During our Media 1 seminar this week, we were challenged to think about how David Gauntlett’s theory on the two peaks of media is related to various types of social media:

-Uber
-Snapchat
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Instagram

Now, seeing as the only two I really use are Facebook and Snapchat, I figured that I wouldn’t have as much to say as others might.

After the question of why we use these different forms of media was posed, my mind went blank for a second. But after that one second of blankness, a couple of different blobs of thought started forming in my mind. It really got me thinking, ‘what goes through my mind every time I start to log into Facebook, or open up Snapchat’. I reckon it’s the convenience, really. Well, at least that’s what it started off as. At first, I used to log into Facebook because it was just easier to send someone a quick message for free, rather than spend a few cents on a mobile text, or give them a call and end up falling into the trap of talking for hours. The same thing goes for Snapchat. While Facebook chat does have the option to send photos, doing so requires having to save a picture, or having an already saved picture in your files, which takes up space, and needs to be deleted at a later date. Snapchat has just a simple snap-and-go mechanism, and deletes the picture after ten seconds max.

With the use of Uber being a popular opinion, the idea of safety concerns me more than convenience. While, yes, most of the time, Uber is a safe method of travel, I’m still a little shifty about it. What sits at the back of my mind is the fact that unlike actual licensed taxi drivers, Uber drivers don’t require a police check, or a mental health check to start driving you anywhere. But I’ve never used the app in my life, so who am I to judge?