Over the course of the past decade or so, social media has begun to play a bigger and bigger role in our everyday lives. As a society, we’ve realized just how connected we have become through working together via Twitter, Blogging and your local Wi-Fi enabled Starbucks. Here are some interesting stories just over the past week or so showing you how critical and significant sharing that post or photo you took can be.
New York Yankee Alex Rodriquez or “A-Rod” as he’s known to his fan-base, recently came under fire by team manager Brian Cashman for tweeting something a little prematurely. Rodriguez, who is currently rehabbing after hip surgery, recently tweeted that the doctors told him he can play baseball again soon. After having read this, Cashman personally called Alex telling him to watch what he says. A-Rod’s excitement is understandable to a certain degree, but you still have to be careful with what you say on social outlets, especially Twitter. People can take your tweeted words and before you know it, you have an overnight phenomenon on your hands that you did not intend to have. Here’s hoping A-rod keeps his Instagram videos in the dugout to a minimum this season.
Another recent story is that of Rusty the bear’s great escape. The red panda escaped from the National Zoo in Washington D.C. sometime between Monday night and Sunday morning. The kicker is that the zoo released the information on the social staple Twitter, and within a few hours there had been tens of thousands of retweets asking for the rescue of this little guy. Pictures and sightings were also being shred. Rusty was eventually caught a little bit after 2 o’clock p.m. the same day over half a mile away from the Zoo, and it was all thanks to the locals of the capital working together through a website.
Whether it’s posting a bland status update, tracking and finding bad people, or just retweeting a celebrity, Social Media has changed the way we communicate as a whole. Understanding when and when to not post is key in many cases. It might be too early to tell whether or not it’s the right way to do things, but for the time being, social media is king. Who knows what going to be next.