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. 

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. 

Santhanam, Laura. “Youth Suicide Rates Are on the Rise in the U.S.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 18 Oct. 2019, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s. 

Emojis are so unbelievably overrated. I literally think I use about 15 of them, max. We’re gonna test something- I’m writing this on my phone right now and I’m going to put my most recent emojis here, and when I email this to myself to finish on my laptop, we’re gonna see what happens and if they stay copy and pasted into WordPress. 

😂🤬👍🏻😁😌🤮😊🙃👏😬🤷🏻‍♀️☹️❤️🙄😍🔥🤦🏻‍♀️😩❤️➡️👋🥰😫😚🙁🥺🌚🥂😭😉

The funny part is I changed some contact names in my phone, and half of these are from the ones I used on peoples names.

They were originally for easier communication and quick texts since we used to have flip phones and have you ever tried to text a sent ace on a flip phone? It takes forever. So it makes sense that this was a plausible fix in 1999. However, I think now it’s almost faster just to type whatever the hell you want to say rather than literally going through hundreds to chose from. There’s 8 pages on iPhones of emojis, and that’s not even counting the new “Animoji’s” that they have now too. We could literally go on forever and put every single thing on every single phone. BUT WHY? Lord have mercy we don’t have good communication now as it is let alone if we start to use pictures for everything, and what’s the saying? A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, so yep, let’s leave more room for interpretation. 

“Facebook official” has become such a milestone in any relationship. It’s always something that gets brought up in the beginning and ponder if you want the world to know yet, and then the inevitable post and all your friends comment giving you shit. Social media has become too engrained into relationships but that’s for another day. Alas, things eventually change and you leave, and one of the first things I do is rip it off of Facebook and delete all the pictures like some form of passage. And the last time I did it, a break was still relatively new, and I did go through the steps for it but you’ve all heard my story from class and it didn’t mean shit. But, taking a break is a brilliant thing Facebook has developed and it helps a lot of people. And you don’t even have to break off a relationship on facebook to access it, you can take a break from anyone at any time. I’ve had a few people just come out of breaks since the election has ceased. And I recently had a falling out with a friend and it really helped me recover from that. It’s a small thing, but it’s something they really did for the people

White Christmas is crazy. This poor guy is just wrong place wrong time trying to get a date and this seemingly schizophrenic girl mistakingly judges him for being the same and they end up dead. This is the wildest episode ever. This little programmable self “cookie” is a neat and useful idea. It’s such a toss up of ethics. It’s stretches exactly what “reality is” because for the “cookie” it is real, she is trapped and lives for nothing but to control the house. But really, her “real life self” is okay. The two men barely touch over this over their conversation before getting to the blocking. The blocking is RIDICULOUS. These woman do NOT have good enough reasons to just block them and go about their business, they are abusing their power. And blocks their kids too? For lack of a better term, it’s super fucked up. Plain and simple. Genuinely makes me angry. And then the little girl ended up not being his anyway, this is so sad. He did make some questionable choices though…

Weekly News: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/world/middleeast/al-masri-abdullah-qaeda-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

This is pretty sweet, I’m surprised nobody has acknowledged it

Has anyone watched Emogenius? All I could think about was that stupid show lol

Essena is amazing. As I’ve raved before, I find it really empowering when people have enough will power to delete social media and stop the perpetuating cycle of wanting likes and attention. Her quote, my title, really does describe it in a nutshell. Models, celebrities, anyone really, tries to put the most “perfect” version of themselves on social media with filters, angles, makeup, and whatever else hot people use to be more hot. Even ugly people like myself look good on Instagram because we do it on purpose. However, the one thing I don’t understand that is if you set your account up to promote and make money, especially 2K(AUD, I don’t know conversions to USD) a day, it seems odd to just stop. I understanding wanting to feel more “real” but if money is involved I don’t think I personally would have done what she did, but I really do admire her for it. It almost seems like she trended more with her stepping back from it, and making it a “movement” as someone on Twitter said. 
Here’s my question early- go back to the second article on her and read the final quote of the article by Anne Lamott. Tell me which one you’re living and if you’re happy. 

