About the blog

Firstly, this is the first blog that I have ever done. I am creating this blog as a class project and this blog will mainly talk about the impact of social media on today's world. In just a few short years social media has taken the world by storm. From personal friends to business and news; social media is now the best place for marketing and advertising. It also is now the way to meet new friends, start relationships, and vice versa. First and foremost when I say social media the first thing that pops in peoples heads is probably Facebook, or twitter, or even both. Yes those are social media websites but social media doesn't only include sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or Linkedin. But Games and Youtube are also part of social media. The evolution of social media has connected the world where as 50 years ago, social media was only localized around the neighborhood and in the city. Now keeping up with friends from your neighborhood and cities that you lived in has never been so easy. You can even meet someone from across the world by means of social media, I could be in the U.S. while the other can be in France, Italy, Germany etc. News travels faster because of social media, not only the official news that's displayed on the T.V. by CNN but even the little tiny news on who went to a certain party last night that you didn't go to. Even news about that embarrassing thing you did in class the other day. So what are the effects of social media onto our society? I mean everyone's on Facebook now, well nearly everyone. Can social media be the cause of relationship problems as well? Social media definitely can start relationships. Social media has changed our society, even though it hasn't felt like it.

Steven Johnson: Games

Johnson, S. J. (2005). Games. In S. Cohen (Ed.), 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology (Third ed., pp. 196-202). Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 

Gaming has taken the world's youth and even some adults are getting into it now. It has given many people something to do, something to pass the time with. Although has gaming dulled our reading skills? In the book 50 essays, one of the essays by Steven Johnson talks about how gaming has caused many to stop reading novels. Johnson quotes in his essay about games that: "The best that can be said of them is that they may help promote eye-hand coordination in children. The worst that can be said is that they sanction, and even promote aggression and violent responses to conflict. But what can be said with much greater certainty is this: most computer games are a colossal waste of time." (Johnson, 2005) Games truly are a waste of time, but that's what they're here for to waste time. Games in my own opinion are to pass the time, we have to take gaming in moderation so do we with everything else. Some games do promote violence, some don't. Of course this has a very negative effect on the children of today, trying to act out what they do in games. This is the reason for gaming shops and parents to take a look at the level of maturity and age needed in order to play some games. The essay is a good read, about how games have a negative effect on today's youth.

The Addiction

This picture shows a lot about how our daily lives are spent mostly in front of a computer. 90% of the time we are probably on a social media website at least once per day or even worse all the time. The addiction of social media is not a laughing matter, there are those who are totally addicted to facebook that it distracts them from work, school and even family life. As a society we must learn how to have self control over how much social media we are suppose to use. There are addons and many other productivity programs that people use now in order to lock themselves out of any social media site. This goes to show how bad it has gotten to many, if one must lock his/herself out of a social media website then they know they've been using it too much. The video is a firefox addon called leechblock; one of the many programs people can use to block social media websites.

Social Networking: An Evolution in Communication Media

An absolutely amazing video of how social networking has evolved since the days where we wrote messages on paper to today where we tweet, post, share, like, and reply to posts from other friends, colleagues, family, and classmates. Social media is always evolving, humans finding faster ways to send messages and to find out what's happening around them. Although the video is to tell high schools to lift the ban on social media website, the research done on the evolution of social media was very well done.

Don't feed the Trolls.

Nisbet, A. (2013, February 6). Trolling: An age-old problem that's not getting better. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/adamn/1221201/trolling-age-old-problem-s-not-getting-better

As the post I posted earlier links to a blog from another classmate about cyber bullying here is a similar post from the web, socialmediatoday.com, about trolling. The post explain what is trolling and what is considered as trolling. Who are trolls and what do they do? It is an age old problem that's been going on forever. What exactly do trolls do? "Trolls aspire to violence, to the level of trouble they can cause in an environment. They want it to kick off. They want to promote antipathetic emotions of disgust and outrage, which morbidly gives them a sense of pleasure.” – Tom Postmes" (Nisbet, 2013) What does this sound similar to? Cyber bullying, it is a form of cyber bullying but at a scale in which it doesn't just target one person, but targets an entire forum. Trolls motivations vary from one user to another, but their objective is always the same: to emit a negative response from the community to those who oppose the user. Trolls want their comments to get flagged, trolls want people to get angry at them and get mad, in this way they win.

Television: The plug-in Drug by Marie Winn

Winn, M. W. (2002). Television: The plug-in drug. In S. Cohen (Ed.), 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology(third ed., pp. 438-447). Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's

"Television is going to be a real asset in every home where there are children." (Winn, 2002) This passage nearly explains everything from the recent years about how technology has progressed. Marie Winn's essay from 50 essays, Television: The Plug-in Drug, explains how the television is bringing families farther apart by having multiple electronic devices in different areas of the house. He states that when the television set first came out, there were photographs that illustrated the perfect family get together. Although now you have mom in one room, dad in another and the kids in different bedrooms all watching different shows. Winn goes on to talk about how the television has all but destroyed original family past times such as board games together. A while back the television set was the main form of familial entertainment where there used to be one T.V. in a house. With today's technology there's probably a computer in every room of the house where you can watch shows. This would cause the family to stay in separate rooms of the house instead of with each other. We have to take things in moderation when it comes to technology, especially now where technology is everywhere.

