Social Media—— A World of Ideas and Ideals

    When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases “global village”, television hasn’t become commonplace, let alone the social network sites. No one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. Today, the world that Marshall McLuhan foresaw is beginning to take place—social media is extending men in a global embrace. Social network sites, as the most popular and influential social media, provided a different way for individuals to communicate digitally, reshaping patterns of social interaction, politics, and economic activity.

    The social networks I use most often can be mainly classified into two categories refer by their function. One is for interaction and communicating, the other is for resource and information searching.

    For interaction and communicating, the social network I use most frequently is the “Renren” Network, China’s most influential social network equivalent to Facebook. In Chinese language, “ren” means “people”, so “renren” literally indicates "Everyone's Website". Just like Facebook, renren has become a platform for people to connect and interact. On renren website, I maintained and managed my own profile and I am keen on updating my profile with posting photos, blogs, music and personal information. Similarly, the updates of my friends are also available on my home page, through which I can interact with them or make comment the first time. My renren profile link is: http://www.renren.com/250026937/profile

    Another social network I favor is “Sina Weibo”, a Chinese microblogging website akin to Twitter. I update my profile with short messages (like tweet) about something new and interesting in me life as well as some sites I like to share with my followers and at the same time, I can also keep track of my following. The charm of weibo lies in that some celebrities also has their own weibo profile, from which their fans in reality can receive the twitterings of their favorite stars, political and business leaders. My weibo link is: http://www.weibo.com/xcck/profile

    For information-researching use, the social network I use frequently is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is a free, collaboratively edited Internet resource platform. Although I never contribute any content to the site, I use it for information and reference since I believe collective contributions represent a consensus view. 

    Now I began my journey of “Facebook” and “Twitter” since I came to U.S. The experience of engaging in social network is always enjoyable and addictive.

    Our generation is coming of age in an amazing time. We live in an information society and a global age of communication. I am interested in how people construct, use, and interpret messages across multiple channels to inform, relate, and influence each other across social media, and how social media will develop in the future. A study on how social media affect P.R and how it change the whole society is of practical value since I would like to be a PR practitioner in the future. The world of communication is made up ideas and ideals, of variegated phenomena that influence our social life. I am looking forward to learn more about the influence and future development of social media through this course, and that would be a challenging and rewarding process.