Language and New Media

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Apparently technology is making us lazy, but I don’t know any different.

There’s nothing quite the like the smell or the feeling of turning the crisp pages of a brand new book, or reminiscing over the crumpled, tired pages of your favourite novel that you’ve read again and again. This feeling is something like no other, so why are we doing everything we can to destroy it?

In 1440 the printing press was created, changing the world forever. The printing press allowed us to quickly share massive amounts of information, something we would have never been able to do before. Imagine never having a newspaper or a magazine. It’s unheard of to our generation.

With the vast advancements in technology, we are slowly destroying some of our most precious possessions. In 2007, Gregg Zehr invested the first e-reader, the kindle. Kindle allowed you to store all your books in one place, allowing you to read whatever took your fancy at the touch of a button, lightweight and limitless, Kindle slowly took the world by storm. Why carry around 9 books in your hand luggage on holiday when you could take your handy little lightweight kindle? It just made sense.

Take a moment and think about it…

How often do we pick up a newspaper to find out about current affairs? Why would we when we can just download the BBC News app and read it on our iPhones without even having to move from what we’re doing? Why would we go to a bookshop or a library to browse when we can just log in to our amazon account and download it to a kindle? It saves us the time and the effort. Its simply beneficial.

Being a student and a teenager, I am always getting moaned at by older generations that technology is making us lazy. But I’ve grown up with it, so how am I to know any different? I have always lived in a world where if I urgently need to speak to someone, I can just pick up the phone and call them. But why do we allow technology to stop us from making a real effort? As I’ve said in nearly all my blogs, I am one of the worst culprits for how often I rely on social media, and as sad as it is to say, I can’t really remember what I used to do before I had a smartphone. I just wish I hadn’t let it get this far, but at the same time, is there ever really a way to avoid the advances in technology? They benefit us, so why would we choose not to use them? People say today’s technology makes us lazy, but when we know no different, it’s just routine. A way of life that is socially accepted.

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I recently discovered this quote, and couldn’t believe quite how true it was. I’m a sucker for posting something on Instagram and refreshing it every five minutes to see how many likes it’s reached. But why do I care so much? The same applies to Facebook and Twitter. If my post doesn’t get a certain number of / any likes I almost feel as though I have failed. Am I not funny enough or inspirational enough or pretty enough to get people to like my posts? A post with no likes is like getting a big fat 0% on a piece of work. But when and why did this social law of ‘likes’ come about? We rely on them to feel accepted and in my opinion, that’s a real shame.

The question I guess I’m asking here, is what do ‘likes’ even mean? I guess in some ways, linking back to what I said earlier, likes are seen to be a form of social acceptance in today’s society. But why are likes so artificial? Courtney from work has got 350 likes on her photo of her night out, but Jack from school has only got 5 likes on his photo of graduation? BUT WHAT DOES IT REALLY MATTER? Why is one more photo more or less justifiable to ‘like’ than another? Which kind of photos are actually worthy of likes?

This brings me on to the question of, do likes actually mean anything real? I’m playing devil’s advocate as I say this, as I’m just obsessed with getting likes as anyone else. But why do I care so much? I mean, I can understand from the perspective of large companies and advertising. Putting an advert up for something new on Facebook and it getting loads of likes is obviously beneficial from a business point of view. Companies use this in order to share their ideas and show popularity, encouraging people to buy their products. HOWEVER, when someone like me posts an image or a status, I’m not selling anything or trying to achieve anything, so why do I let something trivial such as likes affect me and the way I present myself online?

Something that is particularly common in the younger generation, is this idea of ‘like 4 like’. A common hashtag, implying that if someone likes your photo, you are then obliged to like theirs in return. But why? Surely if you know someone is only liking your post because you asked them to, then there is no fulfillment from it? Your likes and theirs are insignificant. Your like, your name, your attention, is merely another number on a list. It’s meaningless.

