The article “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?” spoke about something very interesting. “More conservative educators view social technologies as a product of the devil, bound to do nothing but corrupt and destroy todays youth.” This quote illustrates that the old school way of teaching. Using Print media are far more effective in learning. Unlike the new age of education that uses digital media more often creating a concern of shortening attention spans or diminishing the ability to properly write by hand or spell. This argument has its merits. But what can we do if the whole world has accepted this new way of media. Instead of focusing on the sphere of concern and complaining and trying to change something you have no control over. Nothing will get done.  Rather we should focus on teaching our youth to utilize digital media to their advantage in a world that has gone digital. This is the sphere of influence.

Reading these articles, I realize how attached and obsessed we are when it comes to social media. Social media has become a part of our everyday lives and some people cannot live without it. I mean that literally because social media actually pays some people’s bills.  This week, we are discussing online communities and groups. Online communities have been around since forever. We have many different online communities such as Instagram, facebook, youtube and reddit. There are pros and cons to these online communities. I believe there are more pros than cons. Sometimes, people do not feel accepted in real life, but these online communities make people feel like they are accepted.

These articles speak on how connected todays youth is with social media. In the article titled Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What? It says “More conservative educators view social technologies as a product of the devil, bound to do nothing but corrupt and destroy todays youth.” I found that interesting because sometimes I do find myself saying that sometimes social media can be the devil. I only say this because of how distracting it can be. There would be times when I would say “soon as I get home from work I’m going to start my assignment.” Meanwhile when I get home I end up on social media for 1-2 hours. Then I get mad at myself and think about how much work I could have got done in those two hours.

As much as I think technology could be the devil, it does have some good perks to it. Especially when it comes to groups. If I’m understanding correctly, I think google doc would be a good example of the way technology enables us to work in groups. You can do a whole group project using google doc without even having to meet up with your group.

Continue reading

I found the readings to be interesting because they’re relevant to the times. The readings touched on the positives and negatives of being able to so quickly and seamlessly create groups and communities online.  In my own personal experience I found the ease of gathering people and getting in touch with people to be very helpful. For example I started my own blog a few weeks ago called http://panelsandhoodies.com I thought it would be very hard to promote and get people to read the material, it is, but with the help of twitter it made it just a little bit easier. I posted one article about a favorite comic book of mine and shared it to twitter the writer of that comic shared my post to his page and it literally reached thousands of people. People who felt similarly to me shared the post and interacted with me. It was completely unexpected but it showed me the power of social media and how it can be used to gather people

Groups and communities have been around since the internet came around. Social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram  are used to support these groups. One of the common themes of the articles was Privacy and Public, with these sites it is very hard for anyone on these sites to have a private life. In the article by Boyd he explains  “Today’s teenagers are being socialized into a society complicated by shifts in the public and private.New social technologies have altered the underlying architecture of social interaction and information distribution”. He believes that this is the challenge, teens and young adults are growing up with in this change in society but in his words ” most adults are panicking. They do not understand the shifts that are taking place and, regardless, they don’t like what they’re seeing. ” These groups that have given their users a way to stay connected to each other and usually these groups are made up of people who share a common interest.  Groups like fan girls their common interest would be characters from a movie or a boy band, their platforms are usually Facebook,twitter, and Instagram. In the article “Abundance in Scarcity” they mentioned a story about who brought guitars to Hawaii and the Hawaiians had no idea how to use it. They developed their own ways of using it. Reddit is a good example of what this reading is trying to explain.  Its a good example because in the website Reddit there is a part where someone gives a story prompt with a lot of restrictions and guidelines  and the commentators have to be super creative while following the guidelines. The last article was very interesting for me because it brought up a great point that, he explains that if you were at a party and you are having a terrible time, you do not just walk out. Even if you already decided that the party just isn’t  for you any more. Other people at this party are feeling the same thing but no one leaves til that one person decides that this party isn’t for them and actually gets up that when everyone grabs their coats and actually leaves. We make our own decision but do not execute  them until we see more people doing it. Then we realize that it is socially acceptable.

