Sep 05

Monkey See, Monkey Do

What stuck with me in our first week’s readings was the component of peer pressure raised by the American Academy of Pediatrics article. “Because of their limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure, children and adolescents are at some risk as they navigate and experiment with social media.” I believe this is the key to understanding how and why young people use social media in certain ways.

This quote reminded me of when I signed up for Facebook. It was the end of the seventh grade, and I was one of the final students in my class to give in and join the social network. All the hype was there. Everyone had it. There was a movie about the founding of Facebook about to come out. Everyone was always talking about Facebook, on the news, in the paper, everywhere. It was inescapable. So I joined. The rest is history…I was an annoying pre-adolescent on Facebook, posting statuses about Jersey Shore and Yankees trades, even a few Eminem lyrics. And now, I hardly use Facebook.

But back to my earlier point. People act on social media how they see others act. If you are a Clinton supporter and see your fellow #ImWithHer friends posting HuffPost articles, you may do the same (especially since it’s now proven you are more likely to click a link on social media to a news site than actually going on a news site). This also goes for the bullying and sexting component of the first article. If you see your friends bullying the outcasts of your circles, you are likely to join in. If your friend is sexting his partner, you will feel more inclined to do the same. Social media and its affects on youth’s psychology is a topic that is still developing, but one thing is for sure: when it comes to the internet: monkey see, monkey do.

Sep 02

How has media effected us as a society? Is this positive or negative?

Media has affected us as a society because it changed the way that we interact with everyone on a daily basis. Before I text my friends and ask them what they are doing I will most likely check their social media pages and may not even write them depending on what I see. In the article “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families” it talks about how social media can be used for positive things,”opportunities for community en- gagement through raising money for charity and volunteering for lo- cal events, including political and philanthropic events” when my brother passed in November my family created a Go-fundme account which we posted on Facebook and other social media platforms in order to raise money for his funeral. In such a short amount of times we exceeded out goal were able to lay him to rest the best way we could have. social media brought so many people from near and far together for a great cause that really helped my family. Media has brought us so close together but it may have taken away a great part of social interaction with one another, which is face-to-face interaction. I believe that media has effected us in both positive and negative ways. I can contact my family who live overseas and talk with them through social media but I may not get to hug them or spend time with them making memories because we have become accustomed to just talking through social media or “facetiming.” The Internet has also over sexualized anything that is put on it. You can no longer post your family beach pictures because someone may be watching your younger children and start bashing you because how they are dressed because media has opened up this vast space between what is personal and what is private. Cyber bullying is more common than ever before, people feel the need to comment on everything they see and because they are behind a computer fail to realize their real life actions. Whats done behind a computer will one day effect your real life. No one is able to mind his or her own business with the level of access we have into peoples lives through their social media pages. People want to increase their followers so they don’t private their page hoping for a personal experience with their customers for whatever services they may offer but someone they don’t know could be going their pictures stalking them without their knowledge. I believe that we should monitor our pages and keep private things to the knowledge of people we actually know in real life and to keep our business and personal pages separate.

Sep 02

How has media effected us as a society? Is it positive or negative?

Media has effected us in both a negative and positive way. Though it has made things easier for us such as checking results from the doctor, to quick paying money to your little brother so he can buy lunch. It has made the world a lot smaller. But everything comes with pros and cons. Just as American academy of Pediatrics states, negative comments, being judged, and racial slurs is now a regular thing to see in social media. Depending on the person, it can cause depression or push someone to even having suicidal thoughts. Being away from physical interactions with people in reality other than in media can cause someone to be anti-social and also depressed, “Facebook depression.”

It truly, I believe, depends on each person and how much self control one has, and how someone uses media. Media can be very positive in a way that it helps people connect better, communicate, and also network to help start off a hobby to something bigger like your career. If you utilize media properly it can be a great thing, people blame media for being what it is, they should blame their self for letting it control them.

Media can have a great impact on people, Greg Marra, a Facebook engineer, and his team designs Facebook News Feed. It’s a source of news to people, a new and improved way to keep people up to date with what’s going on in the world around them. I see this as a positive effect of media, human beings get so consumed with the unimportant abilities of social media such as likes on Instagram, views on a video on YouTube, and being “popular” that they forget that there is most important things going on in our society. Use media to promote posititivity, creativity; look up news, utilize the Internet in a smarter way. Make a difference.

Jun 23

Welcome to Intro to Media and Digital Culture – Fall 2016!

Class starting on August 30th!

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