Mary Media

Mary Jimenez. Blogger. Amateur Filmmaker/photographer. Pokemon en-slaver. not your basic B****. I totally agree with Yoko Ono when she says "Each time we don't say what we want to say, we're dying".

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Brainstorm online with bubbl.us. Easily create colorful mind maps to print or share with others. Almost no learning curve. Businesses, universities, and other schools are using bubbl.us worldwide to generate ideas, map out processes and create presentations.

My Essay Research Map .

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Critical Essay

  With Facebook's current active user population at 1.1 billion, social media has increased in popularity and has changed the way people communicate as sharing personal information online has become the norm, and differs almost completely from face-to-face communication. We are now able to control our self-image and online presence through Facebook and change the perceptions and impressions we have on others. With social media now embedded in our daily lives, has it come to individuals being more happy and satisfied with their social lives and general well-being while being online where they can edit themselves, than being offline where they cannot?

Recent studies show that the main motivation behind the use of social media is the need to connect with others however, whether Facebook is able to facilitate social interactions that are healthy and satisfying, have been debated numerous times (Rauch et al, 2014). Chou and Edge (2012) say that "people's Facebook profiles affect others' impressions towards them" therefore people feel the need to control their online profiles and present them in a way that benefits and highlights themselves as to impress or to not disappoint. It was revealed in recent studies, particularly among heavy Facebook users and users with low social skills, that depression, stress and loneliness are associated with Internet use (Chen & Lee, 2013). With the option of being able to edit or showcase ones better self on the internet, it has raised questions as to the effects and benefits that Facebook has on individuals life satisfaction as well as the psychological issues that Facebook may create amongst some users of the social networking site in comparison to face-to-face communication.

The postings of individuals opinions, emotions and activities take away the need to "engage in real-life communication" (Chan, 2014)  because Facebook is regarded by many as "their window to the social world" (Chan, 2014) and has become imbedded in their lives as an everyday-life medium (Stieger et al, 2013). A majority of users on Facebook and other social networking sites report that their social interaction needs are being met when interacting online as well as an increased sense of confidence and self-esteem (Rauch et al, 2014), however some report of an addiction to social networking sites (Stieger et al, 2013) and lower life satisfaction because of lack of intimate social interaction that comes with online communication (Rauch et al, 2014).  On the other hand, individuals high in social anxiety prefer the benefits of online relative anonymity and safety over face-to-face communication (Rauch et al, 2014). This may be because Facebook allows the tailoring of ones self-presentation in order to control the impressions one gives as well as edit and select the look of particular characteristics of the individual to "make desired outcomes that can still be attributed to ones offline image" (Wang, 2013).  Individuals engage in self-presentation by posting content more socially desirable so to promote their well-being and gain rewards such as friendship, power, approval (Wang, 2013) and to "maintain or create social capital" (Chou & Edge, 2012). However, the perception that some individuals have of others lives and online presentations can negatively effect the perception they have on their own lives.

The perception of "they are happier and having better lives than i am" (Chou & Edge, 2012)  comes directly from individuals sharing only the selected positive moments in their lives and other individuals negatively seeing it as 'they are living better lives' than themselves, leaving them more vulnerable to a distorted perception. Results from a study by Chou and Edge (2012) show that individuals who interact off-line more with their friends are less persuaded than those who don't, that the lives of others are happier and better then their own. "Self-presentational theory assumes that individuals will consciously manage their self-image or other identity-related information in social contexts." (Chan, 2014) meaning that on Facebook, individuals will, depending on situation or needs, portray themselves appropriately with the goal to "gain social approval or avoid disapproval from others" (Chan, 2014). Self-presentational motivations that are related to Facebook use, as well as Facebook-related social comparisons,  are largely responsible for social anxiety (Rauch et al, 2014) which results in less face-to-face communication and lower life satisfaction.

Is Facebook a healthy alternative to face-to-face communication when individuals are controlling their self-image and editing what they say? The research results on the positive or negative relationship between Facebook and psychological and social well-being have been mixed. Results show not only a bad relationship between Facebook and individuals well-being, resulting in depression and anxiety, but also a positive relationship, resulting in higher self-confidence and self-esteem. Individuals will portray themselves online in a positive way, to look and feel better but however, will think negatively on their own lives when they see other individuals profiles as being better than their own. Wether Facebook has a negative or positive effect on ones social life or psychological well-being, really depends on the individuals personal characteristics and wether they chose to portray themselves online realistically or lull themselves into a falsehood of a perfect life. 

References

1. Chan, T.H. (2014). Facebook and its effects on users' empathatic social skills and life satisfaction: A double edged sword. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 17(5): 276-280. doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0466.

2. Chen, W., & Lee, K.H. (2013). Sharing, liking, commenting and distressed? The pathway between facebook interaction and psycological distress. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 16(10): 728-734. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0272.

