For the past three years, it seems that Twitter has connected the city and Mississippi State University in ways that are invaluable to both.
The university received national attention after using #HailState in the end zone for the Egg Bowl. Local businesses have used Twitter to instantly interact with their customers on both a commercial and personal level. And, last week, the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Main Street Association hosted the city’s first Twitter town hall.
Since the popularity of MySpace began to rise, we’ve all heard the cons against social media. We’ve become egotistical, addicted to technology and unable to connect with each other on a personal level. News articles and studies have asked if social media is responsible for bad grammar or causes people to lose their reputations through spontaneous posts.
Last year, MSU head basketball coach Rick Stansbury banned the team from Twitter after a player posted a message on Twitter that criticized the team. This football season, Dylan Favre made news after he asked on Twitter if an opportunity was too much to ask for. In classes, we’re reminded as students to be careful about what we post on our Facebook and Twitter profiles because it could cost us a job in the future.
Despite social media’s popularity and usefulness, rarely do I see anyone giving credit to the good it has done. Twitter can be used as an adequate news source. We can communicate with each other, even if it isn’t in a traditional manner. And events like the Twitter town hall can combine the two — we can learn and express our opinions constructively. I participated in the event and mainly saw a lot of open discussion from residents, students, businesses and others with a stake in Starkville who were simply motivated to make their town better. It was gratifying to see a large number of people working together for the good of a place they loved. Instead of harshly criticizing, most of the participants sought to discuss constructively and fix the problems facing the city.
As of right now, it looks as if there will be more Twitter town halls in Starkville’s future, in which anyone who cares about Starkville or the university should participate. But, even without a Twitter town hall, we can still use social media to our advantage as a community.
Although it’s convenient to use Twitter to communicate with your friends, it’s also important to follow news sources you trust. (At this point, let me just plug our main Twitter account @reflectoronline and state that all of our breaking news, like the abduction hoax, tends to appear on Twitter and the website first.)
Following local businesses and organizations also helps you know what’s going on. Boutiques and eateries post their sales, discounts and new shipments on Twitter. One ofthe biggest complaints I’ve heard about Starkville and MSU is that there’s nothing to do on the weekends. That’s completely false. We have plenty going on — you just have to put in the effort to find it. And Twitter, used properly, can help you get the information you need.
It is possible to misuse social media, and it is hard to use social media properly. With the landscape constantly changing, there doesn’t seem to be one correct way to tweet or pin or update your status. But, from everything I have seen, being personable but informative has done wonders for those in the MSU and Starkville community who are on Twitter.
As members of this community, we should seek to use social media to improve our community. Leaders in Starkville and the university have taken that first step, and we should be next.
Social media is instant and free — by being creative and willing to make a change, we can use the tools social media provides to learn and improve on what makes our community great.
Hannah Rogers is the editor in chief of The Reflector. She can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.