Medias Impact on Society

A blog about how Social Media Affects Society, in positive and negative ways.

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Read A little

Every good research projects cannot be done without a good book, so over the break I read this book called “Social Media Usage and Impact  ” by Hana S. Noor Al-Deen and John Allen Hendricks.

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“Social Media Usage and Impact” is a 309 page book that talks about the usage and impacts social media has on the world. It is broken up into five parts, each touching up on different areas like the influence social media has on politics, and ethical issues. As well as environmental areas like school and communication tactics businesses use.This books does a good job of grasping the whole good vs. evil of social media displays.

 Over all the book is a good read. The authors  provided information on how social media has involved over the past 10 years. They conducted experiments that proved points, along with facts. The way it is written proves that the authors actually did their research. For every fact provided a citation is right behind it, telling one the exact location.

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Social Media and Me!!!

For my free style post I have decided to talk about my own personal experience with social media. So I was first introduced to social media in 7th grade. That platform would be no other than Instagram. I remember this day so vividly,

I was at lunch with my friends when one asked me did I have Instagram. Me being the not so up to date 12 year old that I was said no, but I would make one once I got home. I remember getting home and going straight to my room so I can get started on my account right away. Honestly I was so lost, it took me hours just to find the perfect picture to post and it’s caption. Thinking back to it now is utterly disappointing and cringey that I did all that for 20 likes. Anyway after a few hours I finally posted up my first ever post. The likes and comments from my friend started flooding in. I started getting heart emojis and nice comments. It may have boosted my confidence a little. As life progressed on I started to invest more of my time in instagram. I started spending more of my time with texting my friends or sending videos I found funny in this place. It kind of became my safe space where I could cure my boredom while keep up with my friends. Now a days I still use, not as much as the others. Yet still enough to have an impact on me.

About two years after that I made my first Twitter. Like instagram, all my friends had it. They would talk about the latest school drama they saw from tweets from fellow students. Honestly it was a mess and not for me. Thus was a reason why I did not make one until my freshman year of high school. For fangirl purposes, I made an account. My first ever tweet was about how One Direction has the best fandom, I still stand by that till this day. Back then I did not use twitter as frequently. I only used it to keep up with the latest fandom news, but now I use it everyday. It has become my go to app. I use it to keep up with the latest trends. Along with be kept updated on the latest news. Twitter is the place I usually hear about major news if its not from my actual TV. If I am being completely honest, I check twitter everyday for news updates. That way I can say I did hear about the most recent shooting or NASA newest discovery.

In the same year I made a snapchat.  Before I was against the whole concept. Taking a picture than posting or sending it to someone (which is why my instargram only have 22 posts) was NOT my thing. Now I am all for it. I use snapchat everyday. Honestly there haven’t been a day I went without using this app. Maybes it’s because of my long lasting streaks. Or maybe it could be the never ending buzz from the group chats with my friends. All I know is this has impacted my life so greatly as well. It provides me with entertain, along with information. There is this little section that includes things they think you would like. It is like an explore page that provides DIYs, memes and so much more. Might I add the filters are useful. If I need to take a bomb picture I can just use one of the filters.

Overall, social media has become a BIG part of my life. I have grown so much from it. I know many people could see social media as a place for negativity. A waste of space and time, but to be honest it does wonders. Which I did my blog on this topic. I have seen how social media can be a way of improving the lives of others. When natural disasters happen or are close to occurring, people can look to social media for information on what to do. It also helps in the way of keeping people updated just in case they have family missing in the area. It helps spread awareness about virus outbreaks or contaminated foods. For instant, the recent Mumps outbreak in Philadelphia. I did not anything about it until I checked snapchat. From there I saw all my friends talking about being vaccinated or getting vaccines as soon as possible. Along with that, social media allowed us to connect with each other. Millions of memes and videos are made and shared a day. I am pretty sure you can make a reference to one of these and somebody else could relate. This is due to the wide range of media, people are bounce to see the same things. All it takes is a Retweet or a click of a share button. In addition, you can talk to people from across the world. Right now I have a friend who is over in japan right now. I am able to talk to him via snapchat. All takes is a snap of a picture or a double click to have a conversation with him, or anyone around the world. Also with social media it can be a place for expression and new ideas. People can go to one platform to express their views, thoughts and so much more. From there others are able to then express their thoughts on that or gain some new knowledge.  

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Primary Source

As a primary source I have decided to go around and interview a few college students. Due to the idea that these people uses some sort of social media on a day to day basics. I have found that they all have spend quite amount of hours on social media. One thing they all have in common is using these platforms to communicate with their friends. The top three most used are Snapchat, Instragram and twitter. 

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Here is a graph of some data I have collected. As I said before, the top three social medias used are snapchat, instragram and twitter. These are the ones they tend to use on a day to day basic for things like communication, entertainment and education. More than 50% has said that they are more informed after using these platforms than they have been before. Which is seen in all parts of life. Now a days people barely watch television, meaning they hardly watch the news. These platforms are a way to inform people and keep them updated on recent tragedies and news. Furthermore, I have learned that people tend to use social media as a distraction. Within the group they all talked about how they use social media as a escape from reality, that does affect their academics. Just not too much. They talked about how they spend hours upon hours using social media, yet little time on studying and sleeping. When asked the question does social media had a positive or negative effect on society, most has found there to be a mixture of the two. It all depends on what we let influence us. Some talked about how we have a mixture of love and hate on these sites. While other talked about how we are able to express ourselves so openly and freely. Along with gain new ideas from others. 

