Blog #3

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 thoughts. It’s interesting that these people who don’t even have the most basic hierarchy of needs still managed to be concerned about their social media. I believe that this shows how social media has become almost a needed part of human's lives.

The summer before last I worked at a prison. The inmates do not have any social media or any technology. Looking back at my summer working there, I can see the contrast of the prisoners to the homeless people that came into the shelter. When the inmates had free time they played sports, went out in the sun, talked with each other. In comparison, in the free time of the individuals at the center; they spent hours and hours on the computer using social media.


The contrast between the individuals who could access social media in their spare time in comparison to those who were unable is quite interesting to examine. Are individuals in society today not able to cut out social media unless it is literally taken away from them?  

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