This paper will summarize 2 ways that social media has affected the American culture. There are several different types of social media. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and a host of others. Other social media sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, and these sites are also referred to as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the evolving use of user generated content and social interaction on the web.1 Social media has allows people to communicate with others from all around the world. Facebook has revolutionized how people communicate, Instant messaging each other, to tagging photos, and posting their where about to the minute to meeting new people from all over world that the user may or may not have had an opportunity to meet. Companies use Facebook to advertise products receive consumer feedback with like us on Facebook. Twitter has a different format allowing for people to tweet messages of 140 characters to the people that follow them on Twitter. Twitter has also been a resource for the media outlets by allowing them to present breaking news in their feeds. MySpace was one of the first social networking sites it has quickly became irrelevant the site struggles to maintain. It was once the social media place for young people now it struggles to maintain its following. Another was social media has an effect on our culture is it allows the news to be brought right to your device at a moment’s notice in some cases from a bird’s-eye view via an amateur journalist, or someone with a camera or a phone. In the book “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy” by Andrew Keen2. In