First discussion topic - Social media

So many things to talk about here. Personal use, interesting concepts, abuse, marketing, addiction, the future of it … What are your thoughts?

I have an Instagram account on which I post photos and short videos of my everyday life, that way I can stay in touch with my friends even though they are far from me.
I like to spend time on twitter in order to do my marketing watch and stay informed about what's going on in the world. I am easily depressed by people's hate, racism and homophobia on this social media, that's why I decided not to stay there very long per day (only 20min).
I also really enjoy Reddit, it's like a big forum divided in different communities. I like to go there to see news about a specific subject. For exemple, I like the game "Hollow Knight", and I can't wait for the sequel to come out. So I subscribed to this forum where people are posting news and leaks that may come out.

floriendive wrote:I have an Instagram account on which I post photos and short videos of my everyday life, that way I can stay in touch with my friends even though they are far from me.
I like to spend time on twitter in order to do my marketing watch and stay informed about what's going on in the world. I am easily depressed by people's hate, racism and homophobia on this social media, that's why I decided not to stay there very long per day (only 20min).
I also really enjoy Reddit, it's like a big forum divided in different communities. I like to go there to see news about a specific subject. For exemple, I like the game "Hollow Knight", and I can't wait for the sequel to come out. So I subscribed to this forum where people are posting news and leaks that may come out.

what type of game is hollow knight?

Admin wrote: what type of game is hollow knight?

"Hollow Knight" is a "Metroidvania", it's a subgenre of action-adventure video games. This genre uses game design and mechanics that are similar to the games "Metroid" and "Castlevania".
Metroidvania games feature a large interconnected world map the player can explore. Some part of the world are limited by doors and other obstacles that can only be passed once the player has acquired special items, tools, weapons or abilities. Acquiring such improvements can also help the player in defeating more difficult enemies and finding shortcuts and secret areas.
I love this type of game because I really have a feeling of achievement when I play it.

Hollow Knight is a 2D game published by Team Cherry in 2017, and was partially funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. this game quickly became a landmark in the indie gaming industry. Since it released on Nintendo Switch in 2018, the game sold more on this console than on any other platform (which shows the value that independent developers have in developing on this console).
The game takes place in Hallownest, a fictional ancient kingdom. The player controls an insect-like, silent, and nameless knight while exploring the underground world. The knight has a nail as a sword, that he uses both in combat and environmental interaction. As we traverse an ancient plague-infested kingdom inhabited by various insect, we have to fight bosses, unlock new abilities to progress and discover the mysteries of the kingdom.

Here a video reviewing the game and showing more of it, I hope you will want to play this game and enjoy it as much as I liked it


And here's some pictures of the game, look how cute (yet powerful) the character is

Social media is one of the best creations in the world, he turned the world into a small town where everyone can know the news of what's going on.

Personally, social media is important for me, without this technology, i would have been sad all the year: i'm a foreign student, i lived with my parent 20 years,  i used to see them everyday until last year when i've been accepted to study in that country, they call me
frequently in a video call  to know my news, so social networks have made my life easier, comparing with my father, he had studied in Russia, there was no Watsupp, no facebook, he used to make an appointment to talk for 2 minutes with my  my grandparents that leave in Morocco.

On the other hand, we have stopped living the moment itself, i have instagram too, the majority of my friends share what they do during all the day, when we decide to go for a drink, every minute, a person travels in his world and does not realize what we are talking about.

On the marketing point of view, communication became less expensive, i noticed that people who have a business for example take advantage of the location of potential customers: for example when I went to Marrakech, i  took a photo, i posted it on instagram, i've  receive a lot of privates messages of restaurants telling me to go and taste their  delicious food, how it works: when you post a publication and add a localization, you have a whole page of all the people who recently took  photos there, so companies will visit this page and send private messages to people by making direct communication. i can show you that in  our next session.

in conclusion, i think that social media has more advantages than disadvantages, you have just show future generations how to use it better than the way we use it now .

