Social Media – Page 2 – Social Media and Digital Cultures

#SocialMedia and Tribulations

Social media is rampant in our society now and the average adult spends anywhere from 1-3 hours per day on social media platforms. Is this addiction or daily need for social media more impactful than we realize?

Issue #1: CYBERBULLYING

Image result for suicide rates due to cyberbullying

The first issue, and the most obvious to me is the amount of cyberbullying that occurs due to social media. Social media allows us to fully be ourselves but in turn it allows us to act without consequence or fear of true rebuttal. The amount of suicide and depression has steadily been increasing year by year and psychologists are suggesting cyberbullying may be the culprit.

ISSUE #2: WASTING TIME

Social media is excellent at getting our brains a break during the work day, but it is very easy to over use these breaks to the point where you are spending hours at a time on your smart devices taking meanless quizzes that attempt to guess your age based on your breakfast food choices. Websites such as Buzzfeed and Reddit can have you falling down the “Reddit Hole” and a five minute media break will quickly turn into a long sustained break as you read random news that have little to nothing productive about them.

ISSUE #3: ATTENTION SPAN

Image result for social media affecting attention span

Having these quick posts to keep us entertained while waiting in line at the movies is great! But as all things, everything needs to be in moderation. The ability to have something engaging us in the palm of our hands has reduced our attention span. We are quick to move on from a post or article and often have the TLDR (too long didn’t read) mentality. This leads to a decrease in reading and literacy as it affects our younger generations.

ISSUE #4: JEALOUSY

Social media is great at sharing our experiences and letting everyone know what you are doing and how well you are doing. This is great for being able to keep tabs on friends and family, but unfortunately this often leads to jealousy if you feel they are having a better time than you. We all know that in social media, you put your best side on display which can make it appear as though you have it all together with no concerns. HA! No one has it all together.. The world is hard for each and everyone of us but we don’t show this side to our social media.

ISSUE#5: INABILITY TO SEE LIFE

Pics or it didn’t happen right? We have been trained to film, record, and write about everything that happens in our day that might be noteworthy. Sure this may be great to be able to look back and recount memories from a later date; however, we are so concerned about getting that “shot” that we miss the feeling of being fully engrossed in the present. The urge to capture everything pulls us away from our natural presence and our “in the moment” chances to truly experience life raw. So do yourself a favor and leave your camera home during your next trip out and see what small things you notice that you may not have before.

Mom! Get out of my (publicly accessible digital) room, and close the door!

When we were kids, my mother gave my sister a diary, so that she could write down her private thoughts. It had a miniature lock and key, so she would know she was the only person with access to it.

I caught my mother reading that diary. More than once. As young as I was, I didn’t know what to do about it. Should I have told my sister? I’d be snitching on my mother. But I did not like the fact that she was violating an explicit privacy policy. It also sent me wondering if and how she might be spying on me.

Was my mother being ethical? She was likely looking for signs her daughter might be struggling in ways she didn’t want to share. Her gift of a “private” diary was definitely deceptive. What about me? Should I have told my sister what I saw? What unspoken compacts would I violate if I kept quiet?

What is the relationship between young people, the online social platforms they use daily, and their parents? Is it okay for parents to snoop on them? It’s not like they need to pick a lock to see what their kids are posting on Instagram or Facebook. Nevertheless young people expect parents to observe boundaries, to refrain from watching their every online move. This ethic, which they believe adults should understand, can easily transfer to the social media companies. Teens are by and large either under-informed or unworried about how their online footprint can haunt them and be used against them.

In 2015, the Thrive Foundation for Youth published an exhaustive report on media use by teens and ‘tweens.’ The report paints a ‘whack-a-mole’ landscape in which parents are only privy to a fraction of the depth and breadth of their kids’ activities. Kids are adept at concealing the full picture of their online presence, while also ironically wishing their parents understood their digital social lives better.

