The final week of class Was a bit more relaxing than any other week but I learned a lot from this class Concerning social media. Growing up in such a generation I am quite familiar with social media. Social media is a very strong platform that can either make or break a community depending on the reality of the given situation and how Morally It affects online people. Is social media a positive thing for society? Many people ask this thing every day and many argue and have their perspectives. People have a voice on the Internet regardless of how they see it. Online people express themselves on social media, for example, popular posts on popular websites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube can lead people into situations where they can either fail or benefit. On social media, people can express very positive posts that can inspire others online to do better.
In generation z, the availability of technology makes it easy for children to have a specific measurement to understand the internet even on an app called “Tik Tok” created by 19 other people. Access to endless information on a device called a “Smartphone” can make people more attached to absorbing information to satisfy their own needs. Yet, many people use such a device for negative selfish reasons for their petty desires. In today’s world, people have become more influential especially online when trying to involve others to support their cause or promotional reasons blindly. When dealing with overcoming addiction the constant thirst for information on celebrities or any major influencer can get cut off with strong discipline and rehabilitation can help you eliminate your addiction with their many methods. Overall I enjoyed the class the semester and I learned to not be on my phone as much because it can be addicting. What is the biggest thing from the discourse that influenced you the most? What inspired you from this class? What was the biggest takeaway from any movie that the professor showed you? What do you like about this course? Do you have any negative or positive outlook on the class? What is your favorite movie from class? what blog was your favorite? did you think these blogs were interesting? what is your favorite part of social media? is addiction a negative thing? have you controlled your usage of the smart device? Have you ever been addicted to a game or app? Have you ever gotten over an addiction or received professional help? Do you think people are in danger when being online? What are your thoughts on cyberbullying? Do you think most celebrities are false idols portraying A fake image? Do you believe anything the government says? Are you fully aware of the social power status of social media in our society? Do you believe in any of the movements being placed on social media? What has made people so divided on a platform that isn’t in reality? what does censoring people’s freedom of speech online have to do with realty?
Is social media good for society? This is a very big question that we’ve basically been breaking down this whole semester and is also the topic I’ve chosen for my personal project. As we all know there are many negative factors that we’ve talked about this semester on the topic of social media and most people would in fact say that its bad for society, but Ive learned that there are actually a lot more positives to social media that you didn’t even realize because of all the negativity brought to the subject. First Ill be talking about the argument that is social media is good for society, although I personally do feel like the negatives greatly outweigh the positives.
“One of the biggest pros of social media is that it nurtures and expands relationships. Improving communication and strengthening human connection is the reason social media emerged. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, chat groups, LinkedIn, and countless other social networking sites help people build on existing relationships, make new friends, and reinvigorate relationships that have lapsed over time” (Carrier). I would definitely say that one of the greatest things about social media is the fact that it lets you connect with other people, weather its through instagram, or Facebook, or even email. People in our generation and even any generation love to connect with other people in society. We love to connect with people who have the same interests and ideas as us and what better way to do this than to pop on social media and start connecting. I mean you could just go outside and talk to people and be a normal person, but these days popping on social media to do this is normal and many prefer to just sit on their phones and do this instead which isn’t necessary a bad thing.As we’ve seen in the Black Mirror episode Nosedive, everyone in that society loved connecting with other people, even though the whole episode was just a popularity contest it still showed us that its kind of like that in our society today. But not everyone sees it right away. If our society had the technology that they had in the episode, I think a lot of people would like it because its a great way to meet new people.
Another positive for those of you on the pro social media side is that social media is an awesome way to have a positive digital footprint. In todays society businesses all over the world look on social media while hiring employees. If you are greatly involved on social media and preaching positivity and post genuine and positively reinforced things, you could potentially get a boost just on your digital footprint. Social media gives you the opportunity to take ownership of your search results when someone searches your name.Now Im no by any means saying that it is better to be involved in social media rather than to not be when it comes to jobs and employment, bu it can definitely be used to your advantage if you apply yourself properly to it. It can definitely backfire on you too though.
While analyzing this debate I’ve found that there are a lot of pros to social media in this debate, but I definitely feel that there are far more cons to it as well, lets dive into them!!! “Human beings need face-to-face contact to be mentally healthy. Nothing reduces stress and boosts your mood faster or more effectively than eye-to-eye contact with someone who cares about you. The more you prioritize social media interaction over in-person relationships, the more you’re at risk for developing or exacerbating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression”(Robinson). Over the semester in this course Ive learned a lot about myself and relating myself to the things that we talk about in class. I am greatly involved with social media and I do find myself becoming more and more lonely the longer I sat on it. I agree with Robinsons statement because its so much more different when your on social media versus being in an actual conversation with another person. I feel like you can also lose your communication skills after a while of being trapped on your phone and being on social media. Depression and anxiety are a big part of the reason that I don’t think social media is good for society. The fact that you can just sit behind a screen and say whatever you want to a person with no repercussions is absolutely ridiculous and it can really mess with peoples heads sometimes and ultimately lead to depression and anxiety for many users of social media.