I’ve never heard of Kickstarter, I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen a film that’s come from it, definitely none of the ones mentioned in the article. I do find it odd that Zach Braff would have to use the site for funding, but I also get it from his standpoint too, if he dumps all of his own money into it, it flops, nobody wins. If a lot of people dump a little, everyone only loses a little rather than a huge deficit on one person. I like his quote of “ass-ton” because he’s probably right, nobody may have heard of it unless this controversial thing happened of him being on it to get the word out more for the site. 

The Social Network. I remember when it came out because I made my Facebook like 6 months before it came out and I’m a huge fan of most of the cast (who doesn’t love Jesse Eisenberg?). It really is an interesting movie of the challenges to produce something as massive as Facebook. And how much of a genius these kids are to even think about doing something like that. Watching things like this about genius college students building what they built is mind boggling to me, I know Alfred isn’t Harvard, but I feel like we should step out game up after rewatching this. The court cases are exciting, and I feel like these kind of copyright lawsuits happen all the time. I mean really, anyone can share an idea, it’s a matter of who does it first. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/30/voting-2020-older-americans-casting-ballots-first-time/3745521001/

This is the article, I’m so happy to read this. EVERYONE GO VOTE

The cute cat theory. Since being in this course, this is something I’ve really thought about. The fact that the internet truly is a place and has a place for everyone. The intellectuals to share papers and medical research being at the ready for any doctor anywhere. This is incredible, this is the dream, for everyone to have access to these amazing things and for everyone to prosper. But, here we are, taking amazing things for granted and we share pictures of cute cats. I mean obviously I’m not complaining, I love cats and I am definitely one of those people who share cats but that just shows how -for lack of a better term right now- basic ‘normal’ people are. We have extraordinary minds in our midst. Surgeons, writers, architects; beautiful and brilliant people who save a change lives every day. And here I am, using this platform for brilliancy for something trivial, like cats or raccoons. And I am fully aware I don’t have the mind to do what those people do but it makes me feel like there’s more out there for me, and for everyone. I don’t know I guess reading the article really got me thinking. 

Which leads me into the next article- the digital shift. Using the internet for hate, which I personally will never understand. 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. Some people just don’t have the self control not to say the hateful things. Because of this, people fight. Tension rises and fire starts and it creates a disconnect, and that disconnect, dehumanizing people on the internet is where the problem lies. 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. I’m not one of the high ups on Facebooks board so don’t quote me on it but it’s what makes sense in my head. 

10 Twitter hashtags is where I get lost. I definitely have tried to get into the Twittersphere but I don’t know, something about it just doesn’t real me in. And I’m not the Instagram hashtagger , so I don’t really use them either. #Ferguson being number 1 really did shock me compared to #blacklivesmatter or #lovewins. I’m sorry,  not being an official Twitter user I don’t have a lot to say about this. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/09/hurricane-delta-track-live-weather-updates-storm-louisiana/5925437002/

This is heartbreaking and not about Covid or Trump. Ive got a lot of family down south so hurricanes are always scary.

“In many ways, it’s surprising that this kind of manipulation hasn’t been seen before.” Really? Is this true? This just seems impossible. Why wouldn’t there by any? I guess maybe I think people who want to watch the world burn really want to see it suffer. Maybe they think the truth is scarier than a lie? Especially nowadays and last weeks cancel culture, just about anything, truth or not, can ruin a persons reputation, it’s surprising that hackers wouldn’t just want to rip some people down. I vaguely remember the Sony hacks, and only because The Interview was pushed back because of it and my friends and I were excited to see it. I personally never really read into it or learned anything more about the hack. As far as I know, I’ve never been hacked but I know people that have and nobody really talks about it. Every once in a blue moon someone I follow on Instagram will get hacked and post Ray Bans 20 times in one day. But then whoever it was just fixes the account or deletes it and that’s the end. Nothing ever comes of it. Nobody mentions it ever again.  I don’t understand computer science or how the hell to “hack” anything, and I don’t get the point of hacking instagrams like that either. Hacking is a lot like the creation of the internet- something my brain just won’t wrap around. 

