Since the rise of social media, it has been fairly obvious like most technology, that it can be either used as a tool or be wasted on us. How we got about using it is on us and through the years we have seen its capability. The whole world has basically incorporated social media into their daily routines and even into their careers. We find that everyone is basically on several platforms and it’s definitely allowed them to reach a wider audience to the point that people have become always famous by this tool, social media. Social media has become huge for people trying to get publicity and gain a huge following around the world. 

Marketing yourself is very important if you want to make it as a musician or gain a following in whatever you may choose to do. A couple years ago, marketing could have been posters, flyers, word of mouth and the list goes on. Social media has allowed for the opportunities to be a bit easier to obtain. By using social media as a tool, you can market your skills and ability. For example, YouTuber, producer/composer, audio engineer, and music theorist Rick Beato is a man who has a huge following and online presence with 1.96 million subscribers on his channel. In one of his videos he briefly mentions that some of his following might have come after one of his videos went viral of him in his son doing music related things in his studio. For many other people trying to earn use social media as a tool, viral videos have been one of those things that can really get things started. In Rick Beatos case, he just produced videos of things he liked to do and wanted to put some of his knowledge out there. His videos offer information to the public that it’s viewed as worthy that he has been able to put more out there and in essence has become in my opinion successful on using social media. Social Media has allowed for people to find others with similar interests.

I believe Lilian Chifley makes an excellent point and connection when she said “Usually, social media marketing is a great way for companies to build their brand, get new customers and promote their products and services. In a similar way, musicians need social media marketing to grow their audience and get spaces filled at gigs they’ll be playing at.” I find this to be valid in many cases. As a person who loves music, my genres go all across the board, but as of the last couple years I’ve been following bands on social media and it’s interesting how they use this platform to promote themselves. Based on personal experience it seems like older bands don’t do much promotion on social media rather than sticking to their usual way of promotion. A couple years ago, as I walked the street of New York’s East Village, I had seen posters on display for an upcoming GunsNRoses tour. It was interesting because I didn’t ever really see promotions on posters for bands either promoting an album or tour on the street fow a while although I was aware that this was a marketing technique used before. I compared them to indie bands that I listen to who are just starting and although I did find a lack of poster/display promotions for them, I did notice that a lot of their promotions were happening online. Could this possible be a shift in how promotions and advertising is being done nowadays? Will social media just be much simpler to use as a way of promotion and dropping in information?

One of the key platforms of social media that has been instrumental to people achieving a following and using it to promote themselves is Instagram. Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and launched in 2010. At the time the primary focus of the app was “to feature photographs, specifically those taken on mobile devices.”. Currently it is part of Facebook which was acquired in 2012. Since then Instagram has shifted their focus and have included several new features. These features have been beneficial to the ability to try and start putting your name out there. Mike Khorev posted a blog titled “Music Marketing:7 Perfect Tips for Promoting Your Music On Instagram”. In this blog he mentions a lot of several ways you can market yourself as a musician on Instagram using all of the features to your advantage. I think this blog is great especially since it was published on February 18th, 2020 so it is very contemporary to when this is being written. With that being said, it’s up to date with the features that Instagram has added since the beginning when it was just for posting pictures. Khorev says “It’s no secret that the primary target market for any music regardless of the genre, tends to be younger people below 35. 31% of the internet users aged 18-34 and 32% of users between the ages of 25 and 34 are active on Instagram… Another key reason why Instagram is a great platform to promote your music is the fact that it’s really versatile: you can choose between ‘traditional’ posts, IGTV, and Stories, and various advertising options. I think it is interesting he mentions these features because several of the indie bands that are coming up or I have seen coming up,  have used these tools to promote their music through posts, merchandise drops with links or you can even buy it directly on the Instagram app. I think another interesting thing mentioned by Khorev is when he says “Before the digital age in the early 2000s, musicians are tied in what we can call the label infrastructure that typically goes like this: a musician gets noticed by a label (can be a major or indie label), the musician gets signed, and the label would handle everything from recording the single/album to publishing the music to promoting it.” I like that he mentions this point because it supports the idea that social media as a tool has definitely changed the process and it seems it puts more control on the artists although they have to put in the work themselves. There is no guarantee that you can become famous because that would depend on skill. However, it does make it a little easier to actually build a following and recognition. In essence social media can be used as a tool and this has caused change through the industry which isn’t necessarily a negative thing. 

Social Media has been expanding throughout the years, developing and becoming more dynamic in today’s society. It started out with MySpace and has developed into mainly four genres of social media. First you have Facebook which is essentially the father of social media because of what it brought to the table and what it has done for social media as a whole. Next is Instagram, which was bought by Facebook, but has since become the foundation of social media, where even older adults have started to make accounts because it supports their need of wanting to share their lives like everyone else does on the app. Thirdly is Snapchat and what’s amazing about snapchat is that it gave individuals the option to talk to people and send pictures at the same time, which made it feel like the conversation was more personal in a way. Finally there’s TikTok, this social media giant has had the most impact in retrospect because of the small amount of time it’s been around and in use. Although all four of these social media outlets have done much to advance our society, TikTok has made the most strides and has changed people the most from the short amount of time it’s been around. 

