The Pros of Social Media

 Anyone who knows me knows I've come to loathe social media. It creates a distorted reality where everything is a highlight rather than the grind of the heavy lifting of existence. Everyone wants to say, "Hey! Look at me! I did X today! Aren't I special?" 

No one posts that they forgot to get milk on the way home from a 10 hour day and have to go back to get it when they want nothing more than to just relax for a few minutes. Instead they have to get back out there, fight traffic and crowds, get their milk and get back home. Twice as exhausted, anxiety rising, it's dark out now, and you've got time to eat and get to bed so you get to do it again the next day!

Social media, in its current form, has become the tool of the stupid and arrogant. TikTok's entire business model is to do this very thing in short format! Something brief and entertaining enough to keep the user from turning it off to increase screen time.

My blog assignment this week is to talk about a breast cancer meme on the most evil of social media sites, Facebook. 

"One of the most powerful forms of social media mobilization is cyberactivism. Here, individuals utilize the Internet to promote a particular cause or charity." Yeah...maybe but what about the causes that go unheard? People at the end of their rope but because they don't have a following their pleas go ignored. Social media dehumanizes the individual and creates a character instead. A character that may have similar traits but a character and not a real person. 

The thing is that the charity decided to get the message out with double entendre prompts where users gave their bra color. "One private message asked females to change their Facebook status to the location where they like to put their purse. These status updates would read “I like it on the floor” or “I like it behind the couch.” So you can see that while this is harmless fun it can send a message that might not be intended on a platform everyone can access. 

I have zero use for social media and it's a problem during this term because both courses deal with me having to create social media accounts again. I have to get on Twitter again, wade through that cesspool and find marketers on there to follow. 

So to sum up, there are no pros to social media. There is an entire world out there to live in and experience with real people. If you don't like the world we have, well you aren't going to fix it by sitting on a social media site and complaining about it. 

Warby Parker

 Warby Parker is a business that was started by friends to help change the prescription eyeglass market. "Their business model focuses on online distribution, rather than showrooms " 

They market directly to the consumer rather than distributors in order to keep the costs down. They are known mainly from their commercials in which they show frames being manufactured and packaged. 

With a friendly sounding voice actor, the commercial shows a practical side to making frames for prescription lenses. The genesis of the idea was that most optometrists sell their own frames and lenses in showroom with their practice. A one stop shop for convenience. The problem the friends wanted to overcome was the higher costs associated with this practice. 

You can pay a premium for convenience. While Warby Parker isn't quite a convenient as a local doctor, it is considerably cheaper! Also as with a lot of corporations now like Bomba and their socks for the homeless, they are helping their communities by giving away glasses to those in need. "The company is able to provide a pair of eyeglasses for a person in need for every pair of Warby Parker glasses that a consumer purchases."

If I wore glasses I'd probably use a local doctor anyway and keep my dollars in my community. 

Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. Wiley-Blackwell.

Hello 2022

 Come here often?

I've been burned before, the last two times were rough. It really wasn't me, it was them! They were horrible! They had promises of a bright new future only to wake up to two years of the world going crazier each day. 

Yeah, so I'm not getting my hopes up this time around. 

Want a drink?

Let's do this....