Semester Project

After sending out my survey i received a plethora of responses from people of all different ages! I'm excited to continue to develop my project and presentation and to fully develop the results of the survey. The results i have received thus far are very interesting in regards to how valued and important social networks are to specific people.

Project Continuation

So far, in regards to my project, i have created my survey and started to send it around to people of all different walks of life. I have emailed it to a few of my peers here at IHA, posted it to any and all of the social networks i use, and had my parents email it to a few of their friends as well. i'm anxious to see what the results are.

Survey Frenzy

To go a little more in depth on what i plan to do for my project, i have created a Google doc. survey that i plan to email to people of all different walks of life. I plan to send it to parents, teachers, and students of all different ages in order to see the importance and effect social media has on their lives. I plan to ask about which source of media they gravitate towards and how many hours a week they tend to spend on them.

Social Media Experiment

For my quarter 4 project, i plan to create a social media survey and try to get inside the lives, and computers of many different people to see how they use social media and what they generally think of it. I plan to ask questions like: how many of your Facebook friends are you friends with in real life? how many hours a day do you spend on the computer? how many of those hours are spent on sites such as twitter and Facebook? do you access these sites on your mobile devices? why do you use them? is there anything about social networking sites you'd like to see change? how has social media affected your life? etc. I am excited to do this because I am very interested in seeing how people spend their time on the computer and how it affects their lives. 

Steubenville Rape Guilty Verdict: The Case That Social Media Won

In this blog post i'm choosing to take a different look at Social Media. In most of my other posts i discuss more of the negative connotations that come with Social Media but in this case  Social Media saves the day. In the rape case of a 16 year old girl, parties involved so idiotically chose to broadcast their actions right to Instagram. A picture was posted on the girl being held down by her arms and legs to the floor; this sealed the deal for the case. Her assailants were undoubtedly charged guilty. not only was a picture posted to Instagram, there was a 12 minute video of the attack recorded, and text messages exchanged. This case really shows not only how stupid some kids can be but also how some Social Media can help serve justice.

"When the smoke goes up, you'll know whats going down"...via Pope Alarm

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/conclave-2013-electing-pope-social-media-world/story?id=18697577

This article discusses the new pope's election and keeping everyone in the know. The website, Pope Alarm, will send all who sign up an email and text message as soon as the billow of white smoke erupts from inside the Vatican. I feel that this latest social media source is both harmful and helpful. most people don't have the time to sit home and watch the TV all day anxiously awaiting the election of the new Pope and most people most definitely do not have the means to travel to Vatican city to watch it all unfold live so having a text sent to your cellphone is very helpful. On the other hand, this can also lead to less and less physical communication and interaction between people. an event like this is huge for the entire world and should be something shared in person with others, rather than anxiously awaiting an email and then continuing on their day.

Be Careful What You Tweet

A week after the terrorizing shootings at Sandy Hook, a principal announced over the loud speaker different rules and regulations along with modifications to security to ensure the student's safety, one student found this all very unnecessary and comical and chose to broadcast his outlandish views to the Twitter world. I found this article very interesting because it focuses on a playful yet slightly vindictive set of a few tweets drastically changing a 16 year old from Miami's entire life.  Austin Bowlin chose to tweet from his cellphone during school that he was going to “shoot up the school this Friday. Prepare yourself” and that he was “making a list and checking it twice. We’re about to see who gets shot up real nice,” according to an arrest report. He also wrote: “Yeah a bunch of little kids died. I could care less. And my school announced it like matters. safe? I could shoot this school up easily.” once arrested, no weapons were found and it was made clear that he was messing around but the police force and the families of all children who attended the high school most definitely did not find it as funny. no one realizes how much what you say online affects your real life until its too late. no one acknowledges who their audience is online and will never know who sees what they're posting until the wrong person sees it and runs with it.

://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/18/3147196/miami-lakes-teen-arrested-for.html

Catfish: Helpful or Hurtful?

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/844243/catfish-the-tv-show-trailer.jhtml

 As stated by Wikipedia, "Catfish: The TV Show is an American reality-based docudrama television series airing on MTV about the truths and lies of online dating. The show is based on the 2010 film Catfish and is hosted by Nev Schulman.
A "catfish" is a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information. These "catfish" use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, usually with the intention of getting other people or a person to fall in love with them."

When i first heard of the movie/ current television show Catfish it blew my mind. I found it crazy how people were totally content with partaking in online relationships for years without meeting the person on the other end and in some cases without even hearing their voices. This show is so interesting to me because it tends to show both ends of the spectrum when it comes to Social Media. In some (good) cases, the two lovers end up meeting, either discovering that they have both been completely honest, or discovering the truth about one another and still coming out with their very own 'happily ever after'. In other instances, some are not as lucky. The lies they have been telling one another for years are exposed and what started out as an innocent friendship turned love connection, changes into barely anything. People come out shocked, hurt, and embarrassed from these experiences which can teach audiences that you never really know who is on the other end of the computer screen and that you should be cautious as to what information you relay, and who you pour your heart and soul into.

Bullies on Social Networks

http://jezebel.com/5967905/yet-another-teenage-girl-killed-herself-thanks-to-social-media-slut+shaming

Well, i think the title of this article says it all. 'Yet Another Teenage Girl Killed Herself Thanks to Social Media Bullying'. while some would consider sites such as Facebook and Twitter harmless ways of communicating with family and friends, others see them as channels of abuse. Time and time again, people no matter what age, race, or sex are being bullied to the point where they take their own lives. This is an epidemic that must be ended. Those who are considered the 'bullies' in the cases are using social network sites to hurt and torment others until they feel diminished down to their cores. They choose to hide behind their monitors, and think that a few words exchanged won't have any real effect on someone else's life but they are dead wrong. Sadly, in many cases people who are having the hate inflicted onto them take their own lives because they feel that suicide is the only way to escape the pain. Below is a picture of yet another poor girl who chose to take her own life recently because of the hurtful names and words people inflicted onto her via Facebook.

Pros and Cons of Facebook

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=412755

This article discusses the Pros and Cons of Social Networking sites such as Facebook. I found this article very intriguing because it talks about how easily people relay private personal information and the click of a button, regardless of who is able to see it. Although it allows shy people the opportunity to be friendly and make friends online, it also allows hackers to spam your accounts and potentially ruin your life. Although it allows businesses to grow and prosper by connecting through other forms than email, it also can lead to infidelities in marriages. To me, the Cons most definitely trump the Pros and makes me think twice of what i post and how private i make my accounts.

Inside Social Media

Hi i'm Julie and i chose to take an inside look and revolve my blog around Social Media. I chose this topic because I have always been very intrigued by this. I want to take a look at both the positive and negative aspects of Social Media, especially social networking sites and seeing the effect it has on our society. I hope to look at all other forms of Social Media as well such as television programs and magazines and observe how they effect the lives of everyone, myself and my peers included.