There's a Hidden Valley Ranch party on Snapchat! (and the adults are infiltrating it)

Let me start by saying that "older adults" (because technically I'm an adult, but does anyone really think college students can handle themselves like adults?) can, at least theoretically, be on any social media platform they want (as long as they are able to accept the technological differences and roadblocks). However,  as danah boyd points out in her "Teenagers Living & Learning with Social Media" video, once adults -  in the form of parents, bosses, recruiters, employers, or otherwise - the original group of people often migrates to a different space. As with Friendster and MySpace, so too with Snapchat.

You see, I like Snapchat. It's easy to use and helps me keep in touch with friends: both the friends I see every day and the friends I don't see often at all, whether it's because of college or work or whatever other aspects of life get in the way. Within the past year, though, I've had adults add me on Snapchat. No, not the ones who could potentially be trying to find me and kill me (although that's definitely another concern about the app); these are friends of my parents, well-meaning Gen-Xers who just want to keep up with what's going on. As well-meaning as they are, though, they do "ruin the party," to continue boyd's metaphor.

"So if they 'ruin the party,' why did you let them add you in the first place?"

Because I felt bad saying no. Boyd examines this concept too, in relation to accepting friends on MySpace; when applied to Snapchat and with older adults, the social guilt doesn't disappear just because of the age gap. It's not necessarily that I don't like them, it's more that I now have to censor myself even more than I was censoring myself before (although even before they came along, I didn't post on my story very much). They're part of the invisible audience boyd mentions: instead of just showing my life to my friends, I now have to show it through my "mature adult" filter. The collapsed context makes me have to deal with not only my friends, but also people who know my family and think of me a certain way ("good girl," straight, doesn't procrastinate, blah blah blah). Of course, when Snapchat introduced private stories, many people's similar problems were relieved, but I'm either too lazy to make a private story or too afraid - although of what, I'm not sure. The private story being discovered? The adults being offended? The world ending because I changed one small thing about how I present myself?

It's probably better in the long run. I guess if I didn't have to think through that filter, I might post some of the dumber things I do and put my chances of getting a good job in jeopardy (hello, searchability). I suppose I should be a little grateful, but there's one small thing: whenever I go somewhere with my mom, one of her friends always slides up and makes a comment on whatever picture I posted, and it always has the underlying tone of "why didn't you (or more accurately, your mom) bring me with you?" and usually ends up getting in touch with my mom and being upset with her. Of course, this plays into how social network sites foster jealousy - MySpace friend ranking, anyone?


P.S. Happy 21st birthday Google! I forgot you were older than me (art from google.com).

Labor Reinstating Technology

Labor Reinstating Technology

During a time of continuously growing technology, there is always a constant curiosity about where our futures are headed.  As technology advances, more and more services provided for us are done by machines that have taken over jobs done by humans.  This is why technology can be seen as detrimental to the contemporary workforce. If routine tasks can be completed flawlessly by computer algorithms rather than paying a human to do it, a lot of businesses are going to take advantage of this.

So what does this mean for the future of these jobs?  In an article written by Marcus Casey and Sarah Nzau , “Robots kill jobs.  But they create jobs, too”, the authors shed light on the future of automation it’s influence on the workforce.  Casey and Nzau explain the differences between technology that replaces jobs, and labor reinstating technology.

Labor reinstating technology is automation that create new tasks for humans. This includes computer technicians, software developers, IT technicians, etc.  Although we have seen technology replace a lot of jobs historically, we are also entering a time where our society is dominated by technology. There have been a lot of jobs created from the growth of our digital age.

It is important that we take into consideration the significance of labor reinstating technology.  As the digital age continues to grow, more jobs will be lost to technology. Casey and Nzau present the significance of public policy encouraging the development of technology that will lead to more jobs and higher wages.

These are some of the ways we can enforce the development of labor reinstating technology directly from the article: 

Technology will continue to replace jobs, but they will also create jobs in unpredictable ways as technology advances.  A lot of people believe that there is a fear of technology continuing to replace more jobs, leaving less and less jobs available for future generations.  This seems to be an unrealistic fear, given the amount of new jobs that have been created from AI.