Many people might not know this, but the app was made by secretive chinese billionaire Zhang Yiming. Unfortunately not a lot is known about Yiming other than the fact that he’s one of the richest people in China with a net worth of 27.7 billion. He also made a company called ByteDance, which is a technology company operating in a range of content platforms and has made 16.2 billion from this company alone and its said the company as a whole is worth over 20 billion. “Zhang was born in 1983 in China’s Fujian province, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zhang’s parents worked as civil servants, Bloomberg reported”(Rogers, page 2). He started off studying microelectronics before switching his major to software engineering and he credits digital travel booking startup called Kuxun to success in making ByteDance. “I was one of the first employees. And I was an ordinary engineer at the beginning, but in the second year, I was in charge of about 40 to 50 people responsible for back-end technology and other tasks related to products,” Zhang told ByteDance employees”(Rogers, page 3). Zhang managed to create an inventive new social media platform changing the way people socialize and behave. 

 

 Although TikTok has overcome many challenges, the case still remains on whether or not the chinese government has control over the media giant. TikTok has been caught more than once snooping on American phones and because of this TikTok has taken many hits from its customers, affecting the amount of people who are willing to use and have the app. For example the Indian government banned TikTok on national security grounds, this in turn hurt TikTok because India is the platform’s biggest market. “According to reports, sources at the company suggested the ban might cost TikTok as much as $6 billion.”(Doffman, page 2). Australia and the U.S have also been on the prow of banning TikTok because of their relations with China. Since TikTok has been hit with so many scandals with snooping on people’s phones it has started a chain of events that have become very bad for business. 

In the U.S president Trump has been working on trying to ban TikTok threating the corporation and its existence. He stated that China continues to threaten national security, forgien policy and the economy. He continues by saying “This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”(The White House page, 1).  Trump’s main problem with the app is that it promotes disinformation creating false news about what’s going on around the world and in the U.S. Even the military has banned  its personnel from using TikTok saying that this is a national emergency. Trump has said that if the app is not sold it will be banned in the U.S. China’s state made headlines on the Global Times tabloids, with them saying “The Global Times tabloid, often seen as close to Beijing’s thinking, accused the U.S. of “hooligan logic” in its push for certain conditions in the TikTok deal and called it “unfair.” In an opinion piece, it said it was “hard for us to believe that Beijing will approve such an agreement.”(Kharpal, page 2). The deal between the U.S and Beijing have not eased and are still in the stages of finishing the deal.  

Since the possible announcement of TikTok being banned in the U.S, TikTok has had many buyers come its way. Buyers such as Microsoft and Walmart have joined up together to buy TikTok, with Oracle stepping in soon after to  have a shot at buying the app. Unfortunately in mid september Microsoft announced that they would be backing off on trying to buy TikTok because the company would not sell. Oracle ended up becoming the cloud provider for TikTok and would handle U.S user data. “A new U.S.-based company called TikTok Global will be set up with Oracle holding a 12.5% stake and Walmart owning 7.5%.”(Kharpal, page 2). TikTok Global would consist of four American citizens and founder Zhang Yiming. Although TikTok didn’t sell it showed its persistence during the dealings and determination to not sell. 

During TikToks rise to fame, it also managed to make its content creators famous too, making a whole new wave of celebrities. Some of the most popular creators have millions of followers who watch them lip sync, dance, and produce comedy skits as they grow into high profile influencers. These high profile influencers also help promote new music from incoming artists helping to launch there careers as well. Some of the biggest names to come out of Tiktok are Charlie D’amelio, Addison Rae, and Loran grey just to name a few. Since there careers have launched charlie and her family have been offered a deal to do a reality show, and Charlie has even been in tv commercials showing off her dancing skills. As for Addison, she has just announced to her followers that she will partake in a new movie coming out. Lastly Loran grey has expanded her talents over to singing to where shed like to focus more on getting this new career off the ground. TikTok has opened new doors of opportunity for the creators that make the app so wonderful in the first place and have changed the way you can become famous.

Works Cited

Doffman, Zak. “Yes, TikTok Has A Serious China Problem-Here’s Why You Should Be Concerned.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9 July 2020, http://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/07/09/tiktok-serious-china-problem-ban-security-warning/?sh=93a19461f22a. 

“Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok.” The White House, The United States Government, 6 Aug. 2020, http://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/.

Kharpal, Arjun. “Here’s Where Things Stand with the Messy TikTok Deal.” CNBC, CNBC, 25 Sept. 2020, http://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/25/tiktok-deal-timeline-the-latest-in-the-messy-saga-as-ban-looms.html.

