Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Week 10 - Social Media
This week's topic will be digital technology and social media. Feel free to go off on your theories here - these questions are just to get the ball rolling in case you have writer's block.
What are the issues here? What solutions does it give us; what problems does it bring us? What landmark events (if any) has it given us? Has it led to greater What illnesses/tragedies has it brought us? Should technology come with rules? or should society navigate blindly through it and learn from mistakes?
Do you feel that social media is beneficial or detrimental for society as whole?
Do you feel limitations should be set on what is acceptable? (i.e. content or age limits). If so, what type of implications are there in terms of who is in charge of these rules?
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This is my weekly post…
ReplyDeleteSocial media is a huge part of our daily lives, it lets you connect and talk with someone across the world, instantly check the score on last night’s hockey game and then debate about it with friends. We literally have the world at our fingertips. In this day and age we don’t even have to see a person to talk to them. Is that hurting our social lives? In some ways I say yes however it is important to note that it helps us a lot, social media is a way to stay connected with peers if you don’t have a chance to see them. In what ways is it bad? Well I believe that some people take advantage of the websites as in relying on them to be their only form of communication and avoiding human contact.
Websites like Twitter are very beneficial to the media business as a whole, it is much easier for a reporter to give small up to the minute updates on a particular news story then waiting until the 6 o’clock news cast or writing a full news story. Most of our news from around the world comes from Twitter. It also makes witnesses more involved with the story. When you look at the events in Ottawa a few weeks ago, everyone who was there was Tweeting what they had seen and it made the story more in depth and the world was made available to more information. To give accurate news now, you don’t need to be on the scene. Technology shouldn’t come with rules simply because it would be impossible to monitor. The use of social media sites essentially creates a free press because there are no editors filtering the information you tweet. If that ever happened then it would be done through Twitter themselves and it would be very noticeable. You can also make the argument that social media sites can be used against us, firstly they are not as protected as you may think. Also, the enemies we face in today’s society use sites like Twitter to plan attacks. I won’t dive too far into that because I feel that it can be talked about for hours. However the bottom line is that websites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine and many more help us interact with peers, report news ect. And websites like LinkedIn help you get jobs and connect with other people in a particular industry. Overall social media helps us in our everyday lives, and I don’t know where society would be without it.
Like nearly every other issue in history, social media isn't black and white. There are positive and negative aspects of it that both carry noticeable changes to our society. I believe that the greatest impact has come from the additional exposure to alternative cultures and ways of life that would otherwise have not been shown to our youth. Issues like racism and homophobia in young people are almost non-existent, or at least significantly improved since the birth of social media. Historically speaking, children used to only be exposed to a handful of ideas from their teachers, friends, and family. These ideas would not have differed too greatly from each other due to the fact that they all come from the same geographic region with the same culture. However, thanks to near-limitless reach of social media, children who are active online are constantly bombarded with new ideas or ways of being that they would have otherwise been ignorant to.
ReplyDeleteWhether the overall impact of social media is negative or positive depends on the individual that it is effecting. Some people are able to understand and filter out uninformed opinions or intolerance that can be prevalent on certain websites, while others unfortunately are not as observant. This is a crucial practice for any impressionable person as they navigate the internet, seeing as its unregulated nature can be easily abused to misinform large masses of people. Possibly the worst culprit of this is Twitter. Twitter makes it incredibly easy to instantly spread your ideas to, depending on how popular you are, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. This can be a revolutionary way to spread positive messages faster than ever before, or it can be used to lie to thousands of clueless followers simultaneously.
Social media has undoubtedly changed the way we interact with one another. We see the change every day as we pull out our phones every time we think of something witty to tweet, or post our school work on a class blog to generate discussion among our peers. Despite what many people from older generations say, I don’t believe that it is detrimental or beneficial, only that it is different. If used correctly and navigated with caution it can build a greater world view. If used recklessly it can misinform and cause unjustified hate. Either way it is still too young to judge its overall impact as negative or positive.
