Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

    I feel sort of conflicted towards whether or not social media has decreased or increased the quality of news and information. On one hand, it has definitely decreased in grammar quality and in terms of detailed information given. However on the other hand, it has increased with the quality of photos and the types of news being shown or documented. The reason the grammar quality has decreased is because anyone can now post news and information as it happens. The problem with this being, there are many people in the world who lack proper grammar skills and the vocabulary to really bring news to life.

With regards to photo quality, it isn't so much the quality but the amount of photos being shown along with report of events as they happen. Take Twitter for instance, when a large media event such as the VMA's or an even larger event on a world scale happens, thousands upon thousands of photos are being tweeted within seconds of one another. Instead of having to wait for a newspaper the next day, these photos are coming in live and showing you what's happening. With this, I don't find you need a lot of context or perfect grammar because the photos do most of the talking.  However the purpose of this assignment is to choose a side, and even though it's by a small margin, I would say that social media has increased the quality of news. I feel as if there's just more of the information being provided, it's not condensed and it's beneficial to those who want updates as fast as possible. There are downsides of information coming in from too many sources at once, sometimes it goes through what I call the "telephone path". Basically one person will read information and misinterpret it, then the person will post it or talk about it while leading others to believe false information to be true.  However, through all of that I still believe that there is much more information being provided and it outweighs any of the negatives in my book.

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

   In my personal opinion, social media is much more than a fad. Everything is run through social media nowadays and it shows no signs of slowing down. Think about how it has evolved over the course of just a few years, when Twitter first started out it was filled with meaningless tweets such as "eating a banana, live is good" or "it's sunny out today". If you look at Twitter now, it's filled with celebrities interacting with fans, breaking news is featured the second it happens through millions of Twitter accounts, more and more people are turning to Twitter as a replacement for their morning papers.

   Social media has become a prime place for advertisements and cash flow as well. Take Youtube for example, you won't find may videos without ad placements this is due to the Google Adsense program. All you need is a thousand or so views, and you can sign up with Google Adsense which in turn will place ads on your videos, now anyone can make money! Have you ever seen the videos of popular Youtube personalities such as the Shaytards, Sxephil, and Ray William Johnson?  They are raking in big money from their Youtube videos alone, not only that but it has also opened up many different job opportunities for them. If you pay close attention, they will even advertise various products that they use in their videos, don't let them fool you, they are usually paid to do this!

   Social media will never slow down, it will continue to evolve and eventually I believe it may just take over television as a preferred option for people to get their news, or watch their favourite shows. As long as celebrities keep using social networks such as Twitter, Vine, Instagram and Youtube to interact with fans, these sites will continue to grow. As much as I hate to use him as an example, take Justin Bieber. One retweet from him and a video will gain a 500,000 views, how is this possible you ask? Well just ask his millions of "beliebers" They are so loyal to the singer, that anything video link he retweets they will watch. This is all it takes for someone to become popular on Youtube or for a video to go viral, just one click of the button.

  So in conclusion, do I believe social media is a fad, or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?  Without a doubt I believe it's the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution, there is no question in my mind.