Another reason that social media isn’t good for skirt is that you can become addicted to it. The only two things that call there consumers users is drug stores and social media websites. As seen in The Social Dilemma that we had to watch this semester, you can see in the documentary that social media platforms are finding ways to keep you on the screen and on the site. Its little things like notifications or that the person you are talking to is typing and many more little tricks to keep you on the phone They try and keep you on the screen and soon enough you become addicted to it and can’t stop looking at your phone and social media. Ive learned this semester that you can even go through withdrawal from your phone and social media. Thats crazy to me.
In conclusion I believe that social media has its ups and downs, positives and negatives. I loved how I got to learn all about social media this semester and really have my eyes open to things that I had absolutely no idea about. Although there are a lot of positives to social media, I do believe that the negatives outweigh them in a debate over if social media is good for society.
CITED SOURCES:
“The Good, Bad, and In-between of Social Media.” Carrier Clinic, 8 Aug. 2019, carrierclinic.org/2019/08/08/the-good-bad-and-in-between-of-social-media/.
The internet was created for good, so doctors could share information globally, and save lives. Or share any other useful information globally so people could learn, grow, and save lives. It seems as though it has shifted into something nobody prepared for; and it’s forcing the teen suicide rates to skyrocket.
Teen suicide rates are higher than they’ve ever been. It’s the second leading cause of death in teenagers. I genuinely think it is the saddest thing to happen. My first week of freshman year of college I had one of my close friends die by suicide. He was bullied excessively in middle school on social media and it always stuck with him. Even years later, it remains in a persons mind. Being bullied in such a public form is an extremely difficult thing to go through, in addition to it potentially being there forever if it’s not ‘deleted,’ but we all know nothing is ever really deleted from the internet.
Using the internet for hate, I personally will never understand. So much hate all the time, especially right now after a powerful election that left a lot of people dissatisfied. There is so much hate in the world now, and the internet is just perpetuating it. It can bring people together, to create social change and get movements started and thriving. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20 years, is that there will ALWAYS be assholes. Always. Every time, everywhere you go, everything you do, there’s an asshole lurking. Especially on the internet. Tension rises and fire starts and it creates a disconnect, and that disconnect, dehumanizing people on the internet is where the problem lies. People seem to forget that it is real people on the other end of the screen, and things are said that would never be said aloud. And unfortunately there’s no way to change that. Bitmojis and the new Facebook avatars I think were trying to humanize and make it so you see a little miniature person rather than nothing, but I could be totally wrong. It is a step in the right direction though. Timelines just look like posts, no humanity in them, black and white lettering(obviously unless it’s something more like a specific picture of a person), that people can just comment on and say whatever they feel necessary. There are some catches on Facebook that pick up on extremely vulgar terms, but not a lot. And it’s usually not until someone reports it or after it’s posted that it’s caught and dealt with.
In addition to straight up bullying on social media, it also opens up doors for stalkers, and other forms of harassment besides bullying. As I’ve mentioned previously, people can make as many emails and as many social media’s as they desire. Instead of blocking a name entirely(which is something they should implement), it blocks the account, which can be deleted or a new one created and we are back to the original problem. Everything should be connected to a phone number, therefore only one account can be made per person with their phone number. Abuse is perpetuated and it harms the victim mentally more than anything.
Does nobody remember this movie? The message was there but maybe not. the acting so much.
I don’t think any creators of the internet could foresee the issues we now currently have as a society. And I’m not even getting into the dark web. Believing in the goodness of people is something I’ve always tried to put first, but the truth is that the internet brings out the best and worst of people.
I’ve learned so much taking this class about myself and about others. The importance of knowing how to act, and thinking about the next steps and the what if’s later down the line. Social media has always, not necessarily accidentally, been a part of my life and I’ve Facebook since I can remember at like 10. However it really has made me overthink the dark side of things, and where we really failed as a whole people on the goodness of our hearts. This has made me want to better myself online and even just in general. I always want to be the sunshine in someone’s day.
Works Cited:
“The Digital Culture Shift: From Scale to Power.” Media Justice, The Center for Media Justice, mediajustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/digital_culture_shift_report.pdf.
