Treatise on Social Media as a Student and Consumer

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I hate social media. Well, I don’t hate it. I hate talking about it. I’ll elaborate in a minute. Some disclaimers: I gratefully use Facebook to keep in touch with friends at other universities, I enjoy the tweets of Seth Macfarlane or Bill Maher on Twitter, and I am no less susceptible than anyone else to a YouTube video of a cat doing something silly.

But to talk about how social media has impacted me as a student? I find the subject dull, unimaginative and, at the worst, banal bordering on mind-numbing. I’m only a sophomore, but every single Newhouse course I have taken has devoted considerable time to repetitive discussions in worship of social media’s awe-inspiring power. Every course. I get it. Social media is important, and new(ish), but the percentage of my Newhouse education that has been spent drooling, open-mouthed, at the multitude of 15-second news sensations created by social media is outrageous. I have to wonder what has been dropped from the curriculum in its place.

Don’t get me wrong, I see the economic value of social media. If I were starting a business, I would certainly have Facebook and Twitter accounts. I would be thankful for the increased brand recognition, additional sales, and user feedback. But that’s a no-brainer in the age of the Internet.

Further, social media has made journalists lazy. I can understand why Good Morning America would want to have an interview with, say, the owner of a turtle whose skateboarding prowess went viral instead of covering new partisan violence in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It’s cheaper than foreign correspondents, and the public would rather the news stay light-hearted. I can understand it, and I can still think it’s a mighty shame. And how did the recent trend of simply reading watchers’ tweets on air during a newscast become okay? People watch the news for the facts and expert analysis, not the mundane observations of Average Joe with a Twitter handle like @badazz331r. Cringe worthy. I’m looking at you, CNN.

Maybe it’s a generational thing. My generation has been Facebooking since middle school. Growing up with social media has made it normal, while the fascination of slow-on-the-technological-uptake Generation X is now in full bloom. Just listen to any of my Newhouse professors.

Now, stop telling me I should start a social media campaign, and start savaging my writing so I get better.