Online Counseling

After watching Sherry Turkle’s TedTalk Connected but Alone and reading Sam Knapton’s blog post about technological loneliness I looked up why people feel so lonely when online. Of course, it has a lot to do with wanting to be online and not having a lot of human connection. When I was looking this up I saw an article called Are YouFeeling Lonely? Online Counseling is Here to Help.

I have seen these types of counseling all over the internet. YouTubers have sponsored ads on their channels and promote it on other social media. A lot of people when they were in high school/now (in college) make friends online whether it is by video games, discord, or chatrooms. Yet, loneliness can be found whether or not they have friends in person or if they are online. In the article, Nicola Kirkpatrick said: “The two main mental health disorders associated with loneliness are depression and social anxiety.” I thought this was eye-opening because Turkle spoke about people feeling this sense of loneliness and anxiety which was connected to being online.

Turkle spoke about how people feel like nobody was listening. When people feel that way they then turn to social media like Facebook and Twitter, yet they don’t feel any better. I understand what online counseling can do for some people. Yet, is this enabling them to stay by themselves rather than going out and talking to someone in person? Could online counseling be adding to their loneliness? One thing that might be appealing to our generation is being able to open up to a professionally trained stranger by writing to them or video chatting them online instead of leaving their comfort zone. I keep asking myself is that as beneficial as someone going into a counseling center and talking to somebody in person?

I think it will help to an extent and then it is up to the client, yet that is the case with in-person counseling as well. Although, I feel like there could be more help with in-person because the client will be getting out of their comfort zone and off of the internet. They could also come to a point where group therapy could be beneficial to them too. Group therapy would generally be in person and that is a great way to know that you are not alone, meet new people, and make friends. I believe that both of them have great aspects, but in-person would help a little bit more. Yet, more and more apps come out, there are a greater amount of counseling apps. Having more is wonderful, but when is it going to be enough? Are we going to make an app for everything we need that is there for us in real life just because it would be easier?

Is Reality TV Reality?

A few weeks ago our class, “Social Media: Technology and Culture”, we watched the documentary “We Live in Public”. The documentary highlighted a technological experimenter Josh Harris. He was an extremely odd man who liked to dress up on clowns as well as take on extreme social projects. Two of which were internet based reality TV shows, before reality TV shows. His projects were in the 90’s, before Paris Hilton created the fame of the Kardashians and before MTV made it’s arguably last success in The Jersey Shore. In his first major experiment he convinced men and women to come live in the shelter of his creation where they would be filmed constantly. They partied, shot guns, went someone crazy and lived in complete public. The second was him and his live in girlfriend who decided to put their entire lives out there for anyone to watch. After watching this documentary I went home with it hot on my mind considering all the things that were just simply wrong with the level of openness that Harris had created. When I got home, my roommates were watching The Jersey Shore. We had recently invested in a Roku and now had access to watch out favorite middle school documentaries from the beginning. First of all, highly recommend doing that it is so much more funny now that we have grown out of thinking Snookie was cool. Second of all, the thought came up in my mind about how much the show was scripted, or pushed to be a certain type of entertaining. I started thinking that the difference between Harris’ shows where people may have acted different due to knowing the camera was there, but having no push to say or do anything specific, his second show where internet viewers may have written in on the chat and instigated things asked questions, and the Jersey Shore which obviously has some hidden writers behind it. I googled my question and found the article, “'Bachelor' creator claims '70 to 80 percent' of reality TV is fake” on Today.com. The cation says it all. A creator of a major reality TV show with 8 million viewers came out and admitted that the shows are majority scripted. In the article, Mike Flies, Bachelor creator, claims that his prior work with the show “House Hunters” he learned that much of the action on the popular series is setup and reenacted for effect. He then explains that although reality tv shows today do have orchestrated moments created by writers and producers, fans also play a large role, similar to Harris and his girlfriend being influenced to act different based on fans writing into their chats. Viewers are in fact on Twitter, SnapChat and Facebook, reacting to what they see on their favorite reality TV shows. Often, this gives the shows ideas of what the viewers want to see and would be most surprised to see. 

