Social Media Coming of Age Article

    I read this article this week and found it very relevant to the time we are living in. I believe we don’t really realize the power social media is having on the younger generation and the world for that matter. I see many more people looking towards alternate avenues to get their daily dose of news, weather it be social networking sites, internet news, blogs, online articles, or even as this article suggested Twitter and Facebook. (Facebook and Google are taking over the world.. jk) I know I look even more towards the internet than ever before to get my news. Sometimes the only reason I know something has happened is because I saw it on the main page of Yahoo where they have that rotating series of news articles. Why is society leaving the traditional forms of media and news? I am not going to act like I know every reason, but I do think one reason is young people want a more personalized news source. Young people like the fact that they themselves can respond, influence, or even create the news to get their story and voices heard. We see this in this news article and others like it around the world. I believe it is a great thing, but like any great thing it does have drawbacks. One major draw back I see is their maybe no checks or balances on the validity of the story being told. This can be very dangerous for people who don’t regularly check the sources of the media and news they consume. Does anyone else see this as a problem or a blessing? Let me know.