Social Media in Plain English

For one of my posts this week I will look at the Social Media in Plain English video that was shared via Blackboard. Having used social media for quite some time now, I feel pretty comfortable using and explaining the pros and cons of using it. However, after viewing this video I feel I can now explain what social media really is a lot better (and have a great example to use as well)!

To be 100% honest, I was a little lost when I began watching the video. I found myself thinking, "What in the world is the connection between Facebook and ice cream?" After allowing the video to continue to play, I finally started to understand the analogy being used.

The video relates social media (a medium for people of all shapes and sizes to express their thoughts and ideas) to a town that makes all different types of ice cream. Each citizen in the town starts to create their own unique ice cream flavors and starts to put up a board to let people leave comments, reviews, or descriptions of their flavor. This is very similar to the posts that people put on their social networking sites. People are able to write about what they want and then can see comments and suggestions from people who would like to share.

I think I might keep this video on my favorites and use it to explain social media to older generations of people. Just this past weekend at my family reunion, I was trying to explain what Facebook and Twitter were to one of my elder grandparents. I would have been nice to use this video to help me explain what it was!

Check out the video below to see for yourself!

References:

- Common Craft. "Social Media in Plain English." Online Video Clip. YouTube. May 28, 2008. Retrieved on July 29, 2014.