Is Social Media Doomed?

In my Consumer Behavior class last week, I had to write a paper about social media. In that paper, I had to explain what role social media plays in my life and if I anticipate any changes in the way that social media operates today. In my answer, I responded that social media plays a huge role in my life. This is because social media is where I get all my information no matter what the information is. The last question was if I thought social media’s days were numbered.

I said yes and that is scary, but 100% true. Everything changes so why wouldn’t social media? Social media could potentially not be the number one method of communication anymore. I’ve tried to look up positive information about social media, but a lot of the articles are stating that social media’s growth is not doing very well. An article from The Guardian called Peak social media? Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat fail tomake new friends by Mark Sweney explains a little bit about this occurrence.

 In Snapchat’s case, it seems that they are not doing too well with users. After reading this I thought it was odd because so many people use it to communicate. Yet, I can see it going out of popularity because the changes that they have made aren’t getting the attention of new members. Sweney stated that “Snapchat- falling into line behind Facebook and Twitter- has become the latest social network to report declining user numbers in its half-year results”. Personally, I have stopped using most social media platforms as much as I have in the past few years. This is including Snapchat, I never found myself a huge fan of Snapchat, to begin with. I never really liked the idea of having a streak or my messages disappear. Some people love it, but I only use it to read Daily Mail and watch my friend's stories. I don’t use it as my main communication method. As I think about it I don’t use Instagram or Facebook as much anymore either. It is definitely from the lack of privacy as well as the awful redesigns that happen when creators update the apps.

            From these statistics, social media doesn’t look like it has a good future, yet in this article, they are only talking about these three platforms. Since I have been using Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter less I have started using Tik Tok way more. I feel like that is what is happening a lot throughout the younger generations. Do you think that social media is doomed? Do you think Tik Tok will take over until the next best app?

Traversing the media landscape in the age of fake... everything, including impartiality.

This week we talked about journalism in the digital world, and I was reminded of the many "fakes" we were exposed to in this class: deepfakes, fake social media accounts, fake premises of romance in online dating, and the good old classic, fake news.

Interestingly, I was also reminded of a Sidore lecture I filmed for Plymouth State's Communication's Honor Society, LPH. It was a lecture by Dr. Gregory Samuels on promoting critical thinking through media & racial literacy in an era of fake news. As a presenter, he allegedly took the stance of an authorized and impartial figure.

Spoiler alert: he didn't.

While I had no problem with the statistics and methodology utilized in Dr. Samuels' research, I do find an irony in his criticism of many news outlets as setting a predetermined agenda by selectively covering stories that fit their point of views and selectively presenting facts that fit their beliefs, only to do the exact same things they did.

Throughout his presentation, Dr. Samuels used many examples of well-known cases of white policemen's brutality against African Americans, which effectively told his side of the story. However, not even once throughout his presentation did he make an attempt to look beyond white people's faults to find other contributing factors that lead to racial tensions in the US. Not even once did he mention how a significant portion of social unrest between Caucasians and African Americans can be attributed to how African Americans usually top the chart in committed crimes by race and ethnicity. Another big elephant in the room he was unwilling to touch was how the majority of crimes and mistreatment committed against African Americans are by OTHER African Americans. Racism is, in fact, much bigger and more complicated than any viewpoint provided by the experience of a single ethnicity. Thus, no one deserves to take an authorized stance of impartiality.

I do not, under any shape or form, wish to undermine Dr. Samuels' research or invalidate his experience as a minority living in the US. However, through this example, I want to prove a simple but often ignored point: just because a piece of information isn't considered "fake" does NOT mean it's proven impartial. As a matter of fact, I believe that no media literature can be considered impartial, and every news article carries an agenda. Coming from a country where every news outlet is controlled by the government to promote their nationalistic agenda, I personally feel that the concept of news driven by agendas is still fairly alien to the US. This is a conclusion stemming from my observation of how little an average news consumer is willing to examine the condition under which a piece of news is recorded.