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Academic Journal Article

On February 13, 2019 the article “Social media usage patterns during natural hazards” By: Niles, Meredith T.; Emery, Benjamin F.; Reagan, Andrew J.; Dodds, Peter Sheridan; Danforth, Christopher M. was released in the Public Library of Science (PLOS) journal. This article focused on how social media, (particularly Twitter) is used during natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. They talked about people tweeting habits depending on the type of disaster. For hurricanes, they found that people used Twitter more frequently in preparation, while tornadoes and floods people tweeted recovery information. Yet they found that social media is becoming an increasingly important tool to help people prepare for and recover from disasters. Overall one can tell this article is for people interested in the way social media and natural disaster connect with each other. The methods they used included selecting 5 disasters (two hurricanes, two tornadoes and one flood) that happened in the U.S and their characteristics. They then went to twitter looking for key works people would use during these disasters and analyzed it.

“Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake” by Dave Yates and Scott Paquette is the second source I found via EBSCO. It is also an article that was released February 2011 in the Science Direct. It is about how social media was used during the earthquake that happened in Haiti. I find this article interesting because they provide information on how the government itself used social media to employ people who then shared information on how to improve and help rebuild Haiti. As well as how we use social media to keep others around the world updated on disasters, which the first article included itself.

In general, these two articles gave me a new idea of social media’s impact on society. Especially in the sense of keeping people all around the world updated on disasters, along with being a platform where people can share information and help in one place. These shine a positive light upon social media itself.

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Opinions, Opinions and Even More Opinions

“Using Social Media to #LeadChange” in one of the two op-eds I have found recently. It is a New York Times article written by Erika DeBenedictis, Isaac Escamilla, and a few others authors. In this article they express that social media is a powerful tool that can use to make changes all over the world. We just need to take it upon ourselves to provide that information to others. By doing this we can help improve the lives of many. For example, in the article they talk about how people on Facebook came together to build a boat for students who would swim an hour to school in South Asia. Along with the idea of being able to contact congress in time of a crisis. A junior at the U.S Military Academy by the name Pat Robben is an example. During the government shutdown, he tweeted his Congressman during the crisis and got feedback instantly from the floor of the house. These two examples help show how someone across the world can have a positive influence on something and someone on the other side of it. We just have to do it ourselves.

On the contrary the op-ed “The Dark Side of Social Media” by Emma Hope Allwood showed the complete opposite. Emma talks about how people take it upon themselves to make their feeds to appeal to others instead of showing who they really are. Social media is making people believe that they can just become successful by becoming popular on social media platforms, as well as the impact it has on peoples mental and physical appearance, especially in women. She does all this by including personal experiences she encountered herself. Also data and facts on things like the mental and physical impact it had on people. This would include things like depression, sleep and body image. In addition, Allwood touches upon how social media has cause some people to mimic others lives. This was found especially among women ages 18 to 25. Carmen Papaluca, a PhD researcher conducted this survey that helped her come to this conclusion. She even goes as far as saying  “It’s really gone past just wanting to look like somebody, now it’s about having their life.” which is true. People now a days tend to go to trends be like others instead of being themselves. 

In general, both articles have two different view points in social media. One focus more on how we can use social media to lead make changes, while the other pays more attention on the negative effects it has on people. This would include mental and physical appearances, views on what actual success looks like and being true to who you are. Yes, I agree with Allwood’s points. I experienced the fear of missing out (FoMO) and I see people “Flexing” on the gram from a day to day basics. When reality they are just doing it for likes. Personally I believe that we should focus more on the positives social media provide for us. I have notice that when it comes to social media we focus more on the negatives instead of the actual good it’s doing for us. “Using Social Media to #LeadChange” really opened my eyes to this, as well as actually trying to find a positive op-ed on social media. When I was searching I could barely find at lease two good op-eds that centered the greatness social media display to us daily, I was actually happy to finally find “Using Social Media to #LeadChange” because of they point they included and the actual examples they provided. I think age factors in on the way one view social media, as well as other things like economics and personal experiences. With that I’ll leave you with these questions: Why do we tend to look at the things wrong with social media instead of actually appreciating it? and Does ages, economics and more play a role in on the way one sees social media?

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Changing Times

Over the weekend I watched this documentary called “Changing Times”. It’s the second part of the BBC series called “Child of Our Time 2016″, which follows the life of a group of kids from birth to their teen years.

In the documentary this experiment was conducted, that raised the question, what impact does social media have on today's teens? Psychologist Tanya Baran follows 25 teens throughout this time to see how they are actually adapting to the “New World”. She and a team of experts conducted this experiment where they monitored and kept track of time the teens would use social media and gaming networks for over a week.