Today the social network Instagram is use as a workplace for many people and we call them Instagram influencers. It is hard for common people to become influencer, usually the most famous are celebrities: singers, actors, sport players and most of all people from reality TV.
This year in master I am trying to become and influencer by sharing lifestyle, travel pictures… I have created my second account (more professional) a month ago and I can say that it is hard to have followers: it is a full-time job. You have to be on Instagram every day, posting pictures, stories all day long. You must prepare all your post by organizing photo shoot, you have to find you real identity because Instagram is full of different corporate identity. However, it is very interesting to analyze what people like, don’t like how you can have influence on people, it is very enriching, and I can use the analyze in my university work.
For the moment I don’t have a lot of followers, but I will work hard everyday to offer nice visual to people.

The socials Médias appeared in the end of the 90's with the first blogs and collaborative websites. The evolution of this sector was also fast than intense.

Very quickly Facebook is postionned among the market leader with Twitter and Instagram. Their popularity has increased in the same time as the development of Internet and even more with the smartphones.

Now when we take a step back, we notice that the last few years have been marked by a lots of scandals that have impacted negatively the social networks. Breach of privacy, exploitation of personnal data for political and commercial purposes, impact on the mental health of the users, ...

The socials networks are now a part of our modern life and society. But the new generations are born with it and doesn't have necessarily the perspective to the numerous problems linked to these new media.

This problem aside, i used Facebook and WhatsApp very often. Its a good tools to plan activity with my different friends group. Sometimes, i post some music or short video on my Facebook wall but nothing more. I don't want to put on the social network some details about my private life.

To conclude, i think the social networks ar a greats tools to keep contact with my friends but we have to be carreful in the way we use it.

Nowadays, social media is something that almost everyone use in his daily life. If you ask someone about social media, He will probably respond something like “ it’s Facebook, twitter, Instagram and all that stuffs…” ., but in reality, social media is more than that, it covers many others digital tolls. With social media, we can find many people with similar interest, we can share knowledge and experiences, we can learn from each other and we can also develop ourselves personally or professionally. Moreover, social media provides the abilities to keep in touch with people around the word, to create sources ideas, to share problems or to provide answers to all ills without having necessarily a face to face communication. However, there are negative things that can be attributed to social media. Indeed, despite we share photos, opinions and our experience of life, many people can use them to make some illegal action, to destroy the image of a person or to create rumors. Finally, one of the biggest issues that have been arise from social media is the tendency that people compares themselves to others which is deplorable.

Personally, I use social media like almost everyone, and I like It but I think social media have some advantages and inconvenient. Social media can be good for talking with people far away from you and follow what they do in their life. Also, social media is nice for know about what happened every day in the world and be conscious about what’s going on everywhere. Social media is interesting for companies, they can communicate about their product, brand on social media and they can have a lot of notoriety thanks to social media.


But in social media there are a lot of fake informations. And some people live for social media and I think it’s sad because they don’t really enjoy the real life. Everyone is free to do what they want but personally I think it’s too much when people tell all of their life in social media. About the future of social media, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more used in the next years with new concepts and new way.

I really enjoy social media. It's a way to share a small part of your life with others but also to give an opinion on certain subjects.
For me, each social media allows to show different side of your personality
I use Instagram for mode and esthetic
Snapchat more for be in contact with my friends, share with them what I do in a day, what I buy, and my parties
Twitter is more to stay informed and get involved in causes that are important to me
I have been using Tiktok since recently but it's an application very cool for developping creativity and when we love to create some content
Even if I really enjoy social media, I think we need to learn to use them in a such way that they cannot be dangerous for us.

Social media is part of our life today: it brings people together, gives access to a wide range of information or even offers a lot of attractions. They allow us to feel “alive” in a way. But faced with this idyllic universe, there are many dangers. The lack of control, the creation of superfluous content, the loss of privacy and insecurity, constitute a significant risk for people, especially for the most vulnerable.

That is why I think it is necessary to protect oneself by carrying out several actions. Disclosing the least amount of personal information, not sharing your location, being careful with your contacts, are examples of things to do in order not to fall into the traps of social networks.

