Happy Social Media Day!

June was a jam-packed month. Aside from hearing romantic vows at weddings and others, celebrating the existence of social media is also marked in June.

I joined the CDO Bloggers, a group of influencers in Cagayan de Oro City, to celebrate the day of a something that ruined our normal life – taking pictures before eating, stopping by colourful walls of boutiques for an OOTD, snapping and making yourself funny through filters – Hehe, joke. Honestly, social media is everything, provided that you have to be responsible on producing your content.

The celebration was held at a beautiful Pane e Dolci in Nazareth, Cagayan de Oro City. The kind officers prepared a learning session with Google Business Group CDO – Mr. Jon Doblados and trivia games as well.

I really enjoyed the night. I realized being with a bunch of people that I share the same goal, and interests is just overwhelming. Thank you so much for all sponsors who are behind our laughter that night, including Smart Communications Inc., Bria Flats Cagayan de Oro, Organique World International – CDO, and of course, Pane e Dolci.

Before our learning sessions, as usual, we were asked to introduce our names, and at the same time our domain, and also to answer the question that goes on like, “How Social Media affected you?”

I was so taken aback that I was called, so my answer was not sincere. So, I better write it here. Hehe.

Social Media. When I was still in college and doing our com research for our thesis, one of the things that we have to study and understand is social media, on how it works and how it influences the mass, especially the millennial.

Social media has been a good tool to promote shared meanings. It helped people elevate their venues of communication with regards to speed and distance.

I am not going to enumerate all here the advantages of using social media because the same to its scope, it is never-ending. Instead, I am going to share to you how social media influenced me.

I have been an active user of the old Friendster back then. I was still in my second year high school that time when I was introduced to this social media world. Parts that I appreciated about Friendster is you have to send comments to your friend’s profile in order to keep your feed active, having them comment back. I liked those graphics I loyally get from glittergraphics.com and Photobucket. I loved how it connects people, that I got to regain communication from my friend who were transferred to other high school, distant relatives and even those people I thought who were just passers-by – those people I met during competitions I joined back in my younger years, those I have befriended during trainings or travels. I loved it, that when I discovered Facebook is threatening Friendster (which it is successful though), I felt so sad. Just thank goodness that I have appreciated Facebook in the long run.

I have seen how social media developed time to time. Facebook offered more advanced technology and connected the world. I appreciated it even more when I became a Communication student, studied some of it and found how beneficial it can be in this information era. I began blogging, posting photo releases and most of all, sharing information that is vital for others to know, such as government programs and initiatives, the fact that I know more about these programs being a government employee. Doing so makes me happy. Social media tested my creativity and skills. I discovered a lot of things about myself since the day I became connected to the world.

As a blogger, social media is everything! Perhaps, there are a lot of people who criticized the industry I am in, because according to them, we are being too connected. However, the important thing here is you do not know you get to inspire other people too. Like me, I became a blogging geek because I was also touched by hundreds of bloggers I have been following. These people inspired me to live a very interesting life. Social media enticed me to connect with them, apply lessons I gained in my own life, be more informed and thus, be involved.

How about you? How did Social Media influenced you? I love to hear it from you in the comments!