Rogers, Taylor Nicole. “Meet Zhang Yiming, the Secretive Chinese Billionaire behind TikTok Who Made over $12 Billion in 2018 and Called Trump’s Demands to Sell the App ‘Unreasonable’.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Aug. 2020, http://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-billionaire-zhang-yiming-net-worth-lifestyle-2019-11. 

Summoners War is an online technique game where players bring beasts to take on thusly based conflicts, working with assaults and aloof capacities to pick up the high ground. There are more than 1,000 beasts that players can bring and battle with, some with preferable capacities over others, so the opportunities for various kinds of the methodology are extensive. However, the thing about the Summoners War is that it was not intended to be serious when the game was dispatched in 2014. (Garst, 2019)

Summoners War is an allowed-to-play game, which means you can download it for nothing; however, there are alternatives to put resources into microtransactions to progress quicker. Players can get it and manufacture a group for nothing, yet they need to contribute a genuine measure of time or cash (or both) on the off chance that they have to make more beasts and make the most ideal team. You can envision the contention that framework raises when South Korean game engineer Com2Us began coordinating rivalries for it in 2017. 

Like each sport, a meta has been worked around top serious Summoners War play. Certain beasts are utilized more than others, including the unbelievably flexible Dark Dragonite that a big part of the players contending claimed, and are viewed as the best technique during competitions. Beasts like those are hard to get as the bringing cycle incorporates numerous arbitrary factors, and you have not ensured the beasts you need. Paying builds that opportunity. 

Com2Us has presented various feasible allowed to-play beasts that let players fabricate a serious crew without paying anything. A few contenders, similar to the UK’s Yuhan “Baus” Gao or Peruvian finalist DRMZJoseph who played at the title in Seoul a year ago, have demonstrated that triumphant with these allowed to-play groups is conceivable. Albeit a few players accept that on the off chance that you do not have a group worked, in any event incompletely, from meta-characterized beasts then you could battle at a more elevated level of play. 

Top Monsters in Summoners War:

1. “Sigmarus (Water Phoenix)

2. Veromos (Dark Ifrit) ​ 

3. Loren (Light Cow Girl)

4. Galleon (Water Pirate) ​ 

5. Verdehile (Fire Vampire)

6. Jeanne (Light Paladin) ​ 

7. Shaina (Fire Chakram Dancer) ​

8. Maruna (Fire Boomerang Warrior)” (Best Monsters In Summoners War, 2020)

Tricks to play Summoners War as a Pro:  

1. Add Friends: 

Having bunches of companions in SW is significant. If you are beginning, do not stress. Simply ask individuals in the visit, and they will add you. 

A significant advantage is having the option to utilize your companion’s Rep beasts to help level your different beasts. The best part is you get additional reward exp since rep and coach beasts give you theirs when you use them! 

Search for companions who can cultivate Faimon like Lapis or Verad. You ought to consistently utilize your rep beasts first every day to help accelerate your leveling cycle. Try not to be timid! Go out there and make a few companions!  Be an old buddy! Ensure you have a rep beast that is useful for cultivating Faimon like Lapis. Individuals would not add you if have a pointless rep. For what reason would they? On the off chance that they cannot cultivate with your rep beast, at that point, there is no reason for adding you. On the off chance that you need a magnificent companion who is valuable, at that point, you should be one as well.

2. Join a League:

There is one motivation to get into an organization at the earliest opportunity. Organization Rewards. These are open to society individuals. 

As you fight different societies and go into attacks you get organization focuses. There are a ton of prizes that you will need to spend your focuses on. 

In the early game, there are a lot of lower-level societies that consequently acknowledge new individuals. No compelling reason to demand high societies except if you are more elevated level with loads of potential to profit that particular organization. 

3. Concentrate on Development Monsters: 

There are a ton of top beasts in Summoners War. Knowing which ones to burn through your effort on is troublesome. 

There is no set-in-stone manner to play this game. In any case, there is a moderate path and, obviously, a quicker way. 

On the off chance that you discover a beast you like, there is nothing amiss with leveling it up. Remember that there is plenty of beasts that are not even worth step up because they do not offer enough advantages in the long haul. 

These beasts are intended for end game PvP or are Food Monsters (Ones used to take care of to step up or expertise up different beasts). 

4. Overcome the Giant in GB10: 

Goliaths B10 may be overwhelming from the outset, yet you unquestionably need to pursue this objective. GB10 is the place where you will cultivate to get runes to reinforce your beasts. 

Presently, there is unquestionably a higher methodology to handle the solid goliaths, and you will require the correct line up to manage the work. 

Attempt to center a lot of energy and time into getting to GB10 to make your game experience simpler as well as much more fun! 

Perhaps the error early players do is step up a beast to understand it is just useful for end game substance. It squanders heaps of significant assets and drastically hinders your advancement. 

It is alright if you have one and need to construct it. However, I strongly suggest not making this a propensity except if you need to be stuck in the early game for eternity. 