Likes are often seen as a competition. Those with lots of followers and likes are often regarded as Facebook and Instagram ‘famous’. But is there even such a thing as Instagram fame? As the quote at the start of my post says; ‘being famous on Instagram is like being rich on Monopoly’. In our current day and age, we are constantly being asked to comment on, share and like other people’s posts. Imagine if we took the time out of our day to actually compliment something, rather than give them a worthless like on post on Facebook or Instagram. Perhaps then we would feel confident in ourselves, rather than confident in a virtual world where it often goes unnoticed. I guess my message from this post is; compliment someone on what they really are, TELL THEM that you ‘like’ what they’re wearing or show an interest in what they're doing. When will we learn not to be satisfied with liking something presented to us from behind a screen? Make it genuine. Make it actually mean something.

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Do you know what a Snapchat streak is? And do you know why they're such a big deal for children? If not, you need to watch this.

This post pretty much follows on from my previous one but it’s crazy to think how features such as Snapchat streaks are affecting the younger generation of today. Is a number on an app really worth losing friends over? Just something to think about...

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Snapchat - The Marmite of Social Media...

Part of my module required me to do a little investigation into an app, and so I chose Snapchat, so thought it wold be silly not to write a blog post on it, as it really got me thinking…

I’m going to include the link to my video investigation, just to give a bit more of an insight. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw6L2dm0LCU

So, Snapchat. Basically, you either love it or you hate it. 

According to statistics, Snapchat has over 100 million daily users. It gets 7 million video views per day, only 1 million less than Facebook. Snapchat was created in September 2011, and from then onwards, it managed to take the world by storm. 

But why did it become so successful? Snapchat has an auto-delete feature, something that no other social media site or app can offer. A picture is sent and deleted after 10 seconds. An online poll gave results that many people are less self-conscious when posting an image on Snapchat, due to this auto delete feature. Unlike other apps like Facebook and Instagram, there is no option to like or comment on photos posted on Snapchat, allowing people to post whatever they like, without the fear of people being able to voice their views and opinions on it. This alone is a confidence booster, as there is no worry of what others may think. 

Snapchat is typically used to post daily updates, showing where you are and what you’re up to with its story feature, keeping track of your day before it disappears after 24 hours. It has a geotag filter, allowing you to post your location from anywhere in the world, along with filters for the date, time, temperature etc. It’s great for keeping in contact with people whenever and wherever, i’s just all too easy...

However, surely some of these Snapchat features are going to cause some problems?

Snachat’s auto-delete feature makes issues like bullying all too easy. If a message or image is deleted after 10 seconds, is there ever any evidence that bullying occurred in the first place? 10 seconds isn’t enough to show evidence for bullying, however it is long enough to knock someone’s confidence with a cruel snap or message, particularly with younger generations. Should we really be encouraging this by using Snapchat as much as we do?

Similarly, we could argue that the auto-deletion feature encourages the sending of things such as nudes, and inappropriate images. Someone is unlikely to post a nude image on Facebook or Instagram as it’s permanent and can be liked and commented on by other people. But where is the worry of sending one on Snapchat when it gets deleted after a timer of 10 seconds or less? 

Some may argue that Snapchat has allowed us to become more comfortable in the way we present ourselves online, people do not feel as though they need to create an almost false identity, like they might do on Facebook or Instagram in order to gain likes and social status online. This links to one of my earlier bogs where I ask, why are we so obsessed with this online image? Maybe Snapchat is actually doing us a favour, and allowing us to showcase social media with who we really are.

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Language VS Emoji

This picture appeared on my Facebook news feed earlier this week, so I’ve decided to use it for inspiration, and explore the world of emoji’s.

How and when did emoji’s become a way of language?

I’m most probably the worst culprit for it, and very nearly struggle to send a text, post an instagram caption or put up a snapchat story without squeezing an emoji in there somewhere. I don’t even know why, it’s almost as if it’s engrained to me now that messages look blunt without them, which is ridiculous, yet I still allow it to affect the way I use language when I post on social media. That, and the fact that there is pretty much an emoji for anything you can think of. Some people even have conversations using only emoji’s! (but in my opinion, that’s a bit odd). 