Staying true to my words, I'll wear my agenda on my sleeve: I'm an anti-communist, and extreme socialism skeptic who believes in the social construction of technology. Because of my skepticism towards most things, I believe that conspiracy theorist is a derogatory term used to invalidate a group of people with a tainted reputation created by a many ill-informed individuals. I'm also a Southeast Asian food supremacist, and thinks that mac and cheese tastes disgusting.

Let me know what you guys think. Do you agree or disagree with the notion that every news article carries an agenda? Why or why not?

What Will We Do Without Instagram Likes????

As I was scrolling through Facebook a couple days ago, I saw a link that someone shared to their timeline. The title of the article was "The CEO of Instagram is taking away likes". My first reaction to that was "Oh no, why?" I was confused as to why they wanted to take away likes from Instagram. I thought about it for a while and my opinion changed. I realized that by doing this will be beneficial for  people. Its time to live in a world again where our focus doesn't revolve around likes. I am sick having this thought in the back of my mind that my social media isn't "good" enough. I feel embarrassed even saying that. I go through my Instagram and look and see how many likes each photo gets and if a photo doesn't have enough likes, I will archive it. Instagram users will be experiencing an app without the focus on likes and I think this is truly going to be the best for people. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram decided to hide likes to followers for a little bit. He is doing it as a social experiment to see how people react to not seeing likes on their pictures. Living in a world without likes? I cant relate. Ever since middle school, that I can remember, likes have been a big influence for not just me but peers in my classes. Social medias biggest flaw is obsession with how many likes you get on your photo or status which is why Adam is trying to make a point and disappearing likes from photos for a couple months to create less pressurized society.
https://www.newsweek.com/instagram-ceo-announces-likes-will-disappear-us-accounts-starting-next-week-1470755

What makes me think in the back of my mind about Instagram taking away likes is, what is all of these Instagram influencers going to do? Their job is to post and promote brands on Instagram, they practically live off of likes. What are they going to do now? There is definitely people out there who are making thousands of dollars off of likes on their Instagram posts. What also makes me think  is the people who buy/bought their likes and followers are the ones who are the fools now. All of those influencers must feel stupid knowing they wasted all of their money for fake accounts to give them clout. All of this is about clout and doing posts for the "people" and catering to their likes. What I mean by that is they try and get as much attention as they possibly can to please everyone. The goal is to get attention to their posts and how many likes they get on your picture is important for them. People are obsessed with the number of likes each of their pictures gets and taking away likes on Instagram is going to be a culture shock for most. We will just have to wait and see how our society reacts to this.

Social Media Age Restriction

This past week while we were talking about Privacy in class, we watched Terms and Conditions may apply (2013). In one of the scenes, it showed a session in court where they talked about how kids under the age requirement are signing up for social media accounts. This was a shock to me even though I have done it myself. When I was younger I wanted a Facebook account so badly, but I wasn’t old enough. I signed up anyway and got away with it. At that time I believe I was 11 years old and you have to be at least 13 years old to have one. In my case, nothing bad ever came from it, other than some embarrassing posts from middle school.

I read an article called 3 Reasons Why Social Media Age Restrictions Matter by Diana Graber. This article was interesting to read because I have never thought in depth about this subject matter. Graber goes over the 3 reasons in great detail some of it can feel like common sense. Although, I don’t think a lot of people realize that it isn’t completely safe for children under the age requirement to have social media accounts. This is a big concern, to say the least.

This is an excerpt from Graber that gives a lot of information about the age requirement for social media:

“The minimum age to open an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Kik, and Snapchat is 13. Vine, Tinder, and Yik Yak it’s 17. YouTube requires account holders to be 18, but a 13-year-old can sign up with parent’s permission. Despite these clearly stated and published age restrictions, large and growing numbers of children 12 and under are using social media networks often with their parent’s knowledge and consent.”