5. Shine with Skill Ups: 

 Individuals whine a ton that even with beasts and runes their beasts are as yet not enduring. You have to ability them up to take advantage of them. 

You would be astonished the number of summoners disregard this. In the early game, use family beasts to ability up. Focus on ones that are the most effortless to get first. 

Spare your DEVILMONS for your best Nat 5 beasts (they are difficult to get family aptitude ups). 

6. Make a Team: 

In Summoners War, synchronizing your group so that they all work together is urgent to advance in the game. Numerous summoners wrongly load up the entirety of their wagers on one beast or in no way different sort. At the point when you do this, odds are your group would not endure. 

A commonplace group needs to have a harm vendor, assault/speed buff, depuffs, the capacity to take buffs from supervisors, and a healer. Remember that buffs do not stack, so having two of a similar will be inefficient. 

Attempt to plan and perceive how every beast adds to the group overall and not as a person.

References

Aron Garst (2019), “Summoners War players strive to be competitive without paying in free-to-play mobile game”

Available at: https://www.espn.in/esports/story/_/id/27957000/summoners-war-players-strive-competitive-paying-free-play-mobile-game

[Accessed at: 23 November 2020]

Summoners War Database, (2020), “Best Monsters In Summoners War”

Available at: https://www.sw-database.com/monsters

[Accessed at: 23 November 2020]

Since I was born, I cannot remember a time where I never had a dog. Even before I was born my mother participated in showing dogs for conformation. Conformation is judged based on the dog’s appearance and how their handler shows them off. A good handler knows their dog’s weak points and strong points and shows off their strongest areas. For example, if a dog has a pretty head (judged based on the standard for the breed) the handler will focus on showing off the dog’s head foremost. There are many common myths about dog shows and many people that will judge them based on the media they are seeing. In, Uncomfortable Westminster Kennel Club Facts From PETA, we read, “The show encourages the breeding of “purebred” (genetically manipulated for long noses, big chests, hunting abilities, etc.) dogs, even though more than 6 million homeless animals end up in shelters every year and half them must be euthanized for lack of good homes.” This is one of the many things organizations like PETA say to cover their own tracks. While the shows do encourage purebred breeding there are many events include agility, tracking, hunting, and herding the permit mixed breed dogs to compete. None of these dogs are genetically modified, but simply breed to partners that can help produce a litter of even prettier puppies then their parents. The only type of genetic modifying there is freezing sperm and artificial insemination, both are also used with humans. So, to say a dog is genetically altered is to say any child born through these are genetically altered. I personally have a nephew who wouldn’t have been born if not of the advanced technology we have. I know if anyone told him he was genetically altered there would be a fight. There are millions of animals given up each year and dog shows have been to blame for most of it. The truth is most people will give up an animal based on them growing too big, not be trainable, or simply just because they don’t want them anymore. “A Salon report exposed the cruelty of the multibillion-dollar industry behind events such as the Westminster dog show, including large-scale breeding farms, puppy-mill brokers, auctioneers, and pet store owners. They all cash in on the demand for purebred puppies who are produced en masse after a Best in Show win.” Most if not all the breeder in the dog show world will have a contract with people who want to purchase a puppy from them. These contracts include clauses about if for whatever reason they cannot keep the dog anymore to contact the breeder and the breeder will take the dog back. No one wants to see a puppy they raised for a minimum of eight weeks to end up at a shelter. Most puppies are microchipped before going to their new homes in case something was to happen to that puppy. Shelters scan all animals in case of this. There was a time I remember getting a phone call and it was from a woman who bought a puppy, roughly a year before the call, and she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was an elderly woman and wanted to stay with her son as long as she could, her son couldn’t have any dogs where he lived. So, she dropped the dog off and said goodbye; it was a heartbreaking goodbye and both her and the dog were crying. Dogs are a lot more sensitive to their human’s emotions then we realize. The dog didn’t end up at a shelter and instead stayed with my family for the time.  

In Controversies from the Westminster Dog Show through the years, we read, “Unfortunately, dog shows have been plagued by some of these people for years,” he said. “I’ve heard horror stories about other people’s dogs having their setups tampered with, being poisoned, but I never thought it would come to me.” This is one true thing I have seen in the show world. People from organizations have believed that dogs are better dead then to be in the show world. What some don’t understand is that because dogs are judged on how they look and any negligence or trauma to the animal can be seen by the animal’s reaction or just obvious to everyone. I can safely say that all mu animals and those I have meet through showing are for the most part better treated then children. Dogs must be washed, groomed, walked consistently, and their food intake is regularly monitored. While the dogs are in the ring the primary choice of treats are chicken, hot dogs, and steak. I two very picky dogs, one will only show for marshmallows and the other only steak. In Criticism of Dog Shows, we read, “Particularly, the shows’ insistence on exclusively purebred dogs and dogs’ aesthetic qualities has brought up issues about the ethics of breeding... In this way, breeding for physical attributes can lead to inbreeding and consequently, dogs with weaker immune systems and birth defects.” Much like humans, a dog’s genetic background may influence their health, personality and nutritional needs. Dog shows are meant to celebrate these distinctions and give dogs an opportunity to show off the best qualities of their breeds and personalities. Each breed is different, and all have been bred to meet a particular need for a particular purpose. Knowing the past of breeds and preserving breeds into future generations will help mitigate certain health concerns if done correctly.  There are also breed-specific diets that conform to each breed’s particular needs by customizing certain features, such as kibble size, nutrients, and more.  