As the leaves continue to fall and temperatures continue to drop, winter is not the only storm brewing. The last few months have encapsulated a fierce battle to the Presidential election. The 2020 Presidential election may go down in history as one of the most important and influential elections of the 21st century. President Trump and Vice President Pence squared off against the democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris of California. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election while Joe Biden served as the Vice President under the Barack Obama administration. The two parties share different ideals and policies. However, both guaranteed a stronger and safer tomorrow.
I found myself torn between the ideology of my parents and developing my own political views. I find myself more as an independent and willing to back a candidate with similar morals rather than identifying with a candidate based on a certain political party. This was the first election I participated in and will not be my last. Some individuals believe their votes aren’t counted or calculated and the electoral college is strictly against popular election for the presidency. Statements like these are however false, and an inaccurate jab at our free-democratic society.
At certain points on the road to the election, Democratic and Republican parties did not carry and conduct themselves in a political manner. The debates and rallies were dominated by shouting and outlandish statements. I would not go as far and say the politicians ran a smear campaign, but it was damn close.
The first Presidential debate, held on September 29th, was a terrible example of how men of power should act on national television. The debate became so chaotic, Democratic representative Biden stated, “Will you shut up, man?” (FLAPOL Paragraph 2) and “I’m not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he’s a liar,”(FLAPOL Paragraph 3). President Trump made similar comments such as, “It’s hard to get a word in with this clown,”(Paragraph 6) and “I’ll tell you Joe, you could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood,”(FLAPOL Paragraph 8). The constant arguing and bickering between the two men was consuming and taking away crucial time in the debate. The news anchor and journalist Chris Wallace was the designated moderator for the first debate and held most of the responsibility. Wallace was unable to control the conflict and tried to stick with the script and questions at hand. The CBS news reported, “The first presidential debate was a series of bitter exchanges and name-calling, with the president repeatedly speaking over his Democratic rival and the moderator struggling to maintain control of the 90-minute affair,”(Paragraph 1). Personally, I found this first debate to be rather embarrassing. There was little actual insight gained about the candidates and their responses to serious issues such as social injustice or the pandemic. Their inability to act in a civilized manner and side comments left me deeply troubled.
I began to worry how foreign countries would view our national dilemma. To me, the high tensions and spread of Covid-19 across the country made us an easy target. I believe communist superpowers such as China and Russia would look at our election and division as a moment of weakness and opportunity. The growing division of our country is correlated and backed by countries such as Russia. The Russian government published controversial topics on media platforms to pin Americans against one another. ISIS has also used similar techniques to post propaganda on social media. These terrorist syndicates promote violence and messages of destruction around the world. Social media and the internet in general has been molded into a new form of web warfare. Censorship is another key issue surrounding American society today. The People’s Republic of China controls all content and what is “acceptable media” for their citizens. Any allegations against Chinese legislation is unlawful and may result in severe punishment.
The second Presidential debate was held on October 22nd. In my opinion, in the final debate the two candidates were much more controlled and restrained. The debate covered policies ranging from the economy to the impact of Covid-19. The Los Angeles Times reported, “It was a drastic change of tone for the president who during the first debate bellowed over Biden,”(LAT Paragraph 6). The Los Angeles Times also said “The comparative order meant Biden was finally free to talk policy and character, while Trump delivered the usual whoppers…”(LAT Paragraph 7). The second debate was well managed and much more controlled compared to the first debate.
It then came down to the people to elect the 46th President of the United States. Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes while Donald Trump rallied a total of 232 votes. The President was baffled by these results and called for a recount. The President to the indicated that if he lost the election, he would challenge the polls. He is well within his right to do so. However his legal team has not gained much headway, as President elect Biden has begun to nominate members of his cabinet. An excerpt from the British Broadcasting Network stated, “Donald Trump has agreed transition moves must start and Mr Biden will now get a top secret intelligence brief,”(BBC Paragraph 4). While Biden released the statement, “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back.” Trump starting to concede gives me hope for reconciliation among our nation. It is a humble step in the right direction, and we are in need of a small victory.
Published by: Samuel Erickson
Work Citied:
Press, Associated. “Face-to-Face Anger: Donald Trump, Joe Biden Lash, Interrupt Each Other.” Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government., 30 Sept. 2020, floridapolitics.com/archives/370867-trump-biden-first-debate
This is the link to the podcast on Spotify. You can also find the podcast Apple, Google podcast and YouTube under the name The Socially Distant Podcast and the episode for this class is #35.
The thesis statement of the essay is “Social Media and the negative aspects it is spreading”. This course gave the opportunity to explore more about social media than a normal person known before. In this essay, the main focus is being given to the disadvantages that social media has and what negative aspects it is spreading globally. The emphasis is being given to the privacy problems, copyrights, politics and social media, terrorism and propagandas.