All readings touch base on what I actually agree with and consider to be for the most part true. Social media has definitely taken over a big portion of my generations life, the younger generations, and even mine. I find myself with my phone in my hand probably for the most of my day. I don’t use Facebook any more but I would either check through my Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. I can also agree that most of my communication with friends, family, or just mutual friends comes from social media. The times ill have actual in person interaction would be if I am  on campus, at work , or just have spare time to see my friends and family. Another thing that can be seen as a negative about social media is they way people perceive things. For example, many trends are seen through social media and those who have what others want can make those who do not have it feel insecure and feel like they need to be on the same wave as others.  However, people also do act one way on social media than they do in person which can be deceiving.

Social media is not all bad in my opinion. A great thing that can come out of Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube are the connections you can make and meeting new people. Many people have been discovered on these apps for posting the things they post. For example, people can make money off of being themselves, sharing what they want to share online, grabbing the right attention and making money off of doing what they actually love. Even though this is a positive way to use social media cites, you will find those who abuse those apps in which creates the reasoning  for the pessimistically thinking of social media.

All articles I believe speak well on how we are so attached to social media and what happens through social media. Social media is something of an addiction. I agree with the articles and how its changing teenagers and how they interact with others. Since everything is through the internet you don’t see as much in-person interaction. I totally agree because I have been finding myself using social media a lot more. It is something I would like to stop using. Social media has changed peoples perspective and how they see people. It has also changed the way they see themselves. They try to live the lifestyles that either celebrities or famous people on social media live.

Teenagers now communicate differently they decide to use social media to put themselves out there.  Now there is so many more features you can use to put yourself out there which it has also changed people’s privacy. Now not only your friends can see it but millions of people can see it with the way you can communicated now. You can share something about someone who lives in a different country because of what they posted. It is so easy to get things around and for it to go viral now. The articles suggest that social media can become a bad thing for people as well. I honestly agree because when it comes to social media and these online commmunities you have to fit into there social norms.

Now there are social norms that must be followed and if not then you wont be noticed or considered apart of the community. Social media has taken over peoples intake on different situations and how people are starting to feel. They see other opinions and start to follow them as well and add how they feel on the situation. With social media there is no privacy because everything is put out there for everyone to see.

This is a really good topic especially in this day and time of the popular social media. Social Media has sucked me in because I am normally a very private person. When I first joined Facebook back in 2009 I bee lined straight to the privacy settings to make sure I was private as I could be. But then I soon found out you really aren’t that private even though your profile states private. This is why I was always afraid of hackers. Even though your page is private doesn’t mean that someone can hack into your account. That is why it is scary for teenagers because they love to be public which makes it worse for hackers. I was once hacked before at a coffee shop in the suburbs through the shady connection of their Wi-Fi. I had to wipe my laptop clean after that incident.

So it really is something when teens navigate social media because the majority of them aren’t private nor do they care. Social Networks are not really private they are public. There is always a way to find this “private” person. You can find the private person through mutual friends online on social network site Facebook. Unless you are blocked you can still see ‘private’ people through comments and tags and through direct messaging. So, how private are you?

Teenagers rule social media and most of them are public online as they have no fear and want to be found. I have cringed year after year watching my son’s Facebook profile stay public. I have my son’s pass code still I changed it to private one time and he changed it right back to public. Go figure-but this is the truth. In the reading, Social Network Sites: Public Private or what the author spoke of a female teenager online, “She is also quite likely to keep her profile visible to anyone so that she can find others in her peer group (boyd 2006/Pg. 2) Teenagers need to be found. They need to be liked and they like to be accepted so social networks is a breeding ground for these types of groups. It’s like being in a gang meaning belonging to something great.      Therefore, if that desire is strong there is no need to be private because everyone wants to be found. The reading also stated, “Social network sites are yet another form of public space.” (Boyd 2007, Pg.2) This quote proves my point as to how people view social networking sites. It is just like hanging out at the park, movies or for kids and teenagers hanging out at the mall or the cool place where teenagers and tweens meetup after school. Everyone including adults are on their cellphones connected to some group on social media. For myself, Facebook is a social media site for family and I mean all my family on all sides and in all states. This is the only social media site that I can find everyone if need be.

One of the unfortunate thing is that since social networking is really public if teenagers or adults are looking for work they better make sure their online profiles are squeaky clean because a lot of employers can get access to their profiles and find out something negative that can kill their chances in getting a job even if the applicant think that they were doing online was innocent. With regard to hacking this is an invasion of privacy along with employers looking into prospective clients but unfortunately, we can’t do anything about it. Social Networks sites are not public and a lot of times unsafe.