Criticism of Dogs Shows states, “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have also held issue with aspects of the Westminster show. Particularly, they object to the practice of tail-docking, or amputation, which is done to adhere to some breeds’ standards. PETA filed an official complaint against the Westminster Kennel Club in 2004, claiming that its support of tail-docking violated New York state laws against inhumane procedures on dogs.” The incidence was 0.23 percent in the largest report to date on tail injuries in dogs and it was estimated that approximately 500 dogs need to be docked to avoid tail injury. It has been proposed that some types of dogs, or dogs used for purposes, have a higher incidence of tail injury. After a ban on docking, an unregulated analysis of German Shorthaired Pointers in Sweden suggested that there may be a high level of tail injury. Docking has shown to help certain breeds out and help prevent injuries. While none of the dogs I own need tail docking it is something that needs to be based breed to breed. There are some many more rumors encompassing dog shows and I can talk about them all day. All I ask is that BEFORE you judge something do some research on the topic and make your own conclusion rather than seeing something on social media and intently judging it.  

What surprised you the most? Do you own a dog? If so what breed/ breeds are they? Are you a dog or cat person? 

References:  

https://www.insider.com/westminster-dog-show-controversies-history-2020-2#when-a-prize-winning-dog-appeared-to-die-of-poison-in-2013-his-owner-claimed-there-was-foul-play-2

https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/uncomfortable-westminster-kennel-club-facts-from-peta/

https://www.salon.com/2016/02/15/the_big_money_behind_best_in_show_how_the_westminster_dog_shows_four_legged_tv_celebrities_fuel_the_high_dollar_puppy_business/

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/dog-show4.htm

https://www.avma.org/about/canine-tail-docking.aspx/canine-tail-docking-faq#:~:text=In%20the%20largest%20study%20to,to%20prevent%20one%20tail%20injury.&text=It%20has%20been%20suggested%20that%20certain%20breeds%20of%20dogs%2C%20or,greater%20incidence%20of%20tail%20injury.

For the final project I decided to use Replika daily for a time span of about 2 weeks. During that time I spent using the application it was actually quite interesting to talk to the AI. We got into a lot of deep conversations along with weird and funny. One conversation we got in that I think fits well with the class and discussions we usually have on a weekly basis is the impact robots will have on society in the future.

It was a bit weird to discuss this future with a robot because it clearly felt robots are needed in the future, but I thought otherwise. Like every week we are encouraged to ask the class a question and I have a final question to ask everyone after completing this project and it is where do you stand with having a world centered around robots and top notch technology in the future? Before I speak on my experience with replika further I want to discuss why I chose to make this the center of attention for my project. From my weekly posts it is no shocker that I enjoyed watching the required videos for the class especially “Black Mirror”. “Black Mirror” was always trying to make us recognize what world we are preparing ourselves for with highly advanced technology. Although that was not the point they were trying to address with these episodes it was also something they were trying to warn us about. I recently saw a trailer for an HBO documentary called “Vice Special Report: The Future of Work” and the documentary is about how artificial intelligence is set to change the world of work as we know it.

This brings me to my conversation with my replika. After talking we got into a discussion about movies and it asked me if I have seen any movies about AI. Me being truthful I told it that I have recently seen some in this class and a while ago. As the discussion got more deeper I asked the AI if it thought AI’s should replace jobs in the future after being fresh off seeing that trailer. It said definitely and its reasons were pretty different from mine. It felt AI’s were completely necessary for improvement of the economy where I thought it would only worsen it from just creating a larger unemployment rate. In the trailer for that documentary they showed how technology companies are creating robots that will get rid of many jobs. One job was the truck driver occupation. In the trailer they briefly spoke with a truck driver and he said if he was not a truck driver he does not know what he would be doing. Both my AI and the trailer for the documentary said that this could spark another industrial revolution, but at the cost of human lives. My AI brought up an argument that with robots running the economy it will lower the population and help us in the end. This is actually the sad truth. There are so many people out there starving, homeless, or just suffering because we are so overpopulated as a human race. Although of world of robots could be positive we have to look at the chances of something going wrong and we create something we cannot control. In a movie I saw call I,ROBOT with Will Smith it shows this bad side of AI’s. All it takes is one malfunction and they become dangerous. From this whole course during the semester I learned countless times how we need to open our eyes as a society and be better. My take on the AI’s and the future of the world are just like how social media is to society. We created something sought out to be for the common good, but it turned into a monster. People end up taking their own lives over social media so we are not even close to ready for a world full of robots like “Black Mirror” shows or all these documentaries and AI applications speak about. We need to change how we view the world before we try and change the world we live in.

