After going through the stuff provided for this week’s blog what I have found is that social media is being taken as a monster in our lives who wants us to give all of our time to it. Many of the social media platforms and apps are providing us with the material we want to see and we found ourselves helpless to stop scrolling. But I still think it depend upon us how we want to use a source as a friend or as a monster. Social media has given us much more to think about or thank about. I feel good for the people who are earning for their households all because of this social platform because they have taken their home based business to the market level with the help of this.

Coming towards this week’s episode of Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits, I think this episode was quite an upset one because what happened with Abi was not a good thing. Yes, I agree that social media fame is driving people crazy but then again the question arises that who is going to stop this all if not We?

While reading the article ““How the Loss of the Landline Is Changing Family Life”, it sure does have change the life and the family sittings. Again, we still can plan to have family sittings and family gatherings. I believe that people need to adapt with the changing time and should have to deal with these changings in a positive way rather to complaint about it every time. I mean what do you expect from this generation to leave all of the modern techniques and sit in a house? Of course, it seems impossible but what we can do is we manage the time and schedule and act respectively. There is need that we involve our parents too in this changing world so they do not feel abandoned.

In another article: “Cicero’s Twitter: Tom Standage on the forgotten history of social media” the author has explained the phenomenon of the social media in quite a positive way, that it is just like another place where people can gather and have long lasting chats, like they tend to do in the old coffee houses and in gathering but now virtually. People from the start had the sharing behavior and they with time get the advance ways of sharing their personals with one another. The author said that “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”.

What my point of view here is, or what I have concluded from this week’s topic is that social media along with its negative impacts have given a lot to people. There is need that people or the users of the social media will schedule their time to use these services because again these apps and services are not being invented to give harm to the humanity but for their ease and comfort.

For this week’s news article, I have chosen this article with my point that social media is also a source for our ease and comfort.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-launches-facebook-campus-to-facilitate-connection-among-college/585027/

In the end, my questions for you all to think and respond are:

How we can make this social media a friend of ours?

Are the negative impacts powerful enough to neglect the perks?

Tom Standage On The Forgotten History Of Social Media chiefly on the grounds that he discussed the advancement of innovations and how it impacts all the individuals growing up around social media. This one line stood apart to me the most “individuals alive today have experienced childhood in the period of broad communications” and it’s absolutely evident. My kin are totally fixated on the technology now a days and they’re passing up a decent youth since they’ve been taken over by all the new items that come out. At the point when I grew up I had definitely no technology so I would head outside and play and go hang with companions and everything. At that point when the Nintendo Gamecube came out we got it and I played it however I didn’t play it that much. Be that as it may, presently a days there’s Xbox’s and iPads and everything and it’s tainting todays society. Every one of my kin are fixated on the Xbox’s and iPads and it’s affecting their cerebrum and everything. They some of the time get into battles with respect to who’s turn it is to play and it makes me frantic in light of the fact that they ought to head outside and play or go hang with companions or something. I’m scarcely on any gadget yet my telephone yet I’m scarcely on that. I primarily hang with my companions and socialize as opposed to getting caught playing Xbox.

A stereo which is a pre-web technology and afterward Spotify which is a music application where you pay a specific measure of cash month to month to tune in to any melody or play any collection. Stereos were the outdated music players before all the music applications came out. You would need to purchase a collection which is known as a Vinyl or Record of the Artist you like then you put it on the stereo to hear it out. Spotify is the equivalent yet as opposed to purchasing Vinyls you need to pay month to month. While you pay the month to month expense you are accessible to look into any melody or collection to tune in to. Be that as it may, despite the fact that on the off chance that you pay for Spotify you can generally purchase a phonograph and purchase Vinyls for it as well.

The Bored and Brilliant difficulties I didn’t do great by any stretch of the imagination. Each time there would be another test I would attempt to do them yet my telephone would go off so often that I would need to take a gander at it and text whoever messaged me back of snap whoever snapped me back. One of these occasions I will finish a test on the off chance that I like it or not. The on challenge I figured I would be acceptable at was erasing my most loved application. In any case, I just couldn’t erase it. I play that game relentless on the grounds that I like it to an extreme, and I’m a quite significant level as well so that is another motivation behind why I was unable to erase it.