The ABC Top 5 Worst Hacks really freaked me out. I definitely had a Yahoo account in the years they got hacked and I’ve definitely stayed at a Marriott Starwood. I mean to my knowledge I’ve never had anything weird happen but hey good luck to anyone who wants to steal my identity, you’ll return it. I guess I get the point of hacking, but I feel like there are easier ways to take money or whatever else people look for.

Snowden. I don’t remember this movie being released, and I don’t remember this true story happening either. And I like things like this and the people in it I don’t know how I missed this one. I also did not run and put tape over my laptop camera (or put my phone in the microwave), did any of you? It’s scary to think that the government can just stalk its citizens and have the ability to turn on laptop cameras to begin with but honestly, it’s not that bad. I guess I know how exciting my life is, and it’s not so exciting that someone else would want to watch me through cameras or my web browsing or anything else. This is the thing, yes it might freak some people out but I guess from my point of view I’d rather be casually spied on rather than nothing at all. Because if they’re doing it to little old me, then that means they’re really keeping an eye on the people that matter. The bad people in this world. And that’s what this is for, not to spy on people for porn (even though some fetishes really walk the line), or for other realistically trivial things.

Weekly News: As much as I hate politics, this is the breaking news for today.

The first line of Vincent’s article ‘The ‘Spiral of Silence” is “how often do you really say what you feel online?” and I’ve got a story. My mom used to drill into my head about what not to put online and anytime she saw me on my iPod I would get a speech about not being stupid. I also had access to the internet too young, I had a computer in my room and a Facebook in 2010. I was born in 2000. The days I would lay on my ‘cool’ futon and go to Nick.com to watch Drake and Josh, I should not have had it, but relatively, besides grammar, I didn’t put anything too crazy on there. And then I grew up and it’s now a conscious decision to watch what I say, but… I may have slipped up a time or two. And very recently, well like 2 months ago. Long story short there were some rumors that went around my high school about an administrator, and more rumors that the school covered it up and nothing ever happened. Then not that long ago another worker from the school went viral and was victimized by the cancel culture, and I posted something about it along the lines of if good people are coming down, bad people should too and here’s where we ended up- a Facebook message from said administrator saying I’ll hear from her lawyer and let me tell you what that was my ‘what the fuck did I do’ moment. I was taught this, I knew this, and here I was being sued because I said some dumb shit. I immediately deleted it, freaked out, and told my mom. After a long night of disappointment and yelling, nothing ever happened, I expected cops at my door when I woke up but nope, she was bluffing. And now my facebook consists of octopus, and raccoons, and Grey’s Anatomy.

I’ve actually been thinking about how Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and how they all work, and if they work differently. I hate the continuous swipe, the never ending and then the “oh shit” as I pass past someone worth it and not being able to go back. “If you’ve passed on someone, eventually, someone you’ve said “no” to is a much better option than someone who’s 1,000 or 10,000 people down the line.”(Tiffany) I’ve never thought about this like this, I’ve always pictured it as missed opportunities or someone that continuously swipes on me. A 6 is a 6 in a room full of 10s but a 6 is a 10 in a room full of 5s. I notice recycling all the time and it’s usually the hardcore no’s that stick out and just piss me off, but it’s to make everyone look better. Funny enough, my ex messaged me on Snapchat last night telling me he saw my tinder 5 times in about 30 minutes when I was playing solitaire not even on it. I wonder if I was getting better or worse.(lol)

“Hated in the Nation” is basically what happens when you say something wrong or that goes against the social majority. Cancel culture is so quick that literally in a matter of hours someone could lose it all, family, job, friends, everything. I brought up the first day of class that the top realtor at my cousins office in Florida posted someone on Facebook and was out of her multimillion dollar job by 9 am. Hoards of people simultaneously speak up and that’s it. The bees, the likes, swarm and capture people.

