Let’s talk: Social Media
Sophia Zhong
Connect and Communicate It started off with Myspace, then there was Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr; all of which are forms of social media that had impacted our daily lives. We constantly go on the computer, or even your phones, and our immediate “go to� web page would probably be a one of these social media sites. These social media technologies will help us stay connected. However, the ability to communicate has been slowly diminishing.
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, and other forms of social media are great technological devices that allow people to connect with others throughout the country and even the world. However, it hinders our ability to communicate well with others in person. The constant need to connect with others pushes people farther and farther away for human to human communication - an ability that is vital to everyday living.
Nowadays, social media provides us with a more convenient way to communicate with our friends and families and to obtain information. We can easily access our friends’ Facebook and twitter to see their recent activities. However, we have been gradually becoming addicted to social media and we cannot get rid of it. Social media is a distraction while we are working and it seriously affects our performances; it makes us counterproductive.
Social media distracts us from our work. People frequently refresh their social media to see updates even if there is nothing new. We also randomly click on videos, pictures, and websites on our social media without any purpose. It means our brains can hardly focus on our work and it also creates difficulties for our brains to reach a state of high concentration. According to Sherry Turkle’s Ted talk, “People text or do email during corporate board meetings. They text and shop and go on Facebook during classes, during presentations, actually during all meetings”. Truly, most of us have texted messages or browsed news feeds when we were working or attending a presentation. It is difficult for people to pay full attention to work in recent years. A survey conducted by salary.com finds that 21% of people who admit to wasting time at work say they spend five hours a week—or an hour every day—on personal activities. The worst workers are the 3% who say they spend 10 hours a week wasting time on non-work activities. Of course, some employers have already taken action. Many companies try to stop their workers from wasting time online; 30% of employees say their workplaces block websites like Facebook with the intention of stopping workers from wasting time. But so many people have mobile devices with Internet access today that simply blocking a worker’s desktop computer doesn’t stop them.
Social technolog u counterpr
Do you always put off your work and go to social media for no reason? Do you only start to do your work at the last minute? Procrastinator—the accurate label for you. Procrastination means you continuously delay your tasks that you should have done a long time ago; you may have even missed the deadline. Most of us procrastinate because humans naturally prefer to do something more pleasurable. Facing some complex tasks, we need a long period of time and a lot of effort to get it done, thus, we may unconsciously go to social media to get an “idea”. Social media does not have a direct causal relationship with procrastination, but social media does exacerbate our procrastination—it provides us a shelter from our numerous tasks. Many people including businessmen and students like me work while having their social media running. I had a really terrible experience in regard to procrastination. When I was a senior in high school, my Key club adviser assigned me a project that aimed to advertising our club. Frankly, it was not an easy project. Announcements, posters, activities, and flyers were required for the project. When I started to make a plan for the project, I went to Google to seek ideas. I didn’t get any useful advice from Google after a long time. However, I stopped seeking and opened my Facebook page with the purpose of relaxing. Hence, I ended up browsing Facebook and getting nothing done. Not surprisingly, same situation happened in the next couple days when I planned to
media gies make s roductive
start doing the project, therefore, I didn’t present a project to my adviser on time, and left a bad impression on her.
Social media steals our time away without leaving any marks. When we search something on Google or on other search engines, there are several distractions in certain places all the time. Once we click on these distractions such as advertisements, notifications from your social network account, we have a high possibility of causing an internet butterfly effect— a gentle click on your mouse will end up killing countless hours of your time. “Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets ‘reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link”, wrote Nicholas Carr in Is Google Making Us Stupid. His experience clearly explains how the internet kills our time. The internet right now is well-developed; we can do various things on the internet. For instance, we can do homework, communicate with clients and read books. The more time we spend on the internet, the higher possibility of causing the internet butterfly effect we get. Most companies do research on the internet; these distractions on our screen are inevitable temptations to employees. It results in serious damage to our productivity.
Distraction, procrastination and the internet butterfly effect are not the only three negative consequences which can affect our performances. Social media has tons of bad things, and it will be a big problem for us if we don’t find a way to reduce its negative influences on us. Quality of work largely depends on our concentration, the time we spend on work, and the execution of our work. The existence of social media in our work processes can take all these elements away from us. Nevertheless, it does not mean that social media is useless. In fact, social media can spread information faster than any other media. What we need to do is to find a way to eliminate its negative influences on us, and to get our jobs done faster and better. Edwin Zhou
Julie Chan
F i N D I N G
I D E N T I T Y T H R O U G H
Originally Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg, was used for only college students to communicate with one another. However, it became a popular hit and Mark Zukerberg decided to open it up to high school users. Now the only requirement to join Facebook is that the user must be at least thirteen years of age. Since Facebook has become such a viral trend, that if you don’t have one, you’re given a weird look. The oh so popular social media has definitely become a new place where people try to find their own identities; a place where people want to be accepted and have a high profile but in contrast is really a façade to who people would portray themselves to be. Facebook has become a clear example where users are trying to be accepted. Instead of receiving superficial friendships and acceptance through Facebook, people should invest in quality time with good friends. Facebook serves as a barrier, where people cannot differentiate the difference betwixt real conversations and real people to what is presented in social medias. Often time people turn to social medias where people feel like web users can give them the adequate amount of attention that they desire or feel that they need. Facebook has become a web page were people can post and say practically anything. Yes, Facebook has come an accepted form of communication; I lost my phone and got a new one, but I cracked the screen within the next week and my source of contacts was Facebook messaging. However a bigger reason why people want to use Facebook is because acceptance is wanted and self-presentation. People want to be acknowledged, to tell the world about their achievments and what they have done that seems so profoundly great that they want everyone to know. It screams “Please like this post or picture”, “Oh my gosh I have more than fifty likes within ten minutes, I must reach at least two-hundred”. The satisfaction of getting all those likes is a falsehood of acceptance. Just because your post is “popular” it does not mean that in really accepted in the real world. It’s a trap! A trap that a lot of people fall under because they obtained their security not from themselves and friends but through a social media that can be really fake.
It is so much easier to be fake on Facebook than in person because what’s in between you is a piece of technology, and not human flesh. People might like your post because they see that a lot of people have liked your post and not really liking it because they like it. In addition you might see some pages that have a large amount of followers and likes for a picture and wonder why they don’t have that many. However some pages made on Facebook are fake and made just for pure advertising and money making businesses called like-farming. There are a lot of fake Facebook pages that have you click like so it advertises through showing up on your news feed and various other places. The more likes and the more popular the post is, the more money it makes. Facebook’s intended purpose may have been to be able to communicate with friends easier but it is not that simple anymore. So the question becomes, why deal with all pseudo things presented on the internet or the spurious people but be surrounded by real friendship that can satisfy and actually last. As Turkle has mentioned in her Alone Together ted-talk where people are walking paradoxes, “People are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people, whom they also keep at bay. A pure example as to what consists of the Facebook users today; users can have hundreds and even thousands of friends but of the sum how many do they actually speak to or as Turkle would say “keep at bay” meaning there’s no weight or depth in a conversation. It is just a “Hi, how was your day?” or “Hey, what is up” and proceeded by the answer “It was good how about” and “Oh nothing much”
I call that generic talk or stranger talk, because you can do that with anyone. You might be speaking to them but you don’t truly know who they are beside a few memorized details. I completely agree with Turkle when she points out that people don’t know how to communicate anymore and rely on a false source like Facebook to fill in a void of wanting to feel loved, accepted and listened to. These are the types who go on vacation and brag about how great everything they are doing is, example “Chilling in a hot tub in Las Vegas. Life is good.” Other examples would be “My daddy just got me a new BMW car”, “I won a free iPad.” Or the people who get injured and feel the need to weave it into every status update. “I’m going on vacation and have to pack, but it ain’t gonna be easy with my sore back”. Then there are those type of people who will ask for a response without even attempting to say what the problem is. “Going through a tough time at home lately. Sure could use some good friends right now.” Instead of having the whole world sympathize with you, find friends that really do care and can help and give you the right security because it is not about quantity but quality. Suppose you do capture a lot of attention, what can the whole crowd actually do for you that your confidants can not?
At one point it was that humans were trying to keep computers busy, but now they keep us busy as Turkle has said. Attention seekers are one the main reasons why social medias such as Facebook are so popular. People fall into two categories on Facebook, popular due to large amounts of like and the boring people with a few likes. The craving and thirst of likes is important to the users because they feel that that is what give them their worth and value. They are given an identity on Facebook rather than being the identity of themselves. What the likes mean to them is oh yay I’m well liked and people like me. By all means I have a Facebook and is guilty sometimes of wanting to be well liked, but I do invest a lot of time in one on one chats with friends at a coffee shops and having deeper talks. Not to say that basic conversations are bad but being able to go deeper is what brings friendships closer. Facebook has revolutionized how people value themselves. In the end not everyone on Facebook is going to care about your every second and every step of the way. Only true friends whom are willing to walk with you through the troubled times. It’s not about the statistics of a Facebook that defines someone but who they truly are because statistics are mere numbers and what holds more worth is quality time with friends not through social medias.
Bullying on Facebook By: Mike Taboni When bullying on Facebook,
acebook
, mostly
everyone has one. Some use it more often than others. Some try to stay in contact with family members; others like to summarize their day so the whole world will know. Every Facebook user understands or should understand that whatever they post will always be there and what you post can harm yourself or other people, intentionally
or unintentionally, in the future. One of the biggest problems that occurs on Facebook is bullying. Bullying has been around for years and will always be around. Bullying transpires when one person decides to insult another person for some reason, whether it be they do not like the person, they are afraid of the person, they are jealous of the person, etc. It can occur in many ways: physical, verbal, and cyber, being the most popular. Nowadays, Facebook only makes cyber bullying easier.
the bully may not understand how hurt the victim of is of what they have said about the
victim and how it has negatively impacted their life. For example, my dad’s best friend from college had a daughter who was bullied on Facebook. His daughter was absolutely beautiful. She was smart, popular, pretty, and athletic. She had everything going for her. Unfortunately, because of this, there was a group of girls in her class that did not like her and were jealous of her. These girls decided that they would continually bully her, not only at school, but on Facebook as well. The worst of the bullying occurred on Facebook. The group of girls would continually harass her and call her awful names like “slut” or
“cunt”, they would threaten her on Facebook, and also would tell her that no one liked her, even her family members. The group of girls continually wrote terrible insults on her wall and in the chat room.
After months of this abuse, she finally
posted two girls kissing as her profile
cracked and committed SUICIDE by
picture, changed Kelsey’s profile to say she
hanging herself in a closet in her house. It was determined that she committed suicide because of everything that was said to her, by the group of girls, over
was interested in women, and wrote comments on other girls pictures pretending to be Kelsey. Kelsey was absolutely devastated and crushed that her
BEST FRIEND would do this to her and
Facebook. Another example of the issues that can occur on Facebook is the
ultimately switched schools. Once the principal of our school found out what
negative effects that the bully has to face. happened between Kelsey and Devon, he My friend Kelsey and her best friend Devon immediately expelled Devon because she shared everything together. They were
bullied Kelsey, although not directly by
basically sisters. Unfortunately, Kelsey and telling her awful insults, but by posting on Devon got into a very big argument over a her Facebook pretending to be Kelsey. The boy that ruined their friendship. The boy
principal saw this as a worse offence than
liked Kelsey and she began to date him.
verbal harassment and followed the
Devon was so mad at Kelsey that Devon
school’s zero tolerance policy on bullying
went into Kelsey’s Facebook and changed
and EXPELLED Devon.
EVERYTHING in her profile to make it look like Kelsey was a lesbian. Devon
Devon did not understand the negative effects this would have on her at school, because she did not believe the school could do anything to her if she did not bully Kelsey in school, but because our principal was able to look at Kelsey’s public profile, Devon was in the same amount of trouble that she would have been in if she bullied Kelsey on school grounds.
find out the reason for her suicide and brought
Unfortunately for Devon, after she was
up charges against the girls who continually
expelled she hung out with the wrong crowd
bullied her on Facebook. These girls are now
and got into drugs and eventually DROPPED
facing possible jail time and felonies because of what they said on Facebook.
OUT of high school. A helpful feature on Facebook is something that could actually benefit the victim and the victim’s family is that once something is
Facebook bullying has become more and more popular with today’s teenagers because of two reasons: it is easily accessible, and there is minimal personal interaction. In
posted on the Internet, it will ALWAYS be Nick Carr’s article
“Is Google Making
somewhere accessible. Bullies do not always remember this fact and there have been many cases of bullies getting caught after a victim has harmed themselves In the example of my dad’s friend’s daughter, investigators were able to
Us Stupid?” he emphasizes how easily accessible information is because of the Internet.
