As a 21 year old in a digital age, I use new media daily. When I wake up in the mornings, I check my Twitter and Instagram feeds. On my way to work I use Pandora and YouTube for music during my commute. When I get to work I'm constantly using social media sites, and different traditional and mobilized websites to evaluate the current marketing program of my clients so I can make a recommendation on how they should market their business going forward. I also use Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends on a weekly basis.
Using social media has given me a fuller connection to hundreds of people in the way that I often times know what the people I connect with on social media are doing, who they are with, what job change they just went through, the new puppy they just bought, or any update in their lives that they chose to share on social media. Although I'm more aware of events in more people's lives, I feel that it's a more artificial connection. These messages aren't personalized to me and I rarely start an interaction based on someone's post unless I'm already very close with that person. Social media makes me feel more included in more things, and gives me a sense that I need to be updated with these people that I subscribe to. I constantly have new information to sort through, which makes me feel impatient when I go through all of my Twitter or Instagram feed. I now feel like I demand content, even though I'm not fully engaging with the content I have. I quickly sort through whether something is important to me or worth spending time to read and understand fully. In summary, I feel that the constant access to information has caused me to learn to filter through all of the information I receive on a daily basis in a quicker and less thorough manner.
Since I don't follow the news very much I'm less affected by the agendas that the news groups have when reporting. I do feel that technology has made me less patient, which is a negative influence. It does, however, give me a chance to voice my opinions to an audience of my peers. This is positive because it enhances my communication skills. It allows me to be a contributor on a higher level, and also has resulted in "the ability of people to engage in discussions and to get additive knowledge and perspectives is... better that in was" (Gladstone 2012).
Gladstone, B. (2012, February 17). The changing nature of knowledge in the internet age. On the Media. Retrieved from http://www.onthemedia.org/story/187775-changing-nature-knowledge-internet- age/transcript/.
I agree that new media allows us to stay in touch with those far away. I love that I can have online interaction via Facebook with my friends from college, and even though I have not seen some of them physically, in person, in twenty years, I still feel as close as ever to them through that interaction. I love that I can view the pictures from my brother and his family's recent trip to Disney World online, and share in the fun that they are having miles away. Like you, however, I also realize how impatient I have become. For instance, when I post something on Facebook, I want to hear instant feedback on it, forgetting that real life demands and things such as a time zone difference may not always make that possible. It's only been in those times that I have been able to force myself to step away from media that I realize how silly my impatience is and that I need to just relax and live in the moment in front of me rather than online.
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