Social media is a digital tool that makes a person able to share content with the public. But in the past few years, the social media is being used for so many unethical purposes and spreading negative affects more than the positive ones. Over a decade the free social media apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has made the people slaves to the digital screens and people without thinking use to spend hours in front of their phones. For billions of people, sharing their personal life pictures and their content on the social media has remain no problem at all yet it becomes a part of their life. People do not think on the fact that how negatively social media is affecting us psychologically (Timrayner, 2012).
The internet for the world is now become a universal medium. It gives people access to millions of articles, books and so many other literature work that once was considered a big problem if someone had to make a research. People who used to spend hours in libraries to search for the data are now busy with their computer screens and spending time to find out the topics related to their subject. It seem quite an easy way to make a research right? But what is making a hurdle for the authors is to make a difference in between a genuine and fake data (Carr, 2020).
One of the disadvantage of this current technology and social media is that it has made the families departed while living under the same roof. People in the late 90s used to have the landlines in their homes and that landline was a connection in between the people because they all would love to sit together in the living room and talked to their loved ones. But now the modern technology has made this loved vanished away. Now, a person under the same roof make a phone call to talk to his/her mother, father or to any of the sibling rather to go into their rooms. According to the federal government, the majority of American homes now use cellphones exclusively. “We do not even have a landline anymore,” people now began to say that proudly (Cho, 2019).
Apart from these of the negative impacts that social media and the modern world technology has put on us. People are so much involve in their online world that they loss the contact with the real world outside. Having friends on Facebook, groups of same concerns in the social media apps is now the life of the modern world people. They do care about what is happening to their virtual friends but pay no heed towards their parents and their families. That’s what I think is the major loss this technology has made to us.
Watching the Netflix series The Black Mirror has made so many wonderful episodes that really defines well what the technology is doing to us and how far this technology can go in the future life. In the episode “The Entire History of You” what they showed to world is that how a person in the future can see all of his past by using a simple grain. And the results of this technology was terrific. Sometimes people want to forget the memories that hurt them a lot so much. Who wants to recall such memories? And same terrific thing was being watched in another episode named “Be Right Back” where Martha wanted to connect back to boyfriend named Ash who got killed in the car accident and she was not able to process this. She then using an app talked to the reboot of her boyfriend and she thought it would be a good idea to talk to him for the last time in order to get closure. But that has proved to be a mistake because there is hell of difference in between an actual person and in a reboot.
The technology has made our private lives long gone because we are not having our privacy at all. Not even if we delete all the applications from our phone but still we are being recorded and being seen by the government and by the agencies and we are not alone even if we are. In the article “The Messy Media Ethics Behind the Sony Hack”, the author has said right about the fact that the gray area where most of the information resides in between the private and public or between prurient and illuminating might not be the exception but the new normal. Hacking the private information no matter what the reason is should be considered unethical and immoral act disregard of the reason that why such an action is being taken by the government or by the journalist at first place (Petersen, 2014).
Apart from these, the social media and the modern technology has made the hackers more powerful even before. Now that people put almost every sort of their personal information from their names, date of births to their debit, credit card account details on many of the online purchasing sites and even on movie sites. The hackers has made millions of dollars just by stealing this information.
Many of the female celebrities have seen as the victim and their very private pictures was being leaked out by their own husbands and boyfriends. This is another one of the leading problems of the modern world. In the article “Why Revenge Porn is Really F*cked Up” it has been seen that was not a new thing for many of us to hear or read but we really do not pay attention to the sensitivity of this topic. In this article, the author has made a discussion about Chrissy Chambers and what had happened to her. Chamber has been known to many of us by an American activist and YouTube star and she had made a history as being the first ever person in the UK to bring both civil and criminal charges against her former partner who posted the revenge porn (Finch, 2015).
What has been discussed above made a crystal clear image that the technology and the social media has given us more disadvantages than we can count the advantages. Our personal life, our private life, the family time, the family union, the physical life, practical and even the social life all has been effected so much that we cannot even count them all. And even if we stop using the social media still, we cannot be able to get our normal life back. Social media has engulfed it all and with every passing day how far the technology is going it is impossible to stop this but we can make some limits in order to protect ourselves.
Work Cited:
Tim Rayner. “Foucault and Social Media: Life in a Virtual Panopticon.” Philosophy for Change, 11 Nov. 2012, philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-and-social-media-life-in-a-virtual-panopticon.