Both groups have plenty to learn. Parents are generally only partially aware of how kids socialize online, and with whom. Furthermore, at a meeting to which adults were not invited, kids have drafted a set if rules they expect mom and dad to understand and follow when it comes to reviewing their online posts.

The trust kids place in their adult guardians to know where the line is drawn is quaint. If they place a similar level of faith in the best intentions of the giant online companies whose terms of service they have signed, they risk a persistent, easily discoverable, indelible digital legacy.

When I taught high-schoolers, I asked them to look into the future, at their 30-year-old selves. I asked if they thought that person was happy with all the choices they were making today. As often as not, they looked at me with an expression that said, “I fail to see the relevance of the question.”

Sharing is caring or is it?

What are your thoughts about the issues of safety, security, and privacy? What are your concerns? What are your ideas for addressing them in ways that still allow you to take advantage of the value of social networking and media?

While driving home alone from a conference in Keystone this summer I called my husband and told him I wasn’t feeing well. I was using Waze to more to monitor the traffic than for directions. I didn’t realize Waze was monitoring me as well. When I hung up with my husband an ad popped up on Waze, an ad for the Urgent Care five minutes from my home, the Urgent Care we always use, I was an hour away. It was then that I realized the lack of privacy I had driving in my own car alone. Was it helpful information? Yes. Did I make an appointment? Yes. It has made me consider things I say in private may not actually be in private.

I have social media, I am not so concerned with privacy that I will delete all my accounts and live without a digital footprint, it doesn’t seem reasonable in this technological age. I do not share my phone number or mother’s maiden name or my social security number, I thought not sharing those things kept me safe.

Everyone must have a personal social level they are comfortable sharing, online and in person. I will spill my guts about a bad day to a coworker who casually asks “how was your day?” I cannot stop myself from saying where I bought something and how much I saved if someone compliments an outfit. Then there are people who don’t overshare, people who would answer “fine, thanks, and you?” to my coworker’s question, people who respond to a compliment with a simple thank you. Our online identities are similar, people either feel free in sharing some personal information, vacation plans, check ins at restaurants, blogs, and YouTube videos, or they have social media accounts but rarely post, or they stay away from social media entirely.

The most important thing is people need to know how their information is being used, it is obviously being used from the targeted ads that appear on Facebook after you google “all inclusive Mexican vacations.” Some people may find that creepy, some may find it helpful. According to Panda mediacenter, “While many users think they are harmlessly adding information to their profiles, this information can be used for targeted ads, sold to marketers, or worse, sold into the black market. Facebook has even admitted to using 98 different data points to target advertisements.” My comfort level, like most people, lands somewhere in between the extremes. I want social media to keep in touch with family and friends, I also want to protect my privacy.

I have created alternate Facebook and InstaGram accounts, one with my professional name that is easy for my students’ families to find and one with my maiden name for personal use. I have had a Gmail address for about 14 years, I have used that email for all things, I am also notoriously bad at deleting email. Since this is near the end of my blog post and I’m sure no one reads anything on the internet, I will confess to having, at this point, over 28,000 unread emails cluttering up the email box. I know, it is a problem. As soon as I post this I will create a new email address and hide the old one, if only I can figure out those privacy settings.

Resources:

(2018, June 26). How Much Does Social Media Know About You – Panda Security. Retrieved from https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/social-media/how-much-does-social-media-know-about-you/

An Abstainer Reflects on Social Media

Social media users – in addition to paying attention to issues of security and privacy – should make an effort to be aware of how their social media usage is affecting their mental well-being.

Our class is currently discussing issues of safety, security, and privacy in social media. I would like to add to this a topic that I consider equally valid when considering the pros and cons of social media use: mental health.

Let’s start with the basics: I am a social media teetotaler. In this social-media-saturated world, I abstain.

