g12stem3group5

For Education (The Key) purposes only

[g12stem3group5]

The Good and the Bad: How Social Media Affected Me as a Gen Z Individual

The 21st century is compose of the generation Z or Gen Z for short. These generation primarily strive on using new and upgraded technology and devices as part of their daily lives. It is often highlighted that we cannot separate technology from this generation. As decades have past since the first invention of these technology, humankind’s main objective is to innovate and upgrade them more to the point where they will make our daily lives much more easier. Which basically summarizes what’s happening around the globe. Together with our technology, social media was born and continued to grow. According to a website Forbes, “Social media has risen as an option for people to build influence and opportunity.” which greatly describes our social world today, especially for the millennials or the Gen Z. Most of the teenagers and above often have their own devices and social media accounts, there are so many that the companies who made these social media platforms are said to be one of the most riches companies all over the business world. Yet as all things are, there are certain effects that social media bring to us, both the good and the bad.

As part of the Gen Z, I and my fellow generation have noticed some of these said effects. There are tons of good or advantages that the social media have brought to us. This is certain as there is a good reason why social media was created, a dream and certain goals the creators hoped they would achieve, which some came true. One of it, as noticed by many if not all, is that social media helps us to connect with people. Not just those who are near us, but definitely those who are far from us. It also let us make more connections with other people whom we have not yet met thus widening our capacity to make friends and relationships. Social media also allows as to know the current trends, events, happenings, and important news that are occurring not just in our country, but all over the world without even getting of our  seats. It has helped our world to be more connected with each other and be able to learn from it. But as all have their own disadvantages, the antagonistic effects of social media is also rampant in our society today. As social media feed us information, it is common among Gen Z individuals to just accept accept what they have seen and learned in the internet, to not even fact-check them and referring to other sources if these are true at all. That is why many share this information, thus creating a spread of false information, which might lead to misunderstandings and confusion among us. As we are indulged in using social media, it even influences the way we act, feel, and view things that sometimes deviate from the truth, clouding our judgement. One result of it is Cyber-bullying, where as you let people know things about, there will always be individuals who will criticize you thus often making us anxious and trigger our fears regarding what these people think of us. As we go further our lives here on Earth, we will always be interconnected with social media and even furtherly deepen the connection between both of us, which will have greater impact for both humanity and social media. Who knows, we might even have to name another generation much more compelled by social media than the current reigning one, the Gen Z.

[g12stem3group5]

Digital Divide: The Gap Between People In This Digital Age

As we live in this world we cannot avoid innovations which aims to aid us and make our lives much easier. One of these said innovations is our technology. Which is created to support, develop, and mainly make things easier for us especially when it comes to communication and information. An example of such technology is our computers that are often dubbed as the key and guide into a more high-tech future. Although some people say that, we cannot ignore the fact that not all people are capable of using these computers and other digital devices that are popular among privileged people. And these said underprivileged people may not be capable of competing with others who are able to utilize both technology and information to their desire. This is what we call as digital divide, which basically means a ‘gap’ in individuals or a large group of people for this matter as they have different social classes, business, countries, economy statuses, culture, and social upbringings. These which are highly influencing their capability to use or access both information and its sources, communication devices, and other technologies. 

Digital divide are commonly noticeable among students and people who doesn’t have the chance to acquire the set of skills in utilizing technology. In schools and universities, it may not be prevalent but a number of students often lack the knowledge and skills to properly engage technology as part of their learning. It might be because they do not have the upbringing to be used to utilizing these devices or they did not the have the luxury to do so. Which is kind of saddening especially that our era today often focuses on using these digital devices as means of communicating and info gathering. If these will continue, the gap of these individuals will further widen that we may not be able to give solution to anymore. Not to mention that these individuals, specially students, will have a shortage of their  knowledge that might hinder their productivity in studies and negatively impact their motivation, goals, and capacity of learning in their time as a student. Which greatly impact and mold their future. As a student we can take simple steps in order to bridge the gap even in a small manner. We can choose to help our fellow students who do not know how to efficiently use computers or digital devices as part of their learning means until they can fully use it by themselves. Of course not only to our fellow students but even elders that often find using high-techs difficult. We can also create on and off school campaigns or even giving info graphics to the people as part of our advocacy to lessen the knowledge gap and be able to give awareness to others. By doing these, we an lessen the gap between people and spread the learning of these technology we often find difficulties with.

[g12stem3group5]

The Setbacks of Piracy

“Piracy is the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work”, this is according to the Oxford Dictionary which specifically describes what piracy is all about. From this, we can safely say that piracy is an illegal act and is punishable by law of most, if not all, countries from all over the world. According to a website called  The Economic Times, you are committing piracy when you’re duplicating  copyrighted works and profit from them as they are being sold at a substantially low price. It is to suit the general public’s taste and not to mention their budgets in the ‘grey’ market. Especially in today’s Digital Age where technology is continuing to grow more easier to use and access, comes piracy getting more rampant than before as both are connected in some ways to each other. Although there are already enough if not many laws passed both nationally and international level, there are still people willing break to these laws and continue to make piracies. These are specially noticed in the film and music industries, which often are costly for some people that is why they’re buying the pirated versions of these film and music. 

