It’s 3:30 a.m. and I have to get up in 3 hours for a family ski trip. Considering the fact that I still cannot fall asleep after laying in bed for the past few hours, I thought I would share some of my current thoughts.
For some strange reason, I find myself being a tad bit pessimistic about social media’s impact around the world. As I read more and more blogs, I see that the line between opinion and pure factual information tends to be blurred.
Now, I am not saying that blogging is bad. Instead, I just want to bring up a simple question: what information can you trust from blogs and social media?
Mashable posted an article a few hours ago stating that over 15,000 people on Twitter label themselves as “social media experts.” When I read this, I guess I was not shocked in any way.
I could refer to myself as a “social media expert.” My online repertoire includes a Facebook, 2 Twitter accounts, a LinkedIn, a Brazen Careerist profile, two different blogs and multiple subscriptions to different blogfeeds/news updates. Still, I don’t think this label would be appropriate.
I don’t have a clear understanding of the long-term repercussions (both positive and negative) of using social media. I have not conducted any scientific research about Facebook or Twitter. So, I won’t call myself a “social media expert” - maybe “social media addict” or “king of procrastinating through social media” would suit me.
When I attempted to look up articles dealing with blogs and credibility, the majority of articles I found were from blogs themselves. This made my head spin round and round. How can I trust information from a blog or Twitter when I may not know who wrote constructed the information on a blog, status update, tweet. etc.
Still, blogging has power and fills a journalistic void as newsrooms find themselves with reduced budgets. The New York Times just posted an article about bloggers sitting front row at fashion show.
I don’t know what I think anymore. I need to go back to bed.
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To read the Mashable article about “social media experts”, click here
To read the NYT article about bloggers invading fashion shows, click here