To be clear, this online reticence doesn’t originate in anything nefarious. I am not conducting clandestine criminal acts in my spare time. Nor do I subscribe to conspiracy theories about surveillance programs carried out by a secret overclass of lizard people (a purely fictive threat), or think every post has the potential to bring down the doxxing-wrath of the misogynists of our modern era (a genuine threat faced by many women).

I’m simply one of those folks who suffer from an unfortunate combination of social anxiety and over-analyzing online interactions. And I am not alone.

A quick recap: Around 2015, after experiencing increasing issues with anxiety and depression, I started tapering off the amount of time I spent on sites like Facebook and Twitter. My rationale was simple – I noticed that I seemed to feel worse after visiting these sites and wanted to see if reducing my visits would also reduce my psycho-emotional distress. It did.

By 2017, I had whittled down my social media usage to nothing. It would remain “nothing” if not for my MA program, which requires us to create a personal website, blog, and tweet. Other than these MA-mandated posts, I refuse to touch social media with a ten-foot pole.

While I acknowledge that my experience is in no way representative of every human ever to log onto the internet, it is worth noting that scientific research indicates many other people my age are experiencing the same social-media-anxiety connection.

Let’s take a quick look at the top-cited peer-reviewed research on this topic from the last three years.

Up first: a 2017 study analyzed a nationally representative sample of Americans between the age of 19 and 32, comparing their symptoms of depression and anxiety against their use of multiple social media platforms.

The results? Compared against participants who used 0 to 2 social media platforms, participants who used 7 to 11 social media platforms had “substantially higher odds of having increased levels of both depression (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.9–4.8) and anxiety symptoms (AOR = 3.2, 95% CI = 2.0–5.1). Associations were linear (p < 0.001 for all) and robust to all sensitivity analyses.” From this, the researchers concluded that use of multiple social media platforms is independently associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, going so far as to recommend that “it may be valuable for clinicians to ask individuals with depression and anxiety about multiple platform use and to counsel regarding this potential contributing factor.”

Another study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders highlighted a connection between social media use and anxiety in young adults ages 18 to 22. Their main takeaway: more time spent using social media was linked to a higher chance of having an anxiety disorder.

Finally, in a 2018 study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, researchers correlated participants’ responses to questionnaires about anxiety, depression, loneliness, and “fear of missing out” (or FOMO) with data from their phones showing how much time they were spending on social media apps. Over a three-month period, the participants who limited their social media use to 30 minutes or less reported experiencing less depression and loneliness.

Following an in-depth analysis of their results, one of the researchers concluded: “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness. These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into the study.” (Melissa G. Hunt, quoted in this article)

So what can we learn from this? Should we all be social media abstainers?

I think that would be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For most functioning adults, using social media doesn’t immediately lead to a panic attack or feelings of overwhelming Weltschmerz.

However, I DO think that social media users – in addition to paying attention to issues of security and privacy – should make an effort to be aware of how their social media usage is affecting their mental well-being.

Every now and then, check in with yourself. How do you feel when you are on Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter or Reddit? For that matter, how are you feeling in general? If the answer is “not great,” then it might be worth stepping away for a few hours or reducing the amount of time you’re spending in that site or app.

And—if you’re like me and notice a massive, painful correlation between scrolling through your Facebook feed and the desire to hyperventilate—it’s okay to step away permanently. Missing out on social media doesn’t mean you are missing out on life. What matters most is that you’re able to enjoy life.

References

Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751-768. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: a nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.013

Vannucci, A., Flannery, K. M., & Ohannessian, C. M. (2017) Social media use and anxiety in emerging adults. Journal of Affective Disorders, 207, 163-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.040

Spiders, the web, and me

Flowering plant with a spiderweb attached.

