@chrisdtc101
Deanna Zandt gives us two quotes that sum up why social media is so powerful today. First, she says that, “Storytelling has been the most powerful building block for social change” (1). Later on in her book, “Share This! How You Will Change The World With Social Networking”, she claims, “Social networking gives us unprecedented power to share our stories with more people than we ever imagined” (159). Social media can mobilize people because it is easily available to anyone with internet access, and because it is far easier to reach out to masses of people through social media than in the real world. It has given us greater connection to the rest of the world than ever before. No longer are we limited to sharing our stories and looking for change from just the small number of people we see face to face, but now I can post something online, and people from Japan or China can see it just as easily as people living down the street from me. Not only do we have access to more people, but we, as participants of this social media movement, have access to more stories than ever before as well.
Social media has mobilized us by simply giving us a place to share our stories and interact. Facebook, where we can share anything we want and voice our thoughts and opinions, is one of the most popular places for this social media movement. Even right now, as we write our blog posts for this class, we are taking part in the social media movement. Social media has made itself nearly inescapable these days. It is everywhere we look. For anyone who uses the internet, social media is a part of their lives. Social media gives us a place to interact, and that’s all we need to get started.
The characteristics and qualities of the social media movement include connectivity, which contains a broad range of other characteristics such as being available to large numbers of people, being easily available, allowing people to contact each other at any given moment, and allowing people to converse even if they are not face to face. Characteristics also include the ability for the movement to easily adapt to changes and new technology and the inclusion of new popular technologies like personal blogs, Google+, and smartphones.