This is my weekly post
ReplyDeleteSocial Media has been around for quite a while now. As an active user of social media, this is an interesting topic, to pick a side, good or bad, is a difficult task. I think anyone who uses social media and thinks it's bad is a bit of a hypocrite, if you're against it, don't use it. The social media sites I use are, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I think my now favourite is Instagram. I was never fond of social media at a young age, like most of my classmates, I had a youtube account before I had a facebook account. I got Twitter and Facebook in grade eleven and Instagram in grade twelve, I never felt the need to get them before. Now in grade thirteen, I am a user of all three and can say they are addictive, but that's not always a bad thing. As addicting as social media it is, we are learning knew things all the time, just like school. Please don't take that out of context, there should not be a school for social media. I feel like I use these accounts not for the social side but for the Pop Culture and Entertainment side. My newsfeed on Facebook, is usually filled with 90% action figures, comic books, movies and Tv shows with 10% my friends and family. On Twitter my newsfeed is filled with more celebrities than friends and people I actually know. Like I stated at the begining of this post, I am not against social media and i'm not for it. Almost everyone uses social media and I think it's helped shape the world. News spreads so fast over social media, and most people hear top headlines from the web now, not tv and newspapers. A famous celebrity has died, it is all over social media, facebook is filled with articles, Instagram is full of pictures in memory and Twitter has fellow celebrities and fans saying goodbye. I think social media is a good thing, it's the news of the future and is here to stay. I don't want newspapers and news broadcasts to dissapear but it's time to accept the fact that social media is important and one of the fastest ghrowing news sources around.
I would disagree with the fact that if you use it and think it is bad that you are a hypocrite. Every single person who goes to McDonalds knows it is bad for them but it is addicting. It could be much the same with social media.
DeleteThis is my weekly post
ReplyDeleteIn these times I am finding that social media is a big part of most people's lives. But what is concerning is that social media isn't really that social. We stare at a screen instead of talking to a person, we type on a phone instead of making human contact. More people are shutting their doors to sit on a computer then going out with friends. Even now as I'm writing this I have twitter on another screen because I have this obsession to know what's going on at all times. Social media is slowly making us all anti social. Now this may all seem like I'm against it but I do see the good side to this as well, the ability to talk to anyone in the world is a extraordinary feat, to be a part of someones achievement that they posted online is a really awesome thing but with all good things it can be abused. That is were I have a problem with social media is when it is used to hurt someone, or spread a radical idea, or someone who locks themselves in a room and is on it for hours. I think everyone should every now and then put down the screen and look up because you never know what connection you will miss.
Dan, I do find your post to be super accurate to me, and many others. I admit I also had Twitter open whilst I was posting this. It's true that we feel as though we NEED to know what everyone is doing 24/7, constantly hitting that refresh button on Twitter or swiping up to see who posted what, or new "twitter beef of the day" is happening.
DeleteThis is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteSocial media is a big part of pretty much every teens day to day life and it affects people in a lot of ways. One of the first ways I'll mention on how it effects people, is how long it has taken to me start writing this and how long it will take me to finish it while being distracted by Instagram notifications. Social media often takes a place of priority in teens lives, who don't take the initiative to log off of social media sites to do homework or outdoor activities. Social media also leads to real life social change. The "culture" of internet social media spreads itself to the real world, where people begin to reference internet commonalities and phrases in real life. For example, I notice a lot of people who speak using text language such as saying "rn" or "smh" in real life conversation. Social media can change kids in this way so quickly that a generation gap can be shortened to just a few years age difference. Personally, I sometimes don't understand the things my 15 year old sister says, because she constantly picks up new anagrams that I'm unaware of because I don't follow the same social media trends she does. This brings to to how social media can be completely different to each person. Adults could use social media to follow politics and world issues, while teens could use it to follow fashion trends. In this way, social media could seriously damage young teens, girls in particular. On Instagram, you can see a lot of thinspo blogs that promote thin celebrities and unhealthy habits that cause girls to be self conscious and develop bad body image ideals. The last point I'll make is that social media is damaging the way people are able to communicate in real life. Barely anybody is comfortable speaking over the phone to people, and would rather text. As well, it has resulted in so many more outlets for people to be victims of cyber bullying. In my opinion, I think social media is extremely useful for spreading information and for more mature youths to communicate, but I think it should be strictly monitored in the case of young boys and girls.
This is my weekly post...
ReplyDeleteSocial media has become a huge part within the lives of many people over the past few years, and there is clear evidence that it now takes a part in the daily lives of children, teenagers and adults. A common debate of whether or not social media is beneficial, is brought up often in schools, casual conversation and even the news.
