Social Networking

I recently read an article that took me by surprise. The title was 5 Surprising Social Media Statistics for 2013. The first fact was that there is a huge number of people using only mobile Facebook. There are nearly one billion people in the world using Facebook, and 200 million of them have only logged into the mobile app. Social media apps are almost necessary for cellphone companies to sale phones. The second fun fact was that YouTube is more popular than cable. YouTube has become so popular, advertisers first show their adds online, then on television. The third surprising statistic is the some social networking sites are more sought after than others. Facebook users have by far surpassed any other social media sites. 95% of users log into Facebook everyday. Another thing that astonished me was the statistical ratings of children under ten on Facebook. Five million children are members. Companies realize this and use it for marketing. They think if they can win over someone with their brand while they are young, they will always prefer that brand. The fifth alarming statistic was how many people have Facebook internationally. The number of members internationally is three times the entire population of the United States. This is good though, because companies can expand all over the world. These statistics will change drastically in years to come. These are just the early stages of social media.
Another article I read was called Social Media Is Making You Stupid. Basically this article is talking about how easy it is to find answers to question without having to think about it. When asked a series of questions, people in groups with the influence of others answers could respond quickly and correctly to the answers. Individuals answering the questions would have to stop and think, getting the answers wrong before they answered them correctly. The author is trying to get a point across that all the time people spend playing games on their phones or checking what someone else is doing, could be spend reading or making yourself smarter. The researchers who wrote some of the statistics she was writing about stated, "increased connectivity may eventually make us stupid by making us smarter first". They could have not been more correct with this statement. At first we seem smart because we can copy someone else's intelligence, but in the long run, we really never learned the answer in the first place.
In my opinion, social media can be good or bad. I personally have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I use almost all of these daily, and sometimes they take more time out of my life than they should. I use these apps to keep in touch with my friends and family I don't see on a regular basis. I like being updated on what is going on in their lives. Some of the bad that comes out of social media is that there is way too much time spent playing different apps when users could be doing something more productive. Also, there shouldn't be so much drama on these sites. It is kind of sad to see how much time people actually spend on some of these apps. The main thing that bothered me though was how many children have a Facebook. I wouldn't have even thought about social media when I was ten, and I am not saying that because I am "old". I'm only 23. Children need to get outside and play more instead of playing on the computer and talking to people they aren't supposed to be talking to. Social media can be a good thing if used in the correct way, but too many people abuse their privileges.

http://socialmediatoday.com/docmarkting/1818611/five-surprising-social-media-statistics-2013
http://time.com/9207/social-media-is-making-you-stupid/