Social media is a new type of technology that revolutionizes our everyday lives. Whether we want to stay in touch with friends or families, read the latest news, or simply share what we love and do with the world, social media is there to help. And even though there are some privacy concerns regarding social media, most people still use this centralized type of service for lots of reasons.
Also read: Twitter Wants Your Date of Birth For Targeted Ads, Time For Decentralized Social Networks?
The Privacy Concerns Surrounding Social Media
Regardless of how you view social media, there is no denying that consumers have willingly given up a ton of personal information t platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Information such as a data of birth, a physical location or even your full name can be used against you by people looking to steal your identity.
Additionally, any picture you share on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter are no longer considered to be your personal property. Every image shared on either platform remains the property of either Facebook or Twitter, which is why it is never advised to share any professional images or designs on social media. And even if you were to remove the image from your social media account, a copy will still be stored on centralized servers.
Speaking of sharing images on social media, most images contain geographical metadata, including the time, date and exact locations of where these pictures were taken. While this may seem insignificant, at first sight, consumers are giving up sensitive data regarding their whereabouts, who they were with and how often they frequent this location. Advertisers are paying social media companies like Twitter and Facebook quite a lot of money for that kind of information.
Perfect To Keep Up To Date With News
Privacy concerns aside, social media platforms are a great way for consumers to keep up to date with the news. Not just news as in the media headlines, but also what is happening in the lives of friends and family. In fact, a recent study shows that Facebook and Twitter have both seen an increase in users checking these platforms for news headlines from all around the world.
In 2013, 52% of Twitter users claimed they used the social media platform to learn about what was going on in the world. In 2015, that number has increased to 63%, which is a 20% increase. Whereas 47% of Facebook users got their news headlines on that social media platform, the number increased to 63% in 2015. And there are several factors influencing that number, including how mainstream media outlets are using social media to promote their content.
Major news outlets such as BBC and CNN have embedded social media sharing buttons on their platforms, in order to reach a global audience. This is one of the major advantages Twitter and Facebook have: as soon as one person shares content, there are dozens of other people who are exposed to the shared content. Even if only a handful of them share it to their friends and family, a butterfly can easily be created.
Additionally, people who have been using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for quite some time now, have found additional ways to discover news. Some of that success can be attributed to both companies’ efforts to make social media more “news-centric” than it has been over the past few years. Twitter’s “Project Lightning” is set to focus on live event coverage,d breaking news to all of the platform’s users, whereas Facebook recently launched their “Instant Articles” feature, allowing news organizations to publish news content to Facebook directly.
Bitcoin News Sites Follow A Similar Trend
The way the world consumes media headlines is shifting slowly. Whereas people used to buy a newspaper just a few years ago, most of them are now using smartphones or tablets to read news on the internet. And even that paradigm is shifting, as most consumers are no longer checking the news sites directly, but stumble upon them by shared links on social media platforms.
Bitcoin news sites are facing a similar fate, as the number of visitors coming from social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit is playing an ever important role these days. Organic traffic is still very powerful, but the balance of power is slowly shifting to social traffic. As a result, nearly every major Bitcoin news site has incorporated sharing buttons for most popular social media platforms.
Where do you get your mainstream/Bitcoin news from, and which device are you consuming it on? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: The Verge
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Facebook, Twitter
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