This point is shown through bullying on
because they are not with them and can hide
Facebook by the fact that once something is behind their computer while the person written on someone’s profile, basically
either confronts them or they make fun of
anyone can have access to it at anytime.
the other person.
Carr’s point about the Internet having a
When people are on Facebook,
different MINDSET than real
they need to remember that it is saved
communication is also shown through
FOREVER and can ultimately be seen by
bullying on Facebook. Many times what is
everyone. People have lost their lives
said on Facebook may not be said to
because of things posted on Facebook and
someone if you are talking in person. This is things said on Facebook. This is the sad and because the personal conversation has a
unfortunate truth about the social media
different mindset than one over social media.
world. ANYTHING can be said and read at
When having a PERSONAL conversation, people tend to be more considerate to other peoples feeling and less blunt because they are afraid of confrontation and hurting their
feelings. Over SOCIAL
MEDIA though,
people often cross this line too easily
any time because of the CONVIENENT and always accessible feature of the Internet. The people do not understand the negative consequences their comments could have because they are not standing right in front of the person and could be MILES
because they are not afraid of hurting the other persons feelings,
AWAYfrom them. Some of these comments could be
meant as a joke, but completely
statements are on the Internet forever. Too
MISUNDERSTOOD because it is just a
many people have lost their lives because of
line of text. Someone could interpret it
bullying on Facebook and something needs
completely different than the next. Even
to change. Whether it is laws AGAINST
though the person may not believe or mean
CYBER BULLYING
to bully someone, if the person takes it the
or filtered websites
and posts, in order to keep everyone safe
wrong way and sees it as BULLYING, the the world must change and realizer that a bullies could get themselves into trouble
line of text can terribly impact someone’s
because those
life.
Afraid of being Alone Sitting in front of computer, I spend most of my time on QQ, a social media that people use in China. It is an awesome application that people can text messages or video call with individuals or a group of people who are far away from them. They can post their pictures, status, or videos to share with others through the Qzone page, part of QQ. People can find a bunch of things to do on the Qzone pages, such as playing mini games, listening to music and so on. QQ, just like other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram etc., becomes an important part of our daily life.
We see that a lot of people keep text with others or update or read new status through their smartphones or laptops when they are on bus or in the library, even walking. The social media make us easier to keep in touch with others. People in different countries can contact with each other by a smartphone or a laptop. However, the social media also cause the social problem that people cannot live without them because they make people feel lonely easily. People even feel that they miss a lot of information about what happened around them if they do not check the social media they used for a day. The phenomenon
causes people to feel lonely if they are not on the social medias and most people are afraid of being alone. Before the social media period, people usually have face-to-face communication, write letters, or make a phone call. People do not usually contact others who are far from them because it took them longer to send the messages or they usually don’t have that much time to have a long conversation with others. People would not worry about their relationship with someone if they don’t have contact with each other everyday. However, because of social media, it’s easier to people to keep in touch with others. It makes people feel easily lonely because people will think that their relationship with someone is not that close just because that person doesn’t text them usually. People think that it’s really easy to text others so that others should contact them if they were close enough. People keep texting with others to show that they are not alone.
Another reason that social medias make people feel lonely is that people judge others from their webpage. Many people post their pictures or moods on their own page not only because they want to share their happiness or sadness with others, but also because they want to show how popular they are. Many people judge on others by looking through their webpage to see how often the person updates his or her status and how many people comment on the status. People believe that the more comments you got, the more popular you are. Therefore, people will feel less popular if they get fewer comments as they except or their best friends do not comment on their status. Some people even delete their status several days later just because nobody comments on it. People don’t want to show their loneliness to others around them because it makes them feel lonelier.
no idea about that what can they do without their phones. The social media made us to feel that we will never be alone because we think that the others who are on the phone are listening to us.
However, Sherry Turkle said that people are also afraid of intimacy. Most people have at least one close friend when they were young. They may stay with their close friends every day and never feel alone. Nonetheless, people may separate with their friends because they go to different school after they graduate. People may also lose a friend because of any accidents. As soon as they lost the relationship with their close friend, they become lonely. Therefore, people are also afraid of getting too close with others.
People feel lonely easily because of social media and most people are afraid of feeling lonely. They try to show that they are not alone by texting to others and updating their status. They feel like some can listen to them any time they need through the phone in their pocket. Sherry Turkle mentioned in her Ted Talk, “Connected, but alone?”, “people become anxious, they panic, they fidget” when they are alone. To lessen this, they want to have someone to talk with about their day or their mood when they are alone. Many people have
Social Media
In fact, like Sherry Turkle said that we should develop our capacity for solitude to have the ability to separate, to gather ourselves. People are afraid of lonely and many people feel blue when they are alone. However, people can notice many little things when they are being alone, such as the sky, the wind, the animals around them, etc. When you are being alone, try to take a walk to see the community that you live in, to listen to music, to read a book, or to go to a new restaurant. You can also sit down and thinking about the happiest moment in your life or planning the future of your life. People can also have a beautiful day when they are alone. Social media make us easier to communicate with others, but they cause us to be afraid of being alone. We are afraid of being alone
because how others think about us. We don’t want others to think that we cannot get along with them because of our own problem. However we shouldn’t be afraid of either loneliness or being alone because we can also enjoy the life when we are alone. We should develop our capacity of being alone because nobody can stay with you all the time. People can grow when they are being alone. Because loneliness is a human emotion, we should not try to avoid being lonely through social medias. We should face loneliness and find something to do when we are being alone as this is the way we grow up. -Jiawen Huang
Are our followers really listening?
Lexi Weber A study in July of 2012 shows that the average amount of time spent on social media was six and a half hours per person. The average person spends ninety minutes during weekdays while working and going to school and three hours on the weekends just on twitter. Social Media has become a path of escape for individuals from the day to day stresses of their lives with working or going to school full time, keeping a social life, doing school work, and managing their health. However, it is heavily contemplated whether social media is hurting society as a whole. This is becoming a problem considering most people are spending more time on social media sites than interacting with each other in person. A site like twitter is becoming a daily activity and is commonly accessible to individuals via Internet and applications on smart phones. People are replacing physical interaction with friends and family with twitter as they can communicate with them and see what they are doing via twitter. This way they do not have to communicate with them or see them because of Twitter and it is diminishing a humans capability to connect with others. Twitter is a perfect example of this problem as it is solely status updates where a person can tell its followers where they are and what they are doing. It differs from facebook where twitter is something that is quick to look at and shows a feed of streaming tweets rather than a news feed of status updates, pictures, relationship updates etc. Facebook is meant for befriending people and being able to see what they are doing with their life and other aspects such as where they are working or streaming through their photo albums. However, as a society we need to learn how to interact with each other without using social media or twitter. We need to learn how to separate from our phones and technology because at this point if we continue on the path that we are on with technology, eventually we will no longer communicate face to face but over texting, emailing, and social media sites. This generation is addicted to technology and their phones to the point where they cannot put them down for more than ninety seconds before they have to check to see if they have any new messages. Technology and the use of social media is becoming a priority in many lives and it needs to stop before the aspect of technology begins to shape society.
What’s the Issue? The main social issue with twitter is that people are replacing real conversations or even texting and emailing with twitter. People can choose who they follow when they have a twitter account and they have the option to decide who follows them as they can approve or deny who follows their account. However, many people do not have their tweets set to private because they want followers. Twitter account users have a dire need to gain followers. The more the better because their popularity goes up if they have more followers. This may be the case in some situations but in reality, how many people are actually viewing their tweets on a day-to-day basis. With the concept of having many followers, tweeters actually believe that their followers are truly listening to them when they tweet. It is somewhat like an ongoing conversation that the tweeter has with the news feed. People are constantly tweeting, they think they have so many followers who are listening, and most people will tweet things to receive attention. However, whom are they trying to receive attention from? I believe that there is a pattern when people tweet attention seeking things because it is almost as if they are testing their followers to see who responds to their tweets and who is really listening in and joining the twitter conversation.
Sherry Turkle is a sociologist who has done a few ted talks in the past few years on her research with technology and how it affects the modern world. She describes a story of a baby seal robot that was brought to a nursing home to listen to an elderly women’s story about losing her son. The audience in the nursing home was amazed by the seal’s ability to intently listen to the woman but in reality was the seal really listening? The seals eyes looked like it was intently listening but can the seal actually connect to the woman and sympathize for her? Turkle discusses how people are replacing actual conversation with social media sites such as twitter and texting. People do this because they like to be in control of what they say and have time to think about their response when in face to face conversation they have to respond quickly with emotion. She proposes the idea that society no longer knows how to hold a real conversation with each other as most conversations are now over twitter and texting. Therefore, instead of someone texting someone or calling them to talk about their problems, they will send an attention seeking tweet to see who is listening. People are replacing actual conversations with twitter because instead of texting one person you can be texting two hundred individuals. The idea that two hundred people are listening to you is much more intriguing than just one or two people.
It is important to acknowledge that twitter can be useful to celebrities and businesses to market themselves and join in the social network to gain publicity and public relations. Many businesses have social media consultants to tweet all day about the company and about promotions. Businesses use twitter to market their products and post advertisements. They draw in their audience through tweeting and as good as it is that they are helping the economy by listing promotions for their followers to act on and buy the product, is it really helping society? Celebrities have people that tweet for them all day long and a majority of people who have a twitter follow companies and celebrities. People spend hours looking at celebrities twitter accounts to see what they are doing but at what expense does this idea of networking and marketing cost society. Individuals believe that by following these companies and celebrities they can personally relate to them and have a connection. When in reality it is not even the celebrity tweeting. People are getting lost in a world that they are having trouble escaping. People do not realize that the celebrities do not follow them back and that they are not listeners. Twitter is just a marketing and public relations concept for celebrities and nothing more. Throughout my teenage years, I have constantly been connected to social media. I have used Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Vine, Linkedin, Myspace, Pinterest, and Wanelo. I have had my fair share of social media but I have to ask myself a question of when is enough, enough? Twitter has become a daily activity for me. I constantly check it probably every ten minutes and am constantly refreshing my feed. I have 10,500 tweets since July of 2011 and have 206 followers. I follow 177 other accounts, however none of which are companies or celebrities. Based on the 10,500 tweets in two years I can generally say I am addicted to twitter and it has become apart of my morning routine of waking up and checking twitter on what I missed when I was asleep. I realize it is starting to become an unhealthy obsession and inhibits my productivity. Additionally, I will tweet attention-seeking things to see which one of my followers are actually listening and sometimes it is more disappointing than helpful. Sometime you will tweet something because your are upset. For example, “I cannot stop crying.� However, sometimes no one will respond to your tweet or even text you to see if you are okay. Twitter can be more harmful knowing that no one is listening to you than helpful with sharing your feelings. Therefore, my point is that many people research the effects of social media on individuals but where is the solution to this problem?
What Can We Do?
Additionally, when an individual thinks of how much time they spend on twitter and other social media sites it is usually a good portion of their day. However, do individuals realize how much this actually affects their lives? Twitter is a large contribution to an individuals procrastination issues. A problem with twitter is that people constantly tweet all day long. Twitter is constantly refreshing itself to the point where people are checking twitter about every two minutes for new tweets. Twitter can be exciting and interesting to look at for a length of time; it can also become boring at the same time. For example, it could be in the middle of the day when most friends are at classes and busy doing work. Therefore, they may be investing their time in other things than twitter. When someone is on twitter all day they will update their feed constantly throughout the day but when no one is tweeting it makes the individual stay on twitter waiting for the latest tweet. Spending all that time on twitter can be used towards more productive things like working or homework. Twitter often becomes a form of procrastination. This could be a dangerous thing, as people who procrastinate seem to lack a sense of motivation and drive to do things on their own and manage their time. Social media is starting to affect a person’s personality and characteristics and it offsets their priorities making the individual very unproductive. Twitter needs to be monitored as well as other social media sites. There are many solutions that can be done to reduce the amount of time society spends on twitter but many people or organizations do not take the initiative to take action. A solution to the problem is that schools and businesses can block twitter and other social media sites on their network. Schools and organizations can also block cell phone reception in the buildings so people cannot get on their cell phones to go on twitter and can be more productive during the day. They can take away wifi, which makes data free on many smart phones. If there is, no wifi and people pay for their data usage; people will be less inclined to use their phones to get on twitter. People can also set up an application of their Smartphone or computers that sets daily timers for the Internet. After the time is used up, they can no longer access the sites until the next day, which also increases productivity.
