The power of social media

Throughout this whole election process, it blew my mind how much social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn became hot spots for political news and viewpoints. I'm sure this was pretty evident as well four years ago, I myself was not on them, but even in the last four years the power of the Internet and social media in general has grown tremendously. It blew my mind how everyone was posting their opinions and reactions on Facebook and Twitter last night and it almost seemed as if their filters had been turned off sometimes. Not only are the social media websites powerful for events such as the election, but I have noticed the value of knowing how to operate them is to employers. Employers are looking for those skills in our generation because we grew up with these websites and we have the most experience with how to work them. I have found this especially evident since I, like many people in the class, am a Communication major and have found how important these sites are when job hunting. Most companies have Facebook and Twitter pages and I have learned the importance of looking up these companies to see how they use their social media. The only thing I can wonder is, what new social media websites will surface next?

This article touches on how social media has affected journalism:
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/scene/the-importance-of-social-media-1.2680499#.UJqvK8XA-So