Uses of Social Media

I think it's interesting how the use of social media is expanding each day. At first Twitter was a place to voice your opinions. Then it turned into a way to get people to read articles. The University of Maryland police department used Twitter in a useful, informative way for students yesterday. A UMD student was found dead in her dorm room and UMPD tweeted a statement. "A female student female was found deceased earlier this afternoon in Kent Hall. No foul play or apparent suicide, more information forthcoming." Since the alerts system at the university seems to be very flawed, the UMPD twitter account is a great alternative for getting information out. With almost 3,000 followers, once the statement is posted online it can travel by word of mouth. People want information fast and it is hard to keep up at times. Instead of having to worry about false information being released, anyone can go to the the UMPD twitter account and see for themselves. It seems social media is growing each and every day. It's very hard to control or guess what is going to catch on and what isn't.