Therefore, people will start using social media less and start interacting with each other more. If people cannot tell, what their friends are doing because they cannot see their networking profiles on twitter and Facebook then they will be inclined to text them or call them to see what they are doing. Although texting is not the best form of conversation, it is better than waiting for a tweet that will tell you exactly what the person is doing. Tweeting eliminates conversation because you already know what the other person is doing. There is no path in conversation because individuals already know what is going to be said. They will have to meet with them in person to catch up with them and this is where the real conversation will begin. People can now communicate with eye contact and body language in person instead of tones of voices over the phone and through texting. People need to start being more proactive in their relationships and not leave communication to texting and social media. It is time to put the smart phones and Internet aside as it inhibits the ability for relationships to grow. Social Media sites like twitter are becoming a problem for society. If the usage of these sites does not decrease then the world is in for a rude awakening as their will be no close face to face relationships and technology will take over their way of life.
Social Media: Helpful or Harmful? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Four Square, these have become household names over the past couple years. These are the biggest social media sites in America today. As a current college freshman, I completely understand the role that social media plays in the daily lives of teens and young adults. Just walking around my college campus I see almost every student with their face in the screen of a phone or a phone in their hand. From my point of view I think that social media is harming the youth of our country because it is slowly pulling people away from traditional conversations. This is a problem because what will happen in twenty years? Will that generation even know how to hold a conversation? Another problem with social media, is how pictures are able to be posted on there. The pictures that are posted on the internet are there forever, and can be seen by almost anyone with a computer. This is a problem because those pictures can be seen by future employers and even the police. Social media is not only a danger by pulling people away from conversations, but can also be very harmful if inappropriate pictures are posted. I believe that social media is running the lives of many people in America today. I personally know people that can not go more than three minutes without checking their phone or some sort of social media. Even when standing in a group of people I find that it is tough to make eye contact with a person, and the only time I am able to is between glances at their phone. This is a serious problem. The problem is not only eye contact, but generally if someone is looking at their phone, they do not pay attention to the person that is talking. This is not only a problem of socializing but just all around poor manners. We have been taught since nursery school that you pay attention when someone is talking you listen to them, plain and simple. I think when a person looks at their phone while someone else is talking, it is the same as saying that the conversation isn’t important enough to have their full attention. I know that most people will try to make an argument that they can multitask by listening and being on their phone at the same time.
I don’t think this is true at all because of the many times I have to restart what I was saying because they tuned me out when they looked at their phone. I think this is making people less and less social because if someone is talking they would rather see what is going on, on Twitter than have an actual conversation. If social media continues the way it is, I am very scared for future generations when they try to go to a job interview. Not only may they not be able to even hold a conversation, but they will have to worry about every picture that has ever been taken of them. Now-a-days it is very easy to pull up a person’s Facebook or Twitter and see all of their pictures. Coming from a college freshman, and all the pictures I’ve seen on social media, this can be very detrimental to a person trying to get a job. One of the worst parts about the pictures put online is that they all have the date that they were posted. So if there is a picture of a person with alcohol, all an employer has to so is a little simple math and they can figure out if the person they are about to interview was underage drinking. It would not surprise me if a person would not even be called in to have a face to face interview if pictures of them underage drinking are on social media. Social media can also be harmful to relationships and friendships, mostly through texting. Texting can be a problem because behind a keyboard a person can be whomever they want to be. Texting allows a person to actually think about what they want to say or how they want to sound, which a phone call can not do. With texting there is sometimes a two to three minute delay between texts, so people actually think about how they want to sound. This is a problem because people can sound very different over texting than they do in a real conversation. In a conversation people do not have tome to think about what they want to say or how they want to sound, so how they talk is how they really are. Therefore I think an actual conversation is a better way to talk because people cannot hide behind a keyboard.
Even though I have made many points about why social media is bad for our country, I do understand it is helpful sometimes. Social media makes it easy to stay in contact with old friends that you do not talk to on a regular basis. It helps because you are able to see how they are doing through their statuses or pages. This is one of the few perks that I can think of social media though. I believe, and this is just my opinion, that there should be a shift away from social media in America. I think this because it was not created to substitute face to face contact, but that is what it is doing. The problem with trying to shift our focus away from social media is that there is no easy solution. It would not be possible to try and tell people to not use social media as much, because of how often it is used. To me, this is the scariest part of social media because people are so addicted to it. I wish I could, but I cannot think of a solution to the problem of social media taking away from conversations. Another thing that can be as detrimental to our country as social media is Google. Nicholas Carr talks about this in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. To this question my answer is, yes. Carr talks about how Google is making us stupid because of how it is making us read articles. He says people read in an “F” shaped pattern. We read a sentence or two, then skip down and read another sentence or two, to try and get the information we need. This pattern is definitely not helping us take in information. We are only skimming the article, and yet, we think we are getting all the information we need. I think people are starting to read like this because of how fast Google can come up with thousands of responses. So, people think the quicker they read the quicker they get to the next source to read a little bit more, but not taking in all the information that they could.
This can give us a false sense of intelligence. This is dangerous because if people think they are getting all the information they need by just skimming, then they will never read a full article or book. This will make our country much dumber because they will not take in as much information as they can. Overall I think social media is generally harmful to our country. It is making people less social, the pictures can harm a person’s future and people can pretend to be whomever they want over texting. I believe less of an emphasis should be put on social media in society today because we are using it the wrong way. We use social media as a substitute for conversations, and face to face contact, and that is not what it was created for. Social media is not the only harm to America though, Google is also harmful. It is changing our reading habits, so that we are reading less and less and not learning as much. I believe less of an emphasis should be put on social media and Google.
Dan Emmons
The Problems of Twitter Is our modern day social media technology developing social issue? This question is widely debated, and there are many different views and theories regarding the issue. I truly believe that technology can be a positive and negative effect for social purposes. Now a days there are so many different forms of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so much more that are widely used by people all over the world. The fact that we have all of these wonderful websites and applications is great, but people sometimes tend to abuse them. Throughout my high school career, I used Twitter very heavily. There was so much to do on it, so I would just sit in my room on my laptop and basically be on it all day. This habit of mine seriously affected my life in many ways. It affected me socially, mentally, and especially, academically. Socially, Twitter affected me in a positive and negative way. The positive Effects of Twitter were that I was able to reach out and talk to people, and also know what was going on in famous people’s and friends or people I somewhat knew lives. Knowing all these things also had a negative impact as well. Knowing everything that people do can make people feel left out, or if someone sees the wrong thing they can really be effected. Also, people say some pretty reckless stuff on social media websites, so there is always people going at people’s heads, or people starting to cause unnecessary drama with people. These feelings that people are getting over different peoples tweets are part of the mental effects that twitter can give people. When someone says something bad or posts a picture that can be harmful to somebody, problems can be started, and people can either feel bad about themselves, or their attitude towards people can change. This is something that happens a lot. I see cases of people calling people out or making fun of people on Twitter all the time. This is just something that can be completely be avoided, but people sometimes tend to abuse the power they are given with being able to say whatever they want. The biggest problem with twitter is how it can academically effect someone. I know so many people who have put off papers or procrastinated for ridiculous amounts of time due to twitter. Sometimes I find myself looking for things to do on twitter just so I don’t have to do a paper or homework. This is something that can potentially affect someone’s future if they fail a class because they put off a paper or didn’t do an important assignment. In the end, twitter should only be used for letting people know what you’re doing or how you’re feeling, but our society has turned it into something completely different.
I believe the biggest social factor with twitter is the use of it on mobile devices. A majority of the people I know and spend my time around all have smart phones or Iphones. These devices allow you to access basically every type of social media website. The problem with this is that people do just that. Sometimes I feel that people are constantly updating their twitters, or checking there newsfeeds. I’ve been in situations where entire groups of people are just sitting around checking their twitters or other social networking applications. This is a serious problem, because it may affect the way people socialize in a negative way. People are meeting people online, and may lose the ability to make friends person to person. Also, with all the technology we have, people are basically just using all types of different technologies while they’re together. Sherry Turkle made this point in the TED talk “Connected, but alone”. She addressed that people can be with a group of people, but be completely alone because they are so hooked on their phone. She’s also making the point that while your connected with people on these phones, you’re not actually connected at all. This is because electronically being connected to people is nowhere near or related to actually being connected to someone. This is so valid. People are losing the personal connection they have with people, because they are so used to just be bonded to people through electronics. This constant connection that people have with each other through the use of electronics is turning our current universe into something that it’s not meant to be.
Our current society has to learn how to limit the use of our technologies and stop relying on our cellphones in social environments. Our social media technologies are causing a decrease in our modern peoples abilities to socialize in groups and face to face. This can have negative impact on the future of our jobs, if people don’t know how to function in social situations. This problem can be fixed if the people of our modern society simply learned how to limit themselves on their use of their electronics, and to stop abusing social media technologies.
@BobbyMattern
the Impact of the Internet
Dongzhu Zhu
The internet ď‚›
In 1969, creative Americans invented the original internet which aimed to find a fast way to share information and now it is much stronger than before. In these fortyfive years, the rapid development of the internet has already changed the human beings’ society. In the past, people would look for new knowledge from books or the older generation. However, nowadays people intend to research the internet to learn the new knowledge. The same changes also happened in listening music, watching movies, communicating with others and so on. Today the internet has all of those functions and even more. There is no doubt that the internet brings huge convenience to human. Nevertheless, do we humans really use the internet in correct ways?
Using the internet to study ď‚›
In the digital age, we can see all kinds of information posted online. Last time in my UGC assignment, the topic we needed to discuss was that which of Athens or Sparta, at its best political level, was more democratic? Since I knew nothing about either Athens or Sparta, I had no idea but just googled them. I was delighted to discover that there were many blogs and webs talking about Athens and Sparta. I opened the first web which agreed Athens was more democratic and set down some main points from it. Due to my curiosity, I opened the second link on Google and hoped to know more about these two cities. However, the second one thought Sparta was more democratic, which was completely opponent opinion with the former. I was so confused that I had to open the third one, forth one‌ to find the correct answer. I spent so much time on that homework and finally the role the internet just played was a tool to help me collect information and I need to make all decisions and judgments. Finally I came up with my answer that Sparta was more democratic.
Conclusion of the event ď‚›
If I only chose the answer or the result from the first web and did not check others and thought independently I would not have been able to get the real answer by myself. Thus different ways to use the internet will make different consequences. In addition, though we can find so many things from the internet for free or not, we need to consider the problem of the copyright. It is impossible to download everything online and every author needs to mark the resource of the picture or text he took online. There are laws in the digital world as well. Therefore, before using the internet we need to consider carefully the way we applied the internet.
The internet and communication ď‚›
Communication is another convenient and creative function besides seeking for knowledge of the net. Friends and relatives do not need to talk to others face to face but text online or making calls for free. Facebook, Twitter and Skype seem making individuals never being alone. Everything looks good now. Nonetheless, gradually, people can not live with out wifi or wireless net because they want to get notice from others during the internet. People keep smart phones or laptops every hour everywhere.
A party with smart phones ď‚›
My last middle school meeting gave me a terrible impression that smart phones had conquest my friends. They played smart phones for the whole time. Even before eating dinner, when I wanted to play some games to kill the waiting time, one of my friends mentioned a kind of phone game and then everyone started to download it and played. The party got into a terrible silent atmosphere. Everyone focused on their phones. I hesitated that is it really a party? After dinner most of my classmates used Wechat (an app of chatting) to talk to others friends who were not there and the table became silent again. We stayed together in space but we were apart in spirit. Do we really communicate via the internet or phone? No, we need to find a way to use the internet. Do not be controlled by these machines.