Most small kids today have working guardians who are left with brief period to keep a tab on their children’s whereabouts. In this manner, they resort to technology as a sitter. she Outdoor exercises are critical for a kid’s general development. In any case, today, when a youngster is as meager as two years of age, they are now acquainted with contraptions. Along these lines, guardians don’t reconsider before giving over telephones or tabs to their youngster to occupy their consideration. From learning numbers to letter sets, a little child’s life rotates around devices.

As youngsters inch towards adolescent, many are up to speed in the web of web based gaming, where they go through a ridiculous amount of time. Also, soon, they are presented to the universe of social media, which starts to shape their social and imaginative lives. This is when genuine companions are supplanted by WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat, Snapchat, Instagram et al. Vis-à-vis correspondence, be it at home or outside, turns out to be nearly nil.I know I’m in good company when I state that screens, telephones, and hardware have made child rearing a considerably more difficult assignment than it was 10 years back. Numerous guardians are exploring different avenues regarding an assortment of procedures to deal with their children’s utilization of gadgets, for example, parental controls to obstruct improper substance, with shifting achievement. However, the battle is genuine, and we have to enable each other to explore the electronic sweets store that compromises our kids’ prosperity.

References

Hughes, D. J., Rowe, M., Batey, M., & Lee, A. (2012). A tale of two sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 561-569. Wartella, E. A., & Jennings, N. (2010). Children and computers: New technology. Old concerns. The future of children, 31-43

There has been some news from President Trump’s administration regarding the Coronavirus:

In this week’s class, we read three articles, watched three videos, and listened to one podcast. We are focusing more on the topic of what social media is and what it does. Social media has become a huge part of everyone’s life, and it is to the point we do not know what we would do without it. Social media has grown to the point we are addicted and creators of these platforms make it their goal to make us more addicted. As we discover new apps or products social media offers us we do not really think about how they can understand what we want and do want. By clicking agreeing to terms we don’t really think what these terms are. What information do these platforms know and what more are they going to learn? 

Social media has taught us to think more about ourselves rather than other people. By getting people to focus on likes and shares we have lost focus of treating other people well or human. “There are several reasons why “Know yourself” has obscured “Take care of yourself”. First, there has been a profound transformation in the moral principles of Western society. We find it difficult to base rigorous morality and austere principles on the precept that we should give ourselves more care than anything else in the world. We are more inclined to see taking care of ourselves as an immorality, as a means of escape from all possible rules.” (Technologies of the Self- Micheal Foucault) We as a society have lost touch with people, we have become more self-involved and self-serving. With losing our connection to people or connection to our world is also being lost, we only look for what best interests us or what benefits us before what is good for others or the environment. “Therefore, it is difficult to see concern with oneself as compatible with morality. “Know thyself” has obscured “Take care of yourself” because our morality, a morality of asceticism, insists that the self is that which one can reject.”(Technologies of Self)

In Black Mirror we saw a guy whose entire life was controlled by social media, it was everywhere from when he want to bed to went he woke up. Social media controlled what he did and when he did it, by scheduling humans likes machines the human brain starts to go numb. In this episode, we saw people being controlled by who they were online, and their only yearning in life to be famous. Because of this, we watch as a young woman was stripped of her dignity and follow the path others want her to. Imagine someone had that much control over your life, how would you feel? What would you do? This action makes our main character look at this system entirely differently, and in order to speak out, he played by their rules first. Once he finally said what he needed to the system coorperated with him instead of fighting what he was saying. People on social media didn’t see or choose not to see what the truth was, but they agreed with our main character. At the end of this show we watch as our main character spoke to others through social media, but at the same time was he really being honest with himself? How would you have handled the situation? Does social media have a big part in your life? Does social media influence your choices?

For weekly news we see that college student’s are shaming thier colleges for how they are responding to COVID. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/technology/coronavirus-quarantines-college.html?searchResultPosition=1

