Inequality Among Us

danah raised some very interesting points about inequality on social media, and I found myself agreeing with her for the most part. I have noticed that while my friends may be friends with a variety of races on social media, the majority of their interactions online are with people of the same race. Noticing this, I found the point about how new social media and new technology have reinforced existing divisions rather than dissolved them to be true. People bring what they have learned, their prejudices, their likes and dislikes with them when they go online, it’s not like they disappear and you become a whole new person online, and so how can we expect new technology to link us together? It may offer a window to other cultures and lifestyles, but does that really mean anything especially since it is not even a real world, face-to-face experience?

I could see social media as a possible source of social justice in the world. To me social media should be used as a tool for awareness and fundraising rather than the main tool in our arsenal for positive change. Take for example Kony 2012-everybody knew about it within two weeks of the video dropping on Youtube and the countless other shares and mentions it received on other sites, which helped garner a lot of attention, support, and money for the movement-which was good. However did anything really happen as a result? I and many of my friends I have asked do not even know if Kony was stopped; the closest information I received was that Kony was stopped soon after or even before the movement began and this was just a rumor I heard. Another well known example of social activism via social media would be the ALS ice bucket challenge-it had millions of reshares as well as millions of dollars raised. Based off these two examples I would say that yes social media can be used for social justice, but it should be used as a TOOL to raise awareness and money to support a cause rather than be the main approach to problem.

Twitter, unlike many other social medias, is a better news source than place of discussion although it can be used as one. Twitter only allows for short “180 character” messages, which does not really allow room for more than an opinion and a few general supporting sentences, and there is no comments section for people to have full length discussions on. Twitter instead is better suited for short, accurate, live updates on a situation or for links that have more in depth info on the matter at hand. Sites like Tumblr, Instagram, and Facebook all have areas where people can have full on debates or conversations about something without it getting annoying to others. So Twitter is like the sound byte you see on the news for 20 seconds, and other social medias are the full articles you find online the next day.

Bullying

Yik Yak can be used as a platform for harassment by teenagers. Its anonymous quality gives people boldness to post what they truly think even though it may be vulgar or inappropriate, which makes it perfect to launch attacks on a person or group. Yik Yak is only able to be seen by people in a couple mile radius around you, but this acts as a double edged sword. Being held to a couple mile expanse controls the extent and popularity that harassment can go to, but everyone in that area, literally anyone who has the app-friend or not, can see it which can be just as bad. Yik Yak also presents a different social media platform with its anonymity, feed, and location sensitivity that is entirely unique and something danah has not seen. She mentioned that she had some experience and knowledge about Formspring-a site that allowed people to ask questions anonymously- but the person receiving the questions chose whether the questions were posted to the public or not. So even though people could be harassed online via Formspring it was a rare case that it spread publically, but with Yik Yak the person being harassed does not have a choice whether it is public or not. Yik Yak is an new and unprecedented platform of social media with great potential as the new social media app but also as a way for abuse and public shaming to happen.

Dangers(?) of Social Media

danah argues in chapter four that the hype and attention focused on the dangers of the internet, while very real, were over exaggerated. She says the we experienced a moral panic over the possible dangers of the internet as the resulting social media- much like the parents of kids when comic books came out or when Elvis became popular. The media played on the fears of parents and started publishing the stories of kids being kidnapped or sexually assaulted, and though few in number and relatively rare, they garnered the attention of the whole nation. Social media was focused on next as the new way for kids to be in danger online by the media and stories about it  were blown out of proportion too despite research showing that this was not the case. Ad campaigns took statistics done by respectable research companies out of context to feed the fears of parents over their kids being on the internet. It was proven on two separate occasions years apart by the same researchers that 75% of teens experienced some type of sexually based experience online (which including FLIRTING), but only roughly 10% escalated into an offline encounter and even less resulted in sexual abuse or kidnapping. Based off this I agree with danah’s argument that there are real dangers online, but they have been over exaggerated and  misreported due to fear.
The guide to Snapchat article got everything right in my eyes. The author did not try to say what us teens used