Relating back to my original question, is reality TV Reality? Was it ever reality even back when Harris started out the idea with simple experiments. I would argue that everyone is influenced by the people around them and their input, no matter what medium the influence is being voiced through.

3D Interactive Interface & The Evolution of Technology

This week, our exploration of social media and culture took us deeper into the history of the internet’s early days, which was touched upon earlier this semester during Josh Harris’ tale in “We Live In Public”. Again, we came across yet another extreme viewpoint regarding the evolution of technology in the podcast “What does technology want?”, similar to that of Harris’.

Intrigued by such uninhibited passion, I decided to look further into what specific direction the internet and technology as a whole can take from now on. One very notable theme I’ve found is the gradual transition from 2D to 3D in many aspects of technology, especially communication.

Below are two clips from roughly 2008, from two popular products of entertainment: MCU’s first Iron Man, and Heavy Rain, and Heavy Rain, an interactive drama and action-adventure game developed by Quantic Dream. Both of which predicted an advanced forms of interaction with 3D holograms which seemed implausible at the time but are becoming more and more of a possibility:

-       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D156TfHpE1Q

-       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga22yQ1e7Jo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d59O6cfaM0

The third video clip was an ongoing research by Microsoft back in 2016 on a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed, and transmitted anywhere in the world in real-time called Holoportation. If you access the link in the video, you can see that Holoportation have since become mobile, allowing users to transfer a 3d hologram of oneself to their conversation partner even while sitting on a moving vehicle.

Said research, coupled with other emerging virtual reality products such as the reputable Oculus Rift gaming headset, makes me quite positive that Tony Stark’s tinkering with his 3D hologram models isn’t as far fetched as we all thought more than 10 years ago. Let me know what you guys think in the comments: do you think interacting with 3D holograms in real time will become a thing? What other trends have you noticed within the last decade?

These critiques are as old as the alphabet

Something that has been repeated throughout of classes is that as much as things change nothing is new. Chapter 2 of Nancy K. Baym’s book, Personal Connections In the Digital Age, compare the words of Plato who thought writing things down would cause forgetfulness and Nick Carr who thought that the instant gratification of technology is deteriorating our attention span. As technology progresses, it is in our nature, and especially our major to compare things to how they used to be. 

My comment on the blog “Avoiding Technology: Is it possible” I began to think about how I used technology as a kid, how I use it now, and how kids use it now. I wrote that, “Back then, in fourth grade, technological life had not encapsulated my life like it has now. In those days the highest piece of technologies we cared about were our nintendogs, portable DVD players and the fancy new Smart Boards that all the teachers raved about, but none of them seemed to know how to work. Technology was not in our back pocket yet”. This thought that technology has changed so much since fourth grade made me begin to think about the advancements with multiple perspectives

First I thought about it with a technological determinism perspective. We still played outside as kids all the time when we went to dinner we either behaved or we were dragged out on time out. We always had to ask how to use the school office phone and were so excited when our grandparents rented video cameras. These days children have Ipads that distract them into behavior at dinner tables, they all know exactly how to use technology sometimes even more than we go and they must just be staring at screens all day right? Are the machines changing them? Will those darn kids these days grow up without learning good behavior or social skills that they need? My thinking on that after reading is kinda, sorta. We had TV and the generations before that had radio. There are always changes in technology and they will always be open for critique. I remember doing homework on different things on the news and other educational Television shows as well as having computer classes in elementary school. Folks from older generations may have thought these things were going to melt our brains in the same way I started critiquing the fourth graders these days with their Fortnight and Kindles. There is yet one example of things changing, but not so much.

Next I tried to think of myself and children these days in relation to technology with a Social Construction perspective. This means that society changes technology. I was thinking about the Razor Phones and Ipods coming out and how our “attractive peers” as Baym calls them, all had them and made us all want them. Then came phones with Ipods right on them and we all had to have them. I thought this is a classic case of supply and demand. As people want certain things, and think certain things are cool and impressive, they are improved and created more. From a child's standpoint, if I tell the child I am babysitting that something is the dumbest thing ever, they are going to refuse to try it and tell their friends it's the dumbest thing ever. But when fortnight came out, they said it was the coolest thing ever and the company continued to improve and the kids were more and more addicted to it. It goes on like this.