Social Media companies make most of their money getting people to use their app as much as possible. The idea of social media being used less in the future is impossible in my opinion because social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and snapchat  are finding ways to keep people on their apps as long as they can without thinking about the negative effects it has on the users as long as their money increases. Social media companies targets are kids and teenagers who are easily entertained and become addicted. The older generation are not used to using their phone as much as we are because they didn’t grow up on it. Kids can spend all day on tablets and phones as long as someone doesn’t take it away from them as seen in the youtube video “Why you’re addicted to your smartphone”. People are hired to improve apps to make them more addictive and the changes happen before our eyes that we don’t realize that we are spending more time on our phones. One example I can think of is Instagram making a section on their app for TiK ToK videos. Tik Tok is the new app this generation is obsessed with and would spend hours on it just watching what kinds of videos people came up with and maybe recreating it and posting it. Trump was trying to ban this app because first he said he didn’t want China to collect data off our phones and have the China government have access to that data but then people are thinking that Trump is so surprised by how information is quickly circulating that he can no longer control the information being presented and it’s true. People are about to put information Online whether true or false and it can spread like wildfire but who is he to want to control what people say or information we have access to. He is always on Twitter saying anything he wants to say as President of the United States.

 This leads me to the article “Cicero’s Twitter: Tom Standage on the forgotten history of social media” about how social media is not new but only has a new approach. The older generation were used to radio stations playing popular music and listening to the information the radio wanted to talk about and Television channels that had shows and commercials about what they wanted people to know because it was a one way communication. Now social media has a two way communication that lets the views and audience voices be heard whether they like it or not. Anyone can type on their phones how they feel about a commercial or a tv episode or a comment someone made on live radio or TV and post it on any social media app and get support on the post or backlash because it is now public. 

Weekly News:

I picked this article to go with the point I made about Trump trying to ban TiK Tok. This is the first time I am seeing a President try to ban an App that millions of people use. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s

Do you think Trump will be successful in Banning Tik Tok?

Our third viewing of Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits stars Daniel Kaluuya as Bing Madsen and Jessica Brown Findlay as Abi Khan. The scene is set in a place where people’s lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, random untimely advertisements and a strong stigma against people who are unhealthy or out of shape. In this unusual universe Bing sees an opportunity for Abi to take her talent of singing to the Hot Shot competition. His brother’s recent passing transferred 12 million merits to Bing’s name. He ends up “gifting” 15 million merits to Abi, allowing her to sing in front of the judges and a massive virtual audience. However, the two’s dreams are short-lived. The judges are more impressed with Abi’s looks rather than her voice. They ask her to join a raunchy porn site called “Wraith Babes” to stream sexually content on the web. She accepts this offer to leave the lower level living and pursue a “better life”. This outrages Bing, causing him to spiral and almost take his own life. He builds the strength to ride the bike for 15 million more merits and take the stage himself as an “entertainer”. His real purpose is to deliver a message to all the people who poke fun and mock the minority. He puts a broken piece of glass against his neck as he curses out the judges for their inability to seek out real emotions and feelings. At the end of his spiel, Bing is fuming and dripping with sweat. How do the judges respond? They come to the conclusion that he was so passionate and athletic that the judges offered him a screening twice a week, for 30 minutes. Did Bing stand up to these giants and slash his throat to die as a martyr? Nay, he simply folded for greed and his best interest. The last scene depicts Bing looking over a large jungle or forest in his newly upgraded living quarters. I felt a range of emotions throughout this episode and struggled to find its true meaning. I believe it sheds light on the power media has over the individual and how our generation has become obsessed over the concept of “going viral”.

Tom Standage is a well renowned journalist, author and editor. His insists and perspectives on the movement of social media covering the last 2,000 years is truly remarkable. He explains how before mass media, there was still a network amongst people passing “…information in a highly personal way”(Theverge Paragraph 1). He describes ancient society such as the the Romans and countries of Tudor England using quips and manuscripts. They used these different forms of communication to share and expand their messages through social connections. This “…two-way, conversation manner…”(Theverge Paragraph 2) Standage explains was the basis of all communication before mass media provided a more convenient and efficient way to interact.

At the University of Vermont, Michel Foucault also shared his unique perspective on the impact of technologies of self in October of 1982. Like the Greeks, Foucault focused on the “…principle of taking care of oneself…”(Foucault Paragraph 17). He emphasized the importance of self-care and being aware of ones ability and potential. I believe in today’s society people are so occupied with their busy lives, they forget to self diagnose themselves. Self evaluations such as: “How am I feeling? What is stressing me out? How can I mentally prepare myself for these challenges?”, are all simple productive ways to keep yourself in check. I find Foucault’s statements still relevant almost 40 years later. I hope we can understand the importance of ones self-care and mental health in this ever-changing society. This issue continues to plague our country and needs to be addressed.