My personal use of social media is mostly centered around inspiration. I don’t like using them to spy on other people’s Facebook profile or to scroll nonsense pictures on Instagram endlessly. In fact, I’m kind of boycotting their traditional use (as of TV!) because I don’t want to be one of these idiots who believe all they are told. But I think social media can be a huge source of information (if we have the ability to sort them out), and a way to communicate with many different communities, in which we might find some really interesting people. I can relate to this experience, especially since I’ve started talking about books on YouTube. And even if I know that this online platform might host some haters and that I don’t have many followers yet, I really enjoy publishing videos there. Readers can gather on my channel to discover new books, to share their point of view and to do some recommendations in the comments. It’s also very pleasant to see more and more “regulars”, where some of them became real friends to me. To conclude, I’m very glad that social media exist to empower our creativity and to connect with people despite distance and borders.

Social media are very important to our generation, nowadays it is part of our lives.
Indeed most of people share their life every minute. Every meal they eat, every item they buy, anywhere they are and so on.

Personnaly I’m not posting that much, maybe once a month or even less. I use to post some landscapes of where i am. I prefer not to talk or to share my private life because it can be « dangerous ». People can be really mean and we have to be careful.

I use social media especially to keep in touch with my friends who are in others cities, and with my sister. I can talk with them with different chatting group, show them my new surrounding, organise some activities or even photographs of enormous spiders that penatrate my house (I hate spiders).
I also use it to watch some videos like recipes, dance videos or funny videos. It is a way to discover new things and to escape.

If you think in a simply way about Social Media, a lot of person will say that they can keep in contact with their friends from school, its easier to contact someone and to meet him/her than before blablabla... Yeah, it's true, but did you ever consider the darkside of this social media ?

Did you heard about the lawsuit of Facebook ? I'm sure you've heard about. They maybe sold a database in which there is some information about your age, your identity, your family or any picture of you where we can see that you enjoy partying with some friends... (I'm not talking about you John )

I think there is so many things to say about Social Media as the egocentrism of the new generation or the influence of social media on our life (because social media changed our life for sure) etc.

I think social media is a nice thing because it allows us to keep in touch with our friends or family. It’s allows to meet new people and it's a huge source of distraction. We can also see what’s going on in the world so it can be an information tool accessible by everyone.

But it can be dangerous if we don’t pay attention to the information we give and people we talk to because there is some ill-intentioned individual, hate, bullying and so on... So it can be unsafe for vulnerable people because they are not careful. That's why we must beware of what we see and what we say to protect us.

I remember having used my first social media called “MSN” more than 10 years ago helped by my big sisters, it was just a way to chat with our friends online because, in my case, I was not allowed to use a mobile phone. I never realized it was the beginning of a huge new world.

Few years after, I discovered “Facebook”, for me it was normal and needed to create an account as soon as I could, I think I sheeted putting a fake date of birth, I wanted it now and not in one or two years.

Today, when I think about it, I’m just telling me: “Lea you are such an idiot as if they imposed a limited age, there was and there is an explication” but I can see around me that we were and we are all the same.

We all know what kind of risks we take, like sharing our life which may be seen all around the world by unknown people. Social media are too easy to use, causing harassment and bullying that some people cannot face, as well I can affirm, we use it fare too much, it’s even more than that, it’s an addiction. Good or not? my opinion is divided.

I would say, now it’s worse... young people use every single social media they can find, I know that nowadays is not a trend anymore, using those media is essential to fit in the society.

To be honest the actual world could not exist without social media, as a person, as a brand, as an organization, also as a place, we show and share our image, our tastes, our lifestyle, our relationships, our values, our thoughts, our habits, our talents, our creations… our life.

Now, as a future marketing worker, I could not be happier. I explain: I cannot say in how many ways social media help finding our target and be able to offer personalized services or products.

It’s also difficult as consumers can compare in few seconds but it’s all the challenge I love, finding and making the best to stand out from the crowd. You cannot be bored because everyday something new arrives like products or trends, or new communication forms.

I will end by saying I understand how companies use social media, how those platform influence but I’m an easy target and a victim of them! I know it,  but it’s fine.

Personally I use social media for two main reasons.

First to communicate with my friends. For this I mainly use Discord when it comes to playing online video games together or just to chat. I also use Facebook, and more particularly Messenger, with my friends who like video games a little less.

