Social media – what do I really use it for?
About the author, Ambrose Mac-Fall
Ambrose is 16 and is currently at St Benedict’s School in Ealing. Right now he’s choosing his A Levels and thinking of going down the route of Chemistry, Physics, Maths and possibly Economics.
He’s still exploring different avenues career-wise but really enjoyed his week of PR!
It has come to my attention through various conversations in the office that people use different social media in different ways. Questions popped up like which social media do the kids of today actually use and how, which ones are dead and what do you use Facebook for?
So here’s a list of all the social media I know about and how I see it being used as a ‘tech savvy’ youth of today!
Of course, when it comes to most social media, it’s most often used on your mobile or tablet as it’s so available and easy to use all the time. By just picking up the phone a few times a day, you can spend hours lost in the endless scrolling of the infinite Facebook app. However this is not always for looking at pictures of friends and their status updates.
It is becoming more and more apparent that a lot of social media, especially Facebook, is mainly used for your entertainment. With comedy pages like Unilad gaining many millions of fans, posting multiple times a day and getting thousands of likes on every post, it is clear that the entertainment side of social media is very strong.
This trend seems to be so popular because it’s so easy to keep scrolling for hours on your phone. I find myself tapping every other video or photo, looking for a quick laugh before tapping ‘like’ and scrolling down to the next. It’s almost like a habit.
Apart from this entertainment side, Facebook still has some social aspects locked down. It is still a place for people to dump hundred of photos from their summer holiday, but when it comes to status updates, they are almost all gone.
However, the messaging service is second to none when it comes to one-to-one and more importantly Facebook is great for group chats and organising events. The ease of use is, yet again, what makes it so successful. When it comes to the easiest way to say ‘happy birthday’ to those friends you haven’t seen for ages, no one does it better than Facebook.
I don’t use it. I don’t think many of my friends do either to be honest. It just seems a bit pointless unless you are using it to follow famous people for their great insights, like what they had for lunch.
BBM
BBM seems to have died along with the Blackberry.
Vine
I don’t know who uses the actual app, but as far as I can tell Vine is pretty much living off its entertainment purposes, with many of their seven second videos ending up in my Facebook feed. I think that the social aspect of Vine died at the hands of Snapchat, with their video aspect and ‘story’ feature being far easier, more available and better.
Although not an avid user, I can appreciate that this has become a blend of Facebook and Twitter. It has stolen the position from Facebook as the main place to post your ‘high quality’ photos, with all the filters so you can feel like a real professional. But as Facebook owns Instagram it hasn’t shot itself in the food too badly. It seems that the way it works is that you generally only see photos from your actual friends or people who you follow and there is not too much advertisement clutter unless you decide to follow those spammy pages.
Snapchat
Snapchat has taken over the social media and messaging industry in a huge way. It seems to be a large favourite for 1 to 1 messaging and not just for photos. I find that you start off a Snapchat conversation by taking a picture but then just end up using the direct messaging service. The idea around having your photos deleted is favourable as you don’t have to worry about it scarring your ‘online image’ too much. It seems that people don’t want their conversations and photos to be open to everybody (for some strange reason).
The ‘story’ feature, and its 24hr life span, has taken over from the Facebook status. And when it comes to advertisement on Snapchat, there have been efforts with Snapchat only video stories, promotional celebrity accounts, along with ‘Snapchat discover’, but I don’t know anybody who uses that.
However, because of its ease of use and privacy, Snapchat is the messaging and social media of choice for many.