Summer is coming to an end, which
means that it's time to look back and reflect on all the highlights of the
summer. I have just returned from my funnelled trip to North
America; road tripping from the compacted city of Toronto down through the
mountains of Pennsylvania and finally settling in Washington D.C
was a great experience for me. This summer was both a great and depressing
time for viral stories in particular. A lot of awesome stories floated around
the Internet, but there were also a great many things that made me want to hang
our heads in shame at the world we live in.
While I was in Toronto, it was at the
time of best-selling rapper Drake's annual OVO fest. Drake has been feuding
with rapper Meek Mill for so long and after Meek Mill slammed Drake and
accused the rapper of not writing his own raps, Dozens of tweets and Instagram
posts, and innumerable memes ere released against Meek Mill. Drake’s
greatest weapon was his mastery of the Internet and understanding his fans.
When the time came to defend their "6ix God," they rose to the
occasion and "single-handedly titled the verdict in the court of
public opinion." Corporate America has even jumped into the feud between
the hip-hop artists. Whataburger, White Castle and Burger King flew into
the Twitter storm with humorous commentary on the drama that has been
playing out between the two in recent weeks. "Meek Mill take it from
us — if you gonna serve beef serve it high quality," read a tweet from
Texas-based Whataburger. This online feud has really tiggered
my curiosity of the power and influence of social media in our contemporary
culture. Social media allows
individuals to gather and express themselves in a much more simple and
immediate fashion. By giving people this capability, they not only have the
ability to share ideas, opinions and other contents, but also gain notoriety,
and expand their influence. Needless to say, social media has forever
changed the way society works, whether it’s the sharing of an idea, the
communication of news, or the availability of a product or service. Society
today is on the verge of a new way of existing that it’s never experienced
before. No longer will people from one side of the world be really able to say
that they will never see a person or communicate with someone from the other
side of the world ever in their life. As long as there is a person who wishes
to express their opinion, share their music or art, or simply say hello to
another human being in another country or culture, social media will allow them
to do so.
