Create

The following is an article I have written up for my journalism class. The intent is to create a conversation, so I would love to know your response to this article!

Twitter or Facebook

The consistent knocks on Twitter and Facebook and other social media tools are that they create poor real life social skills and disconnect people from genuine social interaction. Detractors of Facebook say that if they want to talk to their friends they pick up the phone and call them, but with the high cost of long distance it’s not so easy to call your friends around the world. Skype is amazing but have you ever tried scheduling a skype talk with your friend in Australia? Negotiating the time change can get complicated.

What about the power of these tools?

The recent uprisings in Egypt were largely organized via Twitter and Facebook.

Charlie Sheen just landed himself in the Guinness Book for his record breaking accumulation of over 1 million followers on Twitter within a mere 24 hours. For some this makes Twitter more intriguing, for others the site just became a lot less desirable.

Recent BCIT grad, construction manager Nick Postle deleted his Facebook account after seeing “The Social Network” saying, “The movie just really turned me off. I don’t need to have a bunch of people I don’t really know as my friends on Facebook.” Naturally he also does not have a Twitter account.

Social media can be a great self-promotion tool.

UBC Human Kinetics grad Jenna Maxwell uses Twitter and Facebook to promote her personal training business FLIP, “I think it’s great.” she says “It makes me feel so connected to other people, especially, in the training community.” Everyone from business people to movie stars are using social media tools to remain connected within their industry and with the world. Again Nick disagrees with this logic, “I don’t think any of it is necessary as a marketing tool, so many people are like: “I’m Linked IN”, “follow me on Twitter”, “check out my fan page on Facebook”, but it’s unnecessary noise just let your work speak for itself.” Then he reconsiders, “Well I guess I could see how if you are just getting started and if it relates to your industry it could be a good tool, but I’m in construction it’s not necessary.”

Beyond a marketing tool Twitter is a great way to keep up with the news. More and more news stories are being broken on Twitter every day. You can follow reputable news organizations like: the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and click on postings that interest you and read the articles. On Twitter you don’t have to tweet you can just follow subjects you are interested in and leave it at that. On Facebook you don’t have to be friends with people you don’t know, you are allowed to deny friend requests, really it’s okay. Facebook is great for keeping up with out of town friends and family. It’s faster and easier than snail mail and less formal than email.

Social media sites on the web, like: Twitter and Facebook are keeping people more connected to one another than ever before. Since the technology is still new and people are still navigating their way around these sites it is going to be very interesting to see how social networking sites continue to develop.

If you use Twitter and Facebook, which do you prefer? If you don’t subscribe to any social media tools, why not?

(You can follow me on Twitter: @caitcromwell)