We live in a world now where royals reveal important information via Twitter. It is interesting to me to think about that: How we now live in a world where important pieces of information make it onto Twitter faster than is heard about through word-of-mouth. I know that to most of you this isn’t important, but I think that this shows a difference in the way information is disseminated across media.
I began thinking about it this morning–I live in China, by the way–while watching the Mayweather-Pacquiao match. While watching this match, I kept tweeting my feelings & confusions, liking & retweeting others’, and generally watching social media. Granted, I don’t really understand boxing, but it was still an event.
I know, there are many other articles that say “put down your phone, camera, tablet, social-media-making-device and just live!” But why don’t we? We want to feel connected; we want to know what others are thinking. Instead of saying “did you see that?” to your friend or the stranger next to you, the social media user says that to the world, and to the people who say no, we retweet or repost so our friends aren’t alone.
Is this a good thing? I don’t know. But if this can be used to engage, motivate, and move people–and tell you about royal babies and how badly Jamie Fox sang the national anthem–then I don’t see a problem with it.
