This year was plagued with doom and gloom and many horrific events, most of which were viewed through social media.
However, it’s important to remember how social media has helped people this year! Here’s a few stories about social media from 2017, that will brighten your day…and your year!
Child Regains Christmas Presents
In Australia, a child’s presents were stolen right before Christmas – one was a gaming keyboard by Razer. After hearing about the robbery through an online article, the CEO of Razer – Tan Min-Liang – reached out on social media, asking if anyone could get him in contact with the family. After the search was successful, Min-Liang provided the child with a new keyboard, plus other computer and gaming accessories, so the family’s Christmas wasn’t ruined after all!
Going Viral
Out of all the videos this year – there’s been some great ones – some inspirational and others downright hilarious. We’ve seen soldiers return to their families for Christmas, deaf babies hearing their mothers for the first time and cats behaving…oddly. Social media has provided many of us the chance to outlet our stress and see the positive things that are happening in the world, that are often forgotten or lost to the terrible events we read on the news. One heart-warming video comes from a man who proposes to his ex-wife three years after they had divorced. His son videoed the whole thing as his dad re-proposed to his mum with a poem he had written. Such a touching, personal moment resonated with many as the video represented real love and received over ten million views! Social media often helps us remember that we aren’t truly alone in our struggles.
This is also evident in the case of a young girl who helped her school gain blankets through her Christmas list that went viral after breaking the hearts of everyone that read it.
It’s created careers!
Cardi B, now a famous rap artist, rose to fame through her Instagram account. Her increasing social media following meant she was eventually noticed. She was a regular person that expressed her views and voice on social media, which resulted in a successful, musical career. The power of social media should never be underestimated!
Social Media Has Started Thinking About Everyone
As Facebook and Twitter looked more at the well-being of their users this year, Facebook also started making changes on its site for blind users. It’s turned its attention to its facial recognition feature and is currently updating it to identify people in photos for people with screen readers that have low vision. The aim is to make a blind user’s news feed easier for them. By using the recognition feature and artificial intelligence, a person can hover over a photo and hear the caption, a visual detail of the picture and who is in the image. This is a great step towards the future and shows how sites like Facebook are giving back to its users. It’s also made fantastic improvement to its harassment and privacy policies.
Facebook also bought an app called TBH that asks positive questions like ‘Who makes you laugh the most?’ A user can simply select one of their Facebook friends, but the person remains anonymous. It’s an uplifting app that undermines all others like it because of its positive aspects.
It’s important to see the positive side of social media – the side helping people to find their missing relatives, making modern life more accessible to those who struggle to see or hear and for those that deserve recognition in their lives! Also, social media has provided us with videos of normal people that have kept us laughing and entertained throughout the year! It’s an ever-growing force to be reckoned with…especially in times of doom and gloom.
