Week 15:Blogaholics & Twitterphiles

I thought this section on pages 321–322 was easy to relate to. We have become a society that is obsessed with technology and social media. I don’t think I have a strong online presence but I do have a lot of social media accounts. The media platforms that I use are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest. I don’t post on these pages everyday but I do go on the apps everyday. I post on Instagram and Snapchat most frequently, but I could go weeks without posting on Twitter and Facebook. I remember when I first downloaded these apps I was posting on them all the time. Now I think they are a little less interesting but I still look at my newsfeeds to see what is going on. I am always reading other people’s post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Even Snapchat and Pinterest have a lot of content to look through that keeps me busy. Most of the people and pages I follow are my friends, family, celebrities, and news outlets. To be honest I probably wouldn’t know half the things going on around the world if it wasn’t for Twitter and Facebook. I follow People magazine, CNN, and the Chicago Tribune on Twitter so I read a lot of news stories on there. I also like Facebook a lot because I am able to keep in touch with a lot of family that I don’t see regularly. These are the reasons why I think social media is a good thing because it makes it easier to keep in touch with people and also stay in the loop of what’s going on in the world.

I think an obsession or addiction to technology becomes an ethical problem when the technology changes the way people act and affects their life outside of technology. In response to the New York Times article about Richard and Judy their lives were directly affected by technology. If there were no technology or such things as blogs then Richard wouldn’t be distracted for hours. I think Tony Pierce seemed the most extreme. At first blogging helped him to keep busy when he was going through a tough time. After doing it so much he said it became an addiction and that is a problem. This man’s life has completely changed just from blogging. It’s not right that technology can have so much power over someone. It’s also an ethical problem when people are fighting over these platforms. When celebrities fight on Twitter or any social media people know about it instantly because they have a lot of followers. This is a problem because kids look to celebrities and all kids nowadays have social media accounts. This gives kids idea that it’s okay to say mean things on the Internet so they are likely to do the same. That is something that I think all celebrities or famous athletes should think about before they post something to social media.

Social media and technology versus face-to-face communication are very different. For example, people say things on blogs or Twitter that they would never say out loud. I think people hide behind technology to get their voices heard and to reach a bigger audience. This makes the two different because once something is posted to the Internet anyone around the world can see that post. That is why people need to be careful what they say because posts never really go away. Social media is becoming the preferred way to communicate. When it comes to face-to-face communication I think technology can actually hinder a person’s communication skills. Today people are so used to sending texts, emails, or tweets that face-to-face conversations are not the norm. This is why I think speech and communication classes should be mandatory in all schools to keep up with online communication. An advantage of online communication is that it’s fast and can reach a number of people at one time. A disadvantage of this is people lack social skills and communicating online leaves a lot of room for unanswered questions. An advantage of face-to-face communication is that an actual conversation can take place. There is usually no miscommunication because all questions can be answered. A disadvantage of this is that face-to-face meetings can be hard to plan and it doesn’t reach as many people. Technology and social media are the new forms of communication.