If stats for Men in Gorilla Suits tell us anything, it’s that many of you are reminded about new episodes through social media.
Chances are, your parents and even grandparents are on Facebook. Once “the next big thing hits,” and is proclaimed the killer of the previous network or app, something new comes along to take its place.
Our desire to communicate in short bits of information seems to know no boundaries. Social media now drives revolutions and political campaigns. It’s a way to stay in touch with people all over the world or sell the things you make. What was once seen as a risk by companies is now an asset.
But it’s not all a wonderful thing. Some studies show that social media makes many people feel bad. Despite being connected in ways we never imagined, it leaves many feeling more lonely than ever. But is that the fault of the social networks, or the person using them?
It’s a topic that interests us enough that when Shawn pitched this show, Christopher thought, “We’ve done that one already…”
But we haven’t (we just talk about social media a lot). So, finally, it’s a show dedicated to social media.
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We kick it off talking about the first social media platforms we ever used — going as far as why we joined the particular site. Then we chat about Facebook: when and why we joined.
Many people use social media to stay in touch with friends. We chat about which friends we stay in touch with through social media, and then talk about whether or not we have friends who refuse to use social networks.
It seems with each new network that a lot of hype surrounds the launch of new things. Does social media live up to its hype?
There are people (like Christopher) who tire of it all and take breaks. We discuss how often we take social media breaks, going as far as covering if there are some networks we avoid more than others. But even those taking breaks return: we talk about why that is.
Like it or not, social media is part of life. We chat about how life would be different without it, and then jump to the goofiest — and best — uses for social media we’ve seen. We also talk about the most annoying, tone-deaf use for social media.
We wrap it all up as we often do, talking about the future — this time, the future of social media.
Comments are just another form of social media, and we’d love to hear what you think about it all in the comments for this episode.
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CM Stewart says
OMG I have so my discarded / forgotten profiles on everything from yahoo to youtube to facebook. I’m so good at losing passwords. Also I’ll make an email addy just to sign up for something. Once I signed up somewhere just to vote for Christopher for some photo. 🙂
gorillamen says
Well thanks for the vote, whatever it was 🙂
I definitely love the, “This is my sign up for shit,” Web email. As far as passwords, I used to be terrible with them, but I now have a manila envelope with all passwords written on it. It is a visual representation of just how connected to things we are…it’s kind of amazing. I just counted, and I have logins to 80 things! A lot of it is Web related, like all the stuff for Men in Gorilla Suits, but it’s also bills and doctors and other things. After having an email account hacked YEARS ago when I had only a handful of accounts and they tried hitting other things, figuring I used the same password for all things (I didn’t, and it saved me), each of those 80 various things I use have completely different log in information and passwords.
CM Stewart says
Hmm… why do people care who follows or doesn’t follow them on social media? What’s the benefit of hiding a feed as opposed to not following / unfollowing? I’ve never understood this.