Social Media: Creating Bridges

Posted on by Lorena Daou Paixao E Silva

Once upon a time, around 2008/2009 I had a blog on Blogspot. It was a place where I could write my thoughts and interact with the few people that actually read what I had to say. Around that time Twitter and Facebook where starting to become a big thing with celebrities joining in and interacting with their fans and, I decided to join in out of curiosity. My friends started to join, my family members too and these two websites became a way of people to communicate no matter where in the world they lived. Old friends began to find each other again while new friendships blossomed.

Personally, it was a way to “be close” to family members that lived far away and not only share my thoughts but also, to hear other people’s opinion. Social media allowed me to understand visions different from mine and it taught me a lot about respect. That’s why I believe social media has the power to bring people together, to build bridges between countries and continents. The biggest examples we have of that happening is the tragedy that was hurricane Harvey. Thanks to social media, victims were able to find help with the use of a hashtag and thanks to online campaigns we were all informed of how could we help to bring a little bit of comfort to those people.

Social media also made the connection people audience and news media. Most of the news organizations utilize social media as a way to not only search for stories and characters but also, making themselves more approachable and allowing public interactions (tips, compliments, opinions and, even hate). The internet can either make you the most popular person on the planet or the public’s enemy number one.

Either way, social media is power.

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