If Twitter can do it, so can Facebook!

If you really invested some time into thinking about your Facebook timeline, what would you envision?  That’s easy I’m sure-shared links, photos, statuses, possibly a few ‘suggested’ or ‘sponsored’ ads. 

The vast, if not all, majority of these posts were exclusively created by friends on Facebook; that is, who you’re kept stable, consistent updates on are the hundreds, possibly thousands or additional, Facebook friends that you desire. 

Not essentially erroneous, though numerous critics have introduced the notion regarding Facebook as a potential news source, in which its contribution to breaking, international, daily, and more news could be tremendously impactful… and also beneficial. 

I consider these critics to hold reasonable argument.  While I don’t remain having a cynical attitude concerning Facebook’s modes of presenting information, I am involved in a journalistic field and heed the significance of news.  Courses teach that the need for news has remained undeviating; originally hearing that, my primary thought was ‘mmm… not so much.’  I struggled believing that because before beginning my love for media, I, and friends around or my age, rarely go out of our way to read newspapers, watch the news, look into virtual news articles or links-I failed to recognize the several variations of discovering and retrieving news.  

I didn’t take into account the extent to which we hear news via car radios, other channels on television, and frankly, word of mouth.  It seems irrational, though we converse on such a constant basis and it’s such a repetitive, habitual daily occurrence that not only do we fail to notice how much time we spend in dialogue, but how much is spoken about when communicating. 

I reconsidered-we don’t take strong enough note that we speak about issues regarding news almost exceptionally.  Whether we’re discussing political, local, school, personal news, we’re still constantly discussing it; we’re attracted to storytelling and reports that make us feel like we’re there. 

And the reason we like such vividly detailed storytelling is because we don’t like to feel like we missed out… on anything.  We don’t realize… but if we were put 10 years, even 10 days, back and were forced to read old or ancient news, we’d grow senseless.  So maybe a few people and I scuffle finding motive to read news-but we still yearn for it subconsciously as well as receive it with ease when presented to us by the instant. 

And ‘presented to us by the instant’ is more commonly distinct within the many mediums of social media, another way to which we hear the magnitude of news that I didn’t take into consideration; Twitter stands as a concrete example of sharing news for professional, promotional, and personal means.  That being said, the critics that demand a news-reporting role for Facebook have a point; if other sites can successfully do it and there’s a way news can be integrated to individuals’ everyday lives, why not? 

This could be extremely beneficial to society.  Just as following in the normative system of delivering and getting news, people would still be accessing information involuntarily, but accessing it nonetheless.  I believe there’s still a further technique to incorporate news while keeping users regularly cognizant, informed, and up-to-date with personal ties.