There are two sides to this story, with much evidence proving that social media can have many beneficial, as well as negative points. I personally take the side in saying that social media has more serious, negative points rather than benefits, with the biggest one being addiction. When walking down the halls at school, down city streets, and in homes, it is evident that social media is being used non stop by many people of a varying age. Myself, being a user of social media, can say that many people are on it multiple hours daily, whether it be twitter, facebook, instagram, etc, and I am able to see this by the amount of statuses, pictures or messages they post every day. Depending on how much they rely on this constant social network, it could be considered an addiction for people, who feel lost without it. From personal experience, I can say that going an extended amount of time without access to being online, could potentially cause anxiety in some, because they are not connected. I believe this becomes a serious problem when there are people who are having a hard time going without social media, because it takes away time from personal activities, homework, and other responsibilities. Many hours a day are wasted by teens and adults who spend this time on twitter, facebook or other social media, because they feel they need to constantly be connected. This time could be better spent getting work done, staying active or being social in other ways than online.
Cyber-bullying has become very common due to social media, and is another con for the use of it. The main source of bullying, is now online,where someone does not have to be tough, or have any courage to put another person down by making, insulting tweets, pictures or sending rude messages. This has the potential of causing more problems than physical bullying, because it takes place on the internet, where a wide variety of people can access the status, and begin the spreading of rumors and teaming up on a single person. This could effect the victim much more than other forms of bullying, because everyone has constant access to the internet, and it is much harder to stop.
Social media also has other reasons which could make it seem to be more negative than beneficial, such as the isolation of people, or the affect of prodcutivity. Some could argue that there are more benefits, such as the effective communication, and keeping in touch with friends or other relations. However, social media is relatively new, and people functioned well without it in the past, showing that it is not necessary and could mainly only hold negative results.
Weekly Post....
ReplyDeleteSocial media is a major factor in peoples life. For some it is their entire life. 98% of people between the ages of 18-24 use a type of social media (1). In this day in age I think social media is a must have because it is a great way to make connections and friendships which could help in getting a job. Like everything there is the pros and cons to social media as a whole. It's pretty crazy how rapidly social media has taken over. It's too early in the stages of social media to really see what its full extent will be. Really to me I don't even know if we will be able to see if its good or bad. There will always be a new trend / site that takes over. Many of my friends dont use their Facebook anymore as Twitter is what people use mostly now. Twitter today alone, has had 608,487,596.. wait no 608,874,962 tweets sent as of 9 pm (2). And before my time it was Friendster and then it was MySpace which both now are virtually unheard of. From what history has shown so far with social media it comes and it goes, human nature we get bored and something new comes along and we jump on it.
To me, I think social media is a great tool for people to use. It created the 'global village' that can connect you to anyone, anytime, anywhere. To me that's pretty cool and incredibly useful as if a tragedy or something close to my heart happened across the world where I have a connection with I can have up to minute updates of the situation. For example, the terrorist attack that took place in Ottawa a few weeks back, I found out this through social media and had live updates from people who were in the city and very close to the situation. I was able to get a hold of my close friend there to make sure she was alright as she was very close at the University of Ottawa. In saying this the one downside to it is figuring out credibility of the updates. There were a lot of reports saying different things from the reports of shootings at the Rideau Centre to the reports on how many shooters there was.
Social media can be used as a very good tool and I like to think it is but I know there is the bad to it. People now have a screen and a fake name to hide behind. Just go to a random video on Youtube and you will see people saying nasty and completely uncalled for things. To more of an extreme use of social media, it has now also been used to lour individuals to join radical groups and influence these individuals to partake in certain acts. This is unfortunate but there will also be individuals to do such things. Before social media people still spread hate and will continue to do so.
Back to the good side of social media, there are tons of benefits to it. It helps a lot with staying in touch with loved ones and friends. You can have a better understanding of world issues you care about. As you can see input from multiple different sources. I believe there is so much potential and upside to social media.
*disclaimer* many social media sites can be addictive, use at own discretion
1. http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/
2. http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/
This is my weekly blog post....
