I define social media as the essence of communication. It provides a playground for creativity and non-conventional methods of self expression. It motivates individuals to reinvent themselves and move past traditional approaches. It is new media without boundaries.
My educational background at UCSD consists of Sociology and Visual Arts with an emphasis on Studio Art. I love to create things that are abstract and sometimes have no reference to anything but my mind. I am bilingual; I can speak and write both in English and Spanish. I am misunderstood for a lot reasons, but my top 3 favorite are: I have an accent, I speak super fast, and sometimes I just don’t make any sense, but it doesn’t stop me from being creative and producing new things. Just as I speak fast, I am thinking twice as fast, which sometimes hinders me from being able to put my thoughts down on paper. By the time I’ve thought of it, I’m already on my next idea.
This is where social media has helped me capture my thoughts a bit more accurately and allowed me to communicate more effectively. I am not limited by social media. On the contrary, I am challenged to be more inventive in putting my point of view out there. For example, twitter allows us to micro blog 140 characters at a time. What’s the point? The point is that we have been given a social network platform to be artistic with the way we communicate. I was once challenged in one of my art classes to create a table from wire referencing my personality. Yes, the medium was wire. The message here is that I was able to show who I am artistically without having to say a single word. My assignment and twitter are similar; we are given 140 characters to express ourselves whether it is a quote, a comment, a re-tweet, or a link referencing something that we think is news worthy.
Social media facilitates communication at all levels and provides new ways to reach your community. How has social media challenged you to communicate more effectively?
(image by frozenchipmunk via Flickr Creative Commons License)
