Code of Ethics

The new Blogster code of ethics is an amazing thing. It is pretty basic knowledge that all people using social media should abide to. It is the common curtousy that everyone should exercise while blogging. I absolutely love the "Civility Enforced" standards. They list the common sense things that everyone should know about using social media of any kind. My favorite one on that list is not creating a blog to "be used to abuse, directly harass, stalk or threaten others." That is not the purpose of the blog and nor should it be. I also love the fact that there are consequences linked to abusing the blog and not using it for its purpose. Not all media has that and maybe it should. With all the cyber bullying and harassment going on, it might need to be a necessary action.

It is great that blogster has taken a stance to make sure that the blogging community is a safe and respectful environment. I think that more media outlets should do the same thing and enforce the Code of Ethics that each person accepts when they sign up.

The Great Social Media Debate

The social media debate has gone on for many years. There have been many opinions of who does it better and who should be allowed to be using these forms of social media. Personally, I feel as though anyone who hasn't grown up with it as teenagers should be encouraged to use all the different forms of media that we have. Just because they didn't grow up with it doesn't mean that they can't learn to be just as efficient as an adolescent who has grown up being a facebook or twitter user. In fact, I have grown up with various types of social media and I am still learning new things about it everyday. I wasn't on board with the twitter revolution from the beginning. I didn't know that in the beginning, before the app, you texted your tweet to 40404. It is ever changing and there are always things that you can learn about it. There are also so many new types of media popping up that it's hard to keep up on all the different features of all the different media. For instance I have a Pinterest account but I don't really pin things. With so many different outlets it is hard to keep up and maintain all of them. But to say that they can't be learned to the efficiency that the teenagers is hardly an accurate statement. My grandparents are 75 years old and they are learning how to text. They do a pretty good job for not being immersed in it like I was. They still have some questions but they are willing to learn. If the willingness to learn is there, then it is possible they can be just as efficient as anyone who grew up with it. Age shouldn't be a factor in what outlets of media anyone can use. My younger sister is 13 years old and has had a facebook account for at least a year. There are still things that she learns to do, but she is pretty efficient. There should be no limits for people who want to learn how to manage and use social media of any kind. We should embrace the people who want to learn and teach them what we know instead of bashing them and telling them they can't because they are too old or too young. Social media does not have an age cap and nor should it. So, instead of complaining about them not knowing what they are doing, help them to learn what they are doing.