In “Changing times”  they actually bring up some good points. They give an example of one of the teens, named Mabel. As a kid, Mabel was shy. She had a difficult time making friends, but as a teen she has changed. That would be because of social media. With Social media she was able to flourish. She was able to improve her friendships, meet new people and grow socially on the wide range of apps used today. Now Mabel has a lot of friends who she talks to frequently. She is an example of how social media improved society in a good way. She illiterates how social media helps people grow when they felt like they couldn't in real life.

Overall I like this documentary. It includes opinions from teens, as well as their parents. This brought diversity to this topic. You are able to see the different thoughts between the age groups. The younger generation likes social media and thrives off of it, while the older generation not so much. They believe it’s putting a damper on the youths social skills as well as their sleep. This was proven by Christopher- James Harvey, an expert in adolescent sleep patterns. He explains how teens need at lease eight hours of sleep, but due to social media and gaming, they are staying up late. This then affects their minds and bodies. 

In addition, it did a good job of telling a story. They provided old clips from when the teens were young vs being 16, which was effective. It gave us a glimpse of their lives before social media. That itself illustrates how they have changed in the years. One example of this would be Mabel. You can see how she was closed off as a kid vs how she is as a 16 year old. She's more open and social now. Mabel has friends that are other than her family. This helps show social growth, something social media helped her with.

Finally, this documentary opened my eyes to the idea of gaming being a form of social networking. Before I really didn't see gaming a way to communicate with others. After watching this, it made me think back to all the times my brother would talk to his friends while playing Fortnite. My friends also play and talk to each other via video games. Now it has me thinking the effect this has on society. The real question is what effect it has on us and our everyday lives?

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A Little Help

On February 14, 2019 I got a little help on my topic from a Kutztown librarian. Her name is Stefani Gomez. Her subject areas consist of Human Information Behavior, Technology & Culture and communication, I saw this and believed she would be the perfect fit for my topic. Oh boy was I right.

When I arrived we went right to work. She asked about my topic, which is Social Media’s impact on Society (if you could not tell by now) She then went on to ask what areas I want to touch up on with this blog, and helped me narrow down the topic to some positive influences like self expression, as well as negative effects like fake news. Both topics I really did not think about until they were recommended.

From there we went into to the databases, she did a tour of the website, which have I seen a thousand times but she just wanted to “refresh” my memory. She clicked on “databases” and it gave us this page. She talked about how I can use all the source on there, but Academic Search Ultimate, ProQuest Research Library and JSTOR are the most common. She clicked on Academic Search Ultimate and put in key words like “social media” and “positive effects”, we saw that some of the articles presented had this kind of negative feel to them, which I was not aiming for at the moment. So she talked about how words can have an impact on the search result. So she changed the word “effects” to “influence” , due to influence being more of a positive word, honestly the results were better. We then looked into the negative “effects” as well and found great articles, This is this one called “Do You ‘Like’ My Photo? Facebook Use Maintains Eating Disorder Risk” which is about how women would go to extreme lengths just to get a “like” on social media. This one article focuses more on Facebook and the effects it has on people self esteem and eating orders. It also, have data and graphs to backup its calm on Facebook's influence.

Shortly after viewing some article sources we looked at the Film & Video options. She clicked on the first one which is Films on Demand. We searched “social media influence” and found a great range of videos. One called “Generation Like ” caught my eye. Its a documentary on how teen's quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media. As well as another called “Changing Times” its a documentary on an experiment conducted on teens where they give insight to their social medias and the things they face on there.  In the end she asked did I have any questions and if I had some later I could email her.

Overall this meet was a success, I found really good sources I can and will use. I have a broad idea of what I want talk about, as well as the type of approach I will use. Now if you excuse me, I have quite a few sources to look at, so let me not waste more of your time. Byee!!!!

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Social Media Introduction

Social Media, it is the thing that consumes everyone's time in today’s society. Whether if it is watching YouTube videos for entertainment or checking Twitter for the latest news. I bet if you were to go outside, you would see someone using a social media app right now. According to the website Blog Hootsuite “as of 2018 there are now 3.196 billion people using social media”. 3.196 billion people, that is close to half of the 7.5 billion people living in the world now. Can you imagine how crazy that is? People all over the world are given the opportunity to communicate with each other with just a “click” of a button, gain information by “typing” in keywords into a search bar and so much more. 

Do you know what the first recognizable social media was?

According to the website weknowtheanswer.com the first known social media is called “Six Degrees”.

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It was created in 1997 and just like any other social media it allows users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. Let's go back for a minute and actually define social media by breaking the words up. Social usually refers to the instant feeling people need to interact with each other, while media refers to the way we communicate. This is usually through things like radios, television, newspapers and more. So put them together, you will get media used for social interaction. The actual definition according to Merriam Webster is “Social media is a form of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)”

Growing up in this day of age, I have learned a few things about social media, I experienced live post social media and during. In the time I have seen a difference between the two. Which is why I am writing this blog. I want to help educate people on the effects social media have on society. So I hope you stick around because I will take you on this journey where we will look at the history of social media, the positive influences it has on business, communication, etc., as well as some negative effects like body shaming, cyberbullying and more.