Social Media Revolution

These videos always freak me out a little. I've probably watched one of these types of videos in all of my communication classes. It gets the point across better than simply listing facts and statistics, but I would like to see where they got these facts from.

I'm a firm believer in the social media revolution and how it's changing the shape of the world today. The world is getting progressively smaller and tools like Twitter and Facebook are making communication around the globe instaneous. I talked earlier about the twitter effect on films, and this video just sums it up and expands it to the world as a whole.

This summer blockbuster season will be considered the summer of the Twitter Effect, but is right? This article isn't so sure. While Bruno and G.I. Joe have suffered huge box office drops from Friday to Saturday, Twitter can't take all the credit. Bruno (and Sasha Baron Cohen) has a small but fervent fan base that probably rushed to see the film as soon as it opened. The drop of 61% is comparable to Twilight's drop of 71% from weekend to weekend, which also has a small but enthusiastic fanbase. And despite being panned by critics and viewers alike, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen went on to be the highest grossing movie this year.

I think this "Twitter Effect" is not all thanks to Twitter, it is thanks to the rapid dissemination of information through all social media - twitter, facebook, friendfeed, delicious, digg, etc. It's a force that can't be stopped and is changing how we all live our lives.

This article disagrees with me. They believe that the internet has not spread ideas, as much as it has made us censor ourselves. Granted, there have been a few instances of people getting fired over facebook updates and/or tweets, but these are few and far between compared to the amount of usage these sites get. And compared to the good it's done. Twitter was an integral part in the Iranian Election. It has saved lives thanks to people (like @mrskutcher) seeing suicidal thoughts and then stopping the writers from following through with their plans. It has raised money and awareness for numerous charities.

I say, Viva la Social Media Revolution!