Piracy is done in many ways and forms. There are video piracy, cable piracy, and the most popular ones are DVD or CD piracy. Each have their own ways of being duplicated and distributed but all are punishable by law. That is the number one setback of piracy, where there is a risk of you being caught and punished not only if you make and reproduce them but by also buying them. According to Digital Piracy: Advantages and Disadvantages of Piracy (Multimedia Industry), an article blog published online, although there are said advantages of making piracies, there also setbacks or disadvantages to this act. One of it is when you download a free-file online, this will make you susceptible to transmittable viruses and ad-wares that will end up lagging your device or much worse. Another setback of piracy is that because it is an illegal act, the means of acquiring them are often made in discrete thus it may not be as accurate and well-defined than the original. This can be observed in pirated films where there are sometimes people walking across the film as it was taken in cinemas in secret. And the setback we often forget as we are vent on acquiring this forms of media is that although piracies are much more easy and cheaper to buy, sometimes the rarer things we’ve waited and worked hard to acquire will give us more satisfaction than cheap and mass-produced things. That is why avid fans often take pride in buying limited editions and original items from their idols as they want to be recognized as a true fan and also recognize the significance of an item that no amount of money would even hinder them to acquire it. 

[g12stem3group5]

The Significance of Print, Broadcast, and News Media

Back in the days, newspapers and magazines where one of the main ‘go-to’ of the people when they want information and news about what’s happening around them. Topping them with books which people highly respected and often use as means of replenishing their knowledge and entertaining their imaginations. Yet as we trudge into the future, we can now access these traditional media using the means of new media. Nowadays, we can find and read different kind of books online, which are called e-books, that are often free and downloadable for offline purposes through the power of the Internet. This same goes for our newspapers, magazines, and other printed materials we often get information with. Furthermore, broadcast media have helped us in disseminating messages ‘on-air’ which allows people to access news, current happenings and other information by just opening their televisions and radio. Now, we are able to find news broadcast online and watch them live just by using smart phones or those broadcasts whom we’ve missed and can easily watch them again by searching them in the Internet, which similarly applied to our radio broadcasts. 

When all of these are noticed, we can infer that all these types of media are interrelated with each other. This means that we can access traditional media through new media, and the reason we seek new media might be because of wanting the information we get from traditional media. That is why print, broadcast, and new media have created a significance in our society. Having these types of media will allow us access to a wider scope of verifiable and credible information and ethically use them for our desired purposes. Then these information will be shared and acquired by others through these same types of media, like linked chains. Chains we use to get information thus creating more chains turning into chains of information sources. By using them, we’ll be able to see their significance in today’s world and how they greatly help and impact our ways of acquiring information in this Information Age. 

[g12stem3group5]

The Future of Media in Today's Age

Our world had witnessed various kinds of evolution, one of them is how media was being reformed in each era. Many of us grew up witnessing how newspapers are being bought and delivered to our houses, how our parents are engrossed with the news it brings. We have seen our favorite TV shows we deeply loved and practically grew up with them and how we learned from our textbooks whenever we turn their pages. Print and broadcast media are all around us. From most corners of our living rooms, the libraries of the schools, and even public vehicles and buses have media forms attached to them. And yet, we also have noticed how these things are being replaced by New media. How we sometimes forget about them and end up using what most people are using now a days. Is New media really gonna replace what we have been using since ancient times, the print and broadcast media?

Print media is by far the oldest type of media. The most popular type of print media and the very first mass media are books, which have a variety of kinds, purposes and uses, and genres. Many of us, if not all, have read a book or two in our lives. As books are, as what people say, the knowledge and experience of a person and thus help us in knowing things we couldn't have learned without reading. Meanwhile, Broadcast media excels in transmitting messages to a large number of people. Which greatly helps in spreading the information. Yet as we go further in this Digital Age, both are often times neglected or overshadowed by New media. People nowadays prefer using New media as a means of communication and info gathering due to its conveniency and fast manner of gathering datas. People have theorized that new media will end up replacing our traditional media. Five years from now, the way we communicate and gather information might be solely dependent on new media. Although it is a very important counterpart for our society, but it is by no means a replacement of traditional media. As we enter a new decade, the world and future of media is getting bigger amd bolder and yet traditional media is still the most credible news and information source ,which had been established for centuries up until today's age, that we can count on.

