It has been argued that social media has become far more than a convenient way to stay in touch with friends and family. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your position using material discussed in class as well as additional facts that you are aware of concerning this issue.

I was asked this question in my Social Media class and here's my thoughts and evidence to back it up.

I honestly believe that, yes, social media has become a lot more than just staying in contact with people.

One example of such is Wikipedia. For the three of you that don't know, it's a humongous online encyclopedia that ANYONE with the knowledge of the subject and the skill to utilize the interface can edit. For example, one can add new and relevant information to an existing article, or edit out false information that was made by previous editors. This allows this encyclopedia to stay relevant and accurate, which was a major problem for printed versions of encyclopedias.

Not only that, we also have the prevalence of Skype in recent years. A voice communication program that can be downloaded for free, Skype allows people to make voice calls to not only other Skype users from all over the world absolutely free, but can even call phone numbers for a small fee. This even extends to making video calls on both ends, provided that the users have web cameras to take advantage of this function. This has completely changed how people can keep in contact with each other, and it has only helped that the whole thing is free so long as you call other people's Skype accounts.

But by far, one of THE biggest examples on how social media has progressed can be seen on the MMOG scene. An acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Game, MMOs have unprecedentedly changed how we socially play games. Before, whenever someone wanted to play against a person in a video game, you either have to visit that person’s house, or you’d meet up in an arcade and spend quarters on the machine of your choice. However, these days all you need to play against someone on a game is to simply have an internet connection and you can play with and talk to friends and complete strangers online. Some of the biggest and most successful examples of such games are EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. (for those interested, League of Legends it totally free to play. If you aren't playing it, you're doing yourself a MAJOR injustice.)

And these are merely three examples on how much social media has evolved beyond keeping track of friends and family. I haven’t even touched on Youtube and Facebook, and they’re separate, monolithic entities onto their own that'll take their own articles to do in order to do them justice.