The Reality of Social Media

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Geek uses various social media sites to lead his fellow Egyptian’s in revolt over their fellow citzens in office. Yes, that comical statement is as true and real as the air one breaths! Wael Ghonim is a 30 year old Arab man with profound abilities when it comes to technology. As the head of Google’s marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, one can perceive how much potential and success this young man harbors. Naturally one would assume that he would not let himself become engrossed in political affairs, but be consumed with only financial and personal gain. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Ghonim personally created social media pages, sent out tweets, and participated in interviews on television in order to direct and inform his revolutionary counterparts. Even though imprisoned, Wael Ghonim plowed ahead selflessly, risking his life for his fellow countrymen, but without social media his voice would have been an echo within the chaos. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Ghonim’s actions, one must consider the sobering power social media possess. The power to cause a revolution is a monumental ability; that is why society must strive to harness this power for good. Social media, just like everything else, has the potential for good or evil, but the good outweighs the evil. An accepted belief about social media is that it is evil and only conjures negative emotions. This belief is supported by very credible sources and real life events such as: bullying, suicide (Phoebe Prince 2013), and infantilizing the mind (Wintour 2009). Contrary to their belief, I believe the potential for good offered by social media surpasses the bad. It can be clearly supported with studies on friends (Davis 2009) and pro... ... middle of paper ... ...nesses Steven Strauss believes businesses have not harnessed the full capability that social media offers. In order to reach this pinnacle, Steven states that some businesses must start small or they’ll find themselves drowning in their own advertising. He tells businesses that allowing a younger person to head your social media is a definite improvement, as long as the one monitors the young employee. Strauss stresses that if every advertisement on you social networking sites does not generate capital than one needs to promptly change there advertising actions. Lastly, Steven instructs businesses to heed his 80/20 rule, which clearly defines the topics of your social media posts to be more about the customer than advertising. Works Cited Tankersley 2013, Media Structure 2013, Gaudin 2013, Krebs 2008, Davis 2009, Body and Mind Staff 2010, Simonds, Kalyan 2013

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