#BlogEntry4

[g12stem3group5]

"Understanding the Relevance of Information and News Literacy in the Midst of Social Era"

People nowadays are a sucker for stories. We crave new information that would satisfy our curiosity, entertainment, or just the simple pure need for them. May it be from celebrities, politicians, criminals, or even just from our daily pets. In short, we have a need to explore, receive, and share information and that's where news comes in. News has played a vital role in every recorded society, it's role is to alert, to connect, and to divert our attention on something. These are essential for being a human, its embedded deeply within us. We are, after all, in the Social Era. It is an era where connecting things, people, and ideas are what mostly matters or are evident anywhere around us. Various networks of people with shared interests and goals are formed and strive to achieve ways in satisfying themselves. This era provides seemingly endless opportunities due to it being accompanied by the rise of technology which elevates it more. Globalization has implied that the world is essentially decreasing and more associated. That is why having an understanding of how important both information and news are will help us get a glimpse of how bad it would be if they are abused or misused.

News literacy is the ability to judge the credibility and reliability of news reports. Together with information literacy, which is the ability to identify, locate, and access appropriate sources of information to meet the required information, they determine the validity of the news whether it comes via print, television, or the Internet. These literacies are especially important in our era, the Social Era, which greatly deals with information overload and the difficulties in determining the authenticity of the reports. Every day, every minute, a great number of information are being shared through out the world. Yet not all of them real, the truth, and accurate. Just because so much  information is so easily and quickly available does not mean that all of it is worthwhile or even true. Because of resources like the Internet, finding high-quality information is now harder than ever, not easier. That is why we need the appropriate skills and knowledge in scrutinizing, knowing which of them are the valid information we must attain. We must become an information and news literate individual so that the abuse and misuse of the news being shared will not engulf our social society. To prevent misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information, which are the categories of information disorders, from proliferating and deceive information consumers. And most of all be an effective example for others to follow, which in turn help our era.

#BlogEntry3

[g12stem3group5]

"Media and Government : A Love - Hate Relationship "

Love and hate are two sides of a coin, as what some people say. There are, often times, things we both hate and love at the same time. Take the relationship of media and government for example. They love hoe they can benefit together, and hate how they would oppose each other. Yet both are very important and crucial part of the society, or even the world. Its because media let people know about what's happening around us, gives us information, news, the trends, and events that are happening in not just our country, but the whole world. While the government discipline us, and lead the citizens for the greater good of our country, the Philippines. Making policies that can affect us in myriad ways, good and bad, that we citizens often have a say. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the dark side of both the media and the government. Corruption, anomalies, abuse of power, censorship, biased news, endangered journalists, and many more. These are just an example of what they are often times questioned with.

The media and the government has the power to manipulate people and to change how the way they think and view our world today. That's why they are dubbed as the two most powerful sector of the world. They were made for us, for the people. Yet the people are the one who end up being manipulated. It has always been the conflict between the media and the government that we have noticed. How we noticed some news are biased, yet the government says they're not. How some journalists oppose what the government states, and we see how the government rebuttals these. These bring us to the point, that the government often times control the media. Whether they think its for our own good, the citizens of a democratic country, or just for their selfish reasons. They work together, oppose each other. It's a never ending cycle, that will leave us confuse, felt manipulated, and will result in us not believing and trusting them anymore. Which might endanger our very own country. Yet let us not give up on media, for it is still the "watchdog" that guide and notify us on what is happening in our world, even if the government is not transparent. Even if they're most of the time in conflict with each other, we both need them. One cannot live without the other, for they need a helping hand. Without them, life will become a bit harder for us. #BlogEntry2

[g12stem3group5]

"The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual "

Media and information are two things we often connect with each other. Through media we offer information, and because of the need of information we seek media. Media is the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet that reach or influence people widely. Media keeps us informed about various happenings around the world, thus disseminating information. It also advances our communication with other people even if they're far, largely through the internet and improves community access to information. In short both play an important role in our society. Thus the people who use these have the chance to influence them, the power to create change, be it for better or for worse. These brings us to the main point of all, the value of being a media and information literate individual. Why is it important to such a person, and how will it affect both the media and information distributed through it.

Media literacy is the ability to read, analyze, understand media functions, evaluate how they are performed and produce communication in a variety of media forms. While on the other hand, information literacy emphasizes the importance of access to information and the evaluation and ethical use of such information. It recognizes when information is needed and to locate and communicate information in its various formats. Combining the two would give people the capability to interpret and make informed judgements as users of media and information. It allows such individuals the set of skills that will create and produce information and media messages in their own right. Having these competencies that will help us empower the primary role of information and media in our daily lives, to give us immense knowledge and transmits information. But not all information we find are true and accurate. So we need to be careful in dealing with them, especially that we are living in the 21st century which revolves us with rapid growth of technology and false informations. Being literate with both media and information will give us an advantage in giving and gathering information. Literacy on any level is a key, and a valuable one at that. As a responsible user and audience, we must be careful with what we give and receive as an information, these will help in facilitating a better environment for communication. We must be effective and have enough knowledge to be an example to others. To be able to help them help others as they will also learn how to be a media and information literate individual.