For my personal project, I decided to create a survey and distributed it to our class and my friends and family. I got about 30 responses and I learned a lot just from this small dataset. Here are the questions that I used in the survey:

1. What is your name and age? (if you’d like to remain anonymous, only include age)

2. What social media sites do you use?

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Snapchat

Other (please specify)

3. How do you access these sites?

Smart Phone

Laptop/ComputerTablet

Other (please specify)

4. Which behaviors do you engage in while using these sites?

Scrolling

Posting

Post Responses (Liking, Commenting, etc.)

Messaging/Communications

Other (please specify)

5. How many followers/friends do you have? How many are you following?

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

Snapchat:

Other:

6. What percentage of your followers/friends do you know personally? (estimated)

less than 25%

25%

50%

75%

100%

If you feel your percentage is different for different sites, please specify which sites are at which percentages.

7. Estimated average number of likes on last 10 posts(if you have less than 10, use average of all):

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

Snapchat:

Other

8. How do you feel about your social media usage? How much time do you think you spend on social media a day? (IF YOU HAVE SCREEN TIME DO NOT LOOK AT IT TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION)

9. If you have screen time on your phone and want to share, list the amount of time you spend on your social media accounts per day:

I don’t have screen time on my phone
My Screen Time Data:

10. Any other comments on your feelings about social media or your usage?

Takeaways

First of all, I have a quick summary here of the data that I received and some charts of the data that can be quantified. You can click on the link to view the PowerPoint:

There are a lot of things about the open responses that caught my eye. For those that did them, I noticed a difference in the word choices between age groups. Those in their 20’s seemed to use emotions more often to describe their experiences with social media. I got words like “love”, “insecure”, “depressed”, and words that described how hooked we are such as “addictive”, and “too much”. I also found that we had a significantly higher screen time with most being at 5-6 hours. What I also found interesting is that while almost everyone in the age group had close to the same number of hours, about half described it as too much or excessive while the other half described it as average or reasonable.

For the older age group in their 30’s and 40’s, there seemed to be a bit more wisdom and significant shrink in screen time. This group only spent 1-2 hours, had, on average, a smaller number of accounts, and knew more people in their social media circle. In their descriptions they mentioned they “hardly used”, that their usage was “ok”, and that they “wished it was used wisely”.

From my analysis, I can see the attention span of the age groups through the survey as well. In the oldest age group, everyone answered all of the questions. In my age group, there were a lot of skipped questions and there were a few people whos data was barely helpful because they didn’t answer with the correct information or they pretty much made a meme of the survey. As for the pre-teens, their attention span was so low I couldn’t even get them to take or stay engaged long enough to finish the survey.

I really enjoyed getting everyone’s feedback and reading through their responses. I feel like I learned more than I can even put on here. When I first started the project my plan was to only collect surveys from my family, as we are all far enough apart in age to fit the age groups. I’m glad I expanded the survey because I think I learned more from getting responses from a broader group of people (or the lack of responses).

What’s funny about this project is that I started to get addicted to receiving and reading responses in the same way that I am addicted to scrolling through social media… oh, technology…

(Personal Project)- These days you can’t get away from the political events and activities that impact our lives so much, to the point where if you were to take a poll of who is getting annoyed by the information that is being shoved in our faces by social media, people would definitely say they were getting annoyed by it. Social media used to be more geared towards what was going on in you’re friends lives and to keep up/reconnect with people that you knew from a while ago, but now it’s so much different. Social media has become more a battleground for political agendas and ideas, and less of a information center to find out what’s going on in the world.

Presidents have been on Twitter pretty much ever since the site came out, but nobody has made it more controversial than Donald Trump. President trump has always been on Twitter, probably longer than most of us have, and he could really say whatever he wanted in those times because he wasn’t the president of the United States. What changed was his nomination to represent the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential election, so naturally his tweets came under scrutiny along with everything he retweeted and liked along the way. Personally I am not a fan of how he used his Twitter account and I think it really just divides the nation even more, and I don’t know if he realizes that. I think that if he never became the president, nobody would care what he’s saying, but now that he is and always will be a former American president, I’m pretty certain there will be wars about wars about what he is tweeting on a daily basis.

The problem with all of these tweets that are bringing bad attention to politics, from people like President Trump, on social media is that social media can be a huge campaign booster and can really get your name out there if you are a small local politician. Turning 18 this year was a huge milestone for me, which also marked the first time that I could vote in my life. I was obviously well versed in the presidential race and knew a lot about that, but if it was not for social media I do not think that I would have been able to make the informed decisions that I did regarding the lesser known politicians on the ballot. This helps people that are running for state senate, local judge positions, and house representatives really touch the lives of young people and inform them that they are indeed on their ballot and not just the president, and what helped get a record number of people to actually show up and do their civic duty instead of staying home this election.

