Introduction To My Blog

On my blog I discussed about social media and its influence on our lives. Mostly, I talked about the negative influences of social media to our society. For example, I wrote about cyber-bullying among teens, negative effects of social media on our mind, and social media addiction. Also, I wrote about how social media invests in business. I tried to talk about different kinds of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google. In addition, I tried to make some comparison  between social networks and to find similarities between them (Facebook vs Twitter). It was interesting to read and analyze Simic's and Carr's articles about technology and social media. Mostly, I enjoyed reading my classmates' articles. I hope that my blog was interesting to visit, and I believe you have expended your knowledge about social media.

Ways Social Media Has Changed How We Communicate

Miller, L. (2013, July 11). Ways Social Media Has Changed How We Communicate. Marketing Services Retrieved on April 20, 2014 from http://memarketingservices.com/2013/07/11/ways-social-media-has-changed-how-we-communicate/

Social media has changed our way of communication in different ways. "One of the biggest changes in the way that we interact, due to social media networks, is the sheer number of people that we can interact with." Nowadays, we communicate with large number of people from all over the world. Another big changes that social media changed the way we interact. For example, some people become incapable of carrying on a normal conversation in person because of the dependency of social media. Social media is one of the main ways we communicate. Also, social media allows us to get our opinions and ideas out of thousands or even millions of people. Moreover, it has changed our writing techniques, so that writing became more summarized and abbreviations become more prevalent.

A Reunion with boredom

Simic, C. (2011, August 31). A Renunion with Boredom. NYR BLOG. Retrieved on April 20 from http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/aug/31/hurricane-irene-reunion-with-boredom/

“Being temporarily unable to use the technology we’ve grown dependent on to inform ourselves about the rest of the world, communicate with others, and pass the time, is a remainder of our alarming dependence.” (Simic, 2011).

I chose this quote because it contains an important message from the author to readers. In this quote, Simic tries to explain to us that we have become greatly dependent on social media in today’s world. For example, it has become difficult for us to not check our phones, mails, Facebook and Twitter, and daily news on TV for a few hours. Social media is controlling us, our mind, and our lives. Moreover, people who become overly dependent on social media have developed social media addiction. I think that the author tries to say that sometimes we have to spend some time without technology to communicate with the rest of the world and with each other to create some independence from technology. In addition, he says through the quote that spending some time without technology reminds us that we are becoming more dependent from it.

Cyber-bullynig Among Teens

Krantz, L. (2013, December 6). Cyber-bullying, Stress, Concerns Among Teens. The Metro West Daily News. Retrieved on April 20, 2014 from http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20131206/News/312069897

Cyber-bullying is common among teenagers. A lot of students harass each other through electronic devices and social network. According to a survey, female students are often cyber-bullied, and they are more stressed than ever. "Ten percent of middle school students reported that their life was very stressful in the past 30 days, with females more stressed than males." Cyber-bullying effects teenagers in negative ways, such as abuse of alcohol and drugs, skipping classes, and having lower-self-esteem. Therefore, these students need a special education strategy and program about stress management and control. Educators should play an important role in preventing cyber-bullying by exploring ideas such as homework-free weekends and free time at the end of the school day for seminars about healthy ways to manage stress.

Facebook vs Twitter

Tappin, S. (2014, February 6). Facebook vs. Twitter: Who wins the battle forour social attention? Pandodaily. Retrieved on April 20, 2014 from http://pando.com/2014/02/06/facebook-vs-twitter-who-wins-the-battle-for-our-social-attention/

 

What is the difference between Facebook and Twitter? Facebook is about "connecting," while Twitter is about " ideas and information." This is the biggest difference between Facebook and Twitter. The things that make Facebook to be a true social network are connection between close friends, family and classmates, ongoing connection and passive communication, web portal, homepage (desktop PCs), Apps and social gaming, location-based services, and mobile payments. While breaking and real-time news, hashtags and trending topics, stream of consciousness, celebrity news and gossip, and second screen TV experiences make Twitter more of an information network. The common things among these two social networks are personalized newspaper, feed brands and public figures, search, day-to-day sharing, messaging, digital passport, and mobile and tablet. 

Facts about Youtube

Youtube is the second most visited site in the world. Why? Because every social network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, are using Youtube to play videos. It is amazing that people watch seven billion hours of video per month on Youtube, which is one hour for every person in the world.

