week 7

Final week of classes!

This week we got to present our projects on our assigned social media. We traced the history, uses, and effects of our different social media. Though we had discussed the positives and negatives of social media at large in cass, these projects allowed for a more in depth look at specific sites pros and cons. A lot of these, even for the sites I had used, were thing I had not really thought of or thought too much about. It was really interesting to watch each groups different take on presentation. A cool part was that groups were able to present about their social media on the site itself.

We also turned in our papers this week. I used Twitter for my summer project. I overall wasn't a huge fan of the site, but it was interesting to explore different aspects of my use these past few weeks. Writing my paper I realized some ways I could adjust my use of the tool to get more from it and enjoy it more.

Overall, I think one of my biggest takeaways from class, and from this week is that social media has a great potential fro connectivity and good, but that it has to be used in a controlled manner. There is always potential for evil with any technology, but one of the most common pitfalls of social media is just wasting time. So many hours and opportunities can be lost when social media is used in excess. I also think that the depressive and anxiety inducing side effects that can come with social media need to be watched out for. Social media becomes a problem when it becomes more important than real life instead of enhancing real life.

I really enjoyed this class and the things we got to learn. It has made me seriously consider how i use and will use social media and how I will encourage my future children to use it in their day. It was great to be able to take this class with a gospel lens. Thanks Professor Kinghorn!

Week 6

It's hard to believe almost the entire term has flown by. we've delved into many different areas of the psychology of social media: its origin, positives, and negatives.
One thing that has been evident, especially this week, is that social media is a huge platform for change. Different view points may view the change it illicites in different lights, but for better or worse, social media makes the world a different place. 
This week we talked abot social media and the Arab Spring. Not long ago it may have seemed incomprehensible that a website like Facebook would help bring about Revolution, but today it seems                 almost as hard to picture change being brought about without social media. A global platform for interacting and finding niche interests allows for connection like no other medium. 
The look up video we watched this week was also very interesting. We never know how much wee might be missing because we are tuning out the real world in favor of a virtual one.  I think of the moments that have been the most memorable in my life, the parties, vacations, and adventures, and I realize that none of them would have happened if I had been too busy on social media, or on my phone in general, to notice them.i think social media has a lot of great aspects, but it is also something that defiantly needs to be handled cautiously and used in moderation.
Another really interesting moment was the HER video trailer. It was very unsettling, and I think it is because it is alarming how quickly technology can take the place of human interaction in our life if we allow it. It is never really an adequate substitute however. It is simply a hollow imitation. 

Week 5

This week in psychology of social media we talked about slactivism.
This conversation os so relevant to my life because social media is constantly providing opportunities to be a slactivist. I've been on social media for Kone and ALS and a variety of other causes. I remember wondering how a bunch of 8th graders making a picture their profile was going to end the acts of some terrible person in Africa. Awareness of issues is a good thing and can help solve issues, but in cases like Kone, atleast for my age group, it was largely breeding name awareness and not problem awareness. Very few of my peers could  have actually
Told you what the problem even really was.
I think one problem that arises with slactivism is when we feel like watching a video or reading the caption of a picture makes us well informed on any issue. There is always more to the picture, and there are always multiple view points that should be considered.
Another thing we talked about was crowd sourcing and funding. There are clearly pitfalls with these things, and it seems that they may sometimws foster laziness and materialism, but when it comes to good causes, I think its great that such a magnitude of help can be given because of social media.
Support for a cause can spread so wide and far with social media, in a way that would have been unfathomable before its development. Also the the randomness and omnipresence of social media allows for niche support. People are able to support and learn about things that effect and interest them that may not have the same affect on the masses. The 60s may have been marked by several areas of protest, but todays social media allows for protest against, or support for, many more issues and challenges.
However even in cases like the ALS ice bucket challenge, which really is an area deserving of attention and research, it would seem there are seem potentially negative outcomes. One of these outcomes being that such intense interest on one area deprives other areas of their due attention.
I am a supporter of slactivism, but I think it needs to be accompanied by careful thought and research.
Also it needs to expand our capacity and desire to do good and not fill it. Like the Mormon helping hands video showed, there is still a need for real life sacrifice and service.

