Social Media's Impact...

Today's topic about social media is an important one because almost everyone in the world is touched by it. Social media has become the center and tool for people to express themselves, communicate with others, and stay up to date with people's lives and current events. All of these things have good and bad to them.
Using outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., can be great tools to express oneself and show people how one feels about certain topics... but some take this a little too far. For example,  by using harsh language and posting provocative pictures online, people are expressing themselves in a negative light. Many people do not realize that these posts can be seen by anyone and that can really damage the way people think of them. Social media is also a powerful tool for communicating with others. In leadership class the other day, Professor Brach said something that struck me. Often, when people see others post updates like baby updates, proposals, and deaths, they often just hit the "like" button or say a quick comment. This is not real communication... but it is perceived to be. Real communication is actually writing someone in a private message to congratulate them or sending condolences. Often social media users think that just because they are seeing other peoples updates on their newsfeed they are communicating and staying in contact with them, but really this is a false sense of communication and connection.
Unfortunately, social media can also be used to bully people, complain about minuscule things, and hurt a lot of peoples reputations. There is another side though. Social media is also a powerful tool for creating awareness (ex. Ice Bucket Challenge, raising millions of dollars for the ALS), sharing positive stories, networking (ex. LinkedIn), and staying up to date with current events (ex. CNNs  live twitter feed on the Boston Bombings).
So, while there is many positive and negative sides to social media, if people learn to use it as a powerful tool for the GOOD, then it could really help impact people about many different small and global issues.