The Positive Effects of Social Media

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome back to McKnights of Magnolia with Nia and Dana and today we're kind of going to jump off of where we were last week with the positive effects of social media because we spent a little bit talking about the negative but I think we should break some positivity into it. What do you think? Yes, agreed. Social media is not all negative. For me, it's a great way to stay in touch with people that I've moved away from or I've gotten in contact with people from middle school. That's incredible. It is totally incredible and it's a great tool to catch up to everyone, to see what everyone's doing. I think right now with me, social media is just so awesome I think because I have friends who moved across the country for college and I have friends who are even out of the US for college. Like I know this girl, she's in Hawaii right now for school and it- Did you just say outside the US? Oh shh and she's in Hawaii. What? I am done. Oh my god. Oh dear god. What? That's worse? That's worse than 75, 30. Okay, dropped out of college. Let me see. Are you okay? No, I'm not. Oh my god. Am I warm? No. Oh dear god. That is hysterical. You said she was out of it. That's not going in. Yes, no, that is so nobody's fault. Nah, that is gold. Because they're going to think I'm stupid. No, they're so okay, first of all. No, because I know for a fact, I can literally tell you the history of Hawaii right now. Stop, there are so many people. Because we conquered Hawaii. Hawaii wasn't always ours. Listen, there are so many people that if you say like one of the 50 states can't name 50 states. So I'm just saying like people cannot name all 50 states. So it's okay. Oh dear god. But was that not funny? No, it wasn't. I am hollering in here because that was so funny. You guys, um, I love Emma Alaska Arizona Arkansas, California, go right up. Can't etiquette. Just like wear Georgia, Florida. Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana. Keep going. Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana. That's quick one. Okay, I got to the M's. That's pretty good. Good for you. So Nebraska is that nice? Nebraska, Nebraska, Nevada. Okay, so okay, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey. Okay, it's after New Jersey. I don't know. Anyways, I know my 50 states. Listen, social media is a great way to make friends. I have 100%. You may not see them in person, but then again, they have like those groups. Yeah. And so like your Facebook mom groups, and it'll connect you to like minded moms in your area. We didn't have Facebook around when you were born, but we did have a group called Charlotte Mommies. I remember Charlotte Mommies. Charlotte Mommies was a life saver. There were so many other moms like stay at home moms like me that I could connect with. We do play dates. We do park dates. We'd have like potlucks or just, you know, learn how to cloth diaper. Someone would invite you up. Yeah, a cloth diaper with you. Oh, you're like that. That's what I, well, you were breastfed, so it wasn't that bad. Okay, yeah. But I don't know about reusing diapers. Um, have you checked the price, the price of diapers? Well, I'm gonna be rich. So it doesn't matter. Uh, what are you gonna do to be rich? I'm gonna marry like a Bill Gates. You know Bill Gates thinks that milk costs like six dollars a gallon. Anyways, there are so many like minded moms that you can find in groups like that on social media, so that is a great tool. And I think also, um, like I know like, I guess a positive could be like dating websites, because I know a lot of people who genuinely like nowadays, they genuinely found like the person that they want to stay with on like Tinder, Bumble, and stuff like that. Like one of my, how do you just rattle off these dating websites? Do you? Are you on these websites? What other ways do you think social media has had a positive effect? You're freaking entertainment. Oh my goodness. It's so funny. Like, and do you know what my absolute favorite thing to do? Lamb watch takes off. Oh, okay. That's right. I want to tick talk maybe 35, 45 minutes a week. No, I know. I'm like, Jake, five hours a day. Anyway, my most favorite thing to do is when the school closes for, um, inclement weather or the threat of inclement weather, because here in the South folks, I don't know where you guys are watching. I don't know where you guys are watching from. But here, if the weatherman says I think it's gonna snow Tuesday, school is canceled. School is canceled for three days. My most favorite thing to do when they cancel school for the threat of snow is to get a large glass of wine, go upstairs, lay in the bed, and watch the Facebook. I have never seen so many irate parents. I get there and I'm scrolling and I'm sipping. I'm sipping and I'm scrolling. Like, what are they? Oh, I can't believe you're gonna close the school. When I was 12, we walked in eight feet of snow and 18 miles. One way uphill in a blizzard. The blizzard of 78. They just say the craziest things and it's like no matter what school says, it's always wrong. If it's, if they close, it's wrong. If they stay open, it's wrong. And my thing is folks who care school, it's not even who cares because honestly, you should care because it's about keeping the kids safe. What people don't realize is that it's, it's in their community that it may be safe for the buses to pass in their community, but you have to look at we do live in kind of like a city area, but then we also have a lot of rural parts, exactly where we live. So just because your streets have been cleaned, that doesn't mean that the rural streets have been cleaned. So there's a lot of that here because in the south, we don't really have like the proper equipment for like big snowstorms and stuff like that. And they have like a couple pieces of equipment, but it doesn't work for the whole state or like the whole city. It takes a minute. We take the major streets and then if you live off the beaten path, it's definitely going to take a lot longer. If you live in a shady area where there's lots of trees, it's going to take, it takes a lot of, the good thing is that we live where we do. And it doesn't take them a while because it's like a main