WildCard #2 - In the news - Nonprofits gaining ground with social media

An article that I recently read on the use of social media to raise cancer awareness can be found at the following link:

http://www.asbestos.com/blog/2014/09/26/social-media-raises-cancer-awareness/

The article, titled "Social Media Is Crucial to Raising Cancer Awareness and Funding", is about people using social media to spread the word of cancer awareness and need for funding. The author claims that "earlier this year raised more than $13 million in six days through Facebook and Twitter." The article went on to include successful Facebook pages that are devoted to cancer awareness, such as the American Cancer Society's Facebook page. Another successful Facebook page mentioned was that of the National Cancer Institute.

I think that the idea of raising awareness and contributions for noble causes such as cancer awareness is great for society. It shows that we can come together, and work to attempt to rid ourselves of such a terrible disease. Earlier this year we saw the effects of the ALS ice bucket challenge, which went viral and lead to millions of dollars being contributed on behalf of everyday people and celebrities alike. Organizations and nonprofit groups can use social media as a great tool to support their causes, raising more money then they ever could without it.

Social Media Reflection #2

The reason that I chose this topic was mainly because of the technology implication that social media has. I am a computer science major, and I have always been fascinated between the connection between people and technology, especially social media sites. I have done research projects for other classes on the psychological aspects of social media on the human brain, and I thought that researching it on a sociological level would be enjoyable. If you are at all interested in the some of the psychological effects of social media, you can find an interesting video here. But for now, back to sociology.

Another reason for choosing this topic was my interest in people who use social media to display deviant behaviors and even attempt to change their deviant behaviors into social movements. Recently, the terrorist group ISIS has been prevalent in the news. They are extremely dangerous, and are using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to recruit members of the organization all over the world. They display their deviance through pictures and videos posted on these sites, and prey on deviant individuals who wish to become part of their structured organization. The FBI has even been warning soldiers to delete Facebook accounts because ISIS has been targeting soldiers, attempting to turn them against their own country. I am including the video below If you are interested.
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/clip/10919153/fbi-warns-soldiers-to-scrap-social-media

Image Heavy Post #2

Just some funny cartoons exaggerating how social media has influenced our communication with others.

It seems as though people are quick to take to social media to form opinions on events and occurrences, and to share these ideas for friends and strangers to see.

This video shows more trends and statistics associated with teens using social media. The use of social media is now extremely common among teens.

Reblog w/ Commentary - "5 Times Social [Media] Changed the World"

The name of the blog that I recently read was titled: Impact of Social Media on Society: 5 Times Social Media Changed the World written by Lisa Mason, who is a social media consultant and writer. The link to the blog/article can be found below:

http://socialmediasun.com/impact-of-social-media-on-society/

The reason that I chose this blog to review was because of the specific instances where society has been dramatically influenced by social media. The five instances that the author uses in this post were;  the Trayvon Martin shooting, LGBT rights movements, the Arabic rebellion, the Egyptian elections, and the invisible children support with KONY 2012. Social media was a huge part in all of these cases. It makes starting social movements and gaining followers and bystanders easier, and allows people to freely voice their opinions on specific topics. 

Another reason that I liked this blog post was because of the closing paragraph that the author included. I strongly believe that social media is a powerful tool and we will continue to see it influence life as we know it. The author of this blog believes this as well. As her final statement, she concludes that "Social media will continue to impact society, and when all the variables are optimum, will change the world from time to time with public sentiment as a driving force." Social media has, in a sense, become a platform of virtual reality that is directly connected with the world we live in. And this technology will, like the author said, continue to change the social world as we know it.

Wildcard - Review of "Social Media Changing Social Interactions" by Kaitlin C.

While researching the effects of social media on society, I stumbled across a publication by the Student Journal for Media Literacy Education. The document had information about many aspects of social media. The article is interesting and closely related to my topic, and is titled: Social Media changing Social Interactions by Kaitlin C.


The link to the article may be found here. The article is located on page 11.

Overall, I thought that this was a very informing article with a lot of good points. The author states: "Social networking websites effect our social interaction by changing the way we interact face-to-face, how we receive information, and the dynamics of our social groups and friendships." I have definitely witnessed first hand how social media can alter face-to-face interaction. For instance, many times I have witnessed people pull their phone's out and open social media in order to escape an interaction with someone they do not know. In my opinion, social media should be used more as a tool to improve social connections, instead of taking away from everyday physical interaction. 

