Would you consider social media a need? At this point, I’m sure we all know that Twitter has been all over the news. Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter there has been a mass exodus of users, layoffs, as well as very disgruntled former employees. According to Merriam-Webster, social media are forms of communication being websites for social networking and micro-blogging through which the users can create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content such as videos. After listening in on a Talk Space on Twitter, one would think very differently based on the vocal opinions shared. What is the price of utilizing someone else’s platform? How did we arrive to the point where social media is so vital to our lifestyles?
I am a very moral for the people type of person so when I read the news about the prank on Twitter that cost Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to lose billions of dollars I had a hard chuckle. So, if you’re not up to speed, someone created a parody account on twitter posting that “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” According to Forbes, this joke caused the company’s stock to fall 4.37%. For the low price of $8 to purchase a verified blue check on Twitter under Musk’s newly imposed monetary means to gain revenue, one person caused that much damage. My take on insulin is that if it isn’t free it should be for a very low price affordable to all in need of, as well as, the price on any other medicine. Medicine shouldn’t be capitalism based because we all deserve longevity, but that’s for a future entry. I am more than sure there were some checks and balances that could have been in place that would have avoided a snafu such as this one. I’m sure Eli Lilly doesn’t rely solely on social media, but that’s a huge price to pay in my opinion.
Outside of the public changes to Twitter, the reaction to the changes have been very interesting. With some celebrities threatening a mass exodus from the platform to the concerns of the journalist being a viable source of information on the platform, I had to question. What’s the other social media outlets? Who proclaimed Twitter the sole source of impactful news? Twitter is mostly comprised of user created ideas and not facts in which there’s evidence all over the place of lazy TV news relying on information from the platform without fact checking sources. One example of lazy news sourced from Twitter was the story People Magazine put out about Leonardo DiCaprio donating money to Ukraine. I’m not going into my thoughts about “developing story” as it pertains to news, but the fact is that the basis of social media are ideas to be research and get more information from more credible resources. I’m not going to be naïve and oblivious to the fact that information comes at a rapid pace, has been very impactful and you can interact with celebrities and other people of social influence on Twitter. It just holds a weak argument that one social media outlet holds so much weight being a credible source of information as it pertains to news journalism. The worries about the changes still doesn’t justify it being such a crutch in those that expressed concerns about their career. I’ve just always had the notion that things like this don’t last and we shouldn’t get fixated on just one platform. This constantly evolve sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. At the end of the day, we’ll all just probably move on to the next new latest and greatest social media platform
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