This can cause a bunch of different issues because even though parents have the knowledge and gave them consent they are not watching what they are doing on this social media 24/7. That creates an even bigger issue like Diana Garber has said in her article children’s personal information can be at risk. If they are young enough they might not know what is right and wrong to post on social media, and this can lead to a lot of serious problems. They could add their birthday, home address, or where they go to school, which can hinder their safety. The next reason kids under the age requirement shouldn’t have social media is because “children under 13 don’t have the same hardware upstairs to make smart decisions online”. Graber throws in facts about how at 12-years-old it is very hard for a kid to understand their actions online can have large consequences. Graber’s last point is that “Lying is just plain wrong”. This one is a given because we are taught to not lie, regardless of where they are doing it. Which in the end can cause more problems in their future if they get away with it when they are younger.

After reading this, I do understand why it is an issue and why I probably shouldn’t have had a Facebook account when I was younger than the required age. I honestly didn’t think a lot about that before, because I knew not to put any personal information online. It could have been very bad if I did. Do you think it is wrong for someone under the age requirements to have social media? Do you think it’s okay that the social media platform creators know about famous kids on social media that are under the age requirement but don’t kick them off?

Just Look Up

The first time I watched this video was about 4 years ago. It came out April 25th, 2014, and has reached over 61 million views. I watch it pretty often to remind myself of the world we live in, and I think everyone should give it a watch. It is called Look Up by Gary Turk. It relates perfectly to just about everything we have ever talked about in this class, and if you have not seen it, I am happy I can share this with you.

The video starts off with stating we have hundreds of friends but yet, we are still lonely. Our phones, laptops, and media we call social are anything but, when we open our computers and it's the door we shut. Have you ever thought of that? We call all these platforms social media, but are they really social when it is us who are isolating ourselves to use them? We have forgotten how to speak to one another and make eye contact we need. Gary has so many amazing lines in this video but one of those are, “Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too, but no one will be if a group message will do”. Group messages via texting have taken over our connections. My friends and I will sit in the same room, and group chat with each other without speaking out loud. We need to just talk to one another, and learn to coexist again. We have all been taught not to talk to strangers, but not all strangers are bad. It is ok to talk to a stranger on your commute to work or school, you are not weird for doing so. 

Another point Turk brings up is the fact that small children are going just about everywhere with smartphones, or iPads. We constantly see children out to eat being occupied with games and shows they can watch on one small device. Turk states, “It’s not likely you’ll make worlds greatest dad if you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad”. This line genuinely makes me sad. My younger brother is six years old, and has grown up playing games on all of our phones. I have taught him to go outside and play, but nothing makes him happier than being inside and sitting on the couch with multiple games to choose from on a device.

We have become a generation of idiots, smart phones, and dumb people, as Turk would say. Although I don't believe we are idiots or dumb people, we just have to rely on the internet to give us the answers we are unaware of. Google, Bing, Yelp, and more, are at our fingertips and teaching us more everyday. The only way our smartphones are making us dumb, is the fact we spend more time looking down than realizing what is going on around us. A piece of advice Gary Turk offers us is, “So look up from your phone, shut down the display, take in your surroundings, make the most of today”. This is something we all need to do. We all need to take in our surroundings and make the most of all of our days. We don't live forever so we need to stop wasting our time. Today, I checked my screen time on my iPhone, and in the past week I have spent 15 hours and 54 minutes. That is almost one whole day. 

To end this video Turk reminds us, "When your too busy looking down you don't see the chances you miss". Look up from your phones and fill your time with real life connections and interactions. Make your friends feel real, and your family feel loved. Make these eye to eye contact connections and stop group messaging. I am challenging myself this week to decrease my screen time, but giving more people my love, than a like.

I hope you all take 4 minutes and 58 seconds out of your day to watch this video and change in a way. I hope it opens your eyes as much as it opened mine. Watch it more than once and think about every word he says. Look up from your phone and live today!