Blog 13: Digital Footprint

As I reflect upon my own online footprint, I think that I have a decent amount of social media apps that I would say is pretty large. The applications that I own are: 

 Instagram

I normally post every three months. These are usually photos of my friends and me on vacation. The photos I post are nothing scandalous and show nothing of bad behavior. My account is private so that only the people who follow my account can see. These are mostly friends but I also let an acquaintance from school or a friend of a friend follow me. I have a little over eight hundred followers so even though my photos are private, it is still a lot of people who can see my stuff. 

Snapchat

I use Snapchat to communicate with my close friends. I do not add anyone I do not know or even acquaintances. I have about a hundred people on Snapchat. I will post funny things on my stories but because it’s people I trust, I feel comfortable sharing the more adventurous part of my life. I got a Snapchat in the middle of my senior year of high school. That was quite rare to get the app so late but I thought I was slightly sketchy and intrusive that the company could possibly save the photos I take (not that I would send something odd) as well as that I knew my friends were addicted to it. Now that I have it, I have realized how often I use it, making me possibly addicted as well.

Facebook

I go on Facebook about two times a year. One, to thank the people who wished me a “Happy Birthday” and, two, to figure out what the name of my cousin’s girlfriend is. I have only “posted” three times when I changed my profile picture. I don’t really like Facebook and the only reason why I have it is because my high school soccer team posted information through it.

   LinkedIn

I use LinkedIn a lot to connect with my peers and companies. I do not post often but I enjoy reading other people’s posts. I update my LinkedIn at least once a month.

 Youtube

I have a YouTube channel where I post videos. They are mostly school projects. I am on YouTube every week for HPU’s entertainment news (Point Blank). 

 Spotify

I wouldn’t call this a social media site but Spotify allows you to connect to friends to know what songs they listen to where it be on a playlist they made or liked. If following them, you can even see what they are listening to at that moment.

This blogger site is another addition to these websites. 

If a visitor were to view my social media pages, they would find out a good amount of information about me. They would know that I run, I make videos, who I’m friends with, my relatives, and the kind of music I listen to. Although this does tell a lot about me, I do not believe it’s information that is not too private. The “private” information that can be accessed through my social media is probably my email, my birthday, and my address. This is mostly because of LinkedIn wanted employers to have some way of connecting me. 

After reading the article Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? by The Atlantic, I do have to agree that the internet can make some people feel lonelier than they actually are. I can see how Facebook induces fears, “interfering with our real friendships, distancing us from each other, making us lonelier.” When I was younger, in middle school, I remember people would post things on social media and I would feel a bit lonely. I would question the worth of my friendship, wondering if they liked me as much as I liked them. Now that I’m older, I don’t feel it is much but I do feel that a lot of Instagram is “fake.” A factor is that people only post happy things, promoting their “gorgeous” lifestyle, creating an artificial life that doesn’t truly exist. I have days that I could get rid of my social media apps. They can stress me out at times and feel like I’m not living when I’m scrolling on my phone for hours. Unfortunately, people use these apps as their primary way of communicating, causing me to be out of the loop. The serotonin that a person gets from Snapchat notifications is a poison that dives me even deeper. “According to Burke, the passive consumption of Facebook also correlates to a marginal increase in depression.” This is understandable because seeing people’s lives rather than talking in person can cause you to feel lonely. 
Sometimes I wish I was able to live in a time where people could to get to know me in person before they looked at my page online. I feel like I would rather have someone learn about me through me rather than my Instagram.

Citations: 

Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 21 Jan. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/.

(Photos)

By: HIV.gov | Published: May 29, 2017. “5 Things To Know About Instagram 2017.” HIV.gov, 17 Apr. 2020, www.hiv.gov/blog/5-things-to-know-about-instagram-2017.

“Snapchat.” Twitter, Twitter, twitter.com/snapchat.

“Log In or Sign Up.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/.

“Timeline of LinkedIn.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LinkedIn.

“YouTube: A Guide for Parents.” Net Aware | NSPCC, www.net-aware.org.uk/networks/youtube/.

“Spotify: Listen to New Music and Play Podcasts - Apps on Google Play.” Google, Google, play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music.