Finch, Sam Dylan. “6 Reasons Why Revenge Porn Is Really mess Up (And How One Woman Is Pushing Back).” Everyday Feminism, 16 June 2015, everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/6-reasons-why-revenge-porn-is-actually-really-fcked-up-and-how-one-woman-is-pushing-back.
(PERSONAL PROJECT) – For my personal project I am focusing on the issue we face everyday when using social media, and that is the increase in people getting news from these platforms and most of the time having it be misleading or false. With the current trend of more and more people posting about political news, it can sometimes make it feel like that is all that is on social media nowadays. Social media has changed from sharing and keeping up with friends and family to a news outlet that people don’t take the time to make sure if the information is true or credible.
Millennials always being on their smartphones even when they are seeing each other and hanging out.
With all that is happening in our world right now from the pandemic, protests, and the election there has been a report that “shows that consumers continue to shift away from the traditional media sources for their news and are moving towards social media and messaging services to find the news” (Vorhaus, 2020). I think the reason for this transition is due to the large millennial generation because they are the ones that drive social media and use it the most. I think this change is headed toward the wrong direction because of how much deception there is online and people tend to take them for their word even though they don’t know them. People will just see something posted so many times they will think to themselves “there is no way that it is fake if this many people are posting it”. This can create chaos and will turn us against each other, which it already has.
This shows the usage of social media apps from Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter.
“Social media combine the flow of television and the flow of video games to keep the user scrolling through post after post” (Bolter, 2019). This can make social media feel very addictive and not see a problem with it. There would be no problem, but because these platforms have political information and discussion they can threaten the average user with posts they would rather not see. “Traditional conspiracy theories are relatively coherent narratives that seek to explain some disturbing aspect of the political or social world. The new conspiracism presents incoherent, often contradictory assertions rather than a consistent story” (Bolter, 2019). By reading this quote it helps me understand how conspiracies and fake news can easily spread on social media as it is a place where people can say whatever is on their mind and make fake news articles to stir the pot and to try to convince others that their way of thinking is the right way. I can think of these stories as someone just accusing another person they don’t agree with and trying to throw that person’s name under the bus and damage their reputation no matter the cost of doing it. During Donald Trump’s first two years as president he “tweeted more than 600 times about Russia and collusion, more than 400 times lamenting fake news, and more than 200 times each about Clinton and Obama” (Bolter, 2019). Sometimes they would be simple and straight to the point or other times he would be more thorough about it. I think that having a president this vocal can hurt the nations image with other countries and almost make him look a little foolish and childish, at the same time I can understand why he uses social media so much. He tries to clear fake news surrounding him and be more involved creating a less of a barrier between president and citizen.
This cartoon can show us how the leaders of political parties are trying to use social media to convince us which side to be on and how they are going to do it.
With the election finally coming to an end, hopefully most of the fake news, hate speech and misinformation will be gone and finally we can have trusted news on social media outlets. It always seems there will be fake news, but during these two past elections social media played a bigger role than ever before and even pushed Facebook to make a crazy decision. They decided that they will not be posting any paid advertisements for political news and the election because this year there were so much hate and violence due to the virus and the police brutality that has been a continuing problem for our nation. Now more than ever people rely on social media for a source of news and “there are worries that such content could influence audiences unable to distinguish truth from fact or news from propaganda” (Brooks, 2020). That is the biggest issue with getting the news from online is that you have to take everything with a grain of salt, and if you do want to receive confirmation about something you learned you should give it a quick Google search and see how credible it is. We can be shock about how many things we can mistake for being truthful.
This cartoon can represent how social media is this platform where all of these awful things can gather and how they affect us.
With all the use and misuse of social media we have to remember how it is making the newer generations feel. A study linked the platforms to depression and there may be a larger issue at hand. “The researchers found that social media may harm girls’ mental health by increasing their exposure to bullying and reducing their sleep and physical exercise” (Asmelash, 2019). They go on to say that it does not cause harm, but can easily disrupt normal, everyday activities. There was a clear difference between boys and girls, where the girls had greater psychological distress. The article also gives us ideas to how to help teens with this depression because even if social media is the cause there is a very low chance that a young person would want to miss out on what their friends are doing and saying, which could even create anxiety and further that depression. We need to be able to put up a filter so that these young people will not see such nasty things, or “instead the positive effects of social media use, such as encouraging social interactions, can be more endorsed”(Asmelash, 2019). If we can clean up social media from its toxic and hatred it can be a great place to start as we should strive for change. I think that it has to start with fake news because that is usually at the center of any argument and without that false information there will be nothing more to fight about.
Great video explaining how social media can be hurtful to ourselves.
