Look around – is there someone on their phone right now? Perhaps they’re checking Twitter, on Facebook, thing picture of their food for Instagram or sending a Snapchat to someone?
We live in a society that communicates mainly through social media apps, but is that a good thing? Is social media a necessity in our lives?
According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, 90 percent of college students use social media.
Public administration Master’s Degree pursuer Diana Rodriguez, 26, has Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
“I use social media to keep in touch with friends and to keep up with what’s going on in the world and pop culture,” Rodriguez said. “It’s how people connect nowadays.”
Rodriguez’s favorite social media pages she uses are Instagram and Facebook. In regards to actually calling someone instead of communicating through social media, she said she will call if something needs to be spoken about promptly. Other than that. she will use social media.
Andrew Jordan Gamero, 18-year-old theatre major uses many different kinds of social such as Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, but his preference is Snapchat. In regards to why he uses social media.
“For the most part, I mainly just use it to follow up with my friends considering it’s difficult to get them to hang out from such distant places,” Gamero said.
Gamero doesn’t have a favorite form of social media, but because he uses Snapchat the most, he said it seems to be his favorite. He thinks our generation has grown accustomed to social media and most can’t survive without it.
“Physically, we can survive without it, but it would be harder for some, than others,” Gamero said.
For example, Gamero said he recently wanted to call a friend, but direct messaging via Messenger on Facebook was easier for the other person.
Linguistics/TESL Master’s Degree pursuer Rizgar Qasim Mahmmod, 28, has Skype, Viber, Instagram, Telegram and Facebook, but he uses Facebook and Telegram the most. Since Mahmmod is an international student, Facebook works best for him.
“My family back in Iraq is using Facebook more than other social medias. I usually talk with my wife there…but it is also a place where you can share your ideas, writings, and information about different fields,” Mahmmod said.
Mahmmod is also an English instructor, and uses a Facebook page to help those who want to work on their English as well as answer their questions for free. He also said he offers live programs on this page at least once a week to keep in touch with English learners.
Mahmmod said he believes social media is a necessity of life and can help people stay in touch with their friends and families.
Speech pathology major, Gillian Vista, 19, uses Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. She uses social media to keep in touch with friends because most of them attend school in different places. She said she uses Facebook for anything school related such as selling books and participating in group work.
Vista said she believes it depends on the person and their circumstances if they should have social media or not.
“I think it depends on the individual. Some people have everyone they need and care about close by, whereas some people want to talk to family on the other side of the world,” Vista said.
Vista’s favorite form of social media is Instagram for the food post recommendations and having the most connections on her page.
