Month: October 2017

These were my annotation of “They say, I say” chapters 10 and 11. For these I decided to not do the color coated highlighting and write down the page number and the main points as well as some main tips and templates that will help me. I did this one because it tells me instantly where I can find things I found important, and writing the main points down made me comprehend what I was reading better. These chapters especially had more bullet point type things rather than explanations I would have to write down and understand.

Social media has greatly affected the way we interact today. Social media is dictating our day to day lives in an overall negative way by morphing our expectations of each other through comparing ourselves to other who are depicted as mentally or physically happier than us. Susan Greenfield, senior researcher at University of Oxford and author of the book “Mind Change”, researches the effect that technology has on the human brain. Greenfield claims, ““It”s basically turned us into paranoid neurotic messes who are afraid of real human connection” (Greenfield, 96). I agree with Greenfields theory and that by focusing more on technology and being infatuated with social media, people’s ideas of human connection, tight knit relations and nurturing is starting to dwindle down. Though I concede that social media can bring connections from all around the world, and help you meet groups of people that you would have never met otherwise, I still insist that social media is a vicious cycle of envy and self achievement.

I agree with Boyd that social media is being used for young teens to find themselves, and their identities, but I also think that you shouldn’t have to feel stressed out balancing two different lives. Boyd talks about how your posts are all about perspective and audience and how some teens have to cater to certain people. Boyd herself wrote, “When youth attempt to change their socioeconomic standing, they often risk alienating their home community” (Boyd, 30). Boyd is pointing out that teens often hide their true selves in person, so they can express it on social media, or vise versa, to eliminate getting judged. I think this is a huge reasoning for certain post, but there can also be limitations.

My current social media self is much more toned down then I was before. I don’t post often I usually share or retweet other peoples items, and I only post on special occasions such as birthdays or replying to my friends. I use Instagram the most, especially posting wise because I feel like pictures are the best way to share things. I use twitter if I want to send certain messages to people or if I want to retweet other peoples posts. I don’t really create different selves but I will watch what I post on other social media platforms more than others. I interact a lot with others but it is mostly my friends and not strangers.

RIP to young juls who has the worst smirk for photos, that were also taken on her blue flip phone

In the TED talk, “What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness” by Robert Waldinger, Waldinger argues what makes a person happy in life and what peoples goals are. Waldinger claims that good relationships are what makes a person happy. He asserted this by doing a study on 724 men, and tracking their life and health. One group of men were Harvard Sophomores going into WW2 and one group was apart of Bostons poorest neighborhood. He found that people who were more isolated from others in the war, wouldn’t be happy due to loneliness. He also believed that its not how many relationships you have, it is the quality of the relationships. Waldigner advocates that the close, nurturing relationships not only help your physical health, but also your mental health, which I admire.

In the TED talk, “Connected, but alone” by Sherry Turkle, Turkle claims that technology continues to amaze us and bring new opportunities, but is now “taking us places where we don’t want to go”. She explains how we use texting during corporate meetings, while with friends, and even at funerals. Turkle claims that texting is taking us away from our everyday life and while it keeps us connected to the rest of the world, is disconnects those tight relationships with people close to us.  Turkle is arguing that we use technology to get rid of things that we aren’t interested in. For example, she emphasizes that most people go to board meetings or important meetings for their jobs, but we use technology and the apps on our phone to escape and get rid or the things that we don’t want to focus on so we just focus on the parts that interest us. Turkle advocates the use of technology, but not so much that it psychologically takes us away from the real world.