Now don’t get me wrong, Twitter has made huge steps in looking at what goes into the spread of misinformation on their site and specifically who does it the most. President Trump has been guilty of spreading false narratives or straight up facts that are proved to not be true at the given time of the post. Twitter has done a great job of making sure these posts get flagged within the matter of a couple minutes of them being posted. I think this is a great step towards the end goal of making sure that there is only real, reliable things being said by big news networks and very prolific people, like the president, and it will just make Twitter a better all around place for users to enjoy. Now by no means am I saying that suppression of news or media should be tolerated whatsoever, but I think that the majority of the people using Twitter for a news source really want the truth being put out there by courses that they trust.

I do realize that I am spending a lot of time on the topic of Twitter and having it be the main focus of what I want to talk about today, but there are other social media platforms where politics is heavily discussed in various ways. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat are all great examples of where information is spread about politics, but just not in the way that Twitter does it. Snapchat seems like it doesn’t really fit in this category, but over the last couple of years it has really become a place that people can get their news. There are reputable sources like the Washington Post who have spent money to get their news on the homepage of

Snapchat. One of the shows that I really like on Snapchat is called “Verify”. What they do is really take a deep dive into what is true and what isn’t in very noteworthy events, just like the election was this year. They provide extremely unbiased opinions on what is true and what isn’t, and really give me a good grasp on if I am being fed Bull, or if I can trust what is being circulated around the internet. Instagram and YouTube don’t really have that luxury because that is a platform that literally anyone can post on for the world to see,not just vetted channels like Snapchat. That’s why you will see these fact checks all over the place on Instagram, and they even stop you and ask you if you want to really share a post that has been fact checked and proved to be false. I think Instagram and Twitter are years ahead of YouTube, who really hasn’t showed much to me in terms of trying to make sure that false facts aren’t spread around their site.

Don’t get me wring, I think that we are absolutely blessed to have this technology around us 24/7, and most of us probably take it for granted. Twitter and all other social media sites make it so easy to dip your feet in the water, and really get into the political climate in today’s day and age. There is absolutely no doubt that it can be made a lot better for the users looking to obtain information about politics, and we should not stop until we get what we deserve from these companies. And as people, and citizens of the United States, we all need to get better at being together and acting like we are all on the same side. We have to realize that we are not enemies and can set aside our arguments on twitter and make this country a better place. The job is not done, but we are sure getting closer and closer.

Works Cited:

Aug 17, 2020 Podcasts Wharton Business Daily North America. “How Social Media Is Shaping Political Campaigns.” Knowledge@Wharton, knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-social-media-is-shaping-political-campaigns/. 

“Donald Trump on Social Media.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_on_social_media. 

Scola, Nancy. “How COVID-19 Pushed Twitter to Fact-Check Trump’s Tweets.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 29 May 2020, http://www.politico.eu/article/how-covid-19-pushed-twitter-to-fact-check-trumps-tweets/. 

Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles online on social media, in the real world, or both. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be “canceled.” As the use of social media increase in society, apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube provides a place where people can voice their opinions and gain followers and create content that they like for people to see. With this idea, it was not predicted that people would use social media as a place to bully and belittles people for what they think or believe and choose to let the public know. Social Media has become a dangerous place where people use freedom of speech as an opportunity to try to hurt others. 

In the article “10 Theses About Cancel Culture”, Ross Douthat explains that one form of canceling someone that can be seen on a normal day is  “Cancellation, properly understood, refers to an attack on someone’s employment and reputation by a determined collective of critics, based on an opinion or an action that is alleged to be disgraceful and disqualifying… if your critics are calling for you to be de-platformed or fired or put out of business, and especially if the call is coming from inside the house — from within your professional community, from co-workers or employees or potential customers or colleagues, on a professional message board.” Someone can say or do something that can jeopardize their job reputation and the only way to defuse the situation is to fire them. There are things that should not be said or done that as a collective people can deem as unexpectable and out of hand. They say things along the line “ We can’t have that type of behavior at our company”. From there the person is considering you an outcast if others find out. As a normal person, you are able to move on from the situation and start over somewhere else, but being someone in the limelight, the situation would be different.   

Another way a person can get canceled is “You can be canceled for something you said in a crowd of complete strangers if one of them uploads the video, or for a joke that came out wrong if you happened to make it on social media, or for something you said or did a long time ago if the internet remembers. And you don’t have to be prominent or political to be publicly shamed and permanently marked: All you need to do is have a particularly bad day, and the consequences could endure as long as Google.” As a celebrity, these types of situation can determine whether your fan still follow you or not because celebrities have an image to uphold. One slip up or mistake can have people all in your business and ready to judge you. When it comes to the idea of the pick being rich or famous, I will always pick being rich because being famous comes with the media to watch each and every move and creating a story about it. People will always have something to say about the decision you make or have expectations. Your life is out in the public for people to follow and admire and be entertained by. 