Blog 11: EOTO

After watching many fascinating presentations on awareness, mediasphere, and policy in the media, I have learned a lot about privacy and bias in the media. A group that I was very interested in was the Mediasphere. One that stood out to me, in particular, was the Echo Chamber. "An echo chamber is an environment where a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own." It can cause misinformation on a person's perspective and a lack of knowledge on opposing viewpoints, due to unfairly distributed information. As seen in the picture below, when a person is given information on their side on an argument, social will feed more information that leans toward your side.

This causes people to struggle with hearing opposing viewpoints. This is seen especially in politics. If someone uses a social media app like TikTok, the app will recognize your political party based on the videos you watch and will begin to only offer you information on a specific party. 

Without having an equal share of different opinions, people can become bias toward their group and segregate people from others due to their opinions. People become less open to views that are not like theirs, not because they are bad people but because society has never exposed another view besides their own.

I really enjoyed learning about the effects of social media and made me more aware of how I'm educated through the media.

Citations: 

“Digital Media Literacy: What Is an Echo Chamber?” GCFGlobal.org, edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/what-is-an-echo-chamber/1/.

(Photos)

Toledonews. “How Our Political Echo Chamber Works.” The Blade, 15 Sept. 2017, www.toledoblade.com/opinion/editorials/2017/09/15/How-our-political-echo-chamber-works/stories/feed/index.rss.

Elizabeth Dubois and Grant Blank. Published on Mar 9, 2018 9:16am. “The Myth of the Echo Chamber.” IPolitics, 13 Mar. 2018, ipolitics.ca/2018/03/09/myth-echo-chamber/.

Blog 10: Spiral of Silence

The Spiral of Silence is "the theory that people's willingness to express their opinions on controversial public issues is affected by their largely unconscious perception of those opinions as being either popular or unpopular" (Britannica). According to the theory, most people have a natural fear of social isolation that is unconsciously controlled.  This fear can cause a change of behavior to adapt and gain approval from others, and most importantly the majority opinion. To avoid criticism or isolation, people will refrain from publicly stating their views on controversial topics. The Spiral of Silence Theory should not be taken lightly, in fact, people affected by this isolation may fear losing their job, status, or loved ones. That said, the people who are in popular opinion are more likely to speak about topics, belittling others simultaneously.  

This theory was developed by researcher Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann who studied this throughout the 1960s and 70s. She was attempting to "describe collective opinion formation and societal decision making" regarding controversial and moral issues (Britannica). By collecting information about people's opinions and decision-making, one can see how society affects the answers to moral and controversial questions. 

The theory arose through a study in the German election of 1965. In September 1965, Noelle-Neumann along with her staff at the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research produced surveys designed to track the public's political opinions of the election. In the beginning months, voters' intentions stayed the same. When the two major parties, "the governing Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union" and the opposing "Social Democratic Party of Germany," were in "dead heat" with 45 percent going to each party, the survey began to change (Britannica). There was a sudden swing cause a leader for the CDU-CSU party. This was caused by some members of the opposing party (SDP) and the independent party to switch to the person who they thought was going to win, instead of who they wanted to win. SDP voters felt discouraged from publicly stating their views due to fear of backlash from the popular party.

This experiment is also relevant more than ever because of social media and the current election. Social media allows people to freely promote their own opinion about topics; however many people feel afraid to voice their opinion in fear of people unfollowing and bullying them. Minorities including people of the LGBTQ+ community, color, women, and people in poverty feel hesitant about making their voices heard. Sharing one's opinion or coming out to others is something that makes them feel part of the out-group. The reaction that comes after can be detrimental to these communities. The 2020 election has been one of the most intense debates in American history. With the parties going neck in neck, it almost feels that the US has been truly divided. There have been threats and accusations against parties and friendships have been broken from differences in preferred candidates. 

The advantage of having this theory is that it helps to "raise questions about the role and responsibility of media in society." This can help improve society knowing where it encourages and discourages minority opinions.

Citations:

"Spiral of Silence." Encyclopœdia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/spiral-of-silence.

"Spiral of Silence." Mass Communication Theory, 21 May 2014, masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/spiral-of-silence/.

"The Spiral of Silence Theory." Communication Theory, 10 July 2014, www.communicationtheory.org/the-spiral-of-theory/.