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The Culture Shift

We are in an age where culture is transforming almost constantly. Just as quickly as we got used to the floppy disk we invented hard drives. Walkmans were replaced with Ipods, jobs started becoming remote, and we now have access to more information than we have ever had in the history of humanity. How? Because we are more connected than ever before. Enter social media. As much as it is demonized through clever memes and viral videos, it does have its benefits. By the end of this post you will be a proponent of this culture-defining medium that has everyone talking. Or, posting, rather.

I was born in an analog age, where phones were hooked up to walls by chords, and letters arrived in our mailbox. Just the other day I was reminiscing about the feeling of opening up my mailbox to find a handwritten letter from an old friend. This was a frequent occurrence during the summer of 1993 when I moved to Florida from Canada. Reading letters from my friends helped me adapt to my new environment.

But these weren’t just letters. These were expressions of our friendship. For example, each one of my friends had their own unique handwriting, which I could recognize a mile away. Not really, but you get the idea. Also, never would I receive just a letter. Sometimes my friends would include stickers and cut outs from magazines of cute outfits and celebrities we liked. Basically, the letter was a complete experience that connected me so personally to the one who sent it.

Embrace The Power

I bring up the concept of the letter to show you how much I valued the communication culture of yesteryear. This, however, does not stop me from embracing what has us all staring into our phones now. Like with everything in life, if we don’t adapt to inevitable change, we are bound to experience stress. When social media first reared its head it was thrilling. I could finally connect with family and friends in other parts of the world in a new dimension. Being able to express pieces of me was somewhat cathartic. I was not only exposing myself to the world, but also to myself. Users have tapped into behaviors in their personalities that they may have never known existed thanks to social media. Still, there is so much more to this medium. Social media has shifted power into the hands of the average person.

Twenty years ago we got our ‘news’ from limited sources. For example, the local newspaper or the nightly news. We had little choice but to believe everything we were presented, and formed opinions/took action based on it. It was all too easy for the media to influence the masses through information they broadcasted. We were, effectively, stuck. We have come a long way since then. Facebook alone is used as a primary news source by many who once relied on TV and newspapers. In fact, it has spawned the production of several new, unconventional, media outlets. Huffington Post, for example, enjoys immense success because its writers are actual people. They are not trained professionals forced to follow the culture of the establishment. They are you and I.

Be The Change

What does this mean? It means that you can write, record, or photograph something, and make an impact. Instead of simply ingesting information, you can contribute to it. You have a voice, and now you have the audience to listen to it. This is empowering. We are slowly moving away from conventional news sources and looking to one another for information. That information is sparking movements. For example, Black Lives Matter. This would not have become what it is had videos and stories not been shared through social media.

What we are now discovering is that traditional media has failed us. It has failed to uncover reality while continuing to paralyze us in a state of fear. Do we see disturbing news through social media? Yes. But we also see the beauty of daily life. There is a balance to everything. Social media enables us to see that.

The next time you shy away from scrolling your Instagram feed in public, or feel that you need to freeze your Facebook account, think about these things. The good things. Craft healthy behaviors that help you become a positive part of the social media landscape. When the world gets chaotic we have a choice to make: run away from it and pretend it doesn’t exist, or face it and work to improve it. Social media gives you that power.

What’s in a name? Companies have taken words that once had meaning in our lives and used them to brand their business and products. Not only that, but they have copyrighted these words so that nobody else can use them for their own business. Language has become, essentially, for sale! I was born in an era where I thought the names of products were just that; the name of a product! It’s only when I grew older and began hearing those product names in sentences that I realize they actually had meaning. Take, for example, a shampoo called Finesse. When I was younger I would see commercials for this shampoo and it consisted primarily of beautiful white women waving their hair around and rounding up with a bottle with the word ‘Finesse’ on it. I thought finesse was limited to the brand of a shampoo. I bring this example up because I received an email from my boss last week asking me to use finesse when dealing with a particular client. The first thing that came to my mind when I read that request was shampoo.

Modern Language

Language is undoubtedly the most powerful and influential medium of our time. We use words to express our intentions. This could be anything from telling a story to disciplining our children. Words have the ability to uplift as well as destroy relationships, yet we have created mechanisms to distort language to suit our perceptions. Take, for example, texting and email. How many times have you sent an email or text only to have it misinterpreted? People will only perceive written words based on where they are, emotionally, at the time of reading. We have bastardized our primary form of communication by taking the feeling out of it and leaving much to the interpretation of the recipient.

How can we begin to overcome this in our modern life, when the proliferation of communication is actively at play? For one, we can use more emoticons! These seemingly silly, playful little pictures are far more effective and conveying a response while mitigating the risk of misinterpretation. Why do you think they have become increasingly popular over the years? It’s much easier to send an emotion across than to try to wrap every little feeling up in words. Lets think about non-verbal communication. Have you ever just sat around with a friend for hours and said nothing, yet ended up having the best time of your life? If you haven’t, try it. Schedule some time with your best friend, your significant other, or even your SELF, and don’t say a word. A shining example of the effectiveness of non-verbal communication is the beautiful relationship we have with our pets. Sure, we talk to them sometimes but most of the time we are just in each other’s presence, fulfilled with the idea that there is mutual love and non-judgment. I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) the other day in the Ancient Egypt exhibit looking at hieroglyphics. Egyptians used pictures to covey messages and we are now moving that same direction. Just look at the popularity of instagram and snapchat. Twitter might limit your character limit on a tween but pictures, and videos, are worth a thousand words!

Social Media Rockstars

Instagrammers and Snapchatters with ginormous amounts of followers have come to be known as ‘Influencers’. I learned this last winter when I was enjoying some coffee inside the lobby of the Ace Hotel talking to a friend about another friend who was looking to hire a social media manager for his newly renovated hotel in Times Square. A young man sitting nearby overheard our conversation and chimed in stating that his brother is a social media influencer and looking for full time work. This was the first time I heard this term and was intrigued. If you amass a great following on social media you can actually sell out your authentic self online and get paid by corporations for influencing those who follow you. Circling back to my claim that corporations are trademarking words, they are also buying out some of the more popular people you might follow on instagram and other related social media applications. People know this, yet they are not bothered by it. Like any good marketing campaign, the money goes into making sure you don’t realize that you are being programmed. When you scroll through a feed and see something related to marketing for a brand you are, on a subconscious level, being fed a message.

From Follower to Leader

We now have a problem not only with words being capitalized upon but our social media heroes. What is a person to do? A good start is to be aware of this. If your influences change from authentic to corporate you could find others. They may soon sell out which brings you back to square one. In this case, why not be the influence? Why not self-educate and live to your fullest potential so that your life becomes one big hodgepodge of super videos, pictures, and status messages? You will be living so large that you won’t have time to follow anyone. Instead, people would follow you. You can be that good. I believe in you!

Win With Social Media