living in other countries, social media allows me to keep in touch with them, it is the way to do things in this day and age. Even further, according to Fruchter, social media is not just about the tools, as we learned in one of this week’s readings about what social media is. Rather, it is the conversation happening within these tools (2009), such as the conversation and communication that occurs through Facebook. This is exactly what we are seeing today. Although there may still me a very select few that have not jumped on the band wagon of social media, as a whole, Ontario, Canada, and even the world, has. That is why I believe that social media is much more than just a fad, and could perhaps be the biggest shift since the industrial revolution.