Phones have Become Clothing....... Almost

Online Accusations can have far greater consequences than we could imagine.              Without class this past week I am going to use this blog to reflect on some of the new information that I have gained about the internet from this class over this semester. In the past I had always thought of the Internet as a tool that was only used for good and that only a few people misused it to do wrong. Now I know that there are dangers that I could only have ever imagined. In recent weeks we have talked about how the Internet changes the very way our brain thinks and how it can change the way we attack people. The Internet is changing the very essence of our society and making us more and more divided as it goes. The readings from this past week have highlighted this with the creation of trolls and Internet shaming. There have always been people that like to hurt people and not care, but in the past there were social consequences and it was...

Privacy is dictated by what you share.                 This past week we talked a lot about what privacy is and how it is managed on the internet. Many of the Facebook posts talked about the ignorance of people and what they feel they should post and how it can affect them professionally and socially. While this has never been a personal issue it is easy to see from the numerous reports over the years of people losing scholarships and even the example used in class where the girl cost her father over $80000 because her post violated the non-disclosure agreement and voided the settlement that they had paid out. One of the more interesting things that I read was in my article and they stated that the internet had a hard time determining privacy levels because many different cultures halve different standards and the internet is where they all meet, so it is difficult to know which standard to go off of. We a...

Good impressions are easier to make online.              This past week in class we had a discussion about how the Internet has a good quality that you can look past someone’s appearance and see that their interests are the same as yours. This means that people are able to connect based on shared interests across a multitude of socioeconomic classes that you would not normally meet in real life without this jumpstart. Another aspect that this property opens up is online dating. Based on many of the Facebook articles from this week and some peoples comments and personal experience it is a viable way to meet someone that shares similar interests and life goals as you. With this increased exposure comes the increase of people who know more about your personal life and could potentially try to exploit them. For instance if someone knows that you’ve recently experienced some form of personal struggle then it is easy for someone to play on ...

Who your friends are matter on social media                 This past week we read some articles on how social media is making us more narcissistic. I believe this is definitely the case in the world today because a lot of people focus on how many likes and shares they can get on social media. Any time that someone gets more attention on social media it inflates their ego and with it their feeling of importance increases as well making them believe that they better than everyone else. This attitude increases the overall feeling in today’s youth that how popular they are online is how much better than others they are. This online atmosphere can then lead to bitter competition and dangerous behaviors as people try to outdo others and do crazy things to get more attention making them feel as though they are increasing their social status at the same time. These new stunts shown online can then cause people to fe...