3. Chou, H.G. & Edge, N. (2012) "They are happier and having better lives than I am": The impact of facebook on perceptions of others' lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 15(2): 117-121. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0324.

4. Rauch, S.M., Strobel, C., Bella, M., Odachowski, Z., & Bloom, C. (2014). Face to face versus facebook: Does exposure to social networking web sites augment or attenuate physiological arousal among the socialy anxious?. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 17(3): 187-190. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0498.

5. Stieger, S., Burger, C., Bohn, M., & Voracek, M. (2013). Who commits virtual identity suicide? Differences in privacy concerns, internet addiction and personality between facebook users and quitters. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 16(9): 629-634. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0323.

6. Wang, S.S. (2013) "I share, therefore I am": Personality traits, life satisfaction and facebook check-ins. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 16(12): 870-877. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0395.

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Essay Topic: We are all cyborgs

New Communication Technology has become so embedded in our daily lives that it has now become part of our extended body and improved our ability to communicate.

With the ability to customize and edit our online Facebook profiles for the benefit of controlling the perceptions of ourselves and the perceptions we have on others, are we replacing real face-to-face communication with online communication while being only half ourselves, the selves we have customised our online selves to be? Can Facebook even facilitate healthy and satisfying social interactions or is Facebook truly the new era of communication? Has it improved our ability to communicate effectively? Or should we quit while we're ahead? I chose this essay topic to answer these questions for a more sound understanding of online communication.      

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Recomended Blogs

http://todearhannah.tumblr.com/

http://the-writtenword.tumblr.com/

More blogs I follow are located at the bottom right hand corner of my page.

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#10 Sign an e-petition

Reject Tony Abbott and the LNP : SignHere

Where do you begin when talking about Abbott and his disgraceful way of running this country? I'm sure everyone has their own reasons for wanting him out of the government and if not, take a read of the petition.

Problems addressed in the petition include but aren't exclusive to: 

- exploitation of "every natural resource they can find, regardless of the damage they do to both humans and nature, and they will strip away our rights if they see fit to do so" - the misrepresentation of us as a country - overall being an arrogant A**hole

Stop this man before he completely ravages this country of its heart and soul.

Follow the Hate : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tony-Abbott-Worst-PM-in-Australian-History/151576228341304

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#9 Social Media Activism/Slactavism

#BringBackOurGirls : one of the latest social media activism groups following the abduction of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls on the 14th of April, kidnapped by the "Boko Harem" an Islamic extreme terrorism group.  

This act of terrorism sparked international outrage, with millions of tweets demanding to "bring back our girls", creating a movement which then lead to the creation of the campaign #BringBackOurGirls. With a great number of prominent people from political heads and pop-culture celebrities to terrorism survivors and ordinary people of society, showing their support by posting pictures with the hashtag it quickly became a viral trend: to raise awareness to the kidnapped girls and demand action from world leaders.

Left to right: Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai and Leona Lewis http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/boko-haram-mocks-bringbackourgirls-hashtag-campaign-in-latest-video-9604307.html

But does hashtag activism actually work?  Many people find the hashtag campaign useless and unrewarding with terms such as 'slactivism' and 'keyboard warrior' being thrown around. But the "trolls" are silenced by the determination of the campaign for change and their unrelenting use of the hashtag.

Still a viral trend, #BringBackOurGirls campaign has grown into something much bigger now. Because the abduction of the school girls is not an isolated or even new event, just the latest attack following a string of attacks aimed at schools, students and teaches, the campaign has grown to bring awareness to all girls, their right to an education and safe environment and has become the symbol of the Nigerian Government's failure to protect their citizens from the Islamist Militants.

The movement refuses to let people forget about the abducted girls and continually applies pressure to the governments of the world to be active in protecting not just the girls of Nigeria, but everyone who lives in fear under terrorist organisations and has to fight for their liberty.  

You can follow the movement or become apart of it here: https://www.facebook.com/bringbackourgirls https://twitter.com/hashtag/bringbackourgirls

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#7 Social Media Survey: What do you use it for?

survey here.

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#8 Results

Results from my survey 'What do you use social media for?'

I asked a few simple multiple choice questions on what social media you use, what you use it for and for how long. I conducted this survey to find out if the "youth" felt empowered by the internet to get involved in political, social and world affairs or if they were using this brilliant form of communication technology for amusement or to just cure boredom.

The results showed that ALL participants thought that social media gave them some sort of empowerment to be able to get involved in activism campaigns and cause for changes however, just over half of them said they only used social media for personal reasons/ connecting with friends. This showed that they all have some sort of an idea of how social media and the internet can help them become active in society but however choose to not take the opportunity to do so. There's nothing wrong with using social media and the internet for fun and connecting with people in your life, I do it all the time, but between my status updates and youtube videos, I take the time to reflect on the government, environment, public toilet hygiene, whatever... and how I could use the many social media platforms to spread the word. Maybe you could too?

