SOCIAL MEDIA FINAL PROJECT

Social media has become a huge part of our everyday life. We do not only use one social media platform, we use several different platforms for different purposes. One thing that they all have in common is that it is a way for us to keep in contact and communicate with our family and friends. Social media made it easy for us to create an online identity and connect with people, and we spend hours just scrolling through all the news feeds. Everyone has different reason for using social media. For some their online life is the same as their real life, but there are also those who hide behind their online identity and feel more connected to the online world. Having many friends and get a lot of likes has become very important, especially among younger people. With social media we have created an online community, which is shaping every aspect of our real life. Today’s, technology can be helpful for businesses and for education, but it can also have a negative impact. It also educates us of global issues and gives us the chance to help, even if we are far away from the problem. However, it does have a negative impact on us as individuals, especially teens and young adults. They spend way too much time and energy on social media, and they do not know how to control it. Today, they are so connected with the online community that they are disconnected from the real world.

 They are so afraid to miss out on something that they are connected to all their social media platforms 24/7. This has created an addiction, and for many of us the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do before we go to bed is scrolling through our social medias. However, it does not end there. While we are working, doing homework, sit in class, or having dinner with our family and friends the phone is always there with us and is connecting us to the online world. Turkle (2012) claims that, “We’re getting used to a new way of being alone together. People want to be with each other, but also elsewhere – connected to all the different places they want to be.” It is not enough for us anymore to just be at one place, which is resulting in multitasking. I would say that it is a harmful behavior, both to the people around us and ourselves. We have become so good at multitasking that we constantly are doing it without considering the consequences.  We are not as good at multitasking as we would like to think. This behavior means that we are not 100 percent present, and it becomes hard to pay attention to conversations. Have you ever had dinner with your family and friends and everyone is on their phones not listening to you? Is there anything more annoying than talking to someone who is one his or her phone and constantly asks, “What was that”? I am as guilty to this as everyone else. The question is why our social media usage has become more important than our friends in real life. No one is listening in real life anymore, so people choose to post their feelings on social media where they know they have listeners. We show respect to our online friends but not to the ones in real life. This makes us want to spend more time on our technology devices, since that is where we get our feedback (Turkle, 2012). We need to get teenagers and younger adults to understand that this is not reality, and that real life interactions are important. Our cellphones and computers are never going to be able to replace a real person. When we use social media so much that it disconnects us from the real world we have a problem. A change needs to be done, and we need to be more present in our offline life than our online. The more we connect online the more we go offline in the real world. We spend so many hours online that we feel like we do not have time for face-to-face interactions.

A problem teenagers are facing is that they spend too much time on social medias and do not have enough knowledge about it. Social media has become an addiction for teenagers, and it is a threat to their future. When using social media and not have enough knowledge they put themselves at risk. O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson (2011) claims that, “the main risk to preadolescents and adolescent online today are risks from each other, risk of improper use of technology, lack of privacy, sharing too much information, or posting false information about themselves or others.” When we access different sites or make a comment or post, we leave digital footprint. However, many teenagers are not aware of this, and do not know that they put their future reputation at risk. The lack of awareness results in teenagers posting pictures or post without understanding the consequences that they will late end up regretting. For the older generation that have used social media for a while now know, “what goes online stays online” (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011). I know when I first started using social media I did not really care what my friends or I was posted. It was just fun sharing pictures and thoughts with my friends, and I did not consider the consequences. Luckily I can say that I have never posted anything that I regret, but if I knew what I know today I would be a lot more caucus about my media usage. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and I believe that it is important to for teenagers to realize that their actions being made in the online world is following them into the real world. 

Social media is also a threat to their health. To constantly being online results in stress, depression, poor sleep, and poor academics. O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson (2011) explains that researchers have proposed a phenomenon that is called “Facebook depression,” which means that depression occur when teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites and then begin to show symptoms of classic depression. For teens it is important to be accepted and feel connected with peers, and since social media creates such an intense world it might trigger depression (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011). How do teenagers know is they are accepted or not in the online world? For many it is the likes and comments they get on their pictures and posts. Studies have shown that if individuals do not use social media for 48 hours it will reduce aggression toward others, reduce procrastination, reduce negative affects with toward others, and increase life satisfaction. The same study also showed that after these 48 hours students used Facebook more. This was a result of feeling disconnected (Powell, Gary, & Reese, 2013). This shows that we need to limit the usage of social media. Stress, depression, poor sleep, and poor academics are not the only problem to teenagers’ health. I would say that one of the biggest problems is that teenagers have taken their offline behaviors, such as bullying, with them into the online world, which has resulted in cyber bullying and privacy concerns. Cyber bullying is huge issue that is happening to many teenagers. This can lead to psychosocial outcomes that includes depression, anxiety, sever isolation, and in worst-case suicide (O'Keeffe, & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). This is something that needs to be stopped immediately. Not only does it disconnect the victim of cyber bullying from the real world but also from the online world.

The amount of time teenagers and young adults spend on social media has to decrease, and they need to learn how to use it. I believe that there is a solution to this problem and I believe that the solution is education. If everyone was aware of how much social media actually affected them and how their actions online affected others I believe that the online and offline world would look different. There is nothing wrong with sharing your thoughts and feelings online, and it is a great way to connect with people. However, we need to regulate the amount of time we spend on it. Being addicted to social media put teenagers health at risk, especially when they use it wrong. On a daily basis we spend more time on social medias than we sleep, and I do not consider that to be a healthy behavior. We need to work together and get more connected in real life, and realize the importance of face-to-face interactions. Social media is an amazing tool to connect people. It is useful in both education and businesses, but it needs to be used in the right way. The way teenagers use social media today is not healthy for them, or beneficial for their future. 