road, but I mean, but it's pure, but it's pure entertainment, pure, I have the best time. And then I'm texting my girlfriends, L-screen shot and it's sent it to my girls and I'm like, did you see this? She went crazy. So it's the funniest thing. Sorry. And I just thought of another positive aspect. Yeah. News. Like I know you were talking about like the school kind of news. Fake news. Stop the views. The views and thoughts of Naya McKnight are just that of only Naya McKnight. Oh my god. But like what kind of news? Not Facebook. So yeah, and I think to think like all the news outlets and everything like that that comes through on like the iPhone news app and everything like that. Like it's like really good to stay informed and like they post that school is canceled on Twitter. You know what I mean? And we can set that on Twitter and everything like that. But also like your favorites, the news with your favorite celebrities. That is true too. But at the same time, I feel if you're getting your political news or your just 85-90% of your news from social media, that is a major problem. Agreed. Because it's not, that's not real. Sorry, my eye just. Yeah. So definitely take it with the grain of salt. Yeah. Do your own research. Do your research and yeah. I think so. I think that if you see something on social media, I think you should always take it to a credible news source and fact check. Definitely fact check. Like because it could be, it could be true. Like social media. It could be true. But things on social media that you can believe. But I definitely do think that you should cross-check your information. So also social media makes the world seem like a smaller place. Yeah. We can get heartwarming stories from across the globe almost instantaneous. You know, before it, if you didn't hear about it on the nightly news with Ted Couple, you didn't hear about it. Or if you didn't read about it in the news page. So it definitely makes the world seem like a smaller place. But I kind of, it's kind of like a 49-51% 49, I thought you were going to say 49-50. It's about to say, "Dad, we both get down." 49-51%, I have mixed emotions about it because I feel like it does make it a smaller place and that's positive. But then it is, it makes it a smaller place and that's a negative. Because it brings everyone into it. And that goes back to, we talked about it on the last episode. We were talking about how when you hit the button, it has the ability to go viral. So people not just in Florida could see what's going on here with us. You have people across the world. I love Bama. But like different countries. Like not just, you know, like I got some numbers back from a poster and it was all the way in Libya. I don't, I don't know, but that's the reach. And I don't, I don't. There have been a couple experiments where some teachers put something out there and they wanted to see how far it would reach and how long it would take to reach different people. And the social media has a huge reach. And that's a blessing and a curse. That's what honestly makes this so terrifying. I'm not going to lie. This is why I would always say no. I'm not scared, I think personally because I grew up with social media and I grew up with, you know, being able to go viral and like things like that. I'm scared. But she didn't grow up that way. Like you have people, like if someone says something mean to you, it's going to, I honestly, I'm worried about you more than me. Listen, when like our worst fear, if someone unfriended you, they would take your yearbook picture, draw like horns on your head or but it's like, but now when someone unfriends you or someone doesn't care for you, you know, it starts the cyberbullying and I like to think back in our day, it was a lot safer. You didn't know that someone didn't like you unless you walked up to him in the hallway and said, hey girl. And then they're like, and then you look in the yearbook and I said, did you know you had horns in Becky's, you know, your book and you're like, no. So I guess that's why she's looking at me sideways. But nowadays you're going to know about it. But you know what? My next reason that I think social media is positive would be growing businesses. Oh, when COVID online businesses. I have seen so many people start businesses online. I have customers who have retail stores and they never had a social media presence. They never had a website. COVID forced their hand. Yeah. And they are thriving in store and online and that makes me so happy. A lot of your online stores and everything like that, they're actually making more money than the stores with they are because they don't have to pay for that overhead. They don't have to pay for, you know, the people like they don't have to pay for staff. Like if they pay for staff, it's like, oh, can you like post this or whatever, put this on the website. But like when to get more. I mean, don't don't get me wrong. I love shopping online. But then there's also a comfort to going to a brick and mortar store. You get to feel, no, there's something about it. It's like you go to a hallmark store and you want to go get a card and it's like you walk in, it smells like Christmas. It smells so good in there. I mean, maybe not Abercrombie. I'm talking hallmark here. This is a state ball. I love the smell of Abercrombie and the shirtless guys that stand outside at the mall. Okay, so this is a generational gap because me not so much. I would rather order my jeans through Abercrombie and have my favorite boyfriend, either the Amazon. Well, I guess in this case, the UPS. Oh, yeah, I'm having eight boyfriends. I thought I should let's just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I know me not eight. Maybe I can't like go too far off, but we have the mailman. We have the Amazon. We have the UPS, the FedEx. Who am I missing? The DHL. How the DHL? Yeah, all those. They all come, you know, want to marry her. Okay, but they were like, hey, and I was like, hey, Mrs. McNeigh, and they put the packages in the right place. They do. It's like they see that's car. They're like, let's put it over there and I wave and then they move. I love it. Growing businesses is a great thing. I also want it to point out there have been new careers with social media. They sit on