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#6 Cyberpunk!

Mixing Hi-Tech with the Low-Life in a post-apocalyptic age of technology is pretty much the definition of cyberpunk. What makes it so enjoyable to watch or read is the thrilling question "Could this actually happen?" that dances in the back of your mind when the world has been dominated by technology and the grungy people of the underworld have to fight against the man-made system for their right to be human again or to fight the free-thinking cyborgs while wearing tight black clothing. I think we've all thought about artificial intelligence and the possibility of their hostile takeover of the world, that's what makes the love child of science-fiction, detective-fiction and post-modernism that is Cyberpunk so interesting and appealing to consumers. The recurring theme of capitalism, lust and government secrecy that reflects the real world today as we know it, that comes across in Cyberpunk films and novels is also part of it's appeal because it gives the reader/viewer a possible look in to the future, going back to that question "Could this actually happen?". Takes a great deal of imagination to write some of the things that people like William Gibson and Andy Wachowski have written/created but then again, with every thing that goes on today in this day and age, is it really so hard to imagine?

Osberg, M. (2014, March 19). Re: Dark Arts: Cyberpunk [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/culture/2014/3/19/5475122/dark-arts-tumblr-cyberpunk-renaissance

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#5 A brief history of Cyberpunk

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/902409

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4# Internet and Social life

 We've all been told, warned and nagged to about the implications of the internet on our social lives and well-being, and this article is no exception. It focuses on the effects of long hours on the internet with the results being social isolation, neglecting of other activities, procrastination and spending less time with family.   As technology is among the "most powerful social forces of our world", it only makes sense that it influences the youth so strongly, both in their personal development and as citizens of society as well. We begin disconnecting ourselves from the real world and that's a scary thought. Maybe I should stop ignoring the nagging, turn the computer off and talk to another human....in person.

Article reference:

 (Taçi, M. C. (2013). Internet, child and adolescence social development. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(2), 571.

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3# History of Computing: Whats Next?

Did you know that the definition of 'computer' before the 1930's was "a person who performed arithmetic calculations"?. That definition didn't change until after 1935 when it became a reference to a machine instead of a person. Computers have evolved so much from then, as you can imagine, following the creation of the vacuum tube to the transistor, to the microchip to now being able to exchange everything from audio, text, picture and video through the internet and cyberspace. We can already do such amazing things with computers, could there possibly be anymore room for improvement? YES! The future of computing has already begun with advances in hand held devices and wearable accessories that connect to the internet and other devices, we are well beyond the era of useless, ugly and inconveniently huge DOS computers, it's exciting stuff.   Hoping that Moore's Law (an observation that the number of transistors engineers could cram onto a silicon chip doubled every year or so) is still practiced by microprocessor manufacturers, it is predicted that our computers processing power will be doubled every 2 years which would mean that in a 100 years from now they would be 1,125,899,906,842,624 times more powerful than the computers today. Could you imagine?

Strickland, J. (2010, March) "How will computers evolve over the next 100 years?". Retrieved from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-evolution.htm

 Montecino, V. (2010, November). Re: The History of Computing [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/computer-hist-web.htm

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2# Now you know.

Technology has come a very long way, even in just the short 18 years I have been alive for, and it is continually going to get better (we hope). Its amazing just thinking about what technology is capable of and even more amazing actually seeing technology change the way we do things.

This video is a great display of facts all leading to the conclusion: technology has changed everything we do, know, work, travel, eat, date, think about and its only growing bigger.

I had to watch this video 3 times to take in all that was addressed and I hope you learn something new too.

[mary-media]

1# Views on Past and Future Communication Technologies

Communication technologies and developments particularly important to me?: The most important communication development to me has been the World Wide Web. The WWW has become, in my opinion, one of the most powerful and fastest communication mediums ever to have existed on this here earth and continually changes how we do everyday things from: buying to selling, teaching and learning, informing and being informed. It gives us a way to empower ourselves and/or be inspired by empowered people. The opportunities are endless and ever growing as the medium continues to grow. But grow into what? I don't think anyone can say for certain. I do think however, that there are still great things to come because it's the internet: it's a magical place, anything can happen.  

Do I miss past communication technologies?: I've always thought that technology is made or continually up-graded to make current technologies or everyday tasks easier, so I see past technologies as dead technology.... or cute house decorations, like typewriters and vinyl players or the much earlier, hollowed out Macintosh computer that now currently hosts a beautiful and vibrant potted plant inside of it and now sits on my back patio. Technology I look forward to in the future?: I think the thought of interactive jewelry or accessories is what excites me the most. Especially "FIN" an interactive ring, rumored to soon be released by Apple. The idea is a wearable ring that is said to actually turn your palm into a gesture interface or numerical keypad and is done by hooking the ring up to your smart device via Bluetooth. That just sounds like something straight out of a Sci-Fi flick.