References

O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families. Pediatrics, 127(4), 800-804.

Powell, P. W., Gray, G., & Reese, M. K. (2013). Connecting with Others: A Qualitative Study of Online Social Networking Site Usage. The Practitioner Scholar: Journal of Counseling and Professional Psychology, 2(1).

Turkle, S. (2012) Connected, but alone? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript?language=en

Privacy and Social Media

After reading our lecture 8 items and watching The Curly Fry Conundrum, discuss the term "self regulation".

-       Self-regulation is the ability to express yourself and your emotions in response to something that you read or experience. However, talking about self-regulation in relation to social media I would say that it is more about being mindful. You need to consider your content and how you express yourself. Since the non-verbal communication is not a part of the social media communication process it is important to be mindful about the message that you send. As soon as you make a post that post will be there for your audience (followers) to read it, but it can also reach broader audience. You might not have intended to reach that audience, but that is something you cannot control in the online world. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the power of the online world, and take full responsibility for everything you put out there. Ones you make your post it will be a part of your digital footprint.

To protect our privacy we need to regulate ourselves and not give away information that should be kept offline. Jennifer Golbeck is mentioning in her talk that Facebook is the biggest place where 1.2 billion users each month interact with each other. Facebook and other social medias allow us to create an online identity and it gives us the opportunity to put a large amount of information about ourselves on these sites. Since we do not know enough about how these site works or how they protect our privacy it is important to regulate yourself when using social media.

2) Currently, there is a huge battle between 1st amendment privacy, information sharing, and data mining online. In your opinion, should we do away with online privacy and self-regulating? Or should the government step in and start regulating online content?

-       As mentioned in this weeks reading “safety regulations will never keep up with technology” I have a hard time believing that it is something we can change. The first problem is that we do not have enough knowledge. Jennifer Golbeck claims the problem to be that “users don't really understand these techniques and how they work, and even if they did, they don't have a lot of control over it.” The second problem is the issue of security or freedom. People want to be protected but at the same time they want to have the freedom to say whatever they want. I personally think that there is no such thing as privacy when talking about social media. I want to be able to think that there is something the government could do to regulate online content, but I do not think it would work. I think that it is up to us to keep our lives private and regulate our online behavior.

Below is what my online presence look likes. Most of the results are my social media sites that I’m using. The two last links are not related to me, but it looks like everything else is.

Technology in Education

Examine pros and cons of technology use in education:

Pros:

-       Educational resource for students. Any information that students need can be found online, but the problem is that you sometimes do not know how credible the source is. Even though you do not know the credibility of the source it provides students with assistance.

-       Exciting. Technology gives teachers the opportunity to create an exciting learning environment. Teachers can incorporate images, create PowerPoints, show videos, and use other technological tools to make the lessons more exciting.

-       The future. Technology prepares students for the future. We live in a technological world, and the earlier we start to learn how to use technology will help us feel more comfortable using it and we will be better at communicating. We also learn how to create PowerPoints, communicate professionally, search for jobs, and many other important things. 

-       Most current information. E-books and information online are updated in real time, which gives us the opportunity to find the most current information.

Cons:

-       Distraction. For teachers it can be hard to keep the students to focus during a lesson. Students bring computers and phones to class, and it is so easy to do get distracted and stop listening to the teacher.

-       Cheating. The poor studying habits can lead to cheating. Of course there is a possibility that students cheat in the classroom, but the Internet makes it a lot easier. If you want to fins an answer to a question all you need to do is search for the question, and this is preventing students from learning.

-       Disconnected. If assignments are too technology based it will decrease the face-to-face interaction between students. We have mentioned how much social media disconnects us from each other, and if all education takes place online it is going to disconnect us in the same way as social media.

-       Lazy. Since everything is accessible online students can develop poor studying habits. Students rely on their computer and the Internet, and use search engines to find answers. Technology has created a lack of interest in studying.

There are both pros and cons when it comes to using technology in education. I also believe these pros and cons can vary from person to person, depending on how you are using technology and how it affects your everyday life.

Look at issues such as the Digital Divide:

People who cannot afford and have no access to technology or media are left out?

-       Yes people who don’t have access to technology or media are left out, and they are falling behind in the digital age. Even though many students have access to some form of technology there are still people who can’t afford it, and these students miss the opportunities to learn the basic skills of technology. They don’t have the same opportunity to do research outside of class or find the most current information. They are not being prepared for the future to the same degree as students that have access to technology.

Are schools assuming that we all can afford technology and requiring the use without taking into account affordability or accessibility?

-       I wouldn’t say that all schools assume that everyone can afford technology, but they definitely assume that everyone has access to it. I wouldn’t say that they don’t consider the accessibility because there are a lot of schools that offers access to Internet and computers, which means that students have full access to do the assignments online.

Propose for more media literacy or more technology or media training.

-       I propose for more media training. I think it’s important that both teachers and students learn how to use media in a responsible way and learn how to engage with one and other. It’s also important to keep up with technology and the changes that occur. I think that teachers needs to find a balance for media use in school, and help the students find a balance between using technology and social interaction.

How about more education and training for both students and teachers in terms of proper use of technology.

-       Yes, there should definitely be more training for both students and teachers. To find a good balance between technology and social interaction, in the classroom. It’s important that teachers know how technology affects students. Students also need training, so that they can be prepared themselves for the future. Teachers need to be trained in how to use technology, so that they can teach the students (even if it isn’t a computer class). However, I would also suggest having a computer class, and that students attend it at an early age. As I mentioned before, the earlier students start using technology the more comfortable they will be using it, and it will benefit them in the future.