The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Social Media

 



Today almost everyone uses or has access to social media and are on it a lot over the duration of the day. This includes everyone from teens, parents, and even grandparents to theme parks companies and restaurants.



Why are so many people on social media? Because it is so easy to share pictures and post and communicate information to huge numbers of people in minutes. But how often is social media actually used for its intended purpose and how much are people addicted to it. Dr. Rock at the Cleveland clinic says that social media can "give people a sense of social well being" and that "heavy users of social media develop a tolerance to that much like those who use drugs and alcohol, " not great.



Social media is not used for just sharing pictures and talking to people either, lots of times people end up having fights over opinions or beliefs over social media and the problem is that wherever there is opinions being shared there will be fights and arguments. It's also easy to bully or stalk people over the internet by using fake accounts and being able to hide behind a screen while doing so.



One of the Ted Talks I watched mentioned how in 2008 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake happened in China, news of the earthquake spread world wide in a matter of minutes even before the news knew about it. This is one of the good things about social media.



But what happened after the earthquake? The Chinese government started to moderate and not allow certain posts to be posted. This has happened before and is called "The Great Firewall of China". The government did not do this because they felt like it though they had reasons none of which were right. The earthquake happened during the week while kids were in school and the school buildings collapsed and killed many kids. This was discovered to be the fault of the government taking bribes to let the schools be built not up to code. When the citizens found out, they went out and protested in the streets and online. China, wanting to protect its ego, started to deny and censor anything about the school building collapse.

I don't see what China's government did as right or okay I think that everyone should have a freedom of speach and if you don't like it then just don't read it.

Whats your opinion on social media moderation?





Works‌ ‌Cited‌ ‌
    Cleveland‌ ‌Clinic.‌ ‌"Is‌ ‌It‌ ‌Possible‌ ‌to‌ ‌Become‌ ‌Addicted‌ ‌to‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media."‌ ‌‌Cleveland‌ ‌Clinic‌,‌ ‌1‌ ‌Mar.‌ ‌
2019,‌ ‌health.clevelandclinic.org/is-it-possible-to-become-addicted-to-social-media/.‌ ‌
Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
 

   PixelKult.‌ ‌Phone‌ ‌Showing‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media‌ ‌Apps.‌ ‌23‌ ‌Oct.‌ ‌2015.‌ ‌‌Pixabay‌,‌ ‌23‌ ‌Oct.‌ ‌2015,‌ ‌
pixabay.com/users/pixelkult-631805/.‌ ‌Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
Shirky,‌ ‌Clay.‌ ‌

    "How‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media‌ ‌Can‌ ‌Make‌ ‌History."‌ ‌‌Ted‌,‌ ‌June‌ ‌2009,‌ ‌www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_social_media_can_make_history?referrer=playlist-‌
the_power_of_social_media.‌ ‌Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
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How much of the future is set in stone and how much is a computer taking a guess?

How much do you trust technology? You'd probably say a lot because you use it everyday like, your phone, computer, even your car. So it's now wonder that we use it to try and predict the future whether it be the immediate future or one hundred years from now but how much of that is actually fact and how accurate is that information?

Answer: not very much people seem to think that just because the computer predicted something it is more accurate than an educated guess by a human. We see computers as this higher power that is never wrong, but humans, who made them, are susceptible to being wrong. People in the 50s thought the world was going to end in 2020 and sure, we came close to it but it didn't. Even predicting what is going to happen seconds from now is hard for a computer to do accurately.

Take cars with automatic braking and lane departure alert for example what happens when a piece of paper flies across the road in front of your car and it thinks its a person or an animal and slams on the brakes. You are not prepared for that to happen neither is the car behind you. You have a better judgment call than the computer and can see that it's a piece of paper and not a person.

Lane departure alert is supposed to wake up drivers who fall asleep behind the wheel, the car will detect if you start drifting over the line on the road seems like a good idea but how many roads do you drive down that have no lines or what about the winter when there is snow or on new pavement with no lines yet.

My point being that there are just too many factors that contribute to it for it to be accurate 100% of the time, even if it is advertised as being 100% accurate that is the results of testing it in perfect conditions.

The human brain is a computer that is not yet able to be mechanically replicated and you could argue is smarter than a computer in the sense that a human has a better judgment call then a computer.

Are there situations where accuracy is not needed? Yes. Programmers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory developed a computer that can predict what happens next based on looking at a still photo. The computer watched 2 million videos to figure out how things move and react to situations. Then using algorithms it can create a 2 second video of what it thinks will happen.

So now how much do you trust technology? How much of the information you base your long term plans on are fact and how much is speculation. 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Melendez, Steve. "Teaching Computers to Predict the Future." nbcnews.com, nbc, 2 Dec. 2016, www.nbcnews.com/mach/technology/deep-learning-predicts-future-n690851. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Samuel, Tim. Driver Sitting in Car in Rainy Weather. 9 Nov. 2020. Photos for Class, www.pexels.com/photo/driver-siting-in-car-in-rainy-weather-5835278/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2020.