Weekly News Article: This article touches on the evolution of mass media and its effect on our society. It also covers most of the earliest and latest forms of social media.

https://www.future-marketing.co.uk/the-history-of-social-media/

Published By: Samuel Erickson

Our generation is so different from any other so far, we have the most technology and it can be a great thing to use, but it can hurtful to ourselves depending on how we use it. Using social media can be great for meeting people, catching up with friends, and creating job opportunities or also getting your career started. On the other hand in can get you in a lot trouble in your line of work for something you posted recently or even if it was from years ago and is not even relevant now. We have to be smart about what we say on social media because of the damage it can do now or in the future, a lot of people have gotten backlash and have taken a beating for what they have said costing them their jobs, social status, or possibly in trouble with the law. Especially in today’s society with everyone on edge because of what is going on in the world, we have to make sure what we post is smart and cannot hurt us in the future. Even the president has gotten in trouble at times because of the controversial things he posts on Twitter, with the things he says it can hurt him in this upcoming election. This just goes to show you that any one person can be affected by what they say and post on social media.

https://mashable.com/2011/06/16/weinergate-social-media-job-loss/#45A.RVMALaqE

There is also another problem with the Internet these days, it could be making us dumber than we think. We always rely on Google and other websites to find information, getting directions, and anyone can make a website with false information, while the people visiting that site does not know that the information they have is incorrect. The internet is also giving us to much screen time on our phones, laptops, and gaming systems. While it is good to interact with people during these tough times with the virus, it can lead to bad habits and not feeling well. I know that when I am online or on my phone for too long I start to get a headache and feel really bad the rest of the day. It definitely does make a difference to get off your screen and go outside or something else that seems more productive then just sitting on your phone. While the internet does provide useful information that we can use it for almost anything, it can have its own setbacks because we are not socializing face to face with other people. We need face to face contact for life so we should worry less about the internet and social media because without connecting to people it will be a lonely world and one that is not able to talk to one another which is what everyone needs.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

With all of the contents for this week blog. I have passed through a phase when I felt what are we doing with our lives? I must say that these articles and the movie chapter was all acted as an eye opener for me.

In the Black Mirror: The Entire History of You, Liam has taken a chip in his neck and then he had to pass through a very painful procedure. But what does that chip do? It helps a person to memorize every person and even the scene in his mind. And he can look back on it whenever he wants or if anybody else wants to. What lesson we get from this, again how technology is playing an important role in our lives that I think we are really going to depend on technology to remember our memories for us. I think that depending a lot on technology is taking us away from the real world. I know many of you would disagree with me. But let just suppose, for the upcoming years aren’t we going to remember our loved ones by ourselves? Rather we have to use chips to save our memories now?

Technology is playing its role in our daily lives. Now it depends upon us that in which way we want this technology to lead us to. The two of the articles with a contradict titles i.e. “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and “Google Is Not Making You Stupid”. Again it depends upon the people, how they want to take this technology as. I mean many of us would agree that yes we spend a lot of time on google and whenever we make a search we divert from the main task and start surfing for unwanted materials. Although, google has helped us a lot in many ways. But my point here is that google takes a lot of time of a person and again a person would eventually end up being in the world of internet.

I have found this article “Foucault and social media: life in a virtual panopticon” really interesting. In this article, the author has talked on various aspects that how we ended up being in the social media and away from our real world life. He said: “A Foucaultian perspective on social media targets the mechanism that makes it tick: sharing. Sharing is basic to social media. Sharing content is not just a neutral exchange of information, however”. I totally agree with his point here that sharing is the basic tool on social media. And I personally do not like to share my personal life on social media because it brings a lot of problems in our lives. Sharing your data is like giving access to other people on the social media to your life and they can use the data in any form, which I personally not in favor of.

So, my question to you all is Do you want others to lead you? Do you want to give them access to your personal life?

Consider it before it’s too late to Reconsider!

The link is being shared which is highlighting some negative effects of technology.

Links: https://www.businessinsider.com/technology-negative-bad-effects-society-2019-8#:~:text=Experts%20have%20found%20that%20in,and%20increased%20anxiety%20and%20depression.

