Unit 2 Blog

During unit 2 of this class, we learned and talked about the many ways of how social media is used to tell stories, sell things, or to just inform the user on a certain topic. Different platforms to demonstrate this are, for example, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Ebay, Twitch and many more. We also read an article explaining creative ways on how a user can use any of these social media platforms to tell some type of story or experience. Some of these ways include photo albums, videos, live streams, social media "stories," gifs, or even spreading a new hashtag for something specific. 

An example of one of these we went over in class includes a post written on Ebay about a man "selling his blackness" where he explains how his blackness can be used as a benefit, like for dating black people, essays or scholarships for black people, or for making jokes about other black people. This whole post sounds like a joke and is kind of interesting, but could also be offensive to some African-Americans. This unusual post is not something you would find very often or normally, but is a great example of how some people use social media platforms to do a variety of different things other than only the classic picture and text posts.

Another great example of a social media platform being used for certain purposes is one on Yelp where people will write reviews on the various food/drink businesses they have visited and write a short statement on their experiences and an overall rating on the food or drinks they purchased. This has been an extremely helpful way of people getting other people's opinions on various different eateries all over the world.
Instagram is an extremely popular source of social media today and has been shown a countless amount of times that people use it to share interesting stories or places they have been to. In one example we looked over, a girl named Rachel Hulin uses Instagram's platform to release a new novel she had written. This goes to show how much the way storytelling has changed in only the last decade or so.
The way social media has changed the way of sharing stories and other certain aspects of someone's life have really amazed me. I would have never thought that something as simple as a Twitter or Instagram post could change the way people learn new things and share experiences in their lives. It is very interesting seeing the different ways people have made/used these platforms for many different uses.