Think Time: Teens and Social Network

 

 

 

Nowadays, most of the internet users are teenagers, who spend 2 hours and 20 minutes per day online. The internet affects teenagers in many ways, for example, sharing too much can lead to cyberbullying. Thirty nine percent of teens on social networks have been cyberbullied, and some have even committed suicide. It is important to be aware of what you share on social network because the shared information can affect your personal life.

5 Weird Negative Effects of Social Media on Your Brain

Beres, D. (n.d.). 5 Weird Negative Effects of Social Media on Your Brain. Reader's Digest. Retrieved on April 20, 2014 from http://www.rd.com/slideshows/negative-effects-of-social-media/#slideshow=slide1

Social media influences on our brain differently. There are five weird negative effects of social media on our brain. First, social media may lead you to higher spending of your money. A research showed that "Heavy social media use might be correlated to lower self-control, which marketing experts believe could lead to higher spending." Second, social media makes you to eat a lot. Third, it messes with your ability to think independently. Fourth, It hurts your self-esteem. A survey showed that one in three people felt worse after spending time on Facebook because they compare themselves to their friends. Fifth, it can deteriorate real life conversation. People's social networking habits might be affecting their brain more than they thing.

A classmate's review

Here is a link to my classmate’s blog.

http://sociallyblogged.blogspot.com/2014/04/is-google-making-us-stupid-by-nicholas.html

 

My classmate Jennifer stated that “today, the vast majority of the world’s intelligence is a keystroke away. While this technology has been beneficial, it has also introduced us to new problems, such as cyber bullying, and game addictions. I believe social networking affects literally every area of our lives in one way or another.”

I agree with Jennifer’s statement. I think that everything has two sides, positive and negative. For example, the internet has many benefits, such as saving our time, providing us with necessary information, being a communicating tool and providing us with convenience. However, it has some negative sides, such as social media addiction, limited thinking, laziness, game addiction and bullying. It is difficult to imagine ourselves without the internet, but we need some time to look at ourselves without being distracted by the internet. I think that living without TV, cell phone, computer and internet for a few days may help us to think deeply and to look at ourselves differently.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Carr, N. (2008, July 1). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic. Retrieved April 15, 2014 from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-usstupid/306868/

Nicholas Carr's essay "Is Google Making us Stupid" claims that internet affects our way of thinking and making us lazier. Carr noted that the internet influenced his reading ability, for example, before he used to read books without any distractions, but now when he reads articles from the internet, he gets easily distracted. According to Bruce Friedman, the internet has changed his mental habits. He said that "I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print." The article mentioned that people developed a skimming skill, where they did not read the full article from the internet; instead, they just skimmed the article. Moreover, the internet websites provided the shortened versions of articles, news and summaries of books. This shortcut spared our time, but it decreased our reading ability. As we became more related to the internet, we sopped to exercise our memory and became forgetful.

I agree with Carr’s ideas. The internet makes our life easier, however, it changes our way of thinking and distracts our mind. Even though the internet is beneficial, it develops some problems, such as addiction to social media, which distracts people’s normal life. Also, I think that the internet makes us to think in its way, meaning that the internet limits our way of thinking.

How Twitter Invests in Your Business?

 

 

 

 

 Twitter is a place where more than 240 million people all over the world gather together to talk about their interests, such as local news, sports, rumors and technology. Nowadays, many business owners advertise their products using Twitter and attract followers, or people find new business ideas from Twitter. Twitter is becoming the best place for advertisement to sell products and to benefit the business.

Social Media Addiction

Matsalla, B. (2013, December 12). Social Media Addiction. Liberty Voice. Retrieved April 8, 2014 from http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/social-media-addiction/

Can’t stop tweeting, posting and poking?

It means that you are addicted to social media. Social media is becoming our daily routine like eating, communicating and watching TV. For some people this daily routine becomes their habits, and when their habits interfere with daily lives and predominate daily activities, it becomes an addiction. Social media is more addictive to people who have addictive personalities.
There are some interesting statistics:

 

• "Facebook has 850 million active users, and 488 million of those people use Facebook regularly on their mobile device.
• In 2012, 175 million tweets were sent from Twitter every day. Thirty-two percent of all Internet users use Twitter.
• Instagram had an average of 7.3 million daily active users in 2012, and they averaged 257 minutes accessing the site on their mobile device.
• Google’s famous +1 ‘like’ button is clicked 5 billion times a day."