The thesis statement of the essay is “The effects of social media depends upon how a person, people and the organizations use it.” In this essay the perks of social media is going to be discussed in detail. Everything has both of its positive and negative pictures, while discussing the perks we cannot ignore the negative side of social media that if this global platform is used in negative form what the consequences would be.
Social media can be taken as a blessing of the modern world. With social media the distances among people has seen to be vanished. With social media the world has become a global village and everyone has equal access to everything present on internet and online. Social media has made the social bonds even stronger. Any news of any country would take seconds to spread all over the world. It has become even easier for the researchers to access the information to their related topic that easily. Internet has totally changed the way we remember things. Talking about the academics thousands of videos are now available online in order to understand the complex structures of chemistry or to understand the anatomy of human body. Students now easily understand the graphic representations of economies different concepts or the structures of bridges. While using the internet it feels like the world is around you and you have access to every bit of it (Noe, 2011).
Human beings always used the social media and the technology in order to make new relations with people and to add diversity to their social circle. The space they share online, the bond, their activities can also be taken as sociomental because their connection with each other is interpersonal and is dependent on the virtual spaces rather than physical activity for its creation and maintenance (Houser, 2020).
Billions of people use social media in order to make new friends, new bonds, in order to understand others culture and the norms of their country and more specifically to calm their curiosities towards other parts of the world. With the help of this modern technology millions of people are earning online. The internet provides people with so much online earning opportunities that it become even easier for the people to do a home based job now.
Every things comes with a price and technology also has its pros and cons but we cannot just neglect the pros and on the basis of cons made a decision that technology and social media as a whole is bad for humans. Watching the movie “Snowden” was quite a new experience and I learnt a lot from it. People often complain about the fact that the Government is spying on them and that they do not have a private life anymore. I wanted to say that does privacy matters even if you are not secure? Does Government make a phone call to your home while you was watching porn and complaint your parents about it? Obviously NO! Because that’s not the job of Government and what their job is to protect you from terrorism and for that they keep a check and balance to every unusual activity happening online. And that has nothing to do with your privacy rather the sole duty of government is to protect you. Yes, I do agree that the movie showed us all that our whole life was being captured by the government but for what purpose? For our country’s protection.
Again at this point of conversation, I would repeat that the use of social media and technology depends for what purpose a person or an organization is using it. In one of the articles named the “The Next Big Focus in the Russia Investigation: Social Media” the author has stated that Facebook has acknowledged that it sold ads to some 500 fake Russia-linked accounts between 2015-2017 and what most alarming is that the ads addressed the socially divisive issues like gun control, immigration and race relations. It is also written in the statement that it may discover more (Lucas, 2017).
Same while reading the article: “The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism”, have given us the idea of what people have in their hands and how well they are using the technology. The author named Zuckerman stated in the article that “Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers. Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.” If a tool passes “cute cat” purposes, and is widely used for low-value purposes, it can be and likely is used for online activism, too.” And I totally agree with the author here, if people use the internet for their pleasures then there is need to understand that what this technology is capable to do and what do you have in your hand and you are not utilizing it in a proper manner (Wikipedia, 2020).
And same is the case with the politicians now. They are using social media for their own personal benefits. Every single person of the modern world knows the value of social media and how vast this network is. The politicians now use social media to run their campaigns and to spread the propagandas. The article “Longtime NBC Reporters Quits” has opened up a new fact door for all of us when a reporter from the NBC quit his career and said that the mass media has now become puppet in the hands of the President and the Trump free days are over for all of us (Arkin, 2019). And on such basis he quits his career after reading this I felt it so much that I really thought is it really happening to that level now? Yes it indeed is.
At last, I would conclude this discussion on the point that with every passing day the world of technology is growing so fast that we cannot stop it. We are and will enjoy the perks of social media and technology and for these perks we have to pay in the form of these false propagandas and the politicians’ personal interests. People of this era are so powerful as compared to the past ones and they know how to differentiate in between a fake and a genuine news. There is need for people to understand and make the right decisions not only for their personal lives but for their future and for their coming generations as well.
Houser, Kasey. “Chapter 3: ‘Inhabiting a Digital Environment.’” What Do You Hope to Learn as a Result of Taking This Class?, 6 Feb. 2020, kaseylynnhouser.wordpress.com/2020/02/06/chapter-3-inhabiting-a-digital-environment.
