Social Media Takeover

Are facts worth your time?

Is social media making us less social?

The duality of being known online

Social media

Hello

and welcome to the Social media takeover magazine!

Throughout this issue, we will be looking over the many positives and negatives that come with actively using social media .

In the first article, we will take a deep look into the world of being an online personality and the potential struggles that someone may face with an exclusive interview with a local influencer.

In the second article, we look at the addictive aspects of using social media and discuss if the benefits you gain from using apps like Instagram or Twitter are worth it.

Finally, we will cover the interesting developments that have been made to the news industry as a result of social media's sudden rise in popularity and look at the potential dangers that this could lead to.

Contents

4. The duality of being known online

8.

12.

Is social media making us less social?

Are facts worth your time?

The duality of being known online

Running a social media page can have its ups and downs, but how stressful is this career and what impact can it have on a person’s life?

These days, there are more career opportunities than ever before thanks to social media. Young people all over the world are becoming rich and famous so early on in their lives as a result of this. Whilst it might seem like their lives are great and perfect, behind the scenes it might not be as easy as you might think.

Putting yourself out there so publicly is a huge risk to take as anyone will be able to see you and interact with you. This obviously can lead to some horrible consequences such as bullying and harassment, which is something that nobody should have to deal with.

Due to being able to message anyone at any time, this makes it a lot simpler for people to target someone and constantly harass them. Although people can block anyone, those that choose to bully others can just make a new profile and continue the harassment under a new name. This ability also allows them to remain anonymous as they don’t have to put in any real information about themselves when making a profile. People can now say whatever they want to whoever they want without having to face any real consequences. However, that doesn’t mean that things are all bad.

Sites such as YouTube allow you to create your own unique videos and share them for the world to see. Other apps like Instagram allow you to post your best photography work and show off your passion to anyone else who is interested. This gives people a massive opportunity to express their creative freedom in whatever art form they choose. Many people are now able to find and explore hobbies easier and quicker than ever before. No longer do you need to buy some expensive camera and study for years to get a qualification in photography. Now you are able to use your phone and make your own unique style. This isn’t just a result of phone cameras improving, but also because of the seemingly infinite audiences that are on social media who can support your content and a number of ways, many of which are very profitable.

To get a better idea of how two-faced this career path truly is, I decided to speak to a local influencer who creates content for the public to see on a regular basis.

Charlie (Mr_4_cheeze_whoppa)

Charlie, A.K.A Mr_4_cheeze_whoppa on YouTube, is a young aspiring influencer who has found his passion in creating entertaining videos with his friends. He has been pursuing this career path for roughly 5 years now and has experienced a lot of the positivity and negativity that comes with this type of work. I asked him what it feels like behind the scenes to run a social media page and he told me “It’s fun but sometimes pressuring as I feel a need to entertain, but when it’s successful I feel a great sense of relief and pride.” From this response, it is pretty clear that he is very passionate about creating his videos and genuinely loves to make people laugh. However it also shows that this is a highly stressful career path that has a lot of ups and downs. To say that you feel “a great sense of relief” after a video is successful just shows how horrible these apps can make you feel when your work doesn’t gain much traction.

I went on to ask him if he has experienced any hate or negativity online, and he said “ yes, it happens frequently,” which is simply awful to hear, but unfortunately not surprising given how much hate gets spread all over social media. I then continued the discussion by asking him how this harassment has affected him and his life and he said “It ruined my motivation and put me off for ages.” This shows how anyone can be affected by enough hate and that the happy life that people portray online might not always be the case. Charlie is only a small creator and if he is losing motivation from the hate he receives, I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to view huge amounts of hate on a daily basis like larger creators do. The smallest of hate will unfortunately always stand out in the crowd of positivity and can seriously hurt someone, so make sure that you think about how your words might affect somebody before posting them.

Charlie further went on to tell me “it also makes you think more about what you post” when referring to that hate he receives. People always say that when you post something online it’s there forever, and this couldn’t be any more true. Once you have put something out there, anyone will be able to view it, make comments about it and save copies of it. Almost anything that you post has a chance of receiving hate as some people are just out there to try and ruin your day, but I still have to agree with Charlie about thinking what you are posting for the world to see, as sometimes we might forget how public social media truly is and how quickly information can spread. Next time you go to make a post, just take a second beforehand to make sure that you are comfortable with complete strangers viewing this information at any moment they choose.

