TikTok on the clock but the party don't stop no

A couples weeks ago, I finally joined the bandwagon and got a TikTok account. I never wanted to get one because TikToks are typically geared to a younger generation. My 14 year old sister has a TikTok and actually makes them and tries to become famous. I thought that was so cringe, so I told myself I would never get one but then things changed. I have seen some dumb things on their but what I think is cool about TikTok is that if I make a reference to meme or video that I saw on their, people always comment "Hey I saw that on Tik Tok!". I just think its funny how different songs or memes, people reference relate back to this app. A main reason I got TikTok is because I saw so many of them on other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram and I got curious and had to check it out. My experience with TikTok is all positive, I go on this app to make myself laugh and I end up being sucked into watching these short videos for hours. I think this social media app is definitely geared to high schoolers like my sister but I find some of the videos entertaining yet vulgar. What makes me question this social media site is it is supposed to be designed for kids in high school and middle school but some of the stuff is NOT age appropriate on there for them. I don't know maybe its just the content that I have seen but some of those videos are not okay for at least middle schoolers to watch. I almost think its weird seeing people making TikToks who are 25+ because this app really is directed for young kids. During my time in high school Vine was the major short video media platform. I absolutely loved Vine, and I used to make them all the time. Vine walked so TikTok could run and full on believe that. The fact that Vine was shut down makes me upset, especially all of the vines I've ever made I can't access anymore. I wanna look back on my young self doing stupid things from high school but no the app had to be deleted off the internet which makes me upset.

I saw an article in the New York times that talked about how TikTok is changing our social media platforms and I 110% agree with that statement. TikTok does away with many of the assumptions other social platforms have been built upon. It questions the primacy of individual connections and friend networks. It embraces central control rather than pretending it doesn’t have it. TikTok’s real influence going forward may be that the other social media platforms decide that our friends were simply holding us back from not getting the app. This article is stating that people were to quick to judge this app because it has become extremely popular with 1 billion users on this app. Users who are on TikTok are from the ages of 15-24, as I said no one over 25 should be making TikToks.  The app has spawned numerous viral trends and internet celebrities around the world, propelled songs to fame, and is known to be popular among celebrities due to its popularity and social influence. All of this talk about TikTok makes me wonder what is going to be the next big phenomenon?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html

What Music Platform Do You Prefer?

Throughout the years of Ipods and CDs, people started changing the way that they listen to music. Once smartphones became popular, Apple Music and Spotify were invented. These are only a few of the great music streaming apps you can listen to for free or pay a low-cost monthly subscription to.

Now for me, Spotify is my go-to and always has been my go-to once I stopped paying $1.29 for each song on iTunes or mysteriously copying songs from YouTube and uploading them to my dropbox (oops). 

The reasons why I absolutely love Spotify: 

• Incredibly easy to use 
• Sleek black display, easy on the eyes
• Quick to search your favorite songs 
• Cheap and insane $4.99 month deal (includes Hulu and Showtime), students only
• Soo many cool public playlists to choose from 
• See what your friends are listening to 

Since owning a premium Spotify account for over 5 years, I listened to different genres of music I never thought I would like, got special promo codes for early access concert tickets, and it is super easy to listen on different technology. I can quickly switch from listening on my phone to my laptop in under 30 seconds. 

What music streaming platforms do you listen to your tunes on? YouTube is still awesome, by the way 😊

Social Media as a News Source

According to the Pew Research Center, about 68% of their Americans look to social media platforms to receive their daily news.  57% agree that they are suspicious these sources are inaccurate.  At the click of a button, with most of us having our phone in our hands at all times, we can visit a social media platform that we can look to find our local and international news.  What's questionable about these sources is their credibility and accuracy.  We have become a generation of everything being fast-paced.  If we don't get something we want within a reasonable amount of time, it is not good enough for us.  Looking to social media for news sources is as easy as it comes these days to get your news anywhere, anytime.  Because it is so easy, we must question the credibility of these sources because they may not be as accurate as they appear to be.

Reading a well-crafted article can lead us to believe that our sources can be credible.  However, this is not always the case.  Inaccurate news sources are spread all over the internet every day.  We need to become more aware of what is reliable and what is not. The Pew Research Center also states that nine in ten Americans believe that social media companies have at least some control over the news that is being delivered to the public.  Social media companies tend to have established policies, meaning that they are sometimes obligated to prioritize certain news sources.  This can lead to bias and misleading information. 

The Pew Research center recognizes that Facebook is the dominant source of news for most Americans.  52% of U.S. adults use Facebook as a reliable news source.  This caught my eye because we had also mentioned this in class, and seemed to be a surprise to everyone.  I feel this is because a majority of young people have left Facebook to turn to Snapchat, Instagram, twitter, etc.  Facebook for me is something I never use, if you were to send me a message on Facebook messenger, it is likely that I will not see it for at least a week.  I usually use Facebook to connect with family members, but I do not use it very frequently.  I do, however, use Facebook primarily to seek articles that are being shared by my friends and family.  The most eye-opening thing to me when researching this topic was that Facebook was the most dominant form of social media for news sources.

Is Social Media Doomed?

In my Consumer Behavior class last week, I had to write a paper about social media. In that paper, I had to explain what role social media plays in my life and if I anticipate any changes in the way that social media operates today. In my answer, I responded that social media plays a huge role in my life. This is because social media is where I get all my information no matter what the information is. The last question was if I thought social media’s days were numbered.

I said yes and that is scary, but 100% true. Everything changes so why wouldn’t social media? Social media could potentially not be the number one method of communication anymore. I’ve tried to look up positive information about social media, but a lot of the articles are stating that social media’s growth is not doing very well. An article from The Guardian called Peak social media? Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat fail tomake new friends by Mark Sweney explains a little bit about this occurrence.

 In Snapchat’s case, it seems that they are not doing too well with users. After reading this I thought it was odd because so many people use it to communicate. Yet, I can see it going out of popularity because the changes that they have made aren’t getting the attention of new members. Sweney stated that “Snapchat- falling into line behind Facebook and Twitter- has become the latest social network to report declining user numbers in its half-year results”. Personally, I have stopped using most social media platforms as much as I have in the past few years. This is including Snapchat, I never found myself a huge fan of Snapchat, to begin with. I never really liked the idea of having a streak or my messages disappear. Some people love it, but I only use it to read Daily Mail and watch my friend's stories. I don’t use it as my main communication method. As I think about it I don’t use Instagram or Facebook as much anymore either. It is definitely from the lack of privacy as well as the awful redesigns that happen when creators update the apps.

            From these statistics, social media doesn’t look like it has a good future, yet in this article, they are only talking about these three platforms. Since I have been using Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter less I have started using Tik Tok way more. I feel like that is what is happening a lot throughout the younger generations. Do you think that social media is doomed? Do you think Tik Tok will take over until the next best app?