As I strolled through my facebook this morning I began to think about what I was looking at and how that affects what I think about during the day. For example yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker put a four month ban on all vapes and vape products, and shit hit the fan. College kids like us are freaking out about where they are going to get their pods, some people who rely on marijuana for medical reasons are worried about what method they will switch too, some of my old high school teachers are in glory that they will not have to monitor bathroom use for clouds coming out from the stalls. In the midst of these posts I started thinking about not just what I was reading but also what I was no longer reading about.
Everyone is on facebook posting about Juuls today. Some people are making political stances on how the government is reacting to vapes but not to gun laws which are killing people at a much larger rate. Some people are posting about the young girl, Greta Thunberg, who is doing extraordinary work to save our planet. But overall, I saw posts about vapes. And yesterday around campus most conversations there for were about vapes. From a Communication standpoint I had to think of this as a technical deterministic situation. The news is showing me vapes, so I am thinking about vapes and talking about vapes. I continued to stroll through my facebook, and today I did not see a single post about how ICE or Jeffrey Epstein’s evils which had been a huge part of my Facebook news feed until then. All it took was a social media blast to change what many of us where thinking and talking about both face to face and through other mediums. What do you think about how what media is presented to you changes your daily interactions?
I totally agree with you about how the ban of vape products has effected our society as a whole. I think it is funny how you mention about how your high school teacher will not have to monitor the bathroom anymore with the ban of vape products. Vape prodcuts have appealed to not just 18 year olds but a younger generation too. Personally, I'm disgusted that my 14 year old sister is into vaping prodcuts and she's so young. What can I do? I try to help her and I told my parents about everything and she just still always finds a way to get her hands on a stupid juul. I completly agree with you how the governement should be focusing on the important things like gun violence rather than vape products because mass shootings are killing more people than we can count, while there has been a handful reports on children in the hospital because of juuling. I really think America needs to start focusing on the important crisis's in this world instead focusing on a nicotine device that slowly, slowly kills you, when there is legit shootings that occur every single day and thousands of innocent people are dying.
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