Secondly, I use social networks to keep up to date with the latest news on various subjects. In order to do that I use Twitter because it's very interesting to be able to follow various specialized accounts on very specific subjects. In my case, I really like sport and more particularly football so I follow severals accounts specialized in this. I also follow news channels such as “Le Monde” for example to keep me abreast of more “traditional” news around the world.
However, although I regularly use Twitter in my daily life, I find that this social network is less and less qualitative because of the quality of the information which is sometimes bad or quite simply because of the environment more and more unhealthy because of many controversies on sensitive subjects. Twitter is becoming, in my opinion, a "toxic" environment where people easily insult each other for not much in the end ... This is why to keep myself informed I also use traditional means such as TV or even specialized websites and not just Twitter.

Finally I have an Instagram account where I'm totally inactive because I'm a very bad photographer and I prefer to admire the creativity of my friends or celebrities rather than being a content creator myself. At least for the photos.

Even if social networks have a lot of advantages, it also have a lot of inconvenients.
In fact, in order to get as much "likes" as possible some people modify their pictures but they do not only add filters (which is really common on Instagram) some of them are even capable to modify what they really/truly look like: they will sleek their nose, bigger their eyes, lips, booty...
This became a big problem when young people register to this platform. Indeed, they will only see photoshopped pictures and they will want to look like and identify themselves as what they see on this social network which is not the reality.

Social media is a benefit for our daily life. It allows us to stay in touch with our loved ones, and to interact with them in different ways. It’s also a good opportunity to have fun, to be cultivated and an effective means of communication for companies.
Unfortunately, social media and internet can be a negative and dangerous source for users. Especially for the young people, it can impact them psychologically, in particular by the harassment. And also, by comparing his life to the idealistic and false lives displayed.
So, from my personal point of view, it is necessary to be careful on social media and don’t spend too much time on it.

I have been using social media for several years without taking it seriously but only for entertainment.
But I think social media has some interesting functions such as professional opportunities, sharing, or solidarity.
I choose to write about solidarity on social media because it is an important subject to me.

We can find different types of solidarity on the internet today :

- online funding pots that can be created by anyone who wants
> In France we often use Leetchi or Le Pot Commun
- organization's websites or apps where you can make a donation
> Share the Meal : you choose the country or the population you want to help and, for instance, for only 0,70€ you can feed a child for one day.
- On Facebook, especially for your birthday you can publish a fundraising campaign for the organization that you want and your friends can donate.
- Also, I noticed an increasing interest for all the problems we can find in the world on social media. There are more and more people sharing about those problems on their account.

When we talk about social media, people usually think about a way to stay in touch or sharing informations... But mostly of them forgot about the negative aspect of social media. From a personal point of view it's just a miror. We show only what we want to show and most of the time it's not the reality. And it can be dangerous because people relate to the image they refer to others and invent lives for themselves. That can create complexes to people.

I believe that social media have a real impact on our relationship with others but we must use them with care.

MeganeC wrote:My personal use of social media is mostly centered around inspiration. I don’t like using them to spy on other people’s Facebook profile or to scroll nonsense pictures on Instagram endlessly. In fact, I’m kind of boycotting their traditional use (as of TV!) because I don’t want to be one of these idiots who believe all they are told. But I think social media can be a huge source of information (if we have the ability to sort them out), and a way to communicate with many different communities, in which we might find some really interesting people. I can relate to this experience, especially since I’ve started talking about books on YouTube. And even if I know that this online platform might host some haters and that I don’t have many followers yet, I really enjoy publishing videos there. Readers can gather on my channel to discover new books, to share their point of view and to do some recommendations in the comments. It’s also very pleasant to see more and more “regulars”, where some of them became real friends to me. To conclude, I’m very glad that social media exist to empower our creativity and to connect with people despite distance and borders.

are you going to share your site with us so we can check it out?

Florian D. wrote:If you think in a simply way about Social Media, a lot of person will say that they can keep in contact with their friends from school, its easier to contact someone and to meet him/her than before blablabla... Yeah, it's true, but did you ever consider the darkside of this social media ?

Did you heard about the lawsuit of Facebook ? I'm sure you've heard about. They maybe sold a database in which there is some information about your age, your identity, your family or any picture of you where we can see that you enjoy partying with some friends... (I'm not talking about you John   )

I think there is so many things to say about Social Media as the egocentrism of the new generation or the influence of social media on our life (because social media changed our life for sure) etc.

you are correct. I have no friends and I hate parties.