I would also strongly agree that social media has changed the way we receive information. A quote from the article reads, "The sites open up different portals through which we get information and create a more diverse news outlet." Social media allows users to gain information about news stories around the globe just by checking their "friends" status updates or trending keywords. There is no longer a need to go digging through multiple major news channels or newspapers to find news stories. Also, there is less media bias when information is coming from many different sources.


One thing about this article that I did not agree with was the idea that social media gives us the false impression of what a "friend" is. The author says that "our traditional notion of friendship embraces trust, support, compatible values, etc." However, I personally can recognize that the people that I am connected with on social media are not necessarily my friends, and a lot of people that I know would agree with me. Some people on these social media sites are just people that you went to school with, worked with, etc. that you may want to stay in touch with.

In the News—Social Media Contributing to Protests after NYPD Officer Not Indicted

In the wake of a Grand-Jury's decision to not indict a NYPD officer who choked and killed an unarmed man, protesters demonstrated all over the country, outraged by the decision. The story can be read at the following link:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/social-media-help-fuel-protests-after-new-york-officer-not-indicted-over-death-of-eric-garner-1417662999

Eric Garner, a 43-year-old African American New York City resident, was killed on July 17 of this year, after a police officer choked Garner unconscious while attempting to subdue him. Protesters are outraged, as a video shows the unarmed man being taken down and choked unconscious by officer Daniel Pantaleo. Even after the medical examiner listed the death as a homicide, a Grand Jury decided not to indict officer Pantaleo.

Social media is fueling the fire for protesters, and helping to gain publicity. More and more people are joining the protests after hearing about the lack of indictment. According to The Wall Street Journal: "Soon after the grand jury’s decision, Twitter and Facebook lit up with thousands of messages organized around hashtags such as #EricGarner, #ICantBreathe and #BlackLivesMatter." The article claimed that more than 69,000 tweets were being posted every hour with the hashtag #EricGarner. The social media sites are also providing a platform for protesters to organize public demonstrations, some of which lead to the arrest of many people after demonstrations got out of control. 

In my opinion, this is where social media shines brightest. People all over the planet can find and read information and news that is related to stories such as this one. The sites also make it possible to gain followers necessary to start social movements. These movements can gain supporters and virtual bystanders who wish to push towards social change. Twitter and Facebook are currently helping ongoing social movements by contributing to resource mobilization, which "is the process by which social movements generate the assets necessary to build and sustain the movement" (Croteau, P.488). As the push for a true post-racial society continues, I believe we will see social media continue to grow into an even more powerful tool in uniting people towards a common interest.

Reflection — Personal Experiences with Social Media

I remember first being introduced to social media at the beginning of my eighth grade year. MySpace was the huge thing, and if you didn't have one, then you weren't 'cool.' You could make a profile, add your friends, add backgrounds, and customize anything that you wanted. This was a huge thing, because it was almost like hanging out with your friends whenever you were just stuck at home. You could chat, post pictures, make updates, change how you were feeling, and read about other people without ever having to talk to them. This was the first time that I can remember social media really taking off and beginning to change the way we interacted with each other.    

Now, six years later, social media use has increased dramatically. New technology like smartphones and tablets let us take social media where ever we are, and simplify the sites into apps that are easy to use and convenient. Status updates, post likes and comments, and notifications come straight to our phones, and make interacting with our friend and followers almost instantaneous. However, in my opinion, some people are overusing this technology to the point where it could potentially be bad for their social health. Instead of enjoying activities with friends and family in real life, people are constantly giving live updates to social media about what they are doing, posting pictures, viewing comments, etc., instead of actually enjoying the accompaniment of others. I think that some people are too quick to whip out their phone and post about something instead of actually being physically involved.

Personally, I do not think this technology is all bad. In fact, I believe that it is mostly good and is a very valuable tool for society. I love being able to go on Facebook or Instagram and connect with family that I do not see much in person. I can see pictures and updates of my cousins, nephews, aunts, uncles, etc., without having to get in my car and drive for seven hours! I do not overuse these sites, and in no way do I fell like I have "disconnected from society" like many critics say will happen with social media use. 