Overall Technology really can only be viewed with a “social Shaping Perspective. This is a middle ground for the two. Technology becomes part of our lives and it grows with society. As much and as fast as things change, it's all comparable. As Dr Mary Elizabeth Ray said in class, “These critiques are as old as the alphabet”.

We Should Quit Social Media

Would you say social media is a fundamental technology? If you ask Cal Newport,  he will prove to you that it is not. Cal Newport is a Ted Talk presenter of, Why You Should Quit Social Media. After watching, Connected, but Alone?, presented by Sherry Turkle, I decided to take a closer look into other Ted Talks that can help us relate our lives to social media. Why You Should Quit Social Media, was eye opening to me for three reasons. Cal Newport is a human who has never been connected to a social media account. He is a valuable example of why staying off social media is not going to harm us. Cal, taught me why we are better off without social media by contradicting three objectives that he has heard over his years. 

The first objective is that social media is a fundamental technology. Social media is in fact not a fundamental technology, but simply just a source of entertainment. This objective is nothing more than a preference. Saying social media is a fundamental technology is no different than Cal's example of, "I prefer to watch cable series, opposed to network television series". Social media is an unsavory source of entertainment, that we become addicted to and think of as a fundamental source. 

The second objective is that social media is vital to peoples success in the 21st century economy. People believe that others won't know who they are, or won't be able to find them, and that opportunity won't come their way because of this. Newport explains to us that the professional world does not connect with people due to their social media for opportunity. The professional work world is looking for people with a valuable deep work ethic. Many people nowadays do not have that ability to produce something rare, and valuable that the market will notice. Considering social media is easy to replicate, developing a social media is no longer valued. As Cal states, "Any 16 year old with a smartphone can do that". For example, today our professional field is looking for someone who can write a legal brief that can change a case. 

The third objective is that social media is harmless and fun. Some claim they don't use it much, or if they don't check in on it they may miss out on something. We all are aware social media can be fun, but we are also aware that it can and does cause harm. Social media is known for being addictive, and appealing all the time to our brains. This addiction is harming our attention span, which can harm us in our professional lives. Due to social media, our attention is spending a large amount of time in a fragmented state. Every time we log onto our social media to check in, we are putting out attention else where, and actually permanently reducing our attention span. We are also aware that social media causes psychological harm. It is a place where we feel lonely and isolated. The constant exposure to our friends positive post can cause depression on ourselves. Most importantly, social media is the home of anxiety. Newport went and spoke to college campus counseling centers and learned that most explosive anxiety disorders are actually due to our smartphones and social media. 

After watching and really listening to this Ted Talk, I have a better understanding of why I personally need to out down the social media. Quitting social media is like detoxing from a drug. It may make you anxious and uncomfortable but once that is over, you will feel so much better. I need to be kind to myself and give myself a break from this, as Newport would call it, "nonsense". I am in a state of my life where I have lots of free time when I am not in class, that is consumed by social media. I think it would help my well being and self confidence if I did take a step down from my smartphone and pick up a book instead. I did just buy a book about self love and better yourself, so this semester, starting now, I am making a vow to myself to unplug every once and a while. 

I challenge all of you to watch the TED Talk I provided, and tell me that does not make you want to just unplug. There are people out there who can do it, and I believe it is benefiting them in more ways than we know.

Technological Loneliness

After watching Sherry Turkle's TED Talk Connected, but Alone? in class, Turkle said something that got me thinking about my own life: "...the moment that people are alone, even for few a seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device...Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved". This resonated with me in a very personal way. Being the shy, quiet kid in elementary, middle, and high school has posed many problems for me. It's always been hard to make real friendships because I never wanted to start a conversation. Better yet, I didn't know how to start a conversation with someone.

