We were busy working on client’s SEO and social media campaigns on March 5, 2013 when Venezuelan President passed away after battling cancer. There was no TV on, no radio. We found out from what is becoming the number one source of news nowadays, Facebook.
Thanks to the plethora of status updates celebrating the death of Chavez, we were well informed that he was dead. The world of news as we know it has changed. Your friends are now becoming leading news anchors through Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, posting statuses, tweets, creating memes. What are your thoughts about this shift of acquiring information?
Our thoughts: This new trend is both wonderful and perplexing simultaneously. It is very cool indeed that information is updated at the drop of a pin as soon as something leaks as they say. We can be constantly updated through social media networks that we primarily spend most of our day on.
I am currently writing this blog post and I have my Facebook page open and my Twitter and my Tumblr feed is running. It is a good way to stay informed of what is happening in the world via outlets that seem fun. I get all the information I need to know in just a couple of sentences (or in Twitter less that 140 words).
However, my issue with becoming informed through these networks is the source from which it is coming from. Is it trustworthy?
The problem with getting news from users on social media is that their opinion comes along with it, albeit, not an opinion I am always interested in. The fact is that they are not reporters and their sources, well who knows what their sources of information are. Well, while I am not opposed to hearing the news from my fellow friends on Facebook and Twitter, I have to take it with a grain of salt.
If you really want to know what is going on in the world, its okay to hear it from Facebook first but if you really want to know, I suggest you go to a trusted news source to find it, and I don’t mean the Onion!