Finally, I asked Charlie if he has any advice for others who might be looking to try and start a career path online. He said “Hate is something you should ignore mostly but sometimes seeing criticism as hate is something to avoid to improve yourself. However, if it’s bad just try to move on, ignore it and not let it ruin your mood.” Sometimes online it can be hard to distinguish between hate and criticism, but it is definitely important to try and learn the difference as criticism is needed to improve in life. But, it is still important to try and look past the real hate as it will just make you feel bad and could put you off of making more content.

Overall, the world of social media can be tricky. It will have its highs and lows, but it is important to always stay positive and not give the hate any of your attention. The great lives that we see all these influencers living aren’t as perfect as we might think because we are all human and we all can be affected by the hate we see online. So just make sure that if you are interested in becoming a known online presence, you are prepared for the negativity that is seemingly unavoidable.

Is social media making us less social?

Social media has had a huge impact on our social lives, but is this impact for better or for worse?

Inthe modern world, social media has taken over how we communicate with each other on a daily basis. Some people would say that this change has improved their lives, but some others would say that it has ruined their lives. In this article we are going to explore both sides and find out how social we really are.

First let's start with the positives. Obviously social media has made it much easier than ever before to talk to people. We now have the ability to message our friends at any time we want. This is a huge step forward compared to before where you always had to meet in person or have a phone call every time you wanted to talk. Friendships have now been able to become stronger than ever due to people being able to always stay in touch and up to date with what’s going on in everyone’s life. No longer do we have to worry about losing contact with the people that we care about as we can now speak to each other no matter where we are in the world.

What makes social media even more ground breaking is that you aren’t just limited to being able to talk to people you have already met in real life. Social media has allowed us to talk with anyone in the world and given us the ability to make friends with people we would otherwise have never known. In a survey that I conducted, roughly 43% of people said that they have made friends over social media. This just shows the power that these apps have as they allow us to build relationships entirely online.

Speaking of relationships, there are now many sites and apps that are designed for dating online. It is now easier than ever to find someone who is right for you as you

no longer have to waste time going around public places talking to a bunch of people hoping that they like you. Now people from all over the globe are able to freely build relationships with each other and learn about all the different and amazing cultures that our planet has to offer.

Social media has truly made our lives so much more convenient in so many ways, however, this is unfortunately a double edged sword. Although we are able to socialise online like we have never been able to before, this is unfortunately affecting our real world socialisation skills. People are now spending more and more time online and becoming reluctant to spend time with others in the real world. According to a survey that I conducted, the average time people are spending on social media is roughly 6 hours. Considering that the average time people spend asleep is 8 hours, that means that 6 out of the 16 hours people have during the day is entirely spent just looking on social media pages. From these people that completed the survey, all 100% of them admitted to using both Youtube and Instagram on a daily basis.

It’s clear that people are starting to spend a lot more time on their screens each year, and this may be due to the simple fact that they just can’t stop using these apps. In the survey, 75% of people said that they believe that they have some level of addiction to social media. This is an alarming number as the more that people use social media, the less they interact with people in the real world.

The issue isn’t just that we are spending a lot of time online instead of the real world, but the truly scary part is how antisocial it is making us. Many people are now starting to prefer talking online rather than in person. This is making a lot of people start to be less capable of talking face to face as they are becoming increasingly used to just messaging someone online. The result of this is people being as expressive when talking to others. Not needing to express yourself through movements online has made people feel weird and uncomfortable when they speak in person, which has led to less of a desire to go out and socialise in the real world.

Communication and socialisation are integral parts of us as a species, but it appears that the online world is destroying our most basic skills so that life can be a little bit more convenient. It doesn’t seem like this takeover of social media is going to slow down any time soon, so we are only going to become more and more reliant on technology to live even the most basic of lives. Although we can now talk to anyone around the world, it looks like we can no longer speak to the people we see in the same room as us.

Do you think that you're addicted to social media? Here's what the

public said!

"I probably use it a bit too much but overall I think that it doesn’t effect my life that badly."

I think I am but not to a damaging level, most people are anyway, they just don't realise it.

"I do believe to an extent that I'm addicted to social media because of how personalised the content is to us as individuals as a result of the algorithm. When apps show you exactly what you want to see it will make you want continue to use it."

