If I have learned one thing on my social media sites it's that anything you post on there can spread like wildfire and people you don't think will see it- will. Maybe this leads to the conclusion that I need to delete half of my followers and friends because A- I don't know them B- they are random people I have accumulated over the years from people I am friends with C- they are friends of my parents D- people from my high school I haven't seen in 4 years. Anyways one thing is for sure: your newsfeed does creepy things to you.
From this weeks personal lesson- liking photos.
On Friday night I had a date night and we had to wear camo. I was decked out in my overalls along with my friends and our dates. Of course photos were tagged on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter of me and my fellow camo-ed out friends and by Saturday afternoon I had accumulated many likes from various sources. I mean don't get me wrong, everyone enjoys seeing their numerical number of likes increase, but I had to step back a minute and remember who half of the people were. Creepy. Lesson learned- some people don't mind liking things on Facebook of people they aren't really close with. Personally, I do not do this unless it gets me a free coffee at Starbucks or a free top at a local store here in Athens. I always stick to my friends when it comes to spreading news and sending any type of notification to the other person's home page.
However, here is the other side of the story that I have realized this week. People need those random friends on sites to get their message to spread. It's an interest sparking way of spreading communication and instant. Here's the story:
One of my closest friends was telling me about a friend of her's from home who is using social media to make her dream job come true. She loves Ellen Degeneres and wants to work with her. Also, side note is that she has been trying to get tickets to her show for years and finally got some for this month. So, in honor of her dream of meeting and working for Ellen becoming closer to a reality she has started the Ellen Needs Erica campaign. Look it up- #ellenneedserica And, she has been posting a video everyday leading up to the day of the show on YouTube and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't hurt that she is hilarious and probably could be Ellen's best friend. But, the point is, she is reaching so many people and getting so much attention from people she has never met before. I mean I have never met her but I watch the videos. I am pretty sure her college (University of Arizona) newspaper even did a story about her. I mean, this is serious advertising. Everyone who has heard about this is rooting her on and sharing her videos. So far, there have been 25 videos adding up to a total of 56334 views. I think that's a lot for a girl to get on her own by just doing funny things like Ellen would do. She has people retweet #ellenneedserica all the time and has set up a Facebook so that she can share the videos and her thoughts leading up to Feb 21st, the day of the show.
I think that this type of sharing and liking is totally okay and worth it. Erica is totally cool with people liking her pictures and videos to get her the attention of Ellen. Plus, she needs those random mutual friends and people she doesn't know to spread her videos and goal. It's what has really made a difference and could even be the reason Ellen potentially hires her for. It's a really neat thing to watch and I can't wait to see what happens on the 21st.
So, there's my conclusion. Some people like me prefer to not have their personal lives spread via social networks and get a little spooked when things happen showing people see your every move. But on the other hand, some people NEED those friends because they have a purpose. They are able to share and like and send and voice opinions to form groups that can gain attention. For Erica's purpose, she doesn't care who sees her singing in her car as long as in the end it gets shown to Ellen. That's why social media is so great. It provides opportunities for people to communicate to people you don't even know. Without Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter Erica would probably have a much harder time reaching Ellen and could possibly never live out her dream.
GO ERICA!
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