ReplyDeleteEver since we have had access to social networking sites on our mobile devices, the topic has be controversial. Anyone can see how beneficial it is to have access to so much information as it happens. For sites like Twitter and Facebook news and pictures are given to everyone instantly the best, most resent example being the shootings in Ottawa. If you look at our class the day the shooting happened lots of people, thanks to social media were able to find information and as a group we put a picture together on what was happening, and what may have caused the situation. During that same time we were also able to contact friends and family in that area to make sure they were safe. This is where social media becomes controversial, since the class was so preoccupied searching for news and contacting loved ones the class was unproductive in its normal lesson and were no longer discussing anything with each other, rather shouting bits of news. It is because social media is not simply news that the problem of being antisocial comes in. One example is simply parties, people spend so much time making sure they take the perfect photo and putting it on their multiple sites that they don't even realize who is at the party with them. The biggest problem is that we as a people know that social media runs our lives but we don't do anything to change it, instead we make jokes and silly games such as "first one to check their phone at diner pays the bill". There would be no problem with social media if people used it at appropriate times, if your home not doing anything, worried about someone, or searching for news use it. But if your in any form of social setting with other people put the social media away until another time.
Social Media is undoubtedly something we, as teenagers, use every single day. It does, however, cause many issues. The first being the issue of popularity, trying to get as many "favorites" or FaceBook likes as one can. The issue here is that some people will deliberately harass or bully others in oder to gain said "popularity", or these likes/favorites.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Social Media makes for an easy connection with your friends, family, or to see what everyone is up to, which makes for a more simple task to, say, go hangout with a group of friends. However, when organized groups such as the Islamic State are using Social Media to, instead of getting together with their friends or post what they're doing on Instagram, they're gathering information and recruiting new members from their laptops at home. This fact truly does scare me, as we can never know where Social Media is heading in the future.
Furthermore, Social Media serves as a fast and easy way to spread certain biases or false Media. With the "trending hashtags" on Twitter, within minutes half of America can know that what celebrity is doing, who won that football game, or what Justin Bieber got arrested for this time. The positive thing about the trending topics are things like how quickly things such as the Ottawa shooting spread. We used Twitter and FaceBook all throughout the class to find media sources and minutely updates to see what is happening.
In short, Social Media has both its positives and its negatives. With its easy to access information, we can know what is going on in minutes, replacing the other websites such as BBC and CBC with one, large website like twitter where all the information from a different number or sources is right there. Yet you still have the issue of people treating and taking Social Media too seriously, posting and saying things they might regret when they're older, looking for that job they or posting they want. Just take political parties and how they'll take an old posting from years ago to jeopardize the other party's leader's chances at getting in power.
This is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are undoubtedly negative things to be said about social media one positive about it is more freedom of media. We have limited sources of news as Forsyth has shown. Only so many people control newspapers, tv news shows, but social media gives us a wider range of opinions on current events. Censorship does exist on social media in some countries but for the most part it is an uncontrolled source of news. Anyone can post on social media what is happening in the world around them. Different opinions uploaded on an event instantly. This of course can lead to other problems. Random people on the internet are not usually a reliable source. The explosion of different stories and opinions and theories can confuse and upset the public. Completely free, unfiltered news is a new world that social media has brought upon us. Wether that is good or not is up for debate.
This is Eleanors weekly post, her computer is malfunctioning.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to anything on the internet – social media, especially – many people focus on how easy it is to communicate with friends, keep in contact with family, and be more informed in general. I find that no one really thinks about where all of the information that we give to these sites goes.
Privacy is an issue for many. We hesitate to give credit card numbers out over the phone to telemarketers and companies who do business over the phone, but think nothing of online banking. The same goes for strangers on the street. You wouldn’t want them knowing your address, postal code, date of birth, or day-to-day activities, and you certainly wouldn’t want them having pictures of you saved onto their computers or cell phones. With the ever-changing privacy policies and updates on many social media outlets, it is nearly impossible to properly moderate what others can and cannot see.
People seem to forget that with just a click of a button or a simple Google search, any number of people can find information, pictures and other intimate details about your life.
This poses a problem because it seems to infringe on our privacy and our rights as human beings, right? However, when you click “I agree to the terms and conditions” without reading the terms and conditions, you agree for the social media outlet to have access to your personal information – which you willingly provide to them – and to change their policies at any given time. You also allow them to add your personal information, posts, pictures and anything else they desire, to your “file” which is kept for over seventy years.
I am not going to say whether or not I believe that social media is a good thing, but I will say that oftentimes people are wildly misinformed regarding their personal information and privacy laws.
this is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that Social Media is influential in our lives. And as a universal tool used by virtually everyone, it comes with much controversy.
