Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

Do I believe that social media has increased or decreased the the quality of news and information? I believe that social media has decreased the quality of news and information dramatically. The reason I say this is because anybody has access to the internet and anybody can post anything on it also. You never know if something you see online is credible. There are always strange rumors floating around the internet, some are ridiculous, some are actually believable, majority are not true. Social Media websites like Facebook and Twitter tend to stir up the more strange rumors, usually having to do with celebrities, deaths, and some other strange situations. Twitter usually has a trending topic everyday that has to do with a false death. It has come to a point where when I go on the internet I don't believe any of the news or information until it is confirmed by several other sources and the news. Information from social media websites is definitely not credible.

On several websites you can also edit written information that was already posted by an original author. I hate even edited an article on Wikipedia one time! I can understand why its not a good source for information.... you can literally write anything you want and fool people!

 Don't get me wrong though, Social Media does give access to information and news that is occurring worldwide and helps keep you updated with what is going on, but I just believe that the information isn't usually 100% accurate all of the time. It is better to watch the news, read articles, instead of relying on trending topics online.  Social media has a lot of power to make people think what they read is actually true, it's on us to rely on credible sources to get our news and information

Do you think that social media has the potential to bring about real social change?

If you asked me this a couple months ago, the answer would be "no way, social media is just used to interact with people, that's it", but recent things in the news have definitely changed my mind. I've always seen petitions on the internet to stop things, and small groups get together and strike due to minor or sometimes major issues, but 2 weeks ago I witnessed something that completely blew my mind, and it was at the hands of social media.

I was on Twitter.com one day and suddenly a huge outburst of #StopKony and#Kony2012 tweets were tweeted, it actually blew my mind how fast it happened and how much attention it received worldwide all at the hands of twitter. The whole "Kony" situation was about a man, Joseph Kony, who is a huge killer in Uganda, who takes advantage of innocent children, nobody in north america really new about him, and I suspect that nobody really knew about him in other continents also other than Africa. But somebody posted a video about him, and what he's been doing to spread awareness worldwide and to get this killer arrested, and surely, Everybody was aware within hours! everyone that watched the video was extremely touched and affected and knew something had to be done. The whole situation was spread all over Twitter.com and brought people together because everybody wanted change, everybody wanted people to be aware of the situation.

North America really came together in attempt to "Make Joseph Kony Famous", and I think it was remarkable. Social media is obviously a very powerful tool can can be used for many things, like bringing REAL social change, it has the ability to bring out a lot of positive things and bring a lot of people together for the right reasons, like we seen in this situation here. Hopefully people only use this tool to only bring out positive change and no negative change. One day, Joseph Kony will be arrested, and at that moment, I think everybody will agree with me that social media does indeed have the potential to bring about real social change.

What is your perception of social media, do you think it is a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Social media has impacted everyone's lives worldwide. I think it is a great thing and have no negative thoughts or feelings on it at all. I think that the use of social media is definitely not a fad, I actually think that it's the beginning of something special. Social media is an easier way for people to get in contact with eachother, it is a way for people to get their thoughts out to the world, it has become the natural way for people to connect with others. There is social media everywhere, even in cell phones, there is now a way to get a hold of social media accounts.

     I definitely think that it is the biggest shift since the industrial revolution, social media has just become a way of life and people are making good use of it. The use of the internet and social media websites give people huge opportunities that some may not even notice. Justin Bieber was a complete nobody before he started posting videos on YouTube.com, thats where star musician Usher noticed him and signed him. Justin Timberlake even noticed him too.A simular story happened with music artist Soulja Boy who's music got noticed by posting his music on Myspace.com. People are using social media for many different things, to promote their companies, businesses, music, stay connected with friends, etc. Personally, I have a few social media accounts, and I believe about 90% of my friends are the same. Celebrities even use social media to connect with their fans.

     Social media has definitely brought a huge shift to the way people live their everyday lives. I am a huge fan of social media, and even though everybody doesn't feel the same way at the moment, I think that eventually, everybody will be involved with social media.

Ebby K- first blog

This is my first time ever blogging. This should be interesting, we'll see how I like it.