Sunday, March 27, 2011

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Forum at BYU

Zuckerberg, taken by BYU News

As Dr. Burton suggested we do, I went to the interview in the Marriott Center last Friday in order to listen to Mark Zuckerberg talk about social media. Although it had little (if not, nothing) to do with Shakespeare, it was enlightening to hear him talk about Facebook becoming a digital platform for different digital applications.

I think this is important to our class's study of Shakespeare because so much social learning can be (and is) done through Facebook. Some of the most entertaining and interesting things about life I have learned from Facebook.

There have been numerous debates in the Communications 101 class that I TA for about whether Facebook will replace our current news sources. People in older generations look down on the current rising generation for their dependence on social media for news. But having a centralized location for all news sources is actually quite beneficial, especially considering it is a more likely place for a 20-year-old to spend their time.

Facebook can also be beneficial for news gathering. Many reporters have a separate work Facebook account where they can receive tips from people that associate with their beat. How much more timely can information be if you have a constant feed to it?

It is my hope that this interview will spark a lot of innovation coming from all quarters, not just Facebook, so that the current social media can be perfected.