Social Media Empowers Us

In my opinion, social media is one that allows 2-way communication. It has the ability to empower individual. There is no prerequisite needed in order for one to be involved in the social media web community. Anyone, regardless of their education qualifications, financial status or networking, can be part of the community where their participation is valued.

As the Internet becomes more accessible, it allows the development of freedom of speech, where individuals are able to leave a free expression of their own in the cyber world. Such platforms or social media websites are popular and there are plenty of them in the cyber world catering to the varying needs and expectations of individuals. We may even find ourselves frequent users of the websites!

With social media, we find ourselves expressing, communicating and learning more as we get more involved in the social media sphere. Hence, it makes everyone that participates in the social media sphere relevant and influential. In 2006, Time’s Magazine Person of the Year turns out to be ‘YOU’. (See the article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html) This was when social media was on its way to the peak. The social media sphere is made up of us. We are the contributors, responders and the on lookers that form the fundamentals of social media. We are empowered by social media for we know we are the ones who have developed the culture of social media, where participation is what counts as.

Here’s a few websites that became so successful because of us:

•Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
o Socializing: Groups, comments, discussion

•YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/
o They make people popular in their own right
o User generated content

•Wikis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
o We add articles, create the content and hold the power to edit the content as and when we want
Therefore, it is indeed true that social media is empowering us! We are moving towards a culture where free expression is very much sought after. For starters, it might be impossible in Singapore but there are definitely platforms in Cyberspace that allows that!