A chocolate samosa or french fries dipped in chocolate.
An odd combination at first glance, but tasty as hell, right? Oh and talking about odd, hard-to-forget or even hard-to-imagine combinations, we’ve got one to add to the list: social media and news. Ironically, it does not even sound that odd anymore.
Well, one may say a little thank you to our previous blog for establishing that news consumption has been the most popular reason for using social media in 2021. Though to be honest, it is a real-world observation that cannot escape us. But if you believe numbers more, then here it is: forty percent of internet users cite keeping up with the news and current events as the main reason for using social media (check gwi.com for more).
So how did this odd combination end up being more popular than pineapple on pizzas?
The answer is quite simple, you see. Being the first true digital natives, we the Gen Z, spend our entire (almost) lives online. The reasons are aplenty. But with the plethora of opportunities that came with the internet, also came the biggest social dilemma — FOMO.
(Fear Of Missing Out — For those who still haven’t caught up to the Gen Z lingo)
While information exploded, the hours we spent reading it shrank and so did the size of the interface. From around a 24 x 30 inch newspaper to a 40 inch tube TV, and finally a 5 inch screen that fits right in the palm of our hands . On one side, a sea of knowledge calling out to us, on the other the day running out in a jiffy.
Keeping tabs on our friends and family made us miss out on the world and spending time catching up on news made us feel left out of our friend circle.
But then something magical happened, social media platforms came into the picture. They transformed the game by combining news from the world and updates from our friends all in one.
Today news reading is replaced by checking news feeds on Twitter or Instagram (yeah, Business Standard confirms). Journalists are no longer divided into news presenters and news reporters; there’s a third and a more savage entry: Citizen Journalists. And this is not all. As we mentioned, we no longer need to wait for the early morning newspaper or our favourite prime time news show. We’ve quite literally broken the space time continuum with information being just one click away.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is curiosity. And the proof my friend is blowing in the wind. Well, in numbers to be literal. Reuters Digital news report 2021 shows that 63% of people consume news through social media.
It’s safe to say that we’ve witnessed a grand shift in trends. What was once a filler for spare time, is now a habit. What was once meant for simple entertainment is now used for gaining information. From a side quest, social media has become the one true adventure, especially for our generation that grew up empowered by media and technology, more than any other.
But is it really the fairy-land that it appears to be? Or perhaps the question we should be asking is: Where do we go from here?
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