What forms of new media do you use daily? How has new social media influenced your perspective of events? Are these positive or negative influences?

I must say that I am a Facebook-aholic. The first thing that I do when I get up in the morning after I do everything else that you do is check Facebook. I love being able to connect with my friends and family on a daily basis. When I am on Facebook, I feel like I am reading a book of stories. Someone is always posting about what is going on in their world, good or bad. In a way, it removes me form my own experiences, good or bad. I guess what I am really saying is that sometimes I can relate and other times I can't. I can say that I am enjoy staying connected to my Facebook family because under any other circumstance, I can't say that I would have reached out to so many of my friends in any other capacity. That's the great thing about social media itself. You are able to connect with so many people at any given time. The downside is that you are least likely to be as engaging with friends on social media as you would with those in your personal circle.  What social media does is takes away the ability to have much needed face to face interaction. Yes it's easy to post and respond to post, but I feel that you still lack the intimacy that face to face allows.

I don't really uses any of the other social media sites such as Twitter or Instagram, although I do have accounts with both, I am more into Facebook. Other sites that I enjoy are LinkedIn and Amazon. What I have noticed about my internet usage is that I don't really frequent websites to check the news. I go to AJC.com for local news, but not so much world news. Oddly enough, I do follow certain news feeds on Facebook. If anything is going on, it pops up on my timeline. I find that very convenient because if there is a story that I am interested in, I can click on the link and read that particular story.  So on my timeline, I might follow CNN and MSNBC.  I also may follow local news feeds as well. I may not go to a particular site, but I can still follow them on Facebook and get the same information. I really like that.

I would say that my experience with social media is pretty positive. The only thing that I dislike is the lack of intimacy. Social media can be very impersonal sometimes. I really enjoy that one on one time that I get with people in my personal circle. I also like being able to tailor my page to fit my personal needs. I can follow whom I want to follow and be friends with whomever, and it is all up to me.