In June 2016, a statistic was released that 814 million messages that were sent out by brands, to the public, contained emoji’s. That’s insane! Usually an emoji would be said to make a piece of text less formal, however now, thousands of brands are using them to advertise and appeal to a particular audience. It is also noted that the age group that uses emoji’s the most, are those of age 25-29. (So it’s not just teenagers and kids!)

But this still leaves us with the question of why we actually use them in the first place. Well, I suppose they do what they say, they’re emoji’s and so they express emotion, however they are rapidly taking over the world of online language. With a click of a button, they give us the ability to express any emotion, without saying a word to explain ourselves. 

However, are emoji’s slowly changing the way we use language completely? With the use of emojis, there is no need for us to express ourselves to others, why write out how you feel when you can show it in the click of a button with a cute little picture?

In our current society, emoji’s are everywhere. They are a part of everday life and culture. Kids are wearing their emoji t-shirts, you can buy emoji pillows, phone cases, mugs. You name it, you can buy it with an emoji on it. But how did this emoji craze happen so quickly? Five years ago Apple, introduced an ‘emoji keyboard’ into their iPhones. Originating from Japan, the emoji craze has taken the world by storm.

The ‘laughing face’ emoji is supposedly the most used, expressing humour. BUT, not all emoji’s have the meaning you would think. Many emoji’s now have connotations around them; an example includes;

The nail painting emoji. This emoji is usually used to express something sassy, or something that has made a person smug. BUT HOW?! How have we reached the conclusion that a simple image of someone painting their nails expresses smugness or sass? IT’S JUST A PICTURE!

The use of emoji’s in replacement of language is growing and growing, and doesn’t look as though it will be stopping any time soon. 

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Who are we?

Facebook creator and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg once said; ‘Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity’. What is really is identity? Google will tell you that it’s 'the fact of being who or what a person or thing is’. The real question is, is the identity we portray on Facebook really who we are? Or is it simply the persona we create of ourselves that we portray to the virtual world? 

I guess what I’m trying to say is, is there such a thing as two identities? Surely a person can only have one identity, however each person can choose to manage their identities differently. For example, if I get a bad grade on a test, I wouldn’t be posting it to Facebook for all to see, but if I aced my test, I may write a Facebook post celebrating my achievements. This is not a case of having two identities, but rather creating an online image of ourselves to others.Why are we so obsessed with creating a particular image of ourselves online? Don’t we want others to know us for who we really are? But then, I guess, where is the fun in that? Perhaps we use our online image as our chance to be someone or something different. 

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Facebook - A One Man Show

Facebook – weatherman, newsreader, GPS system, socialiser, gamer, personal assistant. Broadcasting all our personal information since 2004. When did we become so reliant on this website? I, like most, check Facebook every single day, usually at least ten times in one day. But why would I need to go elsewhere? Facebook tells me the news, it greets me with the weather, it informs me as to what social events I have coming up in the week, and it knows everything about me and those whom I’m close to. It organises my life in a way I would never be able to.

I often wonder how Facebook and others like it make their money. In 2015, Facebook made almost $18 billion. 

But what is its product? What does it sell? The answer is simple. It’s you. It’s us. We rely on Facebook because, essentially, it owns us. We are its bestselling product. Sources say that if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest in the world. Crazy right?  I currently have 1147 friends on Facebook. How many of them would I speak to in real life? About 100 maybe? Isn’t it strange to think that anyone, anywhere, can access all the information they need about you, yet they most probably wouldn’t say hello to you in the street? Think to how many times you’ve remembered to wish someone a happy birthday, just because Facebook told you to. When am I going to stop letting Facebook control me and my relationships? Facebook owns us, and we don’t even know it.