Week 2: Social Media and Group Communication

Can You Draw The Internet?

Credit

Social Media has invaded our lives in more ways than one. From Blogger to Flickr to Facebook to YouTube, it has become the go-to avenue for social interaction. People can share opinions freely, view submissions and even upload their own content. In fact, 100 hours of material is uploaded onto YouTube every minute.

But social media is not simply just all fun and games. There are other ways we can utilize social media in terms of group communication at work. I personally have used different types of social media to communicate effectively with group members and colleagues.

My favorite way to communicate in a group is through Google Docs. I began using it when I started my freshman year at UB. It is convenient, efficient and even facilitates conversations between members. This is especially helpful when, say, you have a group member who is too shy to speak his or her mind during group meetings.

I feel that the most helpful feature is the one where we are allowed to edit documents on the spot with other team members at the convenience of our own computers. We can all edit the document in real time and exchange ideas in the chat box at the side.

An example of a Google Document shared between my group members and I

Besides Google Docs, there are a whole range of other forms of social media with their various individual strengths waiting to be utilized.