So I literally just joined two online Facebook “community group pages” less than a month ago, ‘Grey’s Anatomy Humor’ and ‘Wild About Raccoons’ (I’m a simple soul). I love them both, I love seeing the endless Grey’s related things(that I’m crying at most of the time, if you know you know) and cute little raccoons. I think for me personally, they’re still like social media. I was referred by a friend to each one, and I very rarely post in either of them. They’re decent sized groups, Grey’s with just shy of 250,000 members and Wild About Raccoons has about 19,000. I posted an art project I did before school started (below, guess which one I posted it to) and I still get notifications about it, easily probably 500 people interacted with the post in about a day and I’m super anal with notifications and it was too much for me from my normal 3 notifications a day being tagged in something by one of two people. Honestly I thought this was as far as community pages went, I thought it was interacting on a main stream social media site but in like closed group. I really didn’t know they have specialized forum pages for different hobbies. I might check into it.

I might check into the Replika thing too, I’ve been thinking about it for days but I don’t want to spin myself out of control. I’ve always believed in talking things through and leading yourself to find your root issues, but I feel like this would be something to too easily get attached too. Im pretty self aware at this point and know most of my limits, but I don’t think I’d be able to separate it from being a tool, to blurring the lines of reality or not. I’m really excited to read and see how the rest of y’all look at this, the entire concept is wild. It seems like the type of thing that can either go really well, and help someone work through themselves, or it can completely destroy someone with too much dependency. I don’t think there’s just a ‘happy medium’ ‘I can walk away at any time’ vibe coming from this type of thing.

There’s definitely no ‘happy medium’ in the Black Mirror episode this week. I’ve dealt with so much death, and so much loss, and I would do anything to have one more conversation with almost any of them. But this…this is just too far. I remember in March, I was driving back home from South Carolina and we stopped at a Cracker Barrel. It seemed like a normal day, but I still think about it often. My dad died when I was 17, it was unexpected, and a whole mess in general. I still haven’t fully recovered or accepted it. But on this day, in this random ass Cracker Barrel, I stopped breathing, only for a moment, but I stopped. All because I caught eyes with a guy who I swear could be my fathers doppelgänger. It threw me off, sent me on a downhill spiral. I stared at him the entire lunch, I didn’t talk to my best friend I was with, I couldn’t do anything, I just froze. Looking back I think I overreacted, but the point is, if i overreacted at this, imagine if I an uploaded ‘real’ person showed up one day. I genuinley think I would be mortified and shit myself, and not nearly as excited.

15 Million Merits, what an episode of Black Mirror. I have actually seen this one before unlike last week, and it was just as shocking as before. I just couldn’t imagine living in a world where all there is are stationary bikes and porn. And I really wanna know if the women are bombarded with porn too, because if not, then what are all their ads about, shampoo? In addition, the little carton they gave Abi, ‘cuppliance,’ I wonder if they kept her drinking it during her porn shoots and life to keep her from regretting or wanting to go back on her decision. The whole show appropriates ‘fat shaming’ and being a bigger girl myself, it’s absolutley crazy to me. Honestly I think I’d rather be a janitor than sit on a bike day in and day out, I think I’d rather deal with the bullying than be so goddamn bored not moving or going anywhere on a bike. Maybe I’m crazy for that, who knows.