I am pretty phobic about spiders, so when I saw one hanging out (literally) in the shower tonight as I started to step in, it occurred to me that my uphill battle against spiders in the house has some parallels to my efforts to maintain decent barriers within my internet and social media usage. (I would say I’m slightly less paranoid about the internet tracking) First, autumn seems to be on its way, and the spiders are either moving in to the house, or just being more visible. We’ve dealt with a minimum of a dozen spiders in the last week. I think spiders are marvelous outside the house, which I consider to be their proper setting. I enjoy watching them scramble around in our garden space, eating pests and keeping their numbers in check. They have amazing physical characteristics and an ability to go almost anywhere. Various internet providers, online services, and social networks can also be extremely useful and have a similar, more metaphorical ability to be everywhere. I recognize that my house will never be spider-free, and my network interactions will never be surveillance-free. On the other hand, I’m willing to go to some effort to minimize both spiders and data surrender. We try to minimize obvious cracks and food sources for arachnids in the house, and online, I pay attention to what information I’m willing to share and how I access various sites.

As I read through the various resources about what gets shared, stored, and tracked, I was edified to see that there wasn’t a ton of information that was entirely new to me. I use minimal profiles and background on my social media that I use for truly social purposes, like Facebook. For my more professional usage, I focus on more narrow, work-oriented background and contacts. I use multiple email addresses, including an essentially throw-away option for signing up for online services and the occasional online purchase, which I also try to minimize. I started using DuckDuckGo as my search engine a few years ago, and prefer the interface and results lists to Google. I clear history and cookies with some regularity, and the fact that my job as a librarian has me using multiple different computers in the course of a day or week, and searching for a wide variety of topics and products well outside my actual interests feels like a bit of extra camouflage as well.

There are certainly levels of privacy protection that I’m not ready to tackle yet and don’t really feel a need to utilize. I’ve been tempted to play with Tor browsing on occasion, but I am not really interested in the attention that can also arise from that usage or that of some of the more anonymous email providers. I’m also not ready to go to a progression of burner phones or drop boxes that start to feel more like I’m playing a role in a spy thriller than managing communication. Since so many industries and jobs expect some form of an internet presence, I’d rather manage and curate one that sends a message I want rather than be completely invisible to potential colleagues and employers.

Connecting with Connectivism

Connectivism has a core proposition — knowledge is not acquired.

As you know from our readings/viewings this week, connectivism is a learning theory advocated by George Siemens (and others) that emphasizes the importance and role of networks and connections; and learning, therefore, involves the ability to construct and navigate those connections and networks, and apply the results of forming networks and making connections to enhancing understanding, addressing problems of practice, and pursuing unrealized opportunities. So for a quick recap, recall that the principles of connectivism are:

Learning is a network phenomenon, influenced and assisted by socialization and technology.
Connectivism externalizes knowledge, with knowledge residing in a distributed manner across a network.
Learning is a process of connecting information sources, and nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
Capacity to know more is more important than what is currently known. (Or, as George Siemens articulates so well: “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.”)
The ability to see connections and patterns between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
The networked act of learning exists on two levels:
- Internally as neural networks, and
- Externally as the networks we actively form.
We externalize ourselves in order to know and be known. As we externalize, we distribute our knowledge across a network.

As a new blog post or page here on our WordPress site, please share your views on one of the following four questions related to the readings from the first few weeks of the course. I’m asking you to select one of the following prompts to expound on, contributing to our shared understanding of connectivism and how it applies to our work in this course and beyond:

Prompt A. Connectivism has a core proposition — knowledge is not acquired. What does that mean? If knowledge is not acquired, then what instead?

Prompt B. What is your response to the following quote from George Siemens? “Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.” In what ways do you agree with this quote, and in what ways do you not agree with it? How does social media and social networking play into this?

Prompt C. What do you want to share about connectivism? Create your own prompt.

Note: We will be taking what we contribute here regarding connectivism and accomplish two additional tasks: (a) I will be inviting you to turn this conversation into a blog post for your base camp, and (b) I will be inviting you to use your new understanding of connectivism to correct and enhance the Connectivism page in Wikiversity.