In the United States, 3.5% of people yearly suffer PTSD from Online and real occurrences any impactful situation can affect people’s natural behavior with one another. PTSD is “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” which can cause many people harm or self-harm and there is another word for PTSD that military people use called “Shell Shock”. People that have PTSD often come from a military background due to the brutal challenges they face. When coming from active duty veterans have disturbing thoughts and feelings that relate to their traumatic past events which make it difficult for them to adjust to their normal daily lifestyle with their families. When going through a pandemic, it will increase the rate of people to have PTSD because of the imbalance nature that happens in their life. The fear of not being in control shock many people sense helplessness or not having the power to change the outcome. PTSD doesn’t only happen to only adults, it happens to all people of any race, color, nationality, and age. In the United States, people had many issues with the Internet constantly being a trigger in many cases where veterans have a difficult time adjusting to normal lifestyles and people who have other mental issues suffer the most to the high possibility they have PTSD.
The free time people with PTSD spend to make themselves happy can be ruined in an instant. In many families, mental issues can run through DNA and some people don’t understand the seriousness. Debbie is a person who suffers from mental issues “I suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety, which at times makes my life difficult and unbearable. I find that mental health is still a very taboo subject. Many people are still ignorant about mental health and don’t treat it seriously because it’s not really visible.” This issue further explains the importance of taking care of those who struggle in silence with talking to anyone or even searching for general support is difficult when you constantly hear negative thoughts of suicide, thinking you’re not good enough, always saying you can do better, comparing your own action to someone else thinking they have it better than you not knowing their struggle but still feeling insecure about yourself, and having a sense of self-disappointment frequently. Online people tend to not show empathy to others with their own comments when dealing with others who post on their social media. Social media is a huge networking source where people can communicate faster than they did in the past where now you can be a very young person and still have access to social media to interact with others. A smartphone is devices that a majority of people in the United States use in their life and are very crucial in how they react to others and make their own decisions. People forget that having such a device with such power can cause negative effects on those who behave in a destructive matter that make people victims of their destructive behavior.
Many marine soldiers return with a different behavior when they return home from active duty. Marines carry out brutal combat missions to serve this nation. The missions they carry out can lead to a variety of mental health symptoms. The mental health symptoms can be random panic attacks, nightmares, aggressive behaviors, mood swings, and addiction to drugs. The random panic attacks can come from memorizing an intense event that happened in active duty. In recent studies “About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam veterans (15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD when the most recent study of them (the National Vietnam Veteran Readjustment Study) was conducted in the late 1980s.” Marines with PTSD that have aggressive behaviors “.. had been aggressive in the past four months, such as threatening physical violence, destroying property, or having a physical fight with someone.” In the Marine corps soldiers who have PTSD are very difficult to deal with in the process of returning home. Most of the marines in the United States have been put down because of their inappropriate behaviors in society.
In the United States, 20 percent of Marine soldiers suffer from problems with mental health, adjusting to their own families, anger issues, and unusual behavior when returning home; Marine soldiers struggle to maintain their mental issues on a daily routine. The Marine families have a difficult time keeping the bond together, but usually, they fall apart. Marines with PTSD do suffer at home in the process of adjusting to a normal lifestyle. The population has been on the verge of mental problems, but there are still some people who committed suicide to get rid of their agony. In family vacation, the soul purpose to relax can be perturbed by an unexpected situation where it affects the minds involved for instance “ I went on to the Dominican Republic at the age of six where I was on the beach and got stung by a sea urchin”. That experience gave PTSD any that deals with sea life and when I go on any family vacation I am constantly reminded of that moment. There are many different situations that can make people tumble from the shock of PTSD but the way they endure it can determine whether or not they can make the best of their own situation or be consume in the negativity that follows ups with other sorts of mental issues.
Online is a place where people find whatever feeling, ideas, desires, positive or negative post but none less its express human interaction but virtually. People can get PTSD from anything even from merely waking up or from a workplace. In many cases, people suffer from nightmares of past events with waking up in the middle of the night from shock. The countless nights that people go through with their PTSD have a treatment that comes in pills, liquids, and another product that can be prescribed to you by your own doctor if you have insurance but if you don’t you would have to go to the pharmacy. In any situation, there is a possibility of the outcome ending terrible but keep a positive mindset can also help yourself manage the pain in life to keep pushing forward because nobody can make you stand on your two feet and walk for you it is your own responsibility to move forward for a positive revolution.
Worked Cited:
My mental illness is my reality – it’s not a choice
Social media can be used to negatively affect the reality of how others may perceive a person. Social ranking based on the “Black Mirror” episodes ‘Nosedive’, ‘White Bear’ and ‘Hated In the Nation’. Relating these episodes to real cases in the real world and how slowly the episodes are becoming a reality for some who use social media daily. There are many reasons not to use social media daily and life as we know it 20 years from now can potentially mirror what Black Mirror exhibits.
