Experts Weigh Pros and Cons of Social Media

After reading this article composed by Sandra Ordonez, I came to a few conclusions:

Some of the benefits of social media for journalists also apply to libraries, such as creating stronger relationships with their users and promoting themselves through branding to a wider audience. I think the idea of developing a 'brand' for your library is something that can help it become more recognizable as a go-to information source for patrons.

As far as the experts go . . . I liked Jessica Clark's point that social media is not the cause of the problems associated with it, but a new platform that existing issues of "incivility, bullying, bias, prejudice, privatization, . . . and power struggles" have spread to. It is our task as librarians to help educate people about these dangers.

I agree with Matt Hinckley's point that a preference for speed leads to misinformation. This is another tip we can pass onto our users. I think his notion that those who choose 'infotainment' over traditional coverage are somehow misguided is pretentious, however. I hope librarians can reserve judgement about the type of information our users seek.

The best we can do is help young people (who are instinctively able to make more distinctions between appropriate and unreliable sources that we give them credit for), as well as those new to social media to understand its inherent biases.