What you know Who you know

How do you know what you know? Name one new thing you learned using a social media site today and explain why you believe it is true. What source did you use to acquire this information? At times, are social media sites reliable for obtaining credible information? 

I do not believe social media should believed without some through and research. Mythbusters proved that even videos that look quite real can be very fake. I always consider the source of where my information comes from. I always double check it with another source or two as well. 

I know all my information about a city country through extensive research and first hand knowledge gained from experience. Other than Texas, I am a unofficial ferret expert. I have conducted a rather excessive amount of research on them and I have also owned three. I believe they are just like people with their own personalities, likes and dislikes. I learned most of my information from two people who I consider actual ferret experts. A lady runs a ferret shelter in Texas called Weezle Wings, a shelter for the terminal, the special needs or unadoptable ferrets. She has been such a help. The other lady runs Ferret World. She has tons of videos and runs a large website devoted to helping people understand their ferrets. I have also had a dialog with these two ladies and both are friends of mine on facebook. I could chat with them if I had a problem, I would describe it in detail, usually send pics. They would help accordingly. I never would have known they exist without the aid of social media. I believe their information was true because of their long experience with ferrets. 

I am trying to become an expert on cats. I never had an indoor cat and I wanted to know what my cats noises actually meant so I researched and found a site that had them categorized with video examples of the main types. I saw a video of a cat doing the same thing my two do, so they must awfully curious about everything. They get frustrated in the morning when I don't open the patio so they can go frolic. I tap resources such as my best friend, who has had indoor cats much longer than me. I find out something they like and tell him, and then he'd tell me if his cats like the same thing. It was a trading of information with web research, best friend and posting questions on facebook. I didn't know some of my cats weird behavior was actually normal according to facebook land. Apparently most cats do roughly the same things. I believe the social media on this one because so many people said the same thing. If 5 people who have cats, that I know personally, have the same issue, then I'm not crazy. I'm just a cat owner.

Old Fogie or so I'm lead to believe.

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 only use Facebook as far as online social is concerned. I do not have a date plan on my phone, therefore, all my online interactions are on my computer. I almost signed up for twitter a couple of times, but all the best tweets are posted on facebook anyway. I'm not aware of any others aside from those two. I'm a rare or diminishing breed, I like verbal interaction with people. I call amazon when I have a problem because I like to speak to a person, I know weird right. I'll occasionally text my bff on google text but I still expect a call every night, so I we can verbally exchange ideas, thoughts, and goings on. I hate email. I hate having to remember to check my email, The tee fury daily email is only reason I check it at all.

I think what social media I do use has expanded my world view and perception on world events. I didn't read newspapers unless my grandmother handed me an article and told me to read it, although I would read the art section regularly. I know about news all around the world and the US because it is posted on facebook. Otherwise I would be very disconnected with the world around me today, I've just never been that involved with people or places I don't know. I think my influence with social media is positive. I can still talk to the friends I made while studying abroad without having to spend a dollar on postage every time I want to connect with them. It is much easier to share anything with people I like, from hilarious pictures to actual new items I thought were interesting. I hope I didn't bore you too much this is first thing I had to write in this fashion in a year and a half. I normally write fanfiction, dialog and descriptive text is very different than this style of writing.