What really stood out to me this week about class was the idea that technology has this hold over us that we don’t recognize as much as we should. This has made us oblivious to things around us creating this delusion that we can only survive if we have this technology at all times. Our phones are a prime example of that statement. Peoples liveliness are on their phones in a sense, meaning that all their secrets and all of there information is compressed onto one single device. It makes you really wonder about the affects of this on a psychological level. In the article “Foucault and social media: life in a virtual panopticon” it brings up this very point of technology and the affects of social media. In another reading called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the author Nicholas Carr goes over how reading on the internet has in turn affected his reading and concentration and he believes this true for many other people too. Whats good about these articles is that they both can relate back to the Netflix episode Black Mirror: The Entire History of You. This episode shows the audience a world where you can go back and look at past memories, but you soon see mid way through the episode how bad of an impact it can have on you and the people around you. It shows the dangerous of some technologies and how it can either benefit you or destroy you. Humans want to keep keep finding ways to advance with technology.

It’s the idea that by progressing with technology, it will help evolve us more and make us better in the future. What if that wasn’t the case. What if the these advancements in technology have actually been making it harder for everyone in society to evolve together? Creating this division between people, making it so only certain people can evolve with new technology. For millennials this will most likely be an easy task, but for the older generation of people its fair to say it’s tough on them. Being a millennial myself, growing up with this type of technology has made it easy to keep progressing as time goes on. Navigating this new world of technology for the older generation can be seen as difficult and possibly be seen affecting day to day activities.

Back to the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr establishes that the internet is changing the way he thinks and how he goes about other activities. As for the millennials, they don’t even realize this because they grew up learning and reading on computer unlike the older generations. So the point that Carr makes is that it’s not problem for younger people, but a problem for older people who didn’t grow up with this technology. This has made his views and other peoples views change on the subject of technology. The same thing is shown in the Netflix episode when the one girl tells everyone at dinner that she doesn’t have her chip anymore to replay memories, she then explains how much better she feels not having having that technology anymore. This changes her view on the the product all together and it eventually leads the main character to take his own chip out to get rid of the pain he kept living over and over. These articles and episodes really open your mind and make you really think about your own view on technology. So with that being said think about your own view on technology do you agree or disagree?

Weekly News

This article is about president Trump going to Kenosha, Wisconsin where the shooting of an unarmed black man was killed by law enforcement and subsequent demonstrations that have turned deadly.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/donald-trump-kenosha-wisconsin-visit/index.html

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

The material brought out this week was very well connected and shared the same theme. The biggest thing that we had watch was this week’s episode of Black Mirror was very interesting and I felt had a strong underlying message. Although the show is filled with way to advanced technology compared to today’s technology I feel it is still sending a message that could be applied to everyone now. The way the world is now is not to far off from the episode then everyone thinks.

This week’s episode “The Entire History of You” strongly represented how social media/technology affects society. The episode is about the “grain”. A device that allows you to record all of your experiences so that you can always replay your memories. With this device in society the episode focuses on a married couple with the characters named Liam and Ffion. I feel because of this device it causes Liam’s life to head for a downward spiral. I also feel that is the underlying message of this episode. Technology is starting to become everyones life which is in reality ruining them. At a gathering Liam sees his wife Ffion flirting with man he had never met. She does tell Liam that she was in a relationship with this man, but expresses it was a very long time ago before them. Liam does not believe her and uses the grain to see if Ffion was being truthful. Although this made Liam begin to obsess over this relationship he was actually right. Ffion did have an affair with this man and to make matters worse it was around the time the two had their daughter. The grain did serve helpful to Liam to confirm that his suspicions were for good reason and he was correct, but this small device drove him into a dark place and uncover things that would have never came to light. In the end, he decides to cut out the device, but his life is already ruined. Liam did deserve to know what his wife did to him, but because he had learned this terrible information from the grain and was able to see it for his own eyes it probably made things way worse for him.

The way society is becoming is scary just watching this episode because it is not so far off as you think. Like Liam obsessed over his wife cheating on him and could not stop reliving the moment in real life people obsess over social media. Social media has become a vital part of peoples everyday life and it is starting to make or break individuals. People will obsess over being the trending topic or other things.

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/neuralink-neuroscientists

WEEKLY NEWS

Above is an article I saw that relates to the episode we had to watch this week. Elon Musk a successful innovator has come up with a brain chip The implant was tested on pigs and the things he wants this chip to be able to do is actually crazy to think of. With this Neuralink brought to life will it cause the same severity as the grain? Is Black Mirror warning us about the future?