Hi everyone!
So here is my video, hope you all enjoy!
-Loulou
Week 9: Essay
This post will be discussing the beneficial and concerning affects that social media has on young people. Social media is a tool via the Internet used by many people everyday to keep in contact with friends and family, and to share discussions among each other. Social media has become part of people’s everyday lives whether it is on the Internet socializing or reading a newspaper; it is everywhere. You are able to access social media at home, school, university, when out spending time with family and friends, and many other places. According to Young People’s Perspectives on the use of social media (2013), young people mostly use social media, like facebook, to keep in contact with their friends and for entertainment. Not only these, but young people use social media to elaborate on their common problems like their emotions, relationships, sexuality and many other factors that they are facing (Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013). Boys and girls are both just as likely to interact with social media on a daily basis, although research shows that they do not necessarily always use it in the same way (Lenhart, A 2010). There’s no doubt that the younger generation today have vastly different lives to the older generation; going to the park to have a picnic and interact with family and friends is not as common anymore and seems to be a thing of the past. This raises the point in regards to just how healthy and beneficial social media is for our youth and for our youth’s future.
Research Assistant Professor, Danah Boyd, asked some young people why it is that they join social media websites like MySpace, and their response was ‘Cuz that’s where my friends are’ (Loubser, B 2012). The statistics found from, Young People’s Perspectives on the use of social media article, which were done in 2009, show just how many young people are connected to the social media life. Young people from just twelve years of age use social media sites with a percentage of 90%, as well as young people the age of sixteen and seventeen with a percentage of 97%. Teenagers use social media everyday, with an estimation of 2.9 hours per day for young people from the age of twelve, and 3.5 hours per day for sixteen and seventeen year olds. A more recent survey that was taken place in 2013, studied ‘what social media they use’ out of forty-seven young people. This survey resulted in forty-seven young people using Facebook, forty-three using YouTube, thirty-three blogging, twenty-nine using Twitter, and seventeen using Internet chat rooms (Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013). It is apparent from these statistics of just how much social media plays a role in teenagers’ everyday lives. Author, Don Tapscott, raised a very true point in 2008 and said, “For many young kids, using technology is as natural as breathing” (Loubser, B 2012). Young people have been brought up with this world of social media, so it would be impossible to not be a part of it. Because of this, the older generation is always raising concerns about just how healthy and beneficial social media is for the younger generation and their future. This post will now discuss the benefits of social media, and concerns of social media affecting young people.
Social media has benefited the world greatly in many different aspects. People are able to keep in touch with friends and family, they are much more aware of what is going on around the world; we are able to access information easily using research engines like ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo!’. According to an article, ‘Social media and the affects it has on young people’, social media has boosted IQ’s (psychometric test of intelligence), due to the Internet being good value for education and interactive game playing. People are able to surf the net to find out information on diseases, medical problems and many other health issues that we are faced with. Not only these, but social media has helped give a better understanding of different cultures resulting in less discrimination due to communication and tolerance (Cook, D 2013). Tapscott describes today’s’ generation as, ‘Savvy, self-reliant, analytical, articulate, creative, inquisitive, accepting of diversity, and socially conscious. Unlike their parents, who are portrayed as incompetent ‘technophobes’, young people are seen to possess an intuitive, spontaneous relationship with digital technology’ (Loubser, B 2012). Tapscotts’ range of words used to portray the benefits of social media is expressed in a very positive way and makes new technologies for young people seem that the future of social media will be somewhat ‘academically smarter’. Youth will more so take part in a ‘sense of community’, which will benefit their sense of wellbeing (Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013).
Not everything about social media is good though; young people have either been victimized or witnessed disturbing cases because of this new social world. There are many factors that are concerning like, privacy and security issues, hackers and employers gaining access, loss of some control, ‘addiction’ to the use of sites, and obviously many more. Parents have many concerns and one being the fact that a lot of young people use Internet ‘chatrooms’ leading to ‘pornography’ and are unaware of being in contact with pedophiles. To add to this, many young people have experienced cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is a form of bullying that takes place via social media, for example through phones or on the Internet. This type of bullying affects young people greatly and leads to depression, lack of self-esteem, distress, anxiety and friendship difficulties (Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013). Author, Buckingham, described the social media world in a more negative way, ‘what one can only call the banality of much new media use. Recent studies suggest that most young people’s everyday uses of the Internet are characterised not by spectacular forms of innovation and creativity, but by relatively mundane forms of communication and information retrieval’ (Loubser, B 2012). Buckingham is basically describing social media as the easy way out; young people aren’t becoming smarter as there is a lack of skills in regards to researching information and writing about their own ideas. According to ‘Social media influence’ article, its mentioned and discussed many issues relating to social media like blind imitation, wrong message, negativity, unhealthy lifestyle, information overload, media addiction, self-hatred, and fact fantasy confusion (Sherwood Orser, K 2013). Unfortunately, all of these issues are happening everyday to millions of young people.
As a whole, it is apparent that social media has its positives and its negatives. If the younger generations learn how to balance the social media world, then there will be vast improvements on health issues physically and emotionally. However, extreme use of social media that is not maintained and balanced well can eventually result in health issues and behaviour problems, like cyber-bullying. The community can make social media an all round fun, safe, positive and enjoyable world to be in if used appropriately. Young people today, are the future, so they need to be educated about the negative side to social media so that they are fully aware and smart about what they do via social media.