Picture from www.phonearena.com
Watch out your money ď‚›
Because of the internet, we increase the risk of losing money so we need to learn how to protect ourselves in the digital age. Most persons have made their bank accounts be linked with the internet so that they can make payment online. Thus, we need to protect our personal information whenever we operate a payment, which means we have to trust a fake tool as our agene and nobody can guarantee the safety of our money. Remembering to clean up the internet record and password is a good way to avoid losing some important personal information. When you friends ask you to borrow them money via text, you need to check their identity. Obviously, though, the internet makes the world smaller and easier, we ought to pay more attention on our security when we use the internet.
study with the internet ď‚›
Using the internet in the wrong ways will bring a lot of losses. In James Bowman’s article, Is Stupid Making Us Google, he pointed out that our generation use web to seek too much answer and children become less thinking and more and more stupid. I agree with his opinion completely. The strategy which I want to share that how to use the internet to study is that we should regard the internet as an electronic library where we can find the information rather than the terminal result. In that case, what we typing in the Google will be how to do it rather than what the answer is. We also need to collect all information which relates to the question and judge the value of them. Throwing away the useless or wrong messages and remembering vital information and applying these to deal with questions independently. Like fishing, the internet can give us some small fish, result, while teacher and professors want us to handle the methods to catch bigger fish. Though we can find answers directly from the internet, the answer is just some numbers or words which make no sense to students. In fact, we need to pay more attention on process indeed rather than answer.
Picture from en.wikipedia.org
Making dates by the network ď‚›
As for communication, I recommend that using the internet keep connect with others and trying to make a date or an appointment if you have free time. Like Sherry Turkle said at the Ted show, all of us need to be listened by others. Phone call or text can not satisfy our this feeling. We need to make conversation with others face to face. I know there is a phone app called Facetime which people can see other via phone and the internet. Nevertheless, Facetime is still not able to replace to a face-to-face date because you may still feel the distance between you and your partner when you use Facetime in smart phone and this distance will make you feel uncomfortable such that you can not trust the face in the phone. Therefore you can not pour yourself out when the talk is based on digital machines. In short, do not just use the internet or smart phone if you have the conditions to see other in reality
Picture from www.youtube.com
In conclusion ď‚› the
internet is the greatest invention but it is still a tool which was created to help human. People should learn to how to using the internet in safe and correct ways so that the internet will not kill the creativity of human or enslave human. Undoubtedly, the internet will become more and more powerful and own more unexpected functions in the future. Hoping everyone will able to use the internet in right ways someday.
Is Social Media Overtaking Communication? By: Conor Robbins
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Social media has increasingly developed over the past decade into something in which you can obtain information in the palm of your hand, and it is as easy as the touch of a few buttons. Major social media websites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have made billions from people’s desire to be connected. Social media has allowed people to have some sort of connection with others at all times through sharing pictures and thoughts on your own personal webpage. A major concern in today's world with social media, however, is that connection through social media is overtaking real-life communication. The development of social technologies has brought upon positive and negative impacts in modern society.
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As discussed in Sherry Turkel’s Ted Talk, social media has brought a great increase in connection; however, it has brought a substantial decrease in communication. This is an issue that is evident in real world situations. Turkel says that people are "alone together." This phrase describes how in modern society, people will be in the same room as each other, but feel the need to have their faces buried in their phones texting, emailing, or going through their social media web pages. Turkel believes that this is a huge issue in today's advancing world, because people are hiding from each other. There are more and more online friendships, and much less face-to-face friendships. Turkel says that people rely too heavily on technology for relationships, and less on each other. Therefore, Turkel thinks that we turn to technology, or social media for comfort in vulnerable situations. In addition Turkel believes that the need to be constantly connected is causing isolation in people.
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I agree with a lot of the ideas that Turkel discussed, because I do believe that social media has cause people to feel the need to be constantly attached, and updated on what is going on in the social world. People are always on their phones in places where phone usage is simply unnecessary. For example, in class, meetings, church etc. This feeling of the need for constant connection is hurting people in many ways. People have online relationships with others, but when it comes to real life situations these same people can barley even muster up the courage to say hello. For whatever reason, people subconsciously turn to their phone is moments of vulnerability, or awkwardness. In my opinion, this is most typical in Twitter. I used to have a Twitter, until I realized how false and meaningless it really is.
. To elaborate, I believe that Turkel’s idea that the majority of social media users do not actually present their real personalities through their webpage is accurate. As Turkel described, you can be anyone you want to be over social media websites, especially twitter because you can post anything you want. To simplify this, you can add, delete and post what you feel that you want to be like. Essentially, you can be whoever you want to be through social media, but you are who you are in face-to-face communication. In my opinion, people have gotten this far in our existence based on communication. There are so many benefits to face-to-face communication, rather than just posting your ideas or pictures. These benefits include the full understanding of what the individual is trying to say. For example, if one tweets “practice till 6.” This tells basic, quick information about ones schedule for a given day, but it doesn’t describe the many things that face-to-face communication would. If the individual had told me that they had practice till 6, I could ask him/her if they were happy or mad about this, and really understand their true feelings about what they have ahead of them for that particular day.
In addition, face-to-face communication allows for enhanced relationships. I had so many followers that I didn’t even know and I also followed people that I didn’t know when I had a Twitter. This brought upon a certain connection to all these people that I followed, or that followed me, but it didn’t mean that I was actually friends with these individuals. Just because someone reads on my Twitter that I am mad because I have an essay to write that is due tomorrow, it doesn’t mean that they know me. I shared a basic feeling that I had at a particular time, but they didn’t ask me if I needed help writing it, or if I wanted to hang out when I finished, like a true friend would. Real friends and real relationships are based on a give and take philosophy, in which you have to give part of yourself up to others, in order to receive friendship and they have to do the same. This doesn’t include giving your feelings through tweets, because anyone of your x number of followers can read your thoughts online. These followers’ reading your tweets creates a connection between yourself and the readers, however it does not create a relationship.
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Relationships are based upon communication. With this being said, one benefit of Social Media is that it definitely can be helpful in creating relationships. You connect yourself with others, giving yourself an easier chance to have something to say to someone you want to talk to, but that may not know that well. Without communication though, this connection is only a hidden element. For example, if you had read the same tweet mentioned earlier about the kid having practice at 6, you could ask the person how their practice was. This communication established a relationship with that person, but if you had only read a tweet about their practice, they would have no idea that you had read it, or even cared.
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Social media has rapidly developed into something that has a daily effect on many individuals throughout the country. It is so easily accessible that it has become psychologically effective. People resign to their phones for social media in order to feel comfortable during group settings. As Turkel explained in her TED talk, this is becoming an issue between connection and communication because people are too busy connecting on Twitter, rather than communicating face-to-face. If people could just be more aware to use the advantages of technology like search engines for learning, rather than to enhance their popularity, then humans will continue to develop even better technology without fearing isolation.
By: Dakota Pembleton
A perfect society is almost impossible to come by in today’s day in age. Whether you look at the world’s population as a whole or analyze a certain group of people in one area, you will find a handful of imperfections. There are a number of contributing factors that lead to the social issues plaguing today’s society as a whole. Advances in technology have led to the increasing popularity of social media, causing multiple social issues. One major social issue today that is becoming a bigger problem due to social media is cyber bullying.
Technology certainly has reprogramming us. The changed the world we Net’s intellectual ethic live in today. With the remains obscure”. Carr creation of computers, believes the Internet and the Internet, and sites like Google are cellphones, where does making us stupid. I agree it end? In the grand with Carr in the sense scheme of things, all of that the Internet is these inventions and changing who we are, advances have benefited but I believe it is a humans in some way. positive change instead However, it is important of a negative change. In to look at the side effects my personal experiences of such devices. Not only with Google, it has done did the introduction of nothing but enhance my these technologies knowledge of certain change how we live, they topics. Carr says Google changed who we are. makes us lazy, but I Author Nicholas Carr believe the fact that sums up this assertion in people take the time to his article Is Google go onto Google and Making Us Stupid, show interest in learning stating, “Never has a something is proactive, communications system not lazy. played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet, for all that’s been written about the Net, there’s been little consideration of how, exactly, it’s
My personal favorite social media site is Twitter. Twitter is newer than Facebook and seems to be becoming more popular. Twitter allows you to follow your friends and celebrities with no obligation on their part to follow you back (something that is not possible on Facebook). I personally believe someone can get more out of Twitter in the sense that it is easier to access someone’s information. Of course there are privacy settings one can configure to their liking, but the process of following a person’s profile is quicker and easier. I also have a Facebook so I know firsthand the similarities and differences between the two social media
giants. Another thing I have noticed is that Facebook seems to be a more formal website. What I mean by this is that there are far fewer posts on a person’s Facebook than tweets on a person’s Twitter. I find that many of my peers are friends with family members and save Facebook for more serious posts like family affiliated events or big news affecting their lives. Twitter is more informal in that tweets appear for the most part spontaneous and casual. Although these two social media websites have their differences, their core foundations are essentially the same. Another social media site that is even younger than Facebook and
Twitter is Instagram. The major difference between Instagram and the other two social media sites is that the only posts you can create are pictures. This creates an entirely different format of social media. You can post pictures on Twitter and Facebook as well, but posts consisting just of words can supplement them.
Being an avid user of all three social media sites, my experiences with all of them have been for the most part positive. I am able to keep in touch with my friends without much trouble. Each of these sites has apps for smartphones that make accessing them even more convenient. I love being able to stay in touch with my friends that have went away to college or seeing what my favorite musician is doing on Twitter. Facebook is a great way to keep up with my family that I don’t get to see as much as I’d like. When I’m done checking those two networks, I can access my Instagram to see a friend’s new dress or someone’s delicious dinner. For the most part, social media is a positive attribute to society. It allows people to stay in touch with each other and stay connected. This area is by no means flawless and needs to be used responsibly. Some people take advantage of social
media networks and their features to harm others.
When it comes to social media, cyber bullying is a big problem. Cyber bullying is the act of bullying through means of technology such as cellphones or the Internet. This is something that is all too common on the social media website Twitter. Twitter is good for a lot of things, but people can use it as a battleground for cyber bullying. With the ability to communicate with each other through a screen instead of face-to-face contact, the bully finds this to be empowering. They feel, as though there
will be fewer consequences through a social media site rather than harassing someone at school. I experienced this firsthand at my high school. While in my senior year at high school, two of my friends were not very fond of each other. The two girls had a bad past with each other and it was rekindled that year. After numerous altercations at school, their rivalry continued onto Twitter. This social media site was an easy way for the two to verbally attack each other for all to see. To their disbelief, the principal was one of those people who witnessed the attacks on Twitter. Both of the girls got suspended, which immediately put their bitterness towards each other to an end, on social media at least. This just goes to show that cyber bullying is real and serious issue today. It thrives in the environments that social media creates.
This increase in cyber bullying needs to be addressed. We need to increase the awareness level and knowledge of this social issue in schools because this is where most incidents arise. Cyber bullying affects many teens due to a number of reasons. Teachers and schools need to do a better job of teaching students the signs of cyber bullying and how to prevent it from happening. Guest speakers and seminars would be perfect for the high school atmosphere. We as a society also need to make kids feel comfortable about reporting these abuses. Give these kids resources and people that will help them because cyber bullying is a very real and serious problem.
Technological advances have propelled society into a new day in age, primarily aiding in the communication with others. For the most part, these improvements have had a positive affect on society, making it more convenient to stay connected with those we love; however, social media sites are not always used in the way they were intended to be. Twitter and Facebook can be the scene of vicious cyber bullying attacks, a social issue that is a serious problem. Cyber bullying is an unintended consequence of social media and is a social issue that needs to be addressed.
By: Michael Schmutter
With online spaces and profiled faces, social media has taken away our personal identities and replaced them with false internet version. I will never forget when my older sister made a MySpace account when I was just in elementary school. She explained to me how this new trend worked: You could create posts, comment on pictures and have a top eight friends list. It seemed so cool, to be picked to be on someone’s top eight list, it meant you were special. So shortly after her introduction, I made a MySpace profile of my own. I immediately informed my friends about this amazing website and they all followed and set up their own pages. I sat on MySpace for hours and changed my top eight list and default picture daily. I spent hours navigating the site looking at my friends’ profiles and they spent hours on the site too. It was our new addiction. I spent hours on MySpace “socializing,” when I could have been productive by completing homework assignments or playing outside with some friends. Looking back, it is clear that my “lol” comments did not equal real socializing. Social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook, create an atmosphere where teens today become socially awkward because there’s a lack of in-person social activity, everyone becomes isolated and there’s an abundance of computer-addicted young people.
The problem is that we have replaced in-person social interactions with inhome, separated dialogue. It began with MySpace for me, but come 2009, MySpace’s popularity declined and Facebook was the next best thing. Facebook continues to develop new ways to keep us users hooked. With recently added instant messenger and video chat features, Facebook has replaced face-to-face conversations with online chatting. Instead of actually leaving your house and socializing with the outside world, you can talk on Facebook. When I was little we used to set up play dates, but as I’ve grown up, I’ve seen a changed mindset. If you can just talk to friends on Facebook or video chat then why leave your bed and go somewhere? Our generation is becoming lazy because social networking sites lessen the need to get out and interact because you can talk to others on the computer screen right in front of you.