their butts and make money quite literally. Do you know what we call them? What? Laptop millionaires. I don't know if you've ever heard that term, but I had a friend recently. We were having a conversation about something and she mentioned Laptop millionaires and I was like, wait, what? She was like, yeah, as long as they have their computer and an internet connection, they're able to work. They're able to do their jobs and I thought that that was so cool because again, I think I know for fact that my parents, sorry, I just had to shoot that out real quick. My parents grew up in a time or worked during a time where you got out of high school or college, you started at a job, you retired at that job and you really didn't go out seeking other opportunities, you stuck it out but you actually had to physically go to work to work. Now it's different. You can work from your phone, you can work from your computer. Now you have social media managers, you have web designers, you have trained people who look at trends and track and see like they're literally called what is it called? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. It's literally like a trend calculator basically and they can estimate what the trend is going to be in like two years. Yes. And that usually starts over in the east time and by the time they get to us in a peril, it's already outdated but it's outdated to them, not to us. Yes. The technology and fashion and everything. We're already so like Japan. Yeah, that's a great, that's the, yeah, Japan, Korea, places like that. China, a lot of the trends like what we're wearing two years from now has already happened and we are already in spring of 2023. Yeah. Already. Like I've seen spring, I can tell you what's trending and so we're already working on fall 2023 next year. Right. Exactly. If you have to have it made, you have to get in the, in the stores, you have to get whatever six to 12 months before. Exactly. So that is really cool to be able to see that. Yeah. And I also think like I genuinely just love social media. Me and social media genuinely have like a love hate relationship, but it's more towards love. Like what do you love about that? I don't know. Like my grandma, my grandma, I love my grandma so much. I love both my grandmothers. I do, however, have like a, like a special, like I think we're more alike with my grandma in Virginia. Like we just like talk to each other like girlfriends. If that makes any sense. And like the fact that I can just comment on her Facebook page and be like period says like you go and she's like, she loves you. She'll call me. She'll call me and she'll be like, Naya was it really good? And I was like, yes girl. Like it builds her confidence. And the fact that I can do that, it makes my heart so happy. Well, my other grandmother, she could care less about the social media thing. She's like, girl, she's like, get that away. She's not even a phone person. No. She's like, hey, she has a flip phone. I love you. Yeah. Bye. She hangs out. No, she does. She says, just wanted to hear your voice. Bye. Like that is so funny. But remember when we got the Alexa thing, what is that thing called? Like what is it called? Yeah, I don't know what it's called. What is it? Like, they'll call the drop in. Don't say it because then she's going to start calling. You can drop in on people with video. You can watch movies on it. So we got the grandparents one because we thought that was cool. We cook and watch Netflix. Also on Facebook, you can do a video call. Yeah, Facebook has have FaceTime or something like that. You can still do a video call with them. And I think that's the good thing. So there are definitely lots of positives. And there's even more I'm sure that we can't think of. I have Googled in YouTube how to change the battery in my car fog. Like if your dad wasn't here, I'm like, oh my goodness. It's it's I can't get in my car. So then I will YouTube it and we'll sit here, pause the video and do it. Your dad will not know how to fix something. He'll go to YouTube and he'll watch the video and then he fixes it. So I guess it could be like education or how to. So I'm just glad that we didn't just focus on the negative things and that we could focus on the positive things because there are a lot of positives. You two taught me how to unclog a like a shower drain. Yes, because your dad refused wouldn't teach me. But why did he refuse? Because he wanted me to learn on my own and I did. No, but why did he want you to learn? So I could do it without him. No, why did he want you to learn? I don't know. What was in the drain? Oh hair. Yes. It's like my hair. What in the world? Yeah, I shed like a freaking cat. No, you don't shit like a cat. You just don't get the hair up. And he was like, absolutely not. He did it. He just automatically drains out. He did it like the first couple of times. And then after that, he's like, no, because I know it's in there. It's hair and it's disgusting. It is disgusting. I will say that's right. It is it is totally disgusting. But anyways, again, it has been a pleasure having this wonderful discussion with you and I am talking about me. I am talking about you. And I do know we get into it. But I think this has brought us even closer. And I think it made us spend time with each other. Yes, it has and I love that. You'd love me. It makes me apparent. This, this has made me apparent a little differently too. I love it because it's out of my, that ought to. No, I just think it's, it's just different, but in a good way. I agree. It's made us see each other on different levels as well. Yes, I see you as more grown up. Do you? I do. I mean, you're still my kid, but I, I see you as a little more grown up now. Yeah. And I do like that. I love that. And like, do you see me as like more cool or am I not like, what? Oh, I'm just kidding. But I always thought you were cool though. That's never been around you. You're so sweet. All right, yo. Well, we're gonna sign out. We will see you guys next week or two weeks. We will see you when we see you. Well, thank you guys so much for watching. Again, like and comment and subscribe and follow us on all of our social media platforms. Talk to you soon. Bye. That was good. That was good. That was better than anything. Yeah.