Careful what you share.

This small hilarious short film takes into account that you should be careful about what you share on a social media website before going into an interview. Apparently just like the title suggest the person being interviewed had shared too much on Linkedin.

Cyber Bullying

Smith, L. (2013, April 14). Social media - the dark side. Retrieved from http://mikiakiak.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-cyberbullying.html

The Internet is one of the greatest inventions of mankind it has lead everyone to share knowledge and allows everyone to connect with each other. But also where there is good, there is bad, where there is light, there is darkness. Social Media is a tool used to connect with others such as, friends, family and acquaintances. Sadly some people use it to ruin lives, although sometimes it doesn't happen intentionally it happens none the less. Cyber bullying is one of those intentional and unintentional ways of ruining someone's life. Many of those who cyber bully might think "Oh it's online so there's no harm to it." Wrong! At first, there is no physical harm but mentally; psychologically it hurts the intended victim. After the psychological pain there are physical pains in which might lead to suicide.The link that I posted above is the link to another classmates blog, who talks about the dark side of social media. It's good to know both extremes of social media; it has it's good points and it's bad points.

Police using social media to catch criminals.

Steve, M. and Joseph, K. (2013, April 14). Social media sites a treasure trove for police. Retrieved from http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/social-media-sites-a-treasure-trove-for-police-1.1472634 

 Here is a very interesting article that I found about social media; according to thetimes-tribune.com police and law enforcement are using social media such as Facebook and twitter to sniff out criminals. This goes to show that people now are more apt to sharing their personal life online that some content may be connected to a theft or a much more serious crime that has happened recently. And not only theft and other major crimes but also probation violators are sometimes caught on social networking sites breaking their probation. Such a case is mentioned on the article of a man who was forbidden to own firearms had posted picture onto his Facebook of him and his five year old son holding rifles. Times-tribune also talks about the so called "dark side" of social networking and the term is perfectly correct for it. Many fights have started on social networking sites such as Facebook. These fights can sometimes lead to fatal injuries or death and what started it was just some post on a social networking site. This article is a very interesting read, as a person who uses Facebook people do post things without thinking.

Looking for a date? Well log onto facebook and find one. Social Networking and Relationships

Morgan, M. (2013, March 27). Social media impacts real relationships. Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865576858/Social-media-impacts-real-relationships.html?pg=all

For those looking for the romance, here's an article that everyone should read of they love the mushy stuff. Although it's not really the kind of love novel that many may be seeking but it gives a bit of insight on how social network sites such as twitter are giving a new era of relationships. Relationships back before social networking was available was more of a local and face to face sort of relationship. Now you can be anywhere in the world and be able to find someone that's not from your local area. For example: one couple can be in Seattle the other can be New York. "Out of 50 couples married in the U.S. in 2011, at least one met through a social networking site, according to The Wedding Report." (Morgan, 2013) The article also talks about the dangers of anonymous intimacy online; of course with all good things there is a darker side. Anyone can post anything, on any site, anytime online; this means that it could be falsified if not careful. Online relationships is a double edge sword, the good part is that it connects you to nearly everyone in the world so you have a bigger view of things. The bad part is, what they post is not what they truly mean. The link above is a good read to see how our society's new way of dating has been shaped by social networking.

Social Media, Gaming, and Education?

West, D. (2012, 04 24). How blogs, social media, and video games improve education . Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/04/24-education-technology-west 

Here is a short article from brookings.edu about social networking and it's effects on education. Pretty short but it talks about the good points on how blogs, wikis, and social networking in general has improved peer-to-peer reviews. Instead of having one person inside the classroom reading what you wrote, you can post it on Facebook and ask all your friends to peer review it, or post it as a blog. Then there is the teachers and professors making blogs themselves, some teachers would probably use blogs to post important class notes. Also here is a very good example of a way of using facebook that contributes to education and also random facts, about science. 
 https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyScience
There are many innovative ways in using the social networking sites for educational use, just most people don't use it in such a way. 
 

Use of Social Networking and Social Media in our Society today

Social networking: "are social networking sites good for our society?. (2013, 03 22). Retrieved from http://socialnetworking.procon.org/

The website shows insight on how social media and networking has changed our society. It shows data on how much time we spent (by minutes) on social networking from last year, 2012, and the year before last. Very informative website showing the pros and cons of social networking and as well as the age percentage of users that use social networking. In fact at least 59% of internet users have at least one social networking website account, and 56% of the people using a social network is female.("Procon.org, 2013)  Good source of information if you have ever wondered about the statistics of social networking and the pros and cons. Also there's a little about business on there as well