Beyond the Screen:Dissecting the Realities of Life in a Digital World
Introduction:
In this era of rapid development in the digital world, digital media has a large field, which subtly changes our working life and the way we communicate. A wide range of technologies, from blockchain to augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to the Internet of Things (IoT) are all part of the digital world and are present in almost every facet of contemporary life. When we begin to understand the current state of the digital society, we will find that if we want to be very good things, to digital media must have a deeper understanding of digital media, so that we can better master. Social media has had a great impact on our culture and communication in our lives, and is so closely connected to our lives that it can be said that social media is ubiquitous in our daily lives.
Privacy Leak
Social media has become an indispensable part of daily life for a billion people around the world, but because of the rapid growth of social media has led to a major problem of privacy breaches.
A turning point in the evolution of social media was the launch of Facebook in 2004, founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommate, which revolutionised the way people connected and communicated online because of its ability to project user-generated content, as well as news and current events. Early platforms such as MySpace and Facebook introduced users to the concept of sharing personal information online, from photos and status updates to location data and contact information. While these features enhanced connectivity and a sense of community, they also exposed users to potential privacy vulnerabilities. As social media platforms have evolved and expanded their functionality, the risks to user privacy have increased. Miscreants can extrapolate people’s personal information from what they post on social media, and people’s privacy is not guaranteed.
Despite growing awareness of personal privacy and regulatory scrutiny, privacy breaches and data misuse continue to occur on a frequent basis. High-profile scandals, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal that rocked Facebook in 2018, have exposed the extent to which user data is collected, manipulated and weaponised for political and commercial purposes.
When we are facing the invasion of privacy brought about by the rapid development of the social media industry, we should also take active measures to protect our privacy, in addition to letting social media companies pay attention to customer information, we should also avoid leaking personal information ourselves to pay attention to the appearance of personal information, such as their home address, inside the photos they post on social media platforms.
Think Independently.
Public Opinion
In the digital world of today, the widespread use of digital media has changed many of the ways in which people previously commonly communicated, consumed and disseminated information. The growth of the online world has made it possible for people to access information and ideas like never before, but it has also created a worrying trend: the decline of independent thought. Because of the rapid development of the Internet, some unethical people may use it to create public opinion, and people may support the wrong side of the argument without knowing the truth, being easily led by others, losing their ability to think independently and critically, and being easily swayed by public opinion.
Engagement indicators like likes, shares, and comments are given priority by social media algorithms, frequently at the price of veracity and truth. The term “clickbait culture” describes this situation, which encourages content producers to put sensationalism ahead of substance and exacerbates the issue of misinformation.
It is not impossible to manipulate and distort public opinion, as fear-mongering, propaganda and misinformation are used to win people’s trust. In a digital society prone to a lot of false information it becomes difficult for people to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and it is easy for people to believe the wrong things and move further and further away from the truth.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We are approaching a turning point in the history of Artificial Intelligence (AI), when it is becoming more difficult to distinguish between machine intelligence and human cognition. The ability of humans to think autonomously and independently is susceptible to the influence of AI as it offers unprecedented accessibility.
Artificial Intelligence is good because it makes things easier, anticipating our needs and solving problems at the touch of a button. Artificial Intelligence has permeated every aspect of our daily lives, can help us develop better solutions, can help us collect data, and can make people more efficient. Our reliance on AI-driven solutions puts us at risk of changing from active participants in the process of critical inquiry to passive consumers of information.
A lot of pupils decide to utilise chatGPT as a learning aid. On complicated subjects, chatGPT can offer clarifications, help, and explanations. Students can engage with ChatGPT to acquire more resources or simpler explanations of concepts if they are having trouble comprehending them. This can help students gather online data more quickly. But because AI is so practical, students may become unduly dependent on it, losing their ability to critically analyse the facts and instead relying solely on the evidence provided by the AI.
While AI is very convenient, we may be complacent because it can help us solve problems faster. But prolonged use can people dependent on AI, and the ability of individuals to think independently may deteriorate. In these concerns, we should not attribute to dependence on the internet, but rather use it correctly, for example, we can use AI to enhance and improve our cognitive abilities rather than seeing it as a threat to our ability to think independently. By using AI as a tool for knowledge retrieval, analysis and synthesis, we can better understand the importance of critical thinking and intellectual curiosity.
Self-reflection
In the lesson on digital society, we learnt about the benefits and drawbacks of the rapidly evolving digital world, during which we were taught to think critically about the pros and cons to help us cope more effectively with the complexities of the digital world.
The digital society is a society in which people can obtain knowledge more easily by searching the Internet and accessing the knowledge they want to obtain, such as education, news, entertainment and other aspects of the content, people can use the Internet to communicate with more people or to get in touch with more people, and will no longer be hindered by geographic, cultural and linguistic factors, but because of the rapid development of the digital society, it has a great impact on the disadvantaged groups, such as people in poor areas. However, because of the rapid development of the digital society, it has a great impact on the disadvantaged groups, such as people in poor areas, and the gap between people has been widened. In addition, the digital society is prone to leakage of personal information, which may lead to data leakage, identity theft, or some privacy violations.
I learnt about the copyright issue of inserting images in blogs. Before, I only knew that copyrighted images cannot be used commercially, and I thought that they can be put into my posts as I like. However, through this lesson, I learnt that we can only quote copyrighted photos in our posts. I also learnt how to insert literature into my blog instead of using the traditional reference list used in writing essays. The tone of blog posts is different from that of the essays we write in our daily life. Blog posts are more colloquial and informal because they make it easier for the reader to understand what the essay is trying to convey.
I chose this course because I am personally concerned about the social media aspect so by taking this course I have gained a better understanding of this aspect. In addition to making it easier for people around the world to access knowledge at a faster pace, digital technology has allowed people to better participate in civic life, express their opinions on digital media, and meet others who share their opinions. Digital society provides us with many benefits and opportunities to promote innovation and social progress. This class teaches us how to think critically about the information we get on the internet. This course teaches us how to think critically about the information we get on the internet and not just believe what we see without evidence, but to have the ability to think independently.
Through this class it was my first time using medium as a platform . Through this class I learnt to publish my own blog on this platform. Besides that, there are many other blogs written by people in this platform. I read a lot of other people’s articles on medium and it gave me a new perspective on things. Browsing the platform has also improved my writing skills and learning what others are doing well. All in all, the class Digital Society has given a lot of help in thinking and writing. Hopefully, the digital society will have a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous future in the future.
