Social Media in Meaningful Ways - Assignment Example

In conclusion, recommendations are made on how learners can make meaningful use of social media.All kinds of media play crucial roles in our modern world. Whether newspapers, radio, television or more recently web-based systems, they all they reflect the culture they are in, but they also help to shape that culture. The work of Marshall McLuhan in the middle of the twentieth century helped us to understand that the way we relate to these media is also in itself a valuable aspect of our culture.

One can think of traditional uses of media like sending a postcard or making a phone call to one’s mother on her birthday. Often it is not what we say that is of value, so much as the fact that we choose to make contact via a particular medium. Media change the way we interact with the world and with each other. This is what McLuhan means with statements like “the medium is the message” (MacLuhan, 1964, pp. 7-21). His work has focussed attention on how the use of technology changes our understanding of the world.

With concepts like “the global village” and “surfing the electronic waves” he anticipated the information age and reflected on what it means for mankind to be using all sorts of new technology. MacLuhan would not be surprised to note that the information superhighways are littered with tweets and chat conversations that contain little more than formulas like “Hi, what are you doing, I am on the bus, See you later.” The fact and frequency of communicating are what is important, and the way it builds relationships at a distance, not the actual message that is conveyed.

MacLuhan even thought about the implications of cyberspace and virtual reality before these phenomena came into being. Students can be overwhelmed when there are too many choices and can be confused by material that is too difficult. Fortunately, the learner is not alone in his or her journey,  because social media like YouTube and Facebook provide a band of fellow travelers ready to help in any voyage of discovery. Sensible use of social media opens a door to truly collaborative learning, and so long as educators and students alike are able to open their minds to new ways of locating information, ways which permit collaboration instead of solo study methods, the benefits of using social media for educational purposes will be immense.