Week 10

     Anonymity is something that many people strive for in their lives when it comes to saying certain things. Not too long ago it was hard to say anything anonymously because things typically had to be said face to face. Nowadays, however, people can anonymously publish things on the Internet through the use of social media and message boards where you can post with a pseudonym.
     Certain sites like Whisper allow people to post anything from their deepest secret to the most random quotes they can imagine, all without using their real name. It is all anonymous. There is good in this, in the fact that someone could have a secret weighing on them but not want to share it with anyone personally. Sites like this allow them to post what is bothering them without the fear of people uncovering their identity. And sometimes when a person has major depression going on and they post something about their life, people can rally around them (anonymously of course) and hopefully make them feel better. Of course, there is a down side to this as well. People can post cruel things in response to a person's anonymous statement. '
     Another way people can post anonymously is by creating fake social media accounts on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some people do it just to be funny, like making an account for their pet just to post things like cat videos. Police can do it to gather evidence on criminals. However, other people can use it for criminal activities. Some criminals use it to target their next victim, either someone whose house they can break into or someone they can stalk and potentially plan to rape/murder. Others, typically teenagers, can use these fake profiles to bully other individuals. The victim will never know who the bully is on the Internet because it isn't a real identity. By using a fake profile, they make it harder for authorities to figure out who the actual perpetrator is.
     Sometimes posting anonymously can help individuals feel better about themselves by sharing things that they need off their chests without having to tack their name onto it. However, being able to post anonymously can have deadly consequences. A criminal can find their next victim. A bully can cause a victim to see no way to end the bullying other than committing suicide. Anonymity can be useful in social media, but it is something that people need to be aware of and stop to think before they accept any unknown individuals or doing anything that could lead to them being hurt.  As with most things, anonymity is good until it is placed in the wrong hands.

Week 9

     Social injustices occur every day in the world, but sometimes many of those go unnoticed by the general population. It is hard to make everyone aware of all the bad things, whether they be small or large, that are going on. It was even worse 10-20 years ago without the use of the Internet to speed the telling of news along. While some individuals may abuse the use of the Internet to simply spread meaningless gossip about celebrities, some use it to spread useful information. Now days, it is easy to reach hundreds of thousands of people simply by posting something on Facebook or Twitter.
     Important world events like the Boston Marathon Bombing or the massacres in Paris, news of those was spread in minutes after they happened-all through the use of social media. And while turning your profile picture blue, white, and red after the massacre may not seem like it really helped anything, it did. Individuals were able to show that they stood with Paris, that they felt horrible about what happened there, that they were grieving with the citizens of Paris even if they lived thousands of miles away. They were also able to spread awareness of what happened. Social media is an important tool for getting news out there fast.
     Then you have things like the ALS ice bucket challenge. While it may have seemed like a stupid challenge, and like it wouldn't really raise any money to support the cause, it did. You were supposed to either dump ice water on your head or donate $100, if you got called out. The majority of people dumped the ice water on themselves. But the foundation still raised a great deal of money. How? Well, despite the fact that people were choosing to dump water on their heads, it brought attention to ALS. All the social media coverage it got raised the awareness of the disorder and people were moved into donating even if they didn't get challenged or chose to dump the water on their heads.
     Whatever the cause or breaking news event, social media is an excellent tool for raising awareness of things and spreading information fast.

Week 8

     So this relates more to last week's discussion more than it does to this week's, but it's a topic I found very interesting: the eight second attention span. The fact that as a species, we now only have an average attention span is unbelievable. We are highly developed individuals, and yet we struggle to maintain focus on even the simplest of tasks. I believe that most of our inability to focus stems from how much we have going on in our lives in today's time. While previously we had work, school, and family vying for our attention, we now have to add social media to that list. We constantly want to know what is going on in the lives of not only our friends and family but also everyone else in the world. In order for that to happen, we seem to need to continuously check our devices. It is hard to stay focused on only one thing, when there are so many other things you need to pay attention to as well. I know for me personally, I find it extremely hard to focus my attention on one thing for more than a couple minutes. My mom always tells me I have undiagnosed ADHD because I constantly need to be fiddling with something, but at the same time I have trouble focusing my attention on just one thing. I seem to always be doing at least two things at once; not because I don't have enough time to do them one at a time, but because I can't stand just sitting down and doing one thing at a time.
     Veering off that topic, another discussion of interest revolved around how the internet now allows us to connect with so many people and through that easy connection we can easily find things we are missing. You see all those posts on Facebook of people seeking their birth parents. Before it would have been nearly impossible for them to find their parents, especially if it was a closed adoption. Now, however, by just posting a photo with the information of their birth, other people are able to share it and get that information to the masses. Eventually, the birth parents will most likely see that information. I am amazed at how well social media works at getting information to the masses to help find a certain person, a missing item, etc. I can't even imagine how much better it will be in the future because social media is constantly changing, adapting, and improving to make distributing information easier. And while social media facilitates the distribution of information, it is really the people who post the original status and all those who are willing to stand it that truly distribute the information. As we mentioned in class, the tools of the internet simply remove the obstacles that used to be present when attempted to share information to the masses.