It's important to look at the negative repercussions that social media may pose. Cyber bullying for example is starting to become a more pressing issue. The Internet allows for an anonymous forum where anyone can post whatever they want, to whomever they want. This is becoming an increasingly worrisome problem within youth; especially considering that 5 million facebook users are under the age of 10 [1]. Even though there is an age limit in the terms and conditions of Facebook, it is almost impossible to enforce it. Another issue that is associated with social media is the lack of privacy it allows. Unless you have the proper settings in place it is incredibly easy for a complete stranger to know personal details about your life. Also, it is increasingly evident how addicting social media can be, especially in my age group. I notice my peers (myself included) in class, in the halls etc. scrolling through twitter or refreshing their instagram. It’s no wonder students are having a harder time focusing and children have shorter attention spans [1].
Social Media is almost inescapable these days, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Never before has news and up to date information been so accessible. For instance, the other day in class we uses to twitter to follow the events on parliament hill. We were keeping up with the story and starting to form opinions as it was happening. Sites like facebook also help us to keep in touch with relatives and friends all over the world instantly. It’s examples like these that help to show the beneficial purposes of Social Media.
I think that it is important that we are aware of how influential media is, and we aim to use it to benefit society. But I also think we definitely need to work on ways to moderate it’s use in our own lives and make sure we’re using it safely.
http://www.contentfac.com/more-people-own-cell-phone-than-toothbrush-10-crazy-social-media-statistics/
Weekly post!
ReplyDeleteThere is a large part of me that wants to delete every social media account I have ever signed up for. When I see idiotic trends on Twitter or a "lms 4 a tbh :$" status on Facebook not only do I internally bleed, but I also contemplate the necessity for such mindless websites. There are many instances where social media is abused for stupid purposes and that is, I think, the reason why it has such a bad reputation. That along with the possibility of cyber bullying, the spread of false information, and the creation of stupid possibly dangerous trends. Today in fact, I read an article(1) (on a non-credible or factual news source called, jewsnews.com) titled "An Amazing Supermarket Incident In Canada... Muslim Woman Is Put Right In Her Place". Intrigued and a little frightened, I clicked on a link which lead me to probably the most poorly written, obviously fake article I have ever had the displeasure of reading. A basic summary of the article is that a woman in a Burka was upset about Iraq (or as the article kept repeating, "her country") being bombed, a veteran who "told her off". While this story could've just faded from existence, it is kept alive throughout the wonderful powers of social media. The Facebook post I saw had over 300,000 likes and 60,000 shares on it. All critical and astute people who surely knew the article was fake, and were sharing the article in outrage... Right?
Wrong. One look through the comment section was enough to make me want to abandon Facebook for life. Not only did people believe the story, but they were openly saying things like "get out of my country" or worse to A WOMAN WHO DOES NOT EVEN EXIST. But there are many women who look and believe the same things as this fictional woman that this story is suggesting are "wrong" and "don't belong here". And that's where I have the biggest problem with social media: the fact that it spreads so much false information and perpetuates false stereotypes to largely uncritical masses. This leads to racism, prejudice, bullying, and many more of the major problems faced in our society today. One stroll through my Twitter feed and I will find a trove of Vines and tweets beginning with the phrase "Black people be like..." or "White girls vs. Black girls" or "Pakistani moms be like..." The list goes on. Being surrounded by this content 24/7 is what I believe is perpetuating a lot of the ignorance in our society.
But, alas, then I see a video of a cute dog, or a picture of some guy in France wearing Capri pants, and even after all that grief I just can't seem to part with it. Social media is such a dominant force in our everyday lives that I think many of us have a hard time getting on without it. Even most jobs expect you to join some Facebook group or another, let alone the huge advantage it holds in interacting with friends and family across the globe.
We simply cannot escape it, which is why we should be more critical about it.
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http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2013/11/04/an-amazing-supermarket-incident-in-canada-muslim-woman-is-put-right-in-her-place/
This is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteI could go on for pages about social media but i'll try to keep this an acceptable length.
Being an avid user of social media I would like to start off by saying that it sucks. I remember when I used to spend my evenings, weekends, and basically any spare time I had, playing outside (foreign concept, I know). I now spend every free moment I have scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, etc. and can say that I full well know that it is a complete waste of time.
We, as human beings, have completely forgot how to interact face-to-face. I mean, think about how many cases of social anxiety there are (about 5.3 million people between the ages of 18-54/year in America[1]) . Could that have been prevented if social media was not introduced to them at such a young age, seeing how the age of onset is typically 13 (2)? People can argue, befriend and even start a relationship via social media. I recall watching documentaries and shows as a kid about online predators and was taught never to use chat rooms etc. I was not even allowed Facebook until after my grade 8 graduation, yet my 5-year-old cousin can adequately navigate her way through all of Apple's products. With the capability of texting, sending photos and video chatting you virtually never have to actually meet someone face-to-face.
