Power to The People: social media

What do you see when you read this post? Words, letters, paragraphs? Try harder, look at the bigger picture. The words, the paragraphs, the background art, they all constitute parts of a web log or "blog". This blog is one example of the social media phenomenon sweeping the globe in this new century.For a time, all we did as users was consume media. If we did not like what we consumed, we could only tell others in our immediate vicinity, or over inconvenient and comparatively costly means of communication such as telephone. Now with social media, we have a voice that is easily heard.

Where standards of "good" or "bad" was once based on the opinion of "experts" such as professional reviewers, it is now the domain of the common man. The everyday user, through social media, makes known to the masses his or her own opinion. They could post on a blog like i do here, they could leave a short message on twitter, or put a status update on their facebook wall. Once you amass enough bad opinions about a certain product, no matter how biased those opinions may be, it would have an effect on the product's reputation and then eventually its sales. In an age where there is a growing distrust toward authority figures, more people are turning to the opinions of the average man over that of the experts. How do we know that those experts are not paid to say nice things? How we know that "scientific findings" were entirely accurate or if the attractive pictures in advertisements were not doctored? A photo taken with some ordinary handphone camera is a whole lot more honest than the photo shopped and color enhanced advertising posters.

The bottom line is, perhaps the proliferation of social media and the growing power of social media to influence others is due to the a growing distrust of the traditional media. Even big businesses are turning to social media to improve their products. For example, certain movie producers are known to participate in online movie forums as a way to do "market research" about the kind of film movie-goers would prefer to see. In this way, social media enables the people to directly and indirectly participate in production. This is where we enter the realm of "web 2.0".

Product makers and producers beware! WE now hold the reins. It is we who now decide if you are good or not, and it is we who are able to tell people about it. You can no longer feed us any old crap and get away with it because we will tell on you. Power to the people!