Weekly Blog #1
Social media is the thread that connects us all. From Facebook to the now-dead Vine, social media requires a “buy-in” from the public to use a platform. You can really get away with being an anonymous citizen that deals in illicit activities OR as a real person that wants to stay posted on the latest news and community events.
However, social media is much more than just a way to connect with people from your life. It is a way to bond together with people that you DON’T know that hold similar interests to you. As we’ve seen JUST this week, different social media platforms can have real world impacts. For example, Reddit basically just tried to break Wall Street simply because some had the idea to pitch it to the community and everyone went along with it. In this way, social media is incredibly relevant to every person alive.
Whether or not we like it, the days of message rooms are long gone and the internet has since expanded to a legitimate realm that houses all sorts of websites and businesses. Twitter, being one social media platform, has seen a surge in recent years because of Donald Trump’s consistent tweets being forced into the spotlight of the political scene. It is undeniable that what occurs on social media affects the real world. Another example would be the widespread movement of 2017 “#MeToo” which saw many public figures exposed for previous dirty behaviors. Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram began to help drive this “fourth-wave feminism” in taking down these celebrities and provide a voice for the victims.
I think one important thing to mention is that social media piques my interest because of its “mob mentality” that seems to arise in e a c h platform. Years ago, you would be hard-pressed to find someone in California connecting with someone in Florida to team up and verbally assault a citizen of Wyoming (probably with nasty worded postage) for something they had said. With the developments in technology, anyone can say whatever they want, WHENEVER they want. Thus, information flows faster, people are forced to make decisions and form opinions faster and it really leaves the door open for misinformation or rash decision making. Mob mentalities are dangerous even when well-informed because an angry crowd becomes polarized when interacting among themselves and then look for a outlet to assault (often a person or organization).
The future of social media might force us to have more accountability for our actions. As advancements in cybersecurity and moral questions surrounding privacy are becoming more and more pertinent, I see the whole tech industry facing down the barrel of the “tech ethics” gun that we’ve been dancing around for the past forty years (concerns we knew about as early as the 1950’s with the science-fiction movement). I could either see social media becoming more personal to confirm identities online OR some kind of civil war occurring between tech philosophers and tech enthusiasts that spirals out of control leaving the public unsatisfied with whatever decision they come up with.
Who knows.
