Week 1B: Social Media Use Today

Social media is one of those things that fall in the lines between good and bad. It’s effective in terms of communication, clients, and helping a business grow and develop. With that though, you’ll have to be cautious and look out for hackers who try to inject spyware onto your computer & those who seek to find your credentials and possibly steal your identity and bank information. To add, technology is good in terms of you teaching you new skills and helps increase brain power if used properly. Misuse of technology can lead to addiction or letting what others on social media say control what you do and change your mindset for the worse. Although social media has many beneficial features for business and personal use, you have to set a balance. 

For me, I use social media for both business and personal use. We live in a world where it’s who you know, not what you know. Connecting with people on a business and personal level opens many opportunities for your future so building that connection is key and with social media, it’s even that much easier nowadays. Depending on the network I use, it is almost impossible to keep things strictly business, you might find someone who’s in the same field as you or a client with whom you share interests. That’s the beauty of social media, sometimes things like that come to you and before you know it you’re building a personal bond with business partners, creating a strong foundation, and strengthening your trust.

Mainstream social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram for example can seem overwhelming in terms of connecting with like-minded people and can be filtered somewhat. To make things easier I use apps like Tracktrain which allow you to connect with others who are involved in the music industry. You learn a lot from social media and even more from the people you connect with on there. It's definitely something that’s needed in our era but it should not take over your life completely. I learned to find a balance and sometimes take a 24 to 48-hour break from social media to make sure I'm in control of my life.