Week 7

     We can all agree that social media, and the internet in general, is a great mode of communication. It helps us stay connected with those we can't see very often, those we do see often, and even those we have never even met. You have sites like Facebook and Twitter that allow us to provide family and friends with written and photographic evidence on what is going on in our lives. Sites like Instagram and SnapChat let us share photos of our adventures to those we care about. And then you have sites like OkCupid and Tinder that let you meet new people, whether it be for friendship, a long-term relationship, or just a casual hookup. Even sites like Facebook and Instagram help us meet new people, even if they are designed more for staying in touch with individuals you already know.
     Take the video we watched in class about the couple who met over Instagram and decided to get married even though they had never even seen each other in person. Who does that? Is that the new normal in today's society? Have we gone from arranged marriages to meeting someone and falling in love to only meeting people over the internet and deciding to get married without having ever met face-to-face? It is not that I am against people doing the whole online dating thing to find love, but to meet someone on the internet and decide to get married having only conversed on the internet is hard for me to come to terms with. They could be showing you fake pictures and telling you whatever you want to hear. How can you know they aren't like a 90 year old man/woman or a serial killer without ever actually talking/seeing them? And while I understand that just because you actually get to know someone in person doesn't mean they aren't lying to you or aren't a serial killer, but I feel the risk isn't as high.
     How can you truly get to know someone when you only talk to them through social media? I feel like there is so much more to learn about a person than can be shared over social media. Chemistry can't be felt through a screen. Furthermore, there are some things that simply need to be shared in person. If we only communicate through a screen, we miss so much out of our interactions with people.
      I feel that the communication outlet social media provides us is both good and bad. It lets us connect with people we may not get to see very often, lets us meet new people, and express ourselves in a way we didn't used to have. However, there is also a bad side to it. If we only communicate through a screen, we lose the experience of interacting with other people in person; you can't give someone a hug or a kiss through a screen, you can't physically comfort them when they are sad, and so many more amazing things that can only happen in person. I feel that social media is actually leading to society's deterioration instead of it's advancement. We are missing out on so many amazing things life has to offer by living behind a screen.

Week 6

     Addiction, a term most commonly heard of in connection with drugs and alcohol. However, more recently it is being used in terms of internet addiction as well. Much of the topic of discussion in today's society revolves more specifically around video game addiction than just plain internet addiction. I definitely believe video game addiction is becoming a major problem in the world today, especially after watching the second part of the "Digital Nation" video. The fact that people in Korea actually died while playing video games is a sad, terrifying piece of information to now possess. However, I know it is not just video games that people are addicted to. They are addicted to social media, video streaming services, and much more. If the trend of internet addiction continues to increase, it may one day surpass the amount of drug/alcohol addictions out there.
     I can personally say that I have a "slight" addiction to binge-watching television shows on Netflix. I don't necessarily think is an actual addiction, because I can control myself for the most part and if I actually wanted to stop watching permanently, I could. Furthermore, I don't spend days upon days, with no sleep, watching Netflix. I actually take time to hang out with friends, eat, sleep, shower, go to class, etc. My thing with watching shows on Netflix is that I typically don't have time to watch the new episodes as they come out every week on television. Between school and work, television gets put on the back burner. Therefore, I tend to wait until the season comes out on Netflix and then watch the whole season at once. Or, I happen to catch an episode of a show on television and I decide I like it, but I started watching in the middle of like the fifth season or something. That is when I go on Netflix and binge multiple seasons so I am caught up to the current season. I also tend to have Netflix playing while I do school work because I can't just be doing one thing or I can't focus. When I do that, I tend to watch more episodes in one sitting simply because I have so much work that I can get through like five or six, sometimes more, episodes while doing homework.
     As long as it is done in a "safe" way, I don't think spending a lot of time on the internet is a totally bad thing. Yes, it sometimes alienates you from the real world, but sometimes everyone needs a little escape from reality. I think the real problem occurs when you get the people who don't do anything except play their games, watch videos, etc. If they don't even stop for food or to go to the bathroom, let alone stop to go to work/school, then I think they definitely have an addiction problem and need serious help. If they just like to use the internet to relax, for escape, to help them get through work, etc., then they aren't so much addicted as they are just a person who needs a way to get away from the everyday stresses of life.