     

"5 ways Facebook changed us, for better and for worse" - Reblog w/ Commentary

I recently stumbled across a blog post on CNN.com that was about Facebook, and how it has changed us for the better and for the worse. Hence the title of the blog, duh! It was written earlier this year (way earlier, like January) by Doug Gross. The link to the blog can be found below:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/31/tech/social-media/facebook-changes/

Overall, I really liked this blog post. It was an interesting take on both sides of the spectrum, and the way the information was laid out was easy to read. The author mentions five ways Facebook has benefited us, and five ways that it hasn't. The following summarizes five good and bad aspects of this particular social media site:

The first good thing about Facebook that the author mentions is the ability to easily share information with anyone you want. I agree that this is a good and a bad thing. People may easily log onto the social media site and find events that they would like to attend. Baby showers, weddings, parties, etc. can all be handled on this website. However, I believe that this is also a bad thing because of the "digital divide." This digital divide can separate people when all invitations and event information is handled online. People without Facebook may not be invited to an event merely because they do not belong to the social media site. Many elderly people do not have social media, and therefore may be excluded from such events.

One good thing about Facebook that I would add that this author does not mention is it's ability to increase a persons physical social network. Although these social networking sites merely connect people through the internet, it serves as a entire database of people that you may know or are acquaintances with. This could strengthen social ties and maybe even help you one day down the road!

Some Interesting Visualizations of Social Media and it's Impact on Society

The video above gives some numbers and statistics about social media sites and social media users. I found some of the information pretty interesting. It really shows how many people are using these social media sites!

This graph above shows approximately how many people use these social media sites. Facebook has more than 3 times the United State's population worth of users!
Take from: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-big-social-media-has-become-2012-9

Often I see people in a group where everyone is on their phones and there is little live social interaction going on between people. Sometimes I wonder what kind of toll this takes on a persons overall social health. Or does it really affect them at all? After all, they are on 'social' media.
Taken from: http://goo.gl/3HXcms

Here is another video with some good information and statistics. I like how this video gives some of the ways social media has already changed our society, and the ways that different countries are using social media as a tool to better themselves.

Social media is undoubtedly a great tool for connecting people due to the large majority of individuals who now belong to at least one social network. It is much simpler to find old friends and reconnect with lost relatives. 
Taken from: http://www.glasbergen.com/?count=2&s=social%20media

Social Media in the News: Twitter Gives $10m to MIT to Study Tweets

Recently, Twitter agreed to a pretty impressive deal with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:  A deal that promises the college $10 million over the course of 5 years. "What could Twitter possible want with MIT?" you may ask. The answer is very simple:  Twitter would like the school to monitor every tweet that has every been posted and every will be posted. Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, has handed over the stream of every tweet being posted to Twitter as well as the archive for every post that ever been written. The purpose of this study is to collect information and trends that could possibly help solve some of society's problems. The main article I read can be found at this link http://goo.gl/FhYpWx.

When I first read this article, I thought that the idea of trying to solve social problems by studying tweets was kind of ridiculous. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this actually seemed like a great idea. After all, Twitter and other social media seem to be some of the most up-to-date information sources on the planet. If you're wondering what is going on in our country at any given moment, you can check what's trending on Twitter and instantly be given news articles, opinions, pictures, links to other articles, and more. But Twitter and other social media are much more than sites to just check current events or news trends. These sites see a lot of personal opinions and arguments that have to do with pretty much every topic, and bring rise to many ideas. Many of the topics posted about can be looked at sociologically, and analyzed to see how most of society feels about a given topic. With this information, studies could be designed to go about solving some of societies more complicated problems.

Even if this study doesn't do all that is expected as far as solving problems in society, I think it would be very interesting to see what kind of things are most posted about and how people go about voicing their ideas, problems, and possible solutions. However, I feel as though this information will only apply to the younger generation as there are far more teens and young adults that have and post on Twitter. But still I am excited to see the results of this project, and what answers (or lack or answers) that it may hold for the future of society.

SOC 111, Fall 2014, w/ Dr. Yeager!

Hey everyone! My name is Matt McQuin, and I'll be writing a series of blogs for my Fall 2014 SOC 111 class (taught by Dr. Yeager). The topic is social media, and the way that this technology is shaping our society. I find this topic very interesting, and I look forward to presenting some useful posts over the course of this class. 

The primary purpose of this blog is to present information from a sociological standpoint, and some of the information may seem not very interesting or include terminology and page numbers from our textbook (Experience Sociology by David Croteau and William Hoynes). So I apologize in advance if this information does not interest you!