Social media has always been with us. Now this is something I’ve definitely never thought about. Standage mentions papyrus rolls the romans used, and radio transmitters, and all of these pre-internet ways people still communicated to gossip, which shows it really is in human nature. Which is scary, we have this innate way about us that we want to talk about other people, and overshare. We’re social creatures, maybe this is why people are really addicted to their phones and social media, it’s in our DNA, it just changes how it presents itself through time. We went from drawing pictures on walls to tell a story to posting pictures on our social media ‘walls’ now. We need human connection, especially now with Corona, could you imagine just going months without seeing or even talking to the people in your life? Social media is a beautiful thing, in the grand scheme of things. This quote, “modern social media is so compelling because it’s the most convenient and efficient means we have invented so far to scratch a prehistoric itch: the desire to share and network with other people.”(Standage) This is it, this is what it boils down to, networking and connections. I feel like, not to get super existential, but I think the connections we make with people is the meaning of life. We rely on eachother, we love, we hurt, we share.

‘“Know yourself” has obscured “Take care of yourself.”‘(Foucault) How true is this. Wow. Our morality definitely has changed over the years, 100 percent. I think we as humans have forgotten to figure our own selves out because other people basically tell us how we should be, especially on social media. We create a different version of ourselves and we really get lost in the noise. Everything has evolved into ‘self care’ routines that we watch on Youtube or figure out through watching others, and honestly I think we kid ourselves into thinking it actually works when truly it’s just masking whatever issues you have for a night or two. I guess I should apologize to everyone, surprise, this might be an eye opener.

Weekly news: I actually just heard about this on Facebook and have’t really seen it in the daily news. This should definitely be a bigger issue.

I can’t stop thinking about Bentham’s panopticon and how it really does explain social media and how everyone is at the center of their own pages with everyone staring at them all the time. I know, at least for me and I’m sure some of you, have those few people who watch our facebooks and instagrams like a hawk waiting for us to fail, or say something ridiculous and have those cages open and flood us with comments of negativity, almost like a revolution. Social media really has become a prison that has trapped a lot of us. They even had to combat it on Instagram and restrict seeing the amount of likes on someones picture because people obsessed over it. It’s sad, people have become so dependant on others people’s opinions of their own selves rather than doing what they want to do.

The internet is such an ugly but beautiful place and I don’t think I would go as far as saying it’s making us stupid like Carr suggests. However I don’t think it’s necessarily making us smart either. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”(Carr) This quote hit me so profoundly because it’s true. Even at a young age already for me, I just don’t read real books anymore. I have totes of books, of my favorite books that I used to read multiple times a year just because I love the story and I could immerse myself in the pages. I have not read a real book in years, like the author, I think the last book I read was when the 3rd Ms. Peregrine’s book came out. And heres the funny part, I don’t remember when that was but Google just told me it was 2015. Google also told me theres been a release in January of the 4th book, and I didn’t have an overwhelming urge to go buy it immediately like the last time I found a new one. I feel like the internet has dissipated my drive, because I could just look up what happened without reading it in its entirety. I promise I didn’t, but the point is I could. So after reflection, maybe google has made me stupid. However, on the flip side of things, Noë thinks this is just how humans adapt, it’s a “cognitive strategy.” And in a way, it is. It’s the convenience factor. The convenience of not having to remember has become more important than just wanting to know something for the sake of knowing it. It’s so hard for our brains to wrap around the concept of the internet. Let me tell y’all, that video we watched in class last week about the creation of the internet absolutely did not make sense in my head, I even rewatched it to try to get a grasp and nope, nothing. It’s such a vast place that leads to everywhere and absolutely nowhere at the exact same time. Nobody reads paper books, nobody remembers phone numbers, nobody remembers even directions anymore because we don’t have to.

But if we can’t learn, grow, and want to intake more information, then what’s the point of being human? If we don’t have to learn anymore, then what are we doing?

Weekly News: We’re all college kids and half of us are addicted to nicotine.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/juul-shelves-plan-for-feature-that-counts-puffs-11599211801?mod=hp_lead_pos6

Hey y’all, my name is Emily, I’m a junior psychology major currently living in Cortland, NY. I’m one of the ones who has decided not to come to the crazy show at Alfred this semester and am doing everything online. Hope everyone has a great semester where ever they are!

I wanted to test uploading photo so enjoy a picture of my dog, LuLu