I recently read an article about James Franco in which he declared that social media is dead and he sees no future for the Twitters and Facebooks of the world. He said, "My thought was 'this is my Twitter. I can do whatever I want.' But certain companies I work with contacted me about what I was saying." He encouragegd everyone to make the time to actually write.
I have to disagree with Mr. Franco. Social media is huge and it only keeps growing. More and more people are catching on, and companies are finding more ways to use social media to their advantage. I can see where Franco is coming from, because speaking our minds can sometimes be inappropriate or unneccessary for the internet. This kind of thing can get people in a ton of trouble, as I discussed in an earlier blog.
I am concerned, however, that several celebrities may follow in his footsteps and realize that it's not worth it, just another way for them to get themselves in trouble and start rumors in the public eye. What's so great about it if you're so restricted? Another thought that's crossed my mind is whether celebrities do this kind of thing because they WANT to, or because their publicists told them to. What are your thoughts?
Something else to realize is that celebrities are role models. If they start bashing social media, everyone else may follow suit. My question here is, do celebritites have the power to significantly downsize social media?
I also disagree with Franco, I believe that social media has just started to catch on and that we still have a long way to go with this new marketing tool. However I do think that many of the celebrities have publicists that highly encourage them to create twitter and facebook accounts. The reason they encourage them to have these accounts are because they are a great marketing tool! They let the followers know what their favorite celebrities are up to and what kind of things they are interested in. I do not think that celebrities can cause a halt to the use of social media, but they can reduce the use by certain demographics.
ReplyDeleteNo celebrities won't be significant in the downsizing factor of social media. Celebrities have always been the talk of the town and just because they dislike social media doesn't mean that their name won't be incorporated within it either way. James Franco spoke his mind saying that social media will crash and burn, however his opinion is still part of the on going process of social media. Social media has negative aspects and positive one's, however both cases are part of the process of social media. Some people might follow James Franco's thoughts, but will still have some sort of part in social media whether it be Facebook, videos, blogging, and/or twitter. There is no way out of the on-going success of social media, because any type of communication positive/negative is still a use of social media.
ReplyDeleteBrent made a good point. Yes, celebrities can be very influencial, but I think the public has already grasped onto using social media. I think James Franco (who has proven to be a big user of social media outlets) is just trying to start a rise and topic that he knows is slightly confrontational. This is his way of sparking talk.. obviously it caught our attention. haha!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Franco says social media is dead when he is the one who posted a video of him on stage at the Oscars. That video spread enough for us to see it here in Kentucky so clearly social media is still alive. I agree with Melissa - maybe he's just wanting to get people worked up. Cool post!
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