 This week we talked about the dark web. I had never before heard of the dark web, so it was very interesting to learn about. I was shocked to learn about the massiveness of the dark web in comparison to the web I use every day, because the surface web seems so all encompassing and wide spread.  It was also scary to me what is available on the dark web. I also have been taught to expect that the government is tracking everything, especially online actions so it was surprising to me that there is this huge internet doing many nefarious activities that is allowed to run unchecked. It was a very interesting week, and I am excited to learn more about social media and its positive and negative  attributes.

week 3

One interesting thing this week was the discussion of Emily Grasile. This women was able to create her dream job because of social media and the fact that it allowed her to target a specific audience. I think that that is one of the most significant things about social media, it allows for  interaction with a world and audience shaped to our specific interests and desires.
However, relating it to the talks we read this week, perhaps this creation of entertaining world tailored to our certain interests distracts us from more important things such as serving others.
We also watched a lot of funny viral videos this week and discussed what makes videos go viral. Many of these were quite entertaining, but they also made me wonder about how this obsession with being famous also effects members of society and their sense of self worth and what is important.
I also think about how great it would be if  these viral videos contained constructive content, like Mormon messages. It seems like wherever there is great potential for good there is also the opportunity for distraction and negative things as well.ssssssss

Week 2
         This week we watched some videos about the inception and spread of the telephone, as well as the internet. The spread of the internet and the affect it had on the world was much more rapid and even more profound. The telephone was  huge change especially in communication, but it cannot compare to the rapid changes in communication, commerce, and though that have come about because of the internet.
Personally, I'm interested to see what the next change will be. As much as before the telephone or the internet the inventions seemed unfathomable and even ludicrous, I'm sure whatever innovation will next transform the way we interact with each-other would seem just as inconceivable to us today.
Today social media is almost entirely dominated by the internet, but I think it is very close minded and short sighted to believe that this will be the case forever. Change and innovation are inevitable, especially in an area so lucrative.
We also talked about getting news over social media this week. This is interesting because many consider social media a bad place to get this sort of information, as the information and sources are not always the most accurate or reputable. However, I think credit has to be given to social media for the speed with which it delivers news, and huge amount of people it is able to reach. Within hours huge amounts of people will know about celebrity scandals or deaths. Sometimes important news is also delivered pretty well to the masses through social media as well. However, I feel like this often lacks depth. People will have heard of a foreign affair's issue, but they might not understand or appreciate what its really happening or the impacts of it. I think it would still involves a bit of effort beyond scrolling though social media, like following the right sources and actually reading articles, to get good news coverage, but I definitely think that it is possible.

This week was our introduction to the psychology of social media. This class is so far very interesting, because it differs from ever other psych class in it's novelty. If I had come to this university when it opened this class wouldn't even have been feasible.

One of the article we read this week made it clear just how quickly changing social media and the ideas about it are. In this article, the writer argued that things like online shopping would never catch on and that education would not be greatly impacted by the internet. twenty years later it is clear that this writer was very mistaken. Virtually everything He said would not happen has come to pass. This just begs the question of how technology and social media will change and impact us in the next twenty years. I look forward, somewhat nervously, to seeing the social media my future children will use.

We also had to start using a new social media app. I picked twitter because it is already required for the class. Many of my friends use twitter, but I have also heard of a lot of drama and bullying happening over the sight. I am a little skeptical of this site, but I want to understand this experience.

Perhaps this is one of my biggest reservations with social media, the fact that being online allows for some level of anonymity and detachment, and many people seem to be okay with saying mean things they would never say in person.  One of the videos we watched this week discussed the affect of social media on social interaction, though this video took the approach of how social media affects out ability to be alone and our ability to truly connect. 

I look forward to learning about both the positive and negative attribute of social media this semester.