When I decided to go to college, I thought everything would change and I was going to be more social. However, entering college with a boyfriend back home 3 hours away who was manipulative and controlling gave me a new meaning to the word 'lonely'. I was manipulated into thinking that I needed to be talking on the phone with him, on Skype with him or texting him 24/7 because we were the only ones who were there for each other. When I got out of that relationship, I realized that outside of my family, I had no close friendships with anyone because everyone who tried to be friends with me, I had pushed away for that boy.

Once he was gone, I felt like I was completely by myself while I was here at Plymouth State. I would talk with my family back home on the phone, but other than them I had no connections to anyone. I went to classes alone, went to meals alone, did homework alone. I felt like an outlier, which was isolating. I no longer had that person on the other side of the internet connection to help ignore how lonely I was. It caused a great deal of anxiety and stress for me, especially since I didn't have a car; I was unable to go home when I wanted to and escape the loneliness I felt on campus.

My fall semester junior year, I decided to do an exchange program and I went to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Again, I had the thought of everything changing and that I would suddenly come out of my shell and make a bunch of new friends; it didn't. Well, not immediately.

I spent four months out there, with no one that I had ever met within 2,000 miles of me.The first couple of weeks, the loneliness was the worst it had ever been. Most of the time, I was in my room doing my homework alone and texting with family back home, or I was working/in classes. I would call my mom whenever I could to make it feel like I had that connection with someone. She would tell me to give it a few more weeks, that I would find at least one friend. But once we hung up the call, I was back to the isolated feelings that felt inescapable.

The moment I began to learn how to enjoy being alone was when I decided to take a trip to Denver, Colorado and see a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater by myself. I was still in Arizona and I had no one to go with, but I had wanted to go to Red Rocks since I was about 12 years old. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to be close enough for it to make sense to go, so I just went. It was one of the best decisions and experiences of my life.



Once I did that, I realized that I may be alone, but that doesn't mean I need be sad about it. Doing things by myself was actually fun. I didn't need to worry about other people and if they were enjoying themselves, and I didn't need to wait around for a time to work for other people. If I wanted to do something, I could just go, do it, and have fun. After time, I didn't need to be connecting over the phone with my mom everyday to feel like I had worth.

After that trip to Colorado, I started going to the movie theater by myself, I would go to meals without feeling self conscious of being the only person who didn't have someone to eat a meal with. I began just being able to be my own company and not feeling like I needed another person or a group of people to not be lonely.

Also once I began doing things by myself and not getting down about it, I began actually making friends. While I was in Arizona, I met my boyfriend, I moved apartments and had a close relationship with my roommate, which I had never had before then. It was new to me. I found myself wanting to hang out with these people, something I hadn't felt for people outside of my family since I broke up with my high school boyfriend. I had gotten so used to the sadness of being alone, then the happiness of being alone, that making friends still wasn't something I was cognitively thinking about, but I did it.

Before writing this, I had been thinking if I wanted to write a blog post and share all these personal anecdotes from my life with anyone who may decide to read this. This morning, I found an article about a photographer, Eric Pickersgill, who photographs people as if they're holding their phones during everyday activities, but their phones have been removed to show how isolated we have become from one another due to technology, even when we think we're with other people. This, again, made me start thinking about my life, and other people's lives and the influence technology has on all of us. Being "alone together" is toxic.



Being alone is okay. There is nothing wrong with not having someone to be talking with all of the time. Taking the time to be by ourselves, as in not being physically or virtually with other people, is something I think everyone should experience in a time where our phones burn holes in our pockets if they're in there for too long. For some people, it might be awkward at first, doing things that they would normally do with others by themselves. Once disconnecting from those on our phones happens more and more, it can be almost therapeutic, but that might just be the introvert in me.

I don't believe the internet is bad. I have my internet friends that I can only talk to online. Hell, even my romantic relationship is sustained because of technology like texting, video chats, etc. But maybe a limit needs to be established; designating time to get off our technology and just enjoy our own company.

What do you think? Do you like being truly alone? Have you had an experience that made you realize how alone you really were after the device was no longer an option to cover that loneliness?