Just today I was watching Toronto's Santa Claus parade on TV at work and there was a section at the bottom of the screen telling kids to tweet at Santa what they wanted for Christmas. My first reaction was "Wow what children young enough to still believe in Santa Claus would have Twitter" and then a frightening realization came to me that there probably are a substantial amount of children under the age of 10 that have social media such as Twitter. I then became nostalgic of the good old days when I would write a letter on a piece of note paper and mail it off to Santa's Workshop and how enchanting it was to receive a letter back. Children nowadays are missing out on all of those fun things and Santa has just become a man behind a computer/television screen. I think more people our age go to the mall to get their pictures taken with Santa than young kids do these days.
Also, we rely on random people on social media sites as our news sources rather than word of mouth or the newspaper. Although this may or may not be a good or bad thing because, as we've been discussing in class, our news is heavily filtered and edited (I would enjoy some opinions on this actually). Would you rather get your news from "reliable" places such as CBC, NBC, ABC, CNN where you don't know who or where the news is actually coming from and who all has tampered with it, or read some random, anonymous twitter account's interpretation of said news? Regardless, I believe that most of us have lost the ability to think for ourselves and we believe most of what we hear/see and don't question all that much. News via social media sites is kind of sketchy to me but as we talk more about where our TV and radio news comes from, I've developed a slightly irrational fear of subliminal brainwashing.
I do, however; agree that, although there are many negatives, social media has some positives as well. Interaction with family and friends that live far away is now made possible by more than just sending letters (although personally, I prefer letters because they're more personal). I can connect with people I haven't seen in a long time and share information without having to individually send all of them updates on life events and fun adventures I have embarked on
To be continued.......
Continued...
ReplyDeleteOverall I can definitely, without a doubt say that social media has obliterated any social life that I had before it. No longer do I walk to my friend's houses to see if they want to come outside and play. No longer will I pick up my house phone to call a friend or family member. Now this may or may not be the product of simply just growing up and if that's the case I would like to return to the 6th grade. However; social media removes any sort of meaning behind words such as love, hate, life, and death. It sucks up all of our time and leaves us with no achievements other than receiving 3 stars on level 65 of Candy Crush. It takes the thinking out of every day life ( I have used autocorrect more times writing this than I would like to admit). Social media makes us think that it is acceptable to be "savage" or "ruthless" on Twitter because making fun of others behind our phone screen for favourites or retweets is how you become popular. Our life and relationship goals are amounted to nothing but meaningless photos of cars and two people cuddling each other and our friendships have become empty bonds where you post as many pictures of yourselves as you can in order to convince everyone that you are, in fact, bffls.
1.http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Social-phobia.html
2.http://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder
*I would also like to point out that my second sources is "adaa.org" and if you have ever seen the movie Dodgeball you will understand why I found that humorous.*
second source*
DeleteThis is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteToday, social media is part of our everyday lives; most people have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or other kinds of social networking accounts. In fact, it is very likely that, as you are reading this, you have a tab open for a social media site. Some claim that social media has been bad for our generation; I, however, think that it is a useful tool that helps connect the world in many different ways.
The obvious benefit to social media is that it allows people to easily communicate with each other, even across the globe. This is especially useful for someone like me who has many friends and family members across the world. Having the ability to message a faraway relative whenever I want makes the world seem significantly smaller.
Another possibly more important way that social media is useful is that it allows people to hear about breaking new stories just as they are happening. The benefit to this form of news media is that the news story is often coming from the eyewitnesses themselves. A great example of this would be what happened in Ferguson; because the police tried to prevent major news stations from reporting on the situation right from the scene, many people relied on the internet posts of the protesters themselves to find out what was happening. Hearing news right from the witnesses also limits a government or other large organization from censoring the story in order to make it fit a certain agenda.
The topic of social media is controversial. Many claim that using social networking sites can have detrimental effects on people, especially youth. I do believe that using the social media sites in excess can be harmful; in healthy dosages, however, I strongly believe that social media does more good than harm.
I would just like to clarify that in my post I discussed some things (ex. games and autocorrect) with out stating that I was talking about digital technology as well. I do realize that autocorrect is not social media.
ReplyDeleteThank you and goodnight.