CS 371 Fall 2018 Social Media and Social Life

Following the theme of last week's readings exploring the art of sharing online, I wanted to look at some advantages and disadvantages of sharing everything publicly on your social media. On one hand, you are able to connect with friends, family, and even strangers which you would not have daily contact with otherwise. It is a great way to keep in touch and let your community know what you've been up to. Sharing digitally is also a great way to grow your business, brand, or idea. Social media influencers have a legitimate occupation due to the fact that these individuals were able to expand their following with enjoyable content.  On the other hand, some negatives of this modern norm of sharing everything is that it is online forever; something I posted in elementary school has to potential to affect employment or relationships in the future. In addition, having everything online makes you vulnerable to scammers or other criminal behaviour. If you’re posting all week about...

Due to the freedom we have for the post this week, I took the time to really think about what I wanted to write in my post. My first thought was to discuss sports but I wanted to try and discuss a topic that could create more discussion. As most social media users have learned over the last few days, former SNL actor Pete Davidson, and pop star Ariana Grande have called off their engagement. While the speed at which their relationship seemed intense, at the end of the day, shouldn't we be more focused on the wellbeing of each of these individuals who very well may be walking away from the loves of their life? I would think it is safe to say that those of us in this class won't garner as much as attention on social media if and when we find a life partner. These individuals are only a handful of years older than ourselves and are under the microscope of the media every day of their lives. We may never know exactly this relationship didn't work out, and honestly, we as comple...

I want to draw on ideas from this week’s reading to share upon how this perspective has provided me some insights into why social media practices vary from person to person.  In society where there is a strong reliance on social media for interaction, connectivity and information, it is uncommon to encounter someone that does not use any form of social media whatsoever. The social practice of meeting a neighbour or starting a conversation with someone you see on a public bus has decreased because of the overlap of our public and private lives. Therefore, because there is less sharing exchanged exclusively with people solely immersed as beings in a public space, I believe that even those that attempt to resist the use of social media feel the need to be connected. I argue this because Dunbar suggests that it is the animal genetic make-up to innately want to share to build connections and respect.  I chose to address the idea of people resisting social media because I ...

In class, we touched on how social media capitalism is essentially surveillance capitalism. This reminded me of an article I read published by The Guardian which drew parallels between the historical panopticon and digital data capture of users (link below). Surveillance is an ancient practice and the panopticon was built so that occupants were continually under the threat of being watched ( McMullan, 2015) . This type of surveillance in particular was referred to as asymmetrical surveillance or exposure because inmates would never know if someone was actually watching them. Likewise, Internet users are also not aware when their data is being collected and when it is not. The difference between these two situations is that the watch tower in the panopticon was visible so inmates were overtly aware that they were under surveillance, but there is no indication of surveillance on the Internet so it is predominantly invisible. Nonetheless, digital surveillance is much more invasive than p...

Throughout the course we look at different aspects of social media and the impact it has on our social life but particularly in the concept of sharing. Last class we also look at the emphasis of sharing and the symbolic content it produces, creating a community of common shared content. In the book the age of sharing, John talks about how users are the ones producing and distributing the content that everyone is consuming where it becomes a space for a shared reality. This ability of sharing is also supposed to bring us happiness through the likes and comments we receive from sharing but I believe it is having the opposite effect. In the film Eight Grader we see Kayla determining her self-worth by the number of views and likes she receives. Sharing has become a more individualized concept where people only want to feel good for just a brief moment from likes. This is only pushing more social standard in society instead of social media being a place to make new ‘fr...

    For this week’s post I have decided to talk about sharing and how people base their self-opinions off of the reactions they get from other people. As discussed in class sharing making the productions and distribution of symbolic content possible, and by doing this it allows for this content to be seen by multiple groups and communities outside of one another. I believe that the idea of sharing has its positives but also can play a negative role in social media users. We also discussed the Dunbar number, which is how many people you can actually know and have a relationship. This number is important to consider in the use of social media and how people feel towards their followings. I find that when people post pictures on Instagram, they’re always waiting to see how many people will like/respond to their own content. I find this interesting because out of all the people that are liking the photos only a select few are genuine friends, and people who’s opinions should be ...

I came across this article that unfortunately has started to seem a little too relatable for many. It talks about social media anxiety and the obsession over likes, follows, what other people are doing, and all other feelings that are a result of us being over connected with the rest of the world. The article showcases examples of people who even become physically sick when logging on to social media sites. While that may seem as an extreme example, the scary truth is that more and more people are reporting social media anxiety everyday because of pressure, fear of missing out (FOMO), and ‘Compare and Despair’. I found this to be very relatable to the article we previously read about Katherine and her obsession with her phone and social media. Katherine was constantly worried about getting online approval from her friends, how many likes she got on her photos, how many comments and so on. While the article never directly claimed she had social media anxiety, many of her a...

As this week’s topic was open to what we wanted to talk about in regards to the readings and course material we have covered  already. I decided to write about my employment and how social media has intersected with them in very intriguing ways. After reading the assigned readings thus far, it has made me look into my life, peer's lives, and observe students around me in regards to how much they use their technology and social media. The past summer I worked at a non-profit independent living centre, which opened up as a place for homeless people to use computers, have water and a cool place to rest. Almost all of the individuals that came into the center were homeless. I would make an educatedaed guess that approximately 90% of the homeless individuals that came into the shelter, came in to use Facebook. I didn’t think much about this at the time, other than noticing it. Now, after reading all of the articles, as well as all of the discussions in class, I have had further tho...