Amusing Ourselves to Death: Blog Post #3

Although Social Media is a great way to keep connected and communicate in ways that were never possible before it also has given people a false sense of connection, it has developed cyber bullying, and it is the reason why there has been so much decrease in productivity. One of the major reasons why social media is bad is it sense of false connection, there have been situations like these all the time with sites like match.com, zoomb.com, you can think that your talking to an eighteen year old senior in high school captain of the football team, soon to become a college football player. But in reality it may just be Tom from two streets down that has been convicted for three murder trials. You also may feel very connected to this person swearing you know everything about them yet in reality you know nothing. According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, “social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media.” There is also the newly emerged type of bullying that has infected schools like a virus, cyber bullying. Jung wrote on the subject saying: “The devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide.” Being anonymous on the internet has given bullies the upper hand when it comes to not suffering the consequences. This intern has become “the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year” according to the CDC. Finally Social media has impacted our society negatively because of the overall decrease in productivity, students find themselves watching YouTube videos rather than doing their homework. According to medialit.org: “Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.” Because of this definition I believe that I am media literate for example these blogs that we are using they provide a framework to analyze and evaluate ourselves as well as the brave new world text. I also make videos for my other classes like Spanish, and physical education. In my opinion everyone is Media literate at some point or another we use it all the time for class work and it is an easy and common way to learn something even teachers are media literate when they post things on edline. Edline has become the most productive way of communication for a teacher and student it is used by everyone and is very important to keep an organized schooling system. I do not agree with Postman to an extent because yes society has become reliant on the technologies that "undo their capacities to think"(Huxley.2.7) But there will never be a time where "there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted top read one." (Huxly.3.2) This is because book are still being used today, in class rooms, in offices, and they're still being sold. Most big movie productions start off as books and by popular demand have become movies. For example Harry Potter, the Twilight saga, the Hunger games, Perks of Being a Wallflower all started as books but as time went on the success of each of these books demanded them to become movies where others watched and in turn read the book as well. Another point that I dis-agree with is that "the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance"(Huxley.3.7) Everyone is always questioning authority, whether or not they are telling us the truth or covering up their lies. The most controversial topic in spectators today is probably the validity of whether or not 911 happened because of terrorist or the government trying to scare the us into another war. People are always going to care because they yearn to feel as though they are always right and they also want to feel superior to authority and the rules that have been formed to keep the world at peace. Work Cited: Jung, Brian. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals." The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals. Hearst Communications, Inc., 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. . "Bullying and Suicide." - Bullying Statistics. Family and First Aid, 2009. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. . "Media Literacy: A Definition and More | Center for Media Literacy." Media Literacy: A Definition and More | Center for Media Literacy. Center for Media Literacy, 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. . Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin, 2006. Print.