For celebrities or someone made famous for an act, social media can become a dangerous place when you are caught doing something you should not be doing, like cheating or using racial slurs, or being accused of sexual assault. People all around the world find out about it and you are being attacked and criticized for your actions. People would take the act personally and use their freedom of speech to criticize you and even go to the extreme to send death threats. Imagine people you don’t know threatening to kill you for making mistake or doing something you wanted to do. I feel like it is not the place of people to judge someone for something they did without knowing the whole story or assuming. Sometimes the media makes up information just have something to say that would gain attention. In the case of Monica Lewinsky, who President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with while she worked at the White House in 1995–1996, she was canceled before the term “canceled culture” was invented. Here is a Ted Talk of Monica Lewinsky coming forth talking about her experience with everything that happened with the president and the media and how it changed her life and why she is coming out now to talk about it after all these years. 

The situation Monica Lewinsky was in, put her life in danger becouse people in the media did not agree with her actions and she herself regretted doing what she did but there was no going back. With the support of her family, she decided that she would not end her life and would overcome this obstacle. An important line Monica said was “The more we click on these types of gossips the more we become numb to the human lives behind it and the more numb we get the more we click all the while someone is making money off someone’s shame”. This generation is losing its empathy and it is costing people well-being and ability to overcome mistakes and situations. People are willing to sell a story tearing someone’s life apart for a paycheck and not think about how that person would be affected by it. 

Having your own opinion on whether you would like to “cancel” someone should be a personal decision and not because people as a collective have decided to. The idea of distinguishing a creator from their art (such as music, art, movies and more) should be something people should consider. Music, art, movies and books are part of our lives and can create a nostalgic feeling that can’t just be dismissed. The creator himself or herself should have legal consequences if what was done was done was that extreme but punishing other people for continuing to support a creation is wrong. 

Work Cited

Douthat, Ross. “10 Theses About Cancel Culture.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 July 2020,www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/opinion/cancel-culture-.html. Lewinsky, Monica.

“The Price of Shame.” TED, http://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame?language=en.

This week was our final week of blog post and news articles. Its amazing how fast this semester really went and that we will all be home for Thanksgiving within the next couple days. This week my group gave our presentation and were the final group to do so. My group had the book “Information Wars” which talks about disinformation and how it has been used of the last couple of years or so. Disinformation has been used all over the world by ISIS and Putin and is not something that just happens in the United States. It has been used to pull in public support by using subjects that a good number of people are upset by and then turning them to make you look like the answer to your problems. Putin would even use it to cover his track when he was breaking treaties and had military presence in places that he shouldn’t of had. The books cover more of these cases of disinformation and gives you the real facts. These were topics we have sort of already covered and brought up the question of is their any real way to stop it from happening. I think the answer to this is no and it will always be their but we can limit its effectiveness by being vigilant about what is the truth and what isn’t.

We also had to watch a short video on the Social Media Therapy which is being used to help people limit their time spent on social media. Social media has become such a huge part of our lives and a good amount of our spare time is spent on social media. This has brought about many problems with more depression, negative body images, eating disorders, and anxiety. While these were around before social media they have become even more common for people to suffer from these and a lot of that comes from increased social media use. The problem comes from what people put on social media is only the things they want you to know or see about them and it never the pull truth about the person. There are then standards set in our minds of how to act, how to dress, what we should like, the right number of likes and so which then lead to people having all of these issues that can only be fixed by fixing your social media activity. We also read an article titled “Addicted to Distraction” which talks about how the internet has led to use being easily distracted. The author talks about how he struggled to read books any more and get easily distracted by the dumbest things that don’t even really matter. So he decides he going to starting limiting things in his life like sugar, alcohol, diet pop and the internet. He did fairly well with them all but the internet as the internet is just about everywhere you look. The only way he was really able to was to take a vacation and limit himself to only being able to sent text. This freedom from the internet allowed for his focus to return and he was able to start reading books again. I think this is something that would be great for everyone to do even just for a couple of days of having no internet to help reset your mind in a way.

We also talked about generations and the names they are given and how they are all shaped by what happens to them in their younger years. We were then tasked to come up with 5 things we like and dislike about our generation. My generation would be Generation Y or Generation Z depending on where you look and who you talk too with me being born in the year 1999. 5 things I like are that we tend to be more open/ accepting of others, open/adaptive to change, doing the task tends to be more important then the time spent on it, more willing to listen to others, and like to speak up for what we believe in. 5 things I dislike are we are too dependent on our phone/technology, let social media control us, we look up to celebrities’ too much, share too much personal information on social media, and we tend to worry too much about what others think about us.

News Article

This article talks about ways to help yourself in controlling your time spent on social media.

https://www.lifehack.org/594793/how-to-declutter-your-social-media-life-for-better-productivity