Graphic by Kimmy Whittington
Has Facebook died? I’ve noticed people in the past few months who have gathered an unnatural hatred for Facebook. When in comparison to other social media outlets available in this day and age, college students in certain social demographics tend to be swaying away from Facebook and moving to other media.
Specifically, this realization occurred to me when I was attending a recent SGA meeting. At the Feb. 3 meeting of the senate, it was brought to the group’s attention that the TTU Student Government’s social media accounts were now under the control of a new Public Relations director.
It was made clear to the senate that as senators it is our responsibility to like and retweet all of the posts that were produced so the page builds more of a fan base. It was also said there are plans for an Instagram to be made for the SGA.
To me, I felt like the SGA was missing a vital audience: the average college Facebook user. Come on. It’s Facebook, the only social media site so far to have a major motion picture made about it.
Being the crotchety old man I guess I’ve become now, I asked what had happened to the SGA Facebook page and my question was met with hushed chuckles and murmurs throughout the senate.
I was told that the new PR direction of the SGA was to focus more on newer, hipper media such as Twitter and Instagram.
I was a little confused when trying to grasp what was being said.
To me, excluding sites such as Facebook from a social media plan ignores a group of students and users who will not be reached by the information being put out.
For those of us fogeys who still use the old wooden ship that is Facebook, it should be noted that the site has grown since its humble start in the mid 2000s. Some people may not like this aspect of the 2015 Facebook dynamic.
Over the years, Facebook has grown from a site that was fully designed for American college students to connect with to something now that is used by people of all ages from all over the world to connect with. Facebook went from being the thing to have to becoming a site where your grandmother can poke you and write happy birthday on your wall.
I don’t see the problem here though. It’s not like I’m suggesting we use MySpace or Friendster. From my personal experience, when trying to reach people on social media sites, you should always try to reach the highest number of people you can. Although it isn’t perfect, I think Facebook is wonderful website for sharing information with larger groups of people.
Facebook is basically the gateway social media for the rest of the social media sites. Most people generally start off making a Facebook account before they even join Twitter or Instagram. There are Tech students on campus who haven’t even joined Facebook yet. These people could still be years away from receiving these updates if social media is the main way of exporting the information.
The upcoming generations under our college generation might be in a different situation, regarding how information is shared and received, but that is something to build up for in the future. I think it is great that we are even using social media at all to try and connect to students. It shows the SGA is trying to get the information out and help students. We might just need to take some other avenues to reach our goals more effectively.
