Could Social Media Help You To Become More Intelligent?
According to traditional social etiquette guides such as Debretts, polite, dinner table conversations should never revolve around politics, religion, and money. These subjects are often deemed to be too inflammatory and will most likely cause tension amongst guests. If you've ever found yourself standing silently while work colleagues discuss the impact of global climate change, then you may be interested to know that social media could teach you far more than how cute cat memes are!
Break Info Into Bite Size Pieces
Even those who read, listen or watch daily news content will often struggle to recall details from extensive, long form articles. Well respected broadsheet newspapers like the New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post are famous for their Pulitzer Prize-winning in-depth investigations and fair, accurate and contemporaneous reporting. However, these days we prefer to process our information more visually and photo led journalism has become increasingly popular. Articles are often written in shorter, more interactive chunks while listicle journalism is delivered in clear, easy to read sentences like this that are easier to remember. Social media platforms like Snapchat, also allow sites like Buzzfeed, Vice and The Huffington Post to edit their articles further leaving only the very best bits for readers to flick through.
Create Categories
Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all have filtering software that allows you to follow specific hashtags, groups and information led articles. For example, if you were interested in women's rights Twitter would list all accounts, movements, tweets and hashtags that mention these two words. Lists will also allow you to connect with other users who are interested in the same things you are, giving you the opportunity to continue the conversation and learn more about your chosen subject.
Set Up Alerts
While we're not saying you need to watch the news 24/7 breaking news alerts that have been preset, depending on your interests, succinctly present information that's relevant. By being aware of breaking news alerts such as economic developments that could have an impact on your business, family life and the way you live you're forewarned as much as is physically possible. It also means that you don't look stupid, or uninformed when significant situations occur and everyone around you is talking about them.
Look At What's Trending
The best way to expand your knowledge is to learn something new every single day but social media, just like other blogs, and websites featuring trending news today can be a minefield. Still, if you know where to look, you can follow fact based accounts in a range of subjects including maths, science, history, and business as well as more creative disciplines like art, poetry and creative writing. Don't forget to check out what's trending! Not only will it help you become better informed on global events, but social media can also help you understand more about your own field.
Don't Stick To One Source
It's vital that you read as many news sources as possible to have a balanced viewpoint. Look at both homegrown citizen journalism blogs and grassroots organizations as well as mainstream news outlets. Allow yourself to question what you hear, as there are many half truths and distorted facts present within the media.