Social networking sites also create a new breed of teens that know how to interact online, but are socially awkward in real-life situations. Being socially awkward, in this context, is the inability to interact with peers or people in fluid, natural ways in an in-person social setting. Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow people to type out their conversations, but they don’t include certain social cues. For example, reading an online message then deciding what to say for a few minutes and finally reacting with a smiley face isn’t how people talk in the real world.
Here are some things we’re missing, you can’t playfully touch someone’s arm online, you can’t see someone blush and you can’t depict sarcasm properly. Sherry Turkle in her TED Talk summarizes this phenomenon by saying how “We expect more from technology and less from each other.” Turkle elaborates by saying that, “Technology appeals to us most where we are most vulnerable. We’re lonely but were afraid of intimacy. The illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.” Here, Turkle is explaining how we rely way too much on the internet and don’t understand how to connect and relate to others in-person. We are so used to the internet that we are losing touch with eachother.
A prime example of how social networking sites isolate you and make you socially awkward is by looking at the social interactions of the creator of Facebook himself, Mark Zuckerberg. Through media depictions and in the movie The Social Network, Zuckerberg is a well-known example of someone who is socially awkward. He hides behind websites by expressing his emotions online instead of out loud. Zuckerberg created Facebook when he failed at socializing in-person. He created a forum for people like himself to hold power over those more comfortable in real-life social scenarios. He set up virtual walls.
It’s much easier to insult someone online when you don’t see a live reaction. Tough discussions, which might require delicate wording in-person, can be harshly toned online when you don’t see how someone is processing the conversation and, even more problematic, bullying becomes much easier. Many conversations, or even confrontations, are meant to be face-to-face, not wall-towall, and sites like MySpace and Facebook allow people to say things without facing the repercussions of their statements directly.
The internet is a resource for limitless information and social networking sites have certain positive attributes, but those benefits do not outweigh the negative consequences. On the positive side, MySpace and Facebook are great ways to get brand names out there. MySpace has always been an outlet for new bands to promote gigs and sell music. Facebook helps people, like my parents for example, find old high school classmates and reconnect. And using Facebook to video chat can allow friends and siblings to help each other with homework problems with less effort. However, those brand-andconvenience benefits are not strong enough counterweights to the creation of a generation that is increasingly socially awkward and closed out of real world in-person communications. Many teenagers are leaving high school ill-equipped for real-life. While there are computer jobs available, one-on-one interactions with bosses exist in the current workplace that the incoming socially awkward workforce will not know how to handle.
Overall, sites like Facebook and MySpace are not evil, but they are overused and hurting face-to-face communication. I wish I spent more time hanging out with my friends in middle school at each other’s houses instead of virtually. Luckily, I have learned that lesson now, but unfortunately other contemporaries of mine have not. One solution to this problem would be using social networks in moderation and that would require a change in the culture of current usage. This change would help society in the long run and aid in ending the proliferation of sociallyawkward teens. As times change and new technologies are available, we all need to step back and evaluate the consequences of these new tools. The ever-increasing reliance on social networking is a hindrance to us all and it would be advantageous if we sign-off, shut-down and talk to one another face-to-face.
You are Tube-addicted
Zheng Lan Huang
YouTube is one of the most commonly used social media technologies, tens of hundreds of videos are uploaded everyday. These videos not only entertain us but also expose the violence in our everyday lives. YouTube became so popular due to its accessibility and easy uploading technology; everyone can upload videos of the things they want. Also, after the videos are view a certain times, the uploader can actually earn money for uploading that video.
Some people even get famous through the videos they uploaded, another reason for the popularity of YouTube. Nowadays, a lot of people are seeking attention through these videos. Some of the videos may have exposed the unfairness in our society while others use it as a cyber bullying tool.
For instance, the case of Alexian Lien which only happened a few days ago in New York City. A gang of bikers were chasing Lien's car and pulled him out of it and beat him up. The entire event was filmed by one of the bikers and uploaded onto YouTube. This showed how they thought of this as an entertainment and did not see the problem in doing so. Another example is of Tyler Clementi, who was a freshman at Rutgers University. He committed suicide after finding out that
his roommate secretly filmed his sexual encounter and posted it onto the internet. A lot of people are doing the same thing, uploading videos of their violent acts. Maybe they do this to seek more attention but also because they want to release the stress they had through bullying someone else, seeing others suffer, and to feel better about themselves.
Nick Carr’s article,
“Is Google Making Us Stupid” showed how people became more and more reliable on these searching engines. These new technologies help us to think less and depend more on them to show us everything. Similar to these searching engines, a lot of social medias had pop up in our world and become part of our life. People used too much time on these technologies instead of communicating with people in reality. People are losing the connections between each other and build these new connections through network. This is one of the reasons why YouTube is so popular. People values a lot of how many people look through their videos and subscribes to their channels.
These “imaginary” people became so important in modern people’s life, that some people are even willing to post their violent acts to get these attentions they want. This modern technology sickness is all around us, it is important for us to stop these beliefs and actions.
Personally, I think that seeking attention is a pretty normal thing. No one like loneliness, people wanted to communicate and interact with each other. The subscribers help people to realize that there are still people out there
who cares about what they were doing and help them to build self confidence. It is always harder to do this in reality, that why people seek for these comforts through the internet, where they do not have to expose everything about themselves and still get the attention they want. YouTube helps people all around the world to connect with each other. Everyone can leave comments and share their ideas. It is easier for people to communicate especially those who does not feel as comfortable as talking face to face with one another.
With new technologies like YouTube and Facebook, people are able to instantly share what they are doing. This also has a lot of negative affects. Even though the violent videos were taken down quickly tons of people could have still watched them during the few minutes they were online. This exposes the users who may be underage to violence that they may adapt to and learn from. If people watch too many of these violent videos, they may think that what they were doing is normal and do the same thing; especially children.
Children may not understand the violent acts in the videos but they may simply be copying those acts to show they can do it too. Not only statistic but also the people around us, show how people are changing into animals but rather cares about themselves than someone. The coldness of human beings may be due to the exposure of violent videos to underage, and more and more action games created about fighting and killing each other. These violent ideas are slowly sinking into our mind as a normal behavior. Thus, it is important for us not only to avoid the exposure of these kinds of videos but also to make sure that people are not copying the violent acts in these videos.
CYBER BULLYING FACEBOOK
HAVE MANNER BE NICER!
Kenny Li
W H AT S H O U L D FAC E B O O K B E U S E D FOR? Facebook, the most visited social media website, approximately about 400million people go on it per month. This website was found by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard sophomore on February 4th 2004. The very first purpose of Facebook was to create a website for the students at the University of Harvard to get to know each other. Later on, the website expanded nationally and even internationally around the world. Facebook was made to make friends, chat, entertainments and other social uses..
Since Facebook allowed people who claimed they are 13 years or older to sign up, Facebook has not yet been able to limit their access to sexual or violent contents People often get cyber bullied and harassed through Facebook. Many Facebook groups or organization have racism and hatred against other ethnicities. Is Facebook made for people to be friends or is it just another way to expose and bully people? Is Facebook a good way for people to share common interests but only allows people of age 17 and over to create an account?
LIKE OR DISLIKE? People use Facebook because their friends use it. People go on it daily or even every few minutes just to check on updates and what other people post up. Users may join groups or organizations based on their interests. But, there are many groups that are racial or cyber bullying other people. Not everyone really take it seriously but there are people that take their ethnicity seriously. Cyber bullying is one of the top problems Facebook has among the people of age 13 to 17, usually from middle school to high school. People of that age period tend to be more exposing and more selfish.
They do not care how the people feel behind that computer screen or what the person will do because of their cyber bullying. On December 15, 2011, on ABC news, a 15 years old girl from New Dorp high school suicide by walking in front of an incoming bus with a suicide note in her pocket. Her family said bullying contributed to her death. Weeks before Amanda suicide, she begged her mom not to report to the school about the bullying and the nasty comments the girls in her class left on her Facebook because she would get picked on more. Her example clearly shows Facebook has not yet taken care of the issues of cyber bullying.
USEFUL OR NOT? Facebook is not a bad website to go on, is just not yet reached its potential. Facebook is a great way to communicate, connect with friends and share interests among other people. Facebook is also a good way to advertise or promote things you like or things you want to sell. There are many groups of different interests. Facebook can be really useful. The clothing brand ASN Clothing was created by a regular college student.
He used Facebook to advertise and promoted his own clothing brand. He knows most people that use Facebook are teenagers. He targeted them and made his brand well known among the teenagers. Facebook can be a great way of expressing your feelings and help you in many ways. If you are having trouble with something, there’s a big chance there is people on Facebook that is experiencing the same.
If Facebook restrict people of age 13-17 having a Facebook, there would not be a lot of cyber bullying. People of 18 years old or older have more mature mind, they know the consequences better than the underage teenagers. It can limit the possibilities of people getting cyber bullied and less people suicide. One of the reasons is that older people have more responsibilities, they are more mature and they are more responsible to their actions.
Generally people in University education level are more educated and have more verbal manner than high school students. Facebook was made for University students at first anyway. Facebook should restrict people of underage of having an account or at least limited access to certain contents.
Another reason is that there’s many different kind of advertisement on Facebook post by companies. Many younger kids have access to Facebook can see it and can easily be brain washed by these commercials and advertisements. Older people have a more mature mind, so the effect of these advertisements will not have that much of effect on them than the younger kids. Many young teenagers’ actions are often influenced by the media or their surrounding environment.
If they are limited to these media influence, their actions would be less provoking. The third reason is that Facebook is useful if you use it in a right way, people use Facebook just to find people to bully and bother. If Facebook is limited to college students then is use to its full potential. For college students, they can join groups and organizations based on their interests. They can chat with people of the same college and share feedbacks. Things would be less complicated and more useful if Facebook was this way.
Relating to the article of Twilight, companies used the tribal legends and their culture as part of their advertisement and make the movies more nationally known. They target teenagers and brain washes them with media influence. Facebook let companies to post their advertisement up and take advantage of the kids and influence their violent actions.
Overall, Facebook is a good way to communicate with people and have a group of people of the same interest. Limiting the age would definitely make things less complicated and less cyber bullying. People can use Facebook for their own purposes and not use it to bother or harass other people.
#PutYourPhoneDown by Danielle Raymond
Have you ever just heard or seen something so ridiculous, funny and/or interesting that you just want to tell everyone you know about it? Sometimes do you find yourself having the urge to tell everyone what exactly it is you’re doing at that very moment in time? I’m willing to bet a lot of you have these moments more often than you may or may not want to admit. But, with the creation of Twitter in 2006, there is nothing for you to be ashamed of. Twitter is an Internet portal for the world to stay connected. It is designed to be a way for the world to share their most random thoughts, ideas and news. The website and mobile app have come a long way since its launch seven years ago. This little blue bird logo has become a part of most of our daily lives. Celebrities, politicians, artists, businesses, corporations, teens and so many more people use it on a regular basis.
Whether celebrities use it for publicity purposes or kids use it to just because they want to share random thoughts with their friends, it is a gateway into the minds of its users. Twitter has been incorporated all over the place, we see it being referenced constantly. Television programs have utilized Twitter by promoting certain “hashtags” and using viewer comments to improve content. A lot of popular programs have come up with an official hashtag for when fans tweet about it. A few examples you may be familiar with are #glee for the show Glee on Fox. Also you may have seen #AHSFX for the popular FX program American Horror Story. During the original airing of certain television shows you are beginning to see certain suggestions for “hashtags”. This is a publicity stunt because they are aware of how popular Twitter has become.
Ask yourself this, which one of your apps do you find yourself opening the most? Is it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Candy Crush? Social media has become such a huge portion of our lives. Are you engulfed with the many wonders of social media? Do you find yourself hitting the refresh button way too much? Because of how popular Twitter has become and how much it is incorporated in our lives we easily find ourselves a bit addicted. Scrolling through twitter has become a filler for empty space within an avid users day. Along with empty space, you find yourself scrolling through your feed when you’re in the middle of something else. Whether you’re waiting on line, walking to class, or even hanging out with friends, you can find yourself consumed with Twitter. It has this capability of consuming you, removing you from the real world and placing you in a virtual one. The site fuels your curiosity and you find yourself constantly wondering about the outside world and what everyone is thinking, doing and saying. Twitter can be a major distraction and can prevent people from getting their work done or make them lose track of time and so forth.