In the episode “Nosedive”, the everyday social media use is expected, but if a person says one thing that’s controversial around public opinion it is possible to lose your job and even your house. People of this reality play competitive social recognition games to receive the end goal of a high rating. In this reality, it doesn’t matter how good you actually are , but everybody’s perspectives, expectations and experiences shown by rating a person from best to worst. People take pictures of themselves to post as if they were the star of their own reality TV show and the ratings give the justification. This episode shows the obsession to gain digital attention which can outline narcissistic tendencies. The five star rating is usually reserved for those in power or celebrities. A real life example can be companies like Uber, UberEats and Lyft asking for people to rate their experience out of five stars. People today have the option to scroll past a picture and not double tap to like it, however, those with more “likes” get put into an algorithm in which they can receive even more likes and they are named ‘Influencers’. People have lost understanding and importance of what true interaction with a person face to face does to a person. The amount of likes whether on an app or someone actually liking you should not change who you truly are.
The episode, “Hated In The Nation”, plays on how technology can be an essential part of our lives and dependent to help maintain human civilization in the near future. In this reality, the bees have become extinct and replaced by robotic versions to prevent an environmental tragedy. There was an online defensive article written by a journalist named Jo Powers and she got so much negative response over social media platforms and was later found dead. The hypersensitivity of online bots and beings have led her to death for writing what was on her mind. The person who sent the first #DeathtoJoPowers believed she was using free speech and doesn’t believe that she should be punished for expressing her hate speech. This implementation of hate speech laws would be imperative because the internet has now become so powerful that the unlined outrage machine picks targets indiscriminate play. This is also largely a result of having socialized everything on the internet is becoming there now so many invented ways to get your voice out on the internet. This can relate to the ‘Cancel Culture’ of today in which people get cancelled online and get death threats, but most of the time they are all talk. However, this episode displayed the possibility of Cancel Culture having the ability to exile someone’s existence for good. The hypersensitive bots and beings behind their device screens would probably agree to a potential society like this one. Hopefully the invention of technological bees will not result in murders of living beings for life as we know it.
Concluding with the episode, “White Bear”, the ethics of torture and the methods of punishment that technology can potentially bring forth in the future is scary to think. The main character, Victoria, woke up in a room with no recollection of who she is or what she’s doing there. There are people with mobile phones in hand recording or taking pictures of her which makes her go crazy because nobody gets close enough to help her. This shows throughout real life because there are incidents that occur and before someone calls for help, they go to a social media platform or camera app to record. However, the whole time Victoria was being manipulated because she helped her husband with the murder and kidnapping of a young girl. The connection between the murder of a young girl and her husband flashes images subconsciously of the original event to her memory. Being that her memory was zapped away as her punishment and staged to go through the horrible events of being tortured until the “truth” of what she did is displayed to her every single day. The ethics of torture for the general public views of attending the ‘White Bear Justice Park’ as if it were Six Flags is distraught. The attendees need to pay in order to get in and follow the safety procedures such as to keep your distance and enjoy themselves. Putting it as a requirement to enjoy oneself sets there to be no other option but to agree with the torture of the woman. These people with mobile phones are just as bad as the actors “helping” her throughout the day experience. I also noticed that the attendees were white while Victoria was a person of color which can be potentially symbolized within racism in the criminal system. The torturing of a criminal seems to be a very appealing experience for the consumers and she is looked at as not equal to the people around her due to her wrongdoing. This is an extensive step in the negative and if this were to happen in real life, there would be less restrictions on human life and we as a society don’t need to go further in the rabbit hole of hatred.
The future may present aspects from these “Black Mirror” episodes and should be alarming for the success of humanity and other living beings on Earth. In 20 years from now, I predict that there will be ratings from Nosedive that predict a person’s credibility. Bots and beings will still be overly sensitive online just like in Hated in The Nation but they may not have the capability to kill someone with a technological insect. There will definitely be more technological advancements for people’s use and other hidden for government use. I hope that technology may be used to help aid global warming, cleaning ocean trash and people become aware of their screen time and try to implement using their devices less frequently. All in all, if the technology is used in a positive light, our future on Earth will be in a vibrationally better state all around.
Citations:
“Nosedive.” Black Mirror, created by Charlie Booker, season 3, episode 1, House of Tomorrow, 2016, www.netflix.com/title/70264888.
“White Bear.” Black Mirror, created by Charlie Booker, season 2, episode 2, House of Tomorrow, 2016, www.netflix.com/title/70264888.
“Hated In The Nation.” Black Mirror, created by Charlie Booker, season 3, episode 1, House of Tomorrow, 2016, www.netflix.com/title/70264888.
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 