Reference list:
Cook, D 2013, Social media and the affects it has on the young, Canada, viewed 13 September 2013.
Lenhart, A 2010, Social Media and Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults, Washington, viewed 13 September 2013.
Loubser, B 2012, A connected and plugged-in worldview: Young people and new media, South Africa, viewed 16 September 2013.
Sherwood Orser, K 2013, Social media influences, Woodstock, viewed 16 September 2013.
Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013, ‘What makes you tweet?’ Young people’s perspectives on the use of social media as an engagement tool, Victoria Australia, viewed 14 September 2013.
– loulou
Hey bloggers! Here are some of the articles I found last week and planned on using for my essay:
Cook, D 2013, Social media and the affects it has on the young, Canada, viewed 13 September 2013.
Lenhart, A 2010, Social Media and Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults, Washington, viewed 13 September 2013.
Loubser, B 2012, A connected and plugged-in worldview: Young people and new media, South Africa, viewed 16 September 2013.
Sherwood Orser, K 2013, Social media influences, Woodstock, viewed 16 September 2013.
Rose, J Morstyn, L 2013, ‘What makes you tweet?’ Young people’s perspectives on the use of social media as an engagement tool, Victoria Australia, viewed 14 September 2013.
– loulou
Week 7 – Choosing a topic
Hi all!
For week 7 our task is to decide on a topic to write about for our on-line essay. I have decided to go with option number 2, which is about whether or not social media has a positive or negative impact on the health of young people.
– loulou
WEEK 6: Politics and the Internet
Hello everyone!
So this is my last post! Week 6 was all about politics and the Internet.
Politics is something I am still learning about as I am only young, so I am still undecided with what I choose to be best for our country. I did the voting compass and my results were 54% for Liberal, 52% for Labour, and 52% for the Greens. These results are all very close! So this didn’t help me a great deal with who I should vote for this election.
– loulou
WEEK 5: Social Media
Hey everyone!
Well week 5 was all about social media! There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more! Our task for this week was to create a survey about social media. Through my survey I discovered that 90% of people say that Facebook is a good way to keep in touch with friends and family rather than just a waste of time! Also discovered that 65% say that their usage of social media is increasing! Looks like the majority of people these days much prefer social media.
If you’d like to do my survey just for fun then here’s the link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LR5F8MY
– loulou
WEEK 4: Cyberspace & Cyberpunk
Hi fellow bloggers!
Week 4 was all about Cyberspace & Cyberpunk.
Our task for this week was to create a timeline. I chose to do Television as my key moment in Cyberpunk.
Here is the link to my timeline below:
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/history-of-television–25
Reference List:
http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=350251
http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television.htm
WEEK 3: Griffiths Library Page
Well hello all! I’ll just quickly mention that unfortunately I was unable to attend week 3’s tutorial, so I may have missed out on a few things.
Week 3, our task was to learn how to use the Griffiths library page better and provide reliable books and research!
QUESTION 1. Which of Stephen Stockwell’s books are in the Griffith library?
Stockwell, S 2000, All-media Guide to Fair and Cross-cultural Reporting: for Journalists, Program Makers and Media Students, Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Nathan.
Stockwell, S 2005, Political Campaign Strategy: Doing Democracy in the 21st Century, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne.
Isakhan, B & Macmillan, P & Stockwell, S 2011, The Secret History of Democracy, Basingstoke, New York.
QUESTION 2. Cite three academic books that might provide useful material for an essay about Jean Luc Godard’s Alphaville. Which campuses do they reside?
Brody, R 2008, Everything is Cinema: the Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, Metropolitan Books, New York.
Available: South Bank campus
Wheeler, D 1997, The films of Jean-Luc Goddard, Albany, State University of New York Press
Available: Gold Coast Campus
Corliss, R 1997, ‘For Ever Godard’, Time (Chicago, Ill.), vol. 150, no. 5, pp. 67, viewed 8 August 2013, via Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
Available: Online.
QUESTION 3: What is a book that will assist you to find out about possible research methods to explore social media?
Poynter, R 2010, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research: Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers,Wiley, New York.
– loulou
WEEK 2: Are we communication?
Hello bloggers! Week 2 is all about Communication.
How Communication has changed! Once upon a time the only way of communicating with one another was face to face. Then one day, social media happened!
People today, more often than not, talk to each other via phone, facebook, and many other social media creations.
Is it better this way? That I can not answer, but what I can say is that the social media we have and use today very well suits our crazy busy lives! The majority of us are too busy to see each other face to face regularly, so most people would agree that sites and apps like facebook, are a very good way to keep in touch with friends and family!
I have found a short video clip about the history of communication for you all to checkout. I found this video clip very well done as it is seems quite creative and definitely caught my eye. This looks like it would have been very time consuming! The video clip basically gives you a brief history of communication in animation style. So enjoy!
loulou
Beginnings of New Communication Technology
Hi everyone! I am a student journalist at Griffith University. One of my subjects that I am studying for this semester is New Communication Technology.
Once a week I will be blogging the new things I am learning each week. From what I can gather so far, this course will be quite interesting.
Technology today differs a lot compared to old technology; it has even changed the way humans go about their everyday lives. People rely so much on technology these days without even realising. I will admit, I am addicted to my phone and I hate that I am. Going without it for one day drives me a little insane.
Is this a good thing? Is the new technology of today heading us human beings in the right direction to success, or is it dumbing down our younger generations who are the future?
Hopefully I can find the answers, so stay tuned!
Media Communiaction 