"I often find myself constantly scrolling through TikTok, Facebook and Instagram when I'm bored and end up loosing hours of my time a day."

"I think that I use a healthy amount of social media without it impacting my real life. I think that I can limit myself from using it too much quite well."

"I can sometimes find myself getting distracted by my phone when I’m supposed to be doing something more important but at the same time, I doesn’t take up too much of my day to day life."

Are facts worth your time?

These days fake news is everywhere and people keep consuming it due to how quickly it is able to spread across social media

F or decades, the news that we consumed was controlled by major news outlets like BBC and ITV. However, in the last few years this has changed due to the sudden rise in popularity of social media. Now, there is a seemingly endless amount of information being spread all over the internet everyday. This may be great for the future of the media industry as a whole, but it also may be just as, if not even more, terrible for the world.

Obviously, this makes our ability to view and see the news a lot more convenient. Instead of having to wait all day to see the information that you want to hear about show up on TV, now you just have to make a quick Google search and you are immedi-

ately presented with all the news and information that you need. This is incredible at saving us time, but also is equally as good at giving us freedom. Before the recent rise of social media, the news industry was very controlled and restricted. The only ways that you could have previously viewed the news was by reading a newspaper, watching TV or listening to the radio. All these options could be easily controlled by the big corporations as they were the ones that were broadcasting and funding the information that was being shown. This meant that you had to trust these businesses to accurately give you your news, because you didn’t have any other option.

Newspapers often share political biases, whether they are a broadsheet or a tabloid, so they could have very easily been exploited to influence your opinions by only showing you the information that they want you to see. Now, however, social media has given the opportunities to all the small news outlets and journalists to get their information and stories out there for the world to see. This has made it a lot harder for these major companies to get away with hiding information that they don’t want you to see because of how easy it has now become to view all the information surrounding a particular story.

As well as this, people have more opportunities than ever to make a serious career in the news and journalism industry.

There are a huge variety of sites that give different types of news, which has allowed people to be more specific with the type of news that they produce. This means that more time and effort can be put into a particular subject and story, which will allow for more detailed and better put together news. Although you have more opportunities to work at news companies, you can just as easily start producing and publishing your own news independently. All you need to do is gather any research you need from Google and begin to post your articles and stories on your social media pages. However this can also lead to the biggest issue with the modern way we consume our news.

Due to anyone being able to post news on social media, this has led to a huge amount of misinformation being spread around the internet. This is the result of a few reasons.

One major reason why this is happening so much and so quickly is because of our decreasing attention spans. According to the

book “Attention Span: A Ground-breaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity,” by Dr. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, the average attention span in 2004 was roughly 2 and a half minutes, but now it has dropped to only 47 seconds. This is a serious issue for the news industry as the public no longer has the patience to wait for any accurate information. These days people care more about how quickly someone is able to produce news than how accurate it may be. Unfortunately, fact checking information takes time, so by the time the real stories get out there, it’s too late, as the fake or false versions have already spread and gotten the attention of the public.

Despite having the freedom to, a lot of people won’t want to go and do their own research into a particular story to see if the information is false or not. This has led to anyone now easily being able to spread fake news as long as they are quick to produce it and know how to market themselves.

The scariest part is that social media is now the main source for most people’s news. Every year newspapers and TV are becoming less and less popular in favour of social media. From a poll I conducted, 9 out of 10 people get most, if not all, of their news from social media. Therefore, most people can be easily exposed to fake news on a daily basis and there isn’t much that can be done about it. Social media is used by so many people that it’s impossible to keep track of what everyone is posting. You can’t just have every post be fact checked for accurate information, which is what allows fake news to be shared so easily and so much in such a short amount of time. The social media companies can’t spend their time keeping up to date on all the latest news to stop the false news from being shared, which makes it very difficult to prevent fake news.

And it’s not like the big news outlets are able to do much about it either. They might be able to always put out the right and accurate information, but at the end of the day, people will want speed and efficiency over quality and accuracy. People don’t have the time to waste waiting for the correct news anymore, so as long as the news is quick to show up, they will take an interest in that over traditional news.

This is a problem that doesn’t seem like it is going to be stopped or slowed anytime soon due to how large social media is and how much of an impact it has on our day to day lives. The only thing that we can do is hope that other people take the time to fact check themselves before spreading misinformation, but unfortunately, that just doesn’t seem very likely.

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Written and created by Joshua Williams