I personally thing that social media isn't a fad.
There probably are people out there that disagree, that they think
once the hype is gone it will go away like any fad. But social media is growing
everyday into more things causing the definition to change all the time.
Lets
take Justin Bieber for example. He got his fame from his youtube
account from www.youtube.com. The videos he posted on the account were to show
his family him singing covers of songs. Then people started watching
him and commenting on the videos. Eventually usher and Justin Timberlake caught
wind of it and wanted to sign him to a recording contract which today
allow him to have the career he has now.Without youtube he might not have his
career he does now.
Business are also
seeing the applications for social media to further there
business. Everywhere you look now they either have a twitter page or
a facebook page from www.facebook.com or both so that you can follow them or
allow them to tell you that they have new products or specials going on or remind
of events or what not.
Social media also
allow people to stay in contact that they normally wouldn't be able
too. Take facebook for example. It allowed me to talk to my dad overseas when
he was in Afghanistan for a 8 month tour. I could see pictures, talk
to him, leave messages on his wall, share videos or see him in videos
that i normally wouldn't be able to do with a phone or waiting for
snail mail. i didn't have to wait hours to weeks to hear from him or
have a time limit on a phone call. It also let me reconnect with
friends that i lost contact with from moving around the country and vice versa.
This is one of the reasons its soo popular, it allows people to share
information to catch up ,show funny video's like of a guilty dog that ate cat
treats( if you wanna see the video in question go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ISzf2pryI&noredirect=1).
Celebrity's are
also seeing the application to further there career. Take Kim Kardashian for
example, her mom which is her manager has added a clause in her contracts
that if she tweets about the product or event shes advertising, she gets for
example 25k every time she uses twitter to tweet about it. Social media can be
used as a advertisements. Advertisers can use social media as another medium
allowing them to reach a bigger target audience that T.V.,
radios, build-boards, etc cant.
Currently there is
a bill trying to be passed in the USA called Protect- IP also known as SOPA.
The just of the bill is, it will allow corporations to censor the internet in
the states. Say you have music playing in the back ground as you do a v-blog,
they can sue you. If you sign a song as a cover, they can sue you. If this bill
had passed before Justin Bieber became famous, then
he wouldn't be able to sing song covers without being sued. It will
also affect other social media's as well. If you want to know more about the
bill in detail, watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDX8Lyl16Qs&feature=BFa&list=PL3B0BF0172B7D9BD2&lf=plpp_play_all)
So overall, unless
someone shuts down the internet, the earth blows up or censors the internet i
think social media isn't a fad. The hype might die down but it will
keep on growing and changing.It has affected the way people interact,
do business and also have added new words to
the dictionary like un-friend and tweet.