Social media sites are distracting and it’s very hard for people to learn to balance their priorities with their social lives. There have been way too many times where I was in the middle of homework and I just have to pick up my phone and scroll through my feed. We’re all guilty of this, some more than others. It may have its benefits but Twitter is easy for users to misuse. Especially among the younger generation, but certainly not limited to it, Tweeters have abused the site in order to trash others. What the twitter world calls this is “subtweeting.” Subtweeting is when you talk about another person within your tweet without saying its about them directly. This is often times basically twitters form of cyber bullying and gossiping. I am familiar with this because I, myself, have been “subtweeted” about and bullied via Twitter. Immaturity among users can cause issues with other peoples self-confidence and self-esteem.
Sherry Turkle spoke in the TED talk "Connected, but Alone," and did a great job of addressing the fact that people can be together in the same room yet be on their phones instead of talking. This is disappointing and a bit pathetic in that being with the people you're with is not enough. Technology supplies you with the ability to always be heard and never be alone. However, this constant connection with technology can actually backfire and cause you to be even more isolated. When you waste your time on sites like Twitter instead of connecting with people in person you develop a sense of loneliness. Eventually, people are not going to know how to properly hold a real life conversation face to face with another. People skills are important and the deterioration of them can lead to a lot of problems with future generations. Twitter along with other social media sites have made people want to be connected to all the places that they are not as if the place they are is not enough.
Sherry Turkle said, “We expect more from technology and less from each other.” Isn’t this true? We rely on social media sites for entertainment and connection instead of actually talking to people. People have Facebook pages and Twitters because when you post something on a site like those you feel as if your followers or your Facebook friends are automatically listening to what you have to say. Phones create the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Some people feel as though the amount of Facebook friends or the amount of followers they have on Twitter is an accurate count of their friends in reality. When truthfully half of the people who follow you on Twitter or are your Facebook friend don’t actually care about you. Tweeters think that everyone is going to read what the post but actually not many people do. Users crave attention and they want to be heard. Twitter is a site that makes you think people are listening to what you have to say but in reality this is not always true.
Twitter is an issue because of the deterioration of people skills, the issue of cyber bulling, and the distraction it creates from priorities. We have to stop relying on technology so much and decrease the amount of time we spend on our cellphones. The gap we have between the real world and the cyber world is getting smaller as time goes by and we need to find a way to hold on to reality.
HOW MUCH TIME ARE REALLY WASTING? By Nicholas Phillips
FANTASY FOOTBALL: HOW MUCH TIME ARE PEOPLE SPENDING? Fantasy Football has swept across the nation with millions of people playing it across the United States. This is not just a game to some people however, there are people that risk hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year per team, causing it to be looked at as gambling rather than just having a fun time. My friends and I only play with a 10 dollar buy in but we invest just as much time as everyone else in our league. I have spent countless hours in a week attempting to get the perfect line-up, because if you do not play the right people it could be the difference between a win and a loss. The question is, why is Fantasy Football so addicting and time consuming?
WHAT IS FANTASY FOOTBALL? First, let me go over what Fantasy Football actually is. Fantasy Football involves a group of people who participate in an online game using real football players from the National Football League. These players are drafted by the people in the fantasy league and put on teams, and based on how well the players do in real life, it determines who wins the game using a point system to translate stats to points. For example, my 7 friends and I are in an 8-team league, and we all come over my house every year to have a draft in my garage. We randomly assign a draft order and then we pick our team in that order. After the draft is over we wait for the regular season of the National Football League to begin, because we draft real players, and we are scored depending on how well they do in their real games. Each week each person plays a different person in the league head-to-head, and whoever gets more points
wins. After the first 13 weeks the top 4 teams enter the playoffs and the other 4 are sent to the loser’s bracket.
COMMUNICATION There are also a lot of ways to communicate to other people in the league like on the message board and smack boards. The message board is for everyone to talk and communicate with one another and the smack board is open communication between the person you are playing, to talk a little smack, make the games more interesting and competitive. It’s always more fun when you are connecting with the person during the game because it makes it more personal, making the wins that much sweeter and the losses even more bitter.
BUT WHY IS IT SO ADDICTIVE? Why is this “fantasy game” so addictive? You are simply managing a fake team, there is no physical activity involved and you can’t see the person you are playing just the team name and their roster. Personally I think it is because you are with your friends, or family, and you see these people all the time, so who wouldn’t want to be known as the champion? Bragging rights are always fun to have, and everyone likes a little competition, and these are the reasons I think it is so time consuming. People want to win, and in order to win you need to put out the best line up, read the latest articles, watch the predictions and always have your phone on you for important alerts and updates. People mess around with their line up hoping to put in the best one in order to get a win, but they will spend hours trying to figure out the best options and chances are they will not even put out the best option. People freak out over it, and there are now there are shows on ESPN about Fantasy Football, helping people by giving them advice and telling them which players to play.
GAME TIMES: HOW MANY HOURS DO WE WATCH FOOTBALL? After one has finally submitted their final lineup, the players are locked in at their real game time, and this means you cannot move them from the bench to the starting lineup or vice versa. So if my starting quarterback has his game at 1pm on Sunday, after 1pm I cannot move him to the bench, he is locked in. This is where Fantasy Football becomes the most time consuming because there are so many different games going on at so many different times. Even though it is not necessary to watch the games, most people like to so they can see how their players are performing. When you think about it, there are around 15 hours of football being played every week, because each game last around 3 hours and there are 5 time slots games fit into, spread out between Thursday, Sunday and Monday, and later in the season there are even games on Saturdays. 15 hours a week is a lot of time spent on a pretend team that only exists on paper. 15 hours of games that doesn’t matter to any normal person who may rout for one of his favorite teams, but because they have a player playing in the game they will sit and watch the entire game.
THE PROBLEM This is where the problems can arise, when there are games being played, in the back of your mind you are is wondering how your fantasy team is doing, unable to focus on other tasks. I will be doing my homework on a Sunday, and on my laptop I will get notifications popping on the screen, and I will click on it to see what is going on, losing focus on the more important task which is my school work. It is just so addicting in the sense that you want to know what is going on at all time. For example, as I am writing this, I am looking in the other room checking the scores, getting alerts flashing across the screen of my laptop, and texts from my friends telling me how bad my team is doing. It brings my group of friends closer in the sense that we always have something to talk about, making jokes about each other’s teams and the lineups they put out, but the amount of time that goes into the game is a lot more than one would expect before getting into it.
NFL SUNDAYS Now this does not apply to everyone who plays Fantasy Football because you could draft a team and just leave your line up the same way all year, not touch it, and not pay attention, but most people want to win and put in the effort. Because I like to watch all my players, I now go to my friend’s house who plays all the games on 7 different TV’s, although it is not necessary, I want to see how my players are doing. I would not do that if I was not in a Fantasy Football, but it has now grown to be tradition for Sundays during the regular season.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA •
Now to make things even easier, ESPN has created a Fantasy Football mobile app for cellular devices, making it even easier to see what is going on. If you open up this mobile app, you can access your team page, league score board and the message board, all from one tap on your phone. This just increases the distractions because people are always checking their phones, whether it be setting their lineups and making trades during the week, or seeing the scores on the weekend. They are trying to make Fantasy Football bigger and bigger, and to make it more convenient by putting it one a mobile app draws more people who may not have thought they had enough time to sit on the computer and do it. There is also a lot of advertisement for Fantasy Football, restaurants trying to host draft parties or just different sites trying to convince you to join Fantasy Football on their site. These commercials are usually comical, showing a group of friends having fun, making viewers want to join a league themselves. There is even a TV series called The League and it is all about a group of friends who are in a league together, showing the funny things they do and how the Fantasy Football is involved in their entire life.
SHERRY TURKLE Sherry Turkle talks about how people can be with each other physically but not be totally with each other because they are always on their phones or watching TV. When I am with my friends we are all glued to the TV and not even paying attention to each other, and while we may make a few comments, we are focused on the game. Making comments like “did you see that?” or “Touchdown!” is merely pointing out observations and unless you discuss it, you are not really connecting with each other.
THE RECAP To sum all of this up, Fantasy Football is a cool way to bring a group of friends together and allows people to connect through an online game, but it takes away from more important things if you are too invested in it. Fantasy Football should not be a top priority in someone’s life because it can cause a lot of distraction and I feel like a lot of social media is like this. As humans we are always curious as to what is going on. We need to fight the urge to check the scores every 5 minutes and focus on what task we are trying to complete because if we are not focused chances are we will not put forth our best work.
FANTASY FOOTBALL And social networking
TYLER EAGLETON
Fantasy Football leagues are very entertaining . It is considered a social network because you can stay connected to your friends, while being involved in a competitive contest . This mode of online communication is considered to be gambling , and in a way it is . The Fantasy Football league I am in costs ten dollars per person to enter and it is a winner-take-all sort of game play . The purpose of this online social networking is to have the best football team compared to the people that you’re playing , in my case, my friends . You start by meeting all of your friends at someone’s house and each person brings a lap top . The commissioner of the league sets a draft time and everyone playing in the league must draft. It is technically like the actual NFL draft except it is just for fun . You even draft real players in the NFL . When the clock starts , each person drafting has two minutes to choose a player that they wish to have on their team . Since a player can only be chosen once , this spikes up the competitiveness . Each person chooses one professional football player each round , and the better that player does on the field , the more points your team gets and the better you do .
In Sherry Turkle’s TED talk, she discusses the “dangers” of social networking and how they can be too time consuming and disruptive. Some social networking however, can be good for us to keep in contact with friends, but only when used in moderation of course. I believe that although fantasy football is a social networking site, it can be beneficial for us. First off, I believe that it is good to keep in contact with friends. Fantasy football provides this contact to friends without being too overwhelming like other social networking sites such as Twitter. Playing fantasy football also keeps you updated on current issues. Granted, those issues are mostly football related discussions or statistics, but since I love the sport of football so much, staying updated on these issues intrigues me.
My experiences in this world of fantasy football have been great . This game to me is not too time consuming, not overbearing, and doesn’t keep me from doing other work. In my opinion, fantasy football is great for contacting with people. Sherry Turkle described a social networking site that would be technically perfect in a way where it doesn’t take up too much time for people and still allows for them to be in contact with the people they want to. She described such a networking site as the “goldilocks effect”, it has the perfect amount of communication, not too close to people, and not too far. This “goldilocks effect”, I believe, can be used to perfectly describe fantasy football. It allows for competition with friends while keeping in contact, but it is not too time consuming. Where several hours of a day have to be put into other sites, this site only takes maybe an hour per week. Although I believe that fantasy football is a perfect social networking site, I also agree with what Sherry Turkle said about these sites “shutting down” our personalities. These sites cause more and more people to become receded into their fake online lives rather than their real ones. This causes people to adopt poor communication skills due to lack of face to face communication. Although this may be true, no social networking site can ever be perfect and people are still using ones worse than fantasy football.
My experiences with this site have not harmed my communication skills; I would even go as far to say that they have improved them. I know many people, about seven of the guys in our Writing class, who play fantasy football. Our love for the sport of football and our involvement in this site brings us closer. Simply just muttering something about the sport of football in general can spark a conversation leading to fantasy football. We talk about who in the NFL played good the previous week, who played poorly, who got injured, and who got dropped from a team. In this way, fantasy football can be beneficial to conversation and communication. In talking about this game to friends, classmates, and classmates friends, I have learned how to keep a conversation going about one single topic, and how to ask intriguing questions about the other person.
In contrast to my previous statements, I do believe that fantasy football has its downfalls. This game can cause people to get angry very easily and lose their temper. This effect might be due to the money loss aspect of the game. I used to get very angry at nothing when I would see my team had lost the previous week, but now I shrug it off. Participating in this game allows me to have fun with my friends, even on a competitive standpoint. For this reason, I keep my cool even if I do poorly. For example, this year in fantasy football, I have not won a single game and my record is 0 wins and 5 losses. Even though I am doing terribly, I still enjoy playing because I get to spend time with friends! In relation to Sherry Turkle’s TED talk, fantasy football has a lot in common with what she stated. Fantasy football incorporates, in my opinion, the “goldilocks effect”, a social networking site where you aren’t too close to someone, and you aren’t too far. This form of social networking is perfect for me. It involves competition, contact with friends, and can even help to spark up a conversation. Thanks to fantasy football, I have made a few new friends with interests like mine in this game.