Week 5

     The topic of discussion this week concerned the subject of videos, posts, etc. going viral. Why does something actually go viral? What makes one video better than any of the other billions of videos that are posted?
     For me personally, what makes me share a video relies heavily on the content of the video and how it relates to my life. If I see a video that I can relate to, like something involving living with anxiety, then I will most likely share it. I'm also more likely to share a video if it has a high cuteness factor, like cat videos. I'm also partial to sharing funny videos, particularly ones with animals, because everyone needs a little laughter in their life. I typically am not concerned about sharing videos that millions of other people are sharing; I'm more interested in sharing videos that mean something to me or bring me high levels of enjoyment that I think other people should be able to get from it as well.
     For other people, why they share a video might be totally different. Maybe they only rely on how they feel in the moment they see it. Maybe they rely on seeing what their friends and family share and then decide to share it too. Or maybe a celebrity shares the video and then they decide that since that celebrity shared it, it must be interesting and they should share it too. Without polling everybody in the world who shares a video, which would be next to impossible, no one can say for 100% certainty why certain videos go viral over others.
     One particular subject, that has gone viral, is the "dress; the one that some people see as gold and white, and others see as blue and black. We talked about what helped that go viral was that celebrities were getting in on saying what colors they were seeing; it wasn't just your everyday average person. It is sad, but as regular people we are very interested in what celebrities are interested in. If they think it is good enough to share, then we should too. However, I also think that it sparked heated discussions helped as well. For some strange reason, we enjoy arguing with other people. It brings us some kind of pleasure having someone to argue/disagree with, especially if it is a widely publicized debate.

Week 4

     So for this week, we had to have a few different things prepared. And while all of it was interesting in its own unique way, I probably enjoyed the Katie Couric videos and the MediaShift website the most. I liked Couric's videos because she brought up some very interesting points in the interview. Almost at the very beginning she quoted "necessity is the mother of invention" and that got me thinking on if that statement is true. Do we have to jump on the bandwagon of social media in order to stay informed of our society and to keep in touch with our peers? Personally, I think you do. Without a presence on social media you are basically telling the world you don't exist. You would miss out on important events in the news and lose a way to keep in contact with friends and family who live far away. Without my social media accounts I feel like I wouldn't know anything going on locally, nationally, or globally.
      It was only briefly mentioned, maybe only a few sentences, but I also liked the part that brought up how big we are on making sure are stuff gets liked. It makes you wonder how self-absorbed people might be becoming. There are a good number of people who care more about how many likes their photo or status gets than what people think of them in the real world. We are becoming a society that is more interested in how we appear on social media than how we appear in real life. On social media we are able to be anyone we want to be, even if that person is the total opposite of who we are in the real world.
     The MediaShift website was interesting because it was a lot of different posts about a lot of different topics, all having to do a lot with the media. I read probably main ten different articles, ranging from ad blocking, all the way to using Twitter to get the word out about a project you are doing in order to collect data from people you may have otherwise not found.  Perhaps my favorite article I found was one on which method people preferred to find their news in 2015. Unsurprisingly, the majority preferred to get their news on social media.
     In class our discussion was aimed mainly in terms of the news and its role on social media. I know that the only way I ever get my news is by following various news sites on Twitter and Facebook. I don't ever sit down and read the paper or watch the news. If the news wasn't available on social media, I would probably never know what is going on. Despite how much I enjoy only needing to use social media to get the news, it breaks my heart to see print newspapers almost going the way of the dinosaur. I can't imagine a world without print newspapers, even if I personally don't read then. I do, however, play the Sudoku puzzle that is always in the paper. And if that was gone, I would be especially sad.