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.
Personally I would agree that everyone should have freedom of speech online and everywhere. Although I also think that your speech shouldn't be hateful or heartful to others.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you explained the addictive qualities of social media. I find it super interesting that people still use it so heavily knowing its bad benifits.
ReplyDeletethere's definitely some places in the world where moderation is too high, and its basically infringing on people's rights, but there's also some places where there's not enough moderation. World leaders need to come together to find that middle ground.
ReplyDeleteto be the devils advocate, it sup to the government the person resides in on what they get to say. for example in America you have freedom of speech so you're fine but in china there is no free speech and I feel like that would transfer to social media as well.
ReplyDeleteJonah, your link between social media and addiction is an interesting point. Did you see anything in your research about how much of a problem this is?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget a hanging indent for your citations.
this was a very informative blog. also what are some ways that younger people could stay off there phone and not be as addicted to social media?
ReplyDelete