BY: TYLER EAGLETON
Glenda Machuca
The Internet has impacted our lives in many positive and negative ways involving our human consciousness and education. It is a topic that can definitely be argued but if you think about it what would today’s society be like without Internet. Internet is not only being used for entertainment it is being used to teach online courses, to do homework and most importantly as a resource for information. When I was younger I did not really use the Internet unless I was using a social network but ever since I entered high school and now that I am in college I find myself using the Internet for everything but being social on the network. Many of us have replaced the art of reading books and going to libraries with the use of the Internet and this has happened over time. There are many advantages and disadvantages pertaining to the use of the Internet. The best part of the web is how easy it is to access it, while most of us are able to use it at home those who don’t have the advantage of using it in school or in libraries or even at a friend's house. One of the best things about the Internet is the speed in which it functions. You can literally find a tremendous amount of information from around the world in a matter of just seconds. The access to multimedia is so much better you can go to Google images and finds millions of pictures on literally anything you search. The interactivity of the Internet is also very important and useful to us. For example, Hyperlinks which are underlined texts that will connect you to a different website and will include more information about that specific topic or word that you clicked. There are also e-mails which to me is probably one of the most import interactivities of the Internet. The "Electronic Mail" is probably one of the most convenient easy and free ways to contact anyone around the world.
Many teachers contact most of us through e-mails so if it wasn’t for that I don’t know how easy it would be for us to contact anyone. While there are a lot of other great advantages of the Internet there is also some negative points about it. For example the Internet is not one hundred percent reliable considering the fact that it is hard to tell where much of this information comes from however most of us end up trusting it anyways. Another disadvantage is that people can literally post whatever they want, while this can be good because we have the right to say what we feel it is bad because anyone can access anything that they should not be exposed to. There is not much security on the Internet; the information you enter most likely is not secure, many are trying to develop security on the Internet but so far that has been extremely unsuccessful. One odd disadvantage is the addiction and yes people actually are addicted to the Internet just like they can be addicted to any drug. This shows that many argue that the Internet is good but it can also be bad in many ways.
When it comes to one of the most important things in life, which is education, you may question whether the Internet is good or bad. The Internet has become our le way for many things. I mean think about it why take a trip to a library if you have your phone or a computer that is easy to access and will probably have the same amount of information if not more. While many argue that is a good thing it can also be seen as bad. We are not developing our minds when we research something on Google and find it in less then 2 seconds. That is rushing and being quick where as researching in libraries and other sources is much more helpful for the mind. Many schools and institutions give online courses, homework, tests and quizzes but how many students are really exactly fair with these.
Students can find the majority of the answers to these assignments online by other people that have came across the same question. People share information online and that might be
bad for the average student because they are not really thinking and using their mind fully. So if the students that took courses online had to take it personally and complete a test physically and not through the Internet who would get the same score as they got online, I don’t think many. So many people question if Google is making us stupid or is stupid making us Google? The meaning of this question is whether using Google so much is making us become stupid or is it just that we are stupid and because we are stupid we seem to Google a lot. However, it is not about being stupid I feel like the average student uses it so much because they know its quick and efficient so why spend minutes and minutes thinking about an answer that you can eventually figure out on your own when you can just find the answer in a matter of seconds. Is the tremendous amount of Internet use hurting our human consciousness or is it not affecting it at all. For me I definitely experience some hurting to my conscious when I find my answers on Google because I know that if I sat there and actually thought about it that I could figure out the answer. For me I just love how much quicker I can finish something when I look it up on the Internet and that beats sitting down for hours thinking about the answers to difficult problems. Though it hurts me not everyone cares, some people actually find it amusing the fact that they can get perfect scores online but physically fail to do the same. So if the Internet continues to expand the way it is already then many of us may rely on it so much that it will become the failure of our brains while we are not using it as efficiently as they can be.
By Chiamaka Ukanwoke
Have you ever wondered who is behind the screen? Who are the people that you may talk to through text, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or any other social network? Are they really who they say there are? These are just a few things that some people should consider while using the internet. You never know who you’re really talking to on the internet and that has become a major problem about using social networks today in society. Sometimes we go on Facebook or Twitter to connect with new people to make new friends or to just get away from the stressful lives that some of us may live. We are able to use technology to feel connected with the world and be heard. It gives us the opportunity to be something that we are not as well as communicate with others with no intentions of attempting to create a friendship. It would seem as if the use of social networks or a phone we are able to create a persona that is different from who we really are.
When we add people on Facebook or follow people on Twitter, we usually expect that we are following or adding a real person. But nowadays, many people make fake profiles and we don’t really know who is behind the screen. These people make these fake profiles on social networks because they may be afraid that people may not accept them for who they are. They may be afraid of making a connection with someone being themselves and use these fake profiles as a way to make themselves feel good about themselves. These people use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and many other networks to connect with people because they know who will find someone who would listen to them and have good conversations. It could potentially lead to people.
In the ted talk “Connected but Alone?” Sherry Turkle stated, “We’re lonely, but we're afraid of intimacy. And so from social networks to sociable robots, we're designing technologies that will give us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.” This means that we use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to make connections with people in a way in which we are comfortable. We use our social networks or our phones to feel connected and not alone. Using social networks such as Twitter or Facebook, we are able to hold good conversations rather than face to face These two men, Nev and Max, use different sources to because we feel comfortable behind the screen. For example one may find have the people in these online relationships meet face to face and to it easier to tell someone something through a Facebook message figure out if they are really who they because there isn’t really much say they are. Usually most of the people who seek Nev and Max’s help emotion shown through a message are disappointed because their online than talking to someone in person. boyfriend or girlfriend weren’t who they Talking to someone you would be able said they were. This show is a perfect to see ones emotions and expression in which some people may not feel example because people take advantage of social networks to meet comfortable doing. people because they are afraid of intimacy. to people forming feelings that they may be afraid to have in person. An example is a show on MTV called Catfish. It is basically a show about two guys named Nev and Max who help people who are in online relationships that are not sure if the person who they are talking to is real.
When you use a text or communicate through social networks we are able to sometimes create a persona. We act or behave a certain way with the use of technology in a way isn’t really who we are. We may not act the same way we do in person the way we act while using a phone or social network. An example I have experienced with twitter is fake profiles of people and parody profiles of celebrities. I have noticed that the people who make these profiles feel very comfortable while they tweet because have followers who usually favorite or re-tweet a tweet from these fake profiles. This correlates with a quote by Sherry Turkle “The feeling that ‘no one is listening to me’ make us want to spend time with machines that seem to care about us.” The person who owns the fake Twitter account finds happiness with the fake account because people seem to care about what the person has to say. With the use of a phone or computer they constantly have access to something that makes them feel worthy. But you will never really get to know the person with the Twitter account.
The person with the fake twitter account is able to hide their true personality so you will never really know how the person really is behind the screen. It is time to stop hiding behind the screen. One’s true emotions and personality cannot be shown behind a screen. Nowadays people use technology as a means to make communication easier and be heard. Some people use technology to feel like different people because they may not be comfortable with themselves. We need to start finding out who is behind the screen and learn how to increase face to face conversations rather than looking for the easy way out. It’s better for someone to know who you really are than know you for someone you’re not. Everyone would rather prefer to know the real person behind the screen.
IS SOCIAL MEDIA ACTUALLY THE PROBLEM? From “Do you like me? Check yes or no” to “if you would date me like this status”. Our world has changed in presentation but not in the core issue of wanting to be loved. There are so many issues
related to social media, however the issue is not social media, the issue is people, the way that people feel and the desires that need to be filled. Social media is the screen of a computer, it has no abilities to think, it simple in an avenue for people to share. Social media is a major part of our society, there are very few who are not on any form of social media; from Twitter to Facebook to Instagram, most of the world is connected in some way. Social media can be a place that creativity is formed but it can also be a place where creativity is killed. Social media provides the coffee house effect that Johnson mentioned in his TED Talk, this aspect of constant flow of ideas, thoughts, and then feeding off of that in order to come up with something great. However because people are often so consumed in social media there is less time to spend in a literal coffee house environment, with face to face, human
Katarina Eichel
interaction. Sherry Turkle mentions this in her TED talk, she claims that social media takes away from the conversations of life. There is a perception that you are connected with people, however; you are not able to connect or have conversations that are real, raw and honest, when you are hidden behind a screen. There is a certain element that face to face, in-person communication has; when you connect with someone on that in-person level it is much more honest and productive and allows for a deeper connection.
This can then be taken back to social media because often times you are able to quickly communicate your emotion or inspiration over social
media, such as Twitter or Instagram, this is similar to Ken Robinson’s TED talk. In Robinson’s talk he described the issue of people being drained of their creativity in a school like setting. Often times children are taught that their type of creativity is bad, or unproductive. By having access to publishing your creativity before you are convinced not to is a major benefit of the speed and easy access of social media. Although social media is a good outlet for creativity there must be a step in the creativity process that allows for solidarity and seclusion in order to make the idea your own, and social media can often skip that vital step. The reason why this step, of solitude, is so crucial is because your own mind can further develop the topic, it makes it simple to weigh the benefits and disadvantages to doing something in a certain way. The step of solidarity is the refining process, this is the stage when you look at all your ideas and can burn away the unnecessary parts and purify the parts that you will keep in order to create something new and better than before. Just as social media is connected to creativity it is also a part of all aspects of our life. People post on Facebook and Twitter almost as a test, to see if their view would be accepted. In other cases people will make posts with the intent of starting an argument. Either way, without having that raw interaction there are major issues caused by these things; such as cyberbullying which can lead to suicide. Because of the large connection provided by Facebook there are a large group of people who place a lot of attention on Facebook, how many likes they get, who said what about them, and because of the aspect of secret, and protection behind the screen people will say things that normally wouldn’t be said to someone’s face.
This aspect of social media can be detrimental to self-esteem of both young and old. Across the board people turn to things that make them feel wanted, heard and loved, and although some people receive that from social media most do not. Often social media gives the opposite affect; people feel unwanted, mute and hated. The issues that are fed, watered, and grown by social media root from a deeper issue. The issue of seeking love, affection, and attention. Humans desire and long for companionship. Social media is the most common place that people go to find that. That is why social media is blamed. This desire has been around since long before social media, or any sort of technology was developed however with this new
era comes a new perspective. We were created with that desire, therefore our entire lives we seek to find our identity. We search for who we want to be. We explore all areas of life in order to find where we fit, and often people will die trying. Is a life of guessing, searching and never finding even worth living? Time and time again people will make cries for help via social media, but social media cannot give them what they are looking for. Neither social media nor other humans can provide the satisfaction to the craving that is deep within us. Sometimes subconsciously but other times consciously we all search for our purpose, our calling, our niche, but we are looking in the wrong places.
The conclusion that I have come to is quite simple and straightforward. We have these longings because we were
created, by God, and our Creator designed each of us to crave Him. I once heard an analogy:
What if one day you picked up a hammer, you had never seen one before? You looked at it, and you wanted to figure out what it was used for, so you tried to cut an apple with it, and it made a mess. Then you tried to get something out of your teeth with it and you pulled out a tooth. Then you tried to wake your friend up with it, and simply knocked him out. Trying to figure out why the hammer works would be quite difficult; however, if you just went to the person who created the hammer he could quickly explain its use. He created, and he knows exactly what it is best at, putting in and pulling out nails. This story is exactly what God does for us. He can give us the love that we desire, He will reveal to us the niche we are supposed to fill and when we spend time in His presence creativity inspired by His creation will flow from us. The issues caused by social media are simply a symptom of this greater issue. Why spend your life wondering and searching,
when he is right there waiting to tell you?
IS INSTAGRAM HELPING OR HURTING? IN EVERY TEENAGERS LIFE T H E Y A R E FA C E D W I T H M A N Y T H I N G S T H AT C A N L E A D T H E M I N DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. ONE OF THESE THINGS IS BEING CONNECTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. SOCIAL MEDIA P L AY S A H U G E R O L E I N O U R PRESENT WORLD’S SOCIETY AND H A S M A N Y FA C T O R S T H AT P O RT R AY H O W A T E E N A G E R O F T O D AY ’ S E R A MIGHT ACT OR HOW SOMEONE M I G H T L O O K AT L I F E . T H E R E A R E MANY EXAMPLES OF THIS BUT THE B I G G E S T FA C TO R I N M Y O P I N I O N I S I N S TA G R A M . I N S TA G R A M I S A N ENORMOUS GROWING SOCIAL MEDIA N E T W O R K T H AT B E C O M E V E RY POPULAR WITHIN THE LAST FEW Y E A R S . I N S TA G R A M M AY B E O N E O F T H E G R E AT E S T T H I N G S TO E V E R H A P P E N D U E TO T H E FA C E T H AT PEOPLE CAN CONNECT WITH EACH OTHER VERY MUCH BY VIEWING PICTURES AND OR VIDEOS BUT P E R H A P S I T M AY B E O N E O F T H E W O R S T AT T H E S A M E T I M E D U E TO THE AMOUNT OF DISTRACTIONS IT LEADS TO AND THE AMOUNT OF NON R E A L I S T I C S T U F F T H AT T H E H U M A N E Y E C A N S E E S U C H A S FA N C Y C A R S , L U X U RY L I F E S T Y L E S , W E A LT H , E T C . …
Justin Ellis
BAD OR GOOD? Instagram has become a gigantic social issue due to the fact of how addicting it may and can be. Instagram can literally take over ones life and completely change the mindset of how teenagers and younger people look at things and proceed forward when envisioning what they want to do with there future. Instagram contains a lot of celebrities that are active users, which in my eyes is definitely not that correct way to look at life because most of celebrities live in fantasy worlds due to all the money and that is most definitely not a realistic way to look at life. They show what kind of fancy cars that they drive, all of the jewelry that they purchase and wear, all of the cash that they have and all of the fancy designer shoes they wear. Instagram now also offers a video mode, which perhaps even added a lot more to the distraction of social media. This is so because when the average person looks at this they can see how many different type of people are out there, but can also think, “Why cant this be me?” This is a good example of how social media can make a negative effect of society because when young kids start to look at this they might think that this is reality and this is how things should be, and therefore there whole mindset and the way they think as they grow up are completely changed. Parents may also become very upset with this because it may cause a child to change both physically and mentally and can add negative affects to how ones future proceeds. Little kids might then think to themselves “why should I have to try anymore, why should I have to listen to my parents.” When little kids see these average Joes that got lucky and were most likely degenerates as younger people with a select few who weren’t that came from rags to riches, most people don’t see how this is all based on luck, therefore it is not reality and this proves that Instagram can take ones entire mindset and lead it down a new path that leads to nothing but imagination of things that are ninety nine percent of the time not realistic for the average person and will never occur. This also leads to less drive to achieve success in life; the mindset may be to not study hard, but to hopefully just get that little bit of luck going for them.
OUTSIDE CONNECTIONS
In my life a real experience like this occurred. My little brother who is 10 years of age is very mature for his age and knows a lot more then the average 10 year old knows. He looks at Instagram everyday and always talks about how he wants to drive a Ferrari and how he wants a diamond Rolex. He also talks about how school sucks and is boring and that he doesn’t want to go anymore. This is not normal for a young kid to know about these certain things and in his mindset he thinks that he is just going to receive this by not working hard or trying hard in school. My parents are extremely unhappy about this and this really is a major social issue for the world because if he is talking like this any kid his age may be doing the same as well. This is an example of how Instagram can really corrupt the mindset of a child because it gives them no drive to try harder, and just think that all this will come to them instead of working for it and going out to get it. Nick Carr does a great job in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and pointing out how the Internet is making us stupid. I could not agree more when he brought up the idea that the Internet will change a person’s process of thought. There are disadvantages and advantages to the Internet where it saves you time but it can dumb you down because you do not know how to be resourceful other than using the Internet and in this case, Instagram. Therefore I feel that in my perspective the more one person spends on the internet and social media the less concentrated one can be in real life and this is an after effect of being on Instagram. This could be a really bad thing since He shows a great fear for the future because he is afraid that people will become more like automations rather than people.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall social media has caused major changes in our society and I would say more bad then good. Instagram is a very big cause as to while social media has caused all of the social issues stated above. Before we had Instagram there was nothing really like it and this caused a major reform in the way our society looks at things. This social issue will one day be resolved hopefully but for the meantime it may continue to corrupt the way things work, and they way children and teenagers act in society. Hopefully one-day realization will come to everyone’s mind that to be successful you need to work and try hard and nothing is given to you on a silver platter.
Blame Social Media for
Procrastination Jennifer Wu
By the year 2200, students will be classified as a nocturnal animal. Students stay up all night, not because they don’t need sleep, but because they can’t sleep. They can’t sleep because they need to write a paper that is due tomorrow or they need to cram for a big midterm that is tomorrow. This procrastination will result in poor grades and poor health. The development of social media technologies is to be blamed for procrastination. Students are getting more and more distracted from doing their work by surfing the web for constant entertainment. What feels like minutes spent on the internet is more like hours spent on the internet. Students can’t tell time when they are absorb in the world of social media to avoid doing any work.
YouTube is the one of the many social media sites that distracts students from doing their school work. YouTube host many different types of videos to satisfy everyone’s taste and that’s why there are so many viewers each day. It’s like a TV but you have absolute control over what to watch and when and where to watch it. You can even express your opinions on the video, something you can never do with a TV. When YouTube came along, I abandoned my TV and I have been using YouTube for most of my life now. YouTube is my angel and snake. It makes me happy because it distracts me from the stress I accumulate daily from school life and personal life, but that very distraction is what harms me and causes even more stress.
When I go to my room to do homework, I open my computer first, so I can make homework as painless as possible to do. I open up YouTube and try to do homework, but I can never sit still and focus on my work. Instead, I surf and watch YouTube videos convincing myself that I will pause every 30 minutes between videos to do homework. In actuality, I cancel that plan and I don’t do my homework till two in the morning when everybody is already asleep. I don’t think I ever finished anything early. Every time an assignment is given I would say I am going to finish it this week, but what I actually do is leave it till a few hours before class to start and complete the assignment. Those few hours just happen to be the hours I sleep. When trying to pull an all-nighter, I sometimes fall asleep without realizing. Then the next morning I am super stressed out by the work I have to finish before class with less time than I originally planned. This not only pulls down my grades, but also takes a toll on my health.
In James Bowman’s article “Is Stupid Making Us Google?” he addressed Nick Carr’s accusation that the internet affected his ability to read long text without distracted. Nick Carr’s inability is a prime example of how social media is making us procrastinate. He is constantly distracting himself unknowingly because he doesn’t want to read such a long text, and social media gives him the distraction he wants. James Bowman pointed out that when people read text online, they tend to skim the text searching for the important parts to read. I think that it is very true, since sites like Sparknotes are very popular among students. This proves that social media has made people very lazy by giving them shortcuts to complete their work.
There have been many times in high school, where I was distracted because I was watching videos on YouTube, and I put off the readings for English class. By the end of the book, I realized I didn't read anything and I have to write a paper on a book I am not familiar with. I would be so stressed out the day before and the day during its due while trying to juggle reading the book and writing a good essay on that book. Since the time is ticking, I don’t sleep or eat, since whatever is due is very important. However, even when I’m doing my essay, I would still be watching YouTube videos. It has become an unhealthy addiction as it affects my well-being.
Studying the night before a test is the worst. There are long chapters and days’ worth of detailed notes that need to be memorized. There is not enough time to learn all of it in one night, so you cram it instead. If you don’t sleep it will affect your memory. Then you go to school holding all the notes and textbooks you can, reading off of them without tripping or bumping into something. Then while you are taking the test your eyes pop out, your mouth drops, you are sure that this wasn’t on anything you just studied, but it actually was. A couple of weeks later you get your test back and you got a horrible grade. You say you will never do this again but in fact you will do this on the next test as well.
I know this behavior well, and I know it doesn't just happen to me. On YouTube the comments sections are varied. A common one that I see is I have a test tomorrow or I have something important due tomorrow but I have been watching YouTube videos for the last six hours. Then their comments get about 100 likes. The situation doesn’t have to involve something being due tomorrow for it to be procrastination. Students could just be surfing YouTube videos for the past eight hours, and you know they are putting off their work. There is always something to do even if nothing is due the next day. Social Media Technology has took away our ability to time manage and our self-control.
With the continuous improvement and development of social media technologies you will see increasing number of individuals procrastinating. Social media has made people lazier than they already are. They are distracted by the fun of the social media and put off the stresses of the hard work in their life. Too much social media interfering with their work can result in even more stress and health issues possibly. Procrastination because of social media is a big issue; it’s an addiction that is hard to get rid of, because although people think it is bad they don’t think it is harmful, so they don’t feel the urgency to fix this habit.
The Issue on Social Media
Junyi Wang
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Technologies are developing at a rapid speed. Internet plays an extremely important role in people’s study, work, and daily life. Many social medias online provide us a better way to gain knowledge and spend entertainment time. We enjoy the rapid speed, and expansive information of Internet. At the same time, it also brings some negative influence to users.
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An issue arises from the development of Internet technologies is that people may spend too much time and energy on social networks. Especially young people are easy being addicted to Internet. Social networks are easy for people to contract with families and friends, to know new people, and participate in groups.
It undoubtedly brings us a wider world than the real living circles we could touch in daily life. We could easily get to know people who have the same interests with ourselves, study in the similar areas, and share knowledge within each other.
However, some people gradually consider it as the only way to relate with outside world. When hang out, travel someplace or stay at home spending time together with friends, family members, there are always some people stick to their cellphones. They continually text message and post on social media about where they are, what they are doing, who are there. Those people are not really staying with their friends although they physically there. They sit together but each person is in his/her own world. Especially when there are only two people together, if one is on the phone for a long time, the other one might feel be ignored and lonely.
Once my friends and I came together. While we were having fun, the cell phone rings, someone picks up the call and all the rest of us has to be quiet and wait. Everybody feels annoying so we set up rules that each cellphone has to be handed in and who touch the phones will be punished like clean up the mess or pay for orders.
People are over relying on networks. They even care much on friends from the virtual world than real human around them. Like Sherry Turkle mentioned in her presentation, people tried to customize a perfect figures of themselves online. They edit, modify their sentences, delete what they don’t like anymore, Photoshop pictures, even fake gender or identity.
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Everything on social networks is worth to doubt, but people still put so much attention and emotion on them. I had watched a movie named All About Lily Chou-Chou. The main character Hasumi, a boy living in single parent family, is coerced into his classmate Hoshino’s dirty work. He sees Hoshino raped the girl that he has crushed on. Hasumi can’t stand the reality, so he indulges in a BBS. He knows a friend who is into the same singer as him though a social network. Hasumi feels that person understand him and view him as the last hope in his world. But eventually his inner world breaks down because he finds out that the friend online is Hoshino. Just like Hasumi in the film, we might take pressures of hard work, study, complex relationships within people and try to relax in The social medias provide us a place to relax, do what we can’t do offline, but it can not replace communications in person. We could send emotions, but we can't give a hug to each other. Social media cannot convey the feeling of chatting face to face. Although people send and receive warm sentences and cute emotions which might be modified and exaggerated, they might are impassive and expressionless in front of computers.
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My experience on social media is using of Sina Weibo, which is a wildly used micro blogging in China. It's like twitter in the United States. After registering, users may post, repost, and insert emotions less than 140 characters. Weibo also allows users to attach images, music files or videos. About two years ago, I started using Weibo because my friends often get on it. At first, I fellow people such as my friends, celebrities and some third-party platforms. After a period of time, I found that there are lots of interesting people on Weibo. They post interesting pictures, newest came out movies, ...I fellow more and more people and everyday there were like more than ten pages posts. I spent hours everyday on Weibo. I get on it when I eat dinner, when I write homework, even when I talk with my parents. Every night I get on Weibo before fall asleep. I realized that I was addicted to Weibo and it costs me plenty of times. Although Sina Weibo is a social media, it almost made me unsocial because I put too much attention on it especially the posts and people interested me so that I didn’t connect friends around me in real life
Usually people try to use fewer words when they text messages. Social network Twitter limits the maximum characters can be posted. In the article Is Google Making Us Stupid, Nicholas Carr talks about the Change of Nietzsche’s writing s Changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.” Technology influence how we thinking and writing and the way connect the outside world. We save the time of spreading and receiving information, but at the same time, we gradually lose the ability to exquisitely express our emotion. When all language is encapsulated like telegram, the conversation and relationship among people will become vapidity.
Technology is invented to serve for people. It’s true that socia media provide us a convenient and fast way to spread information and contact people whethe how far the distance. but we should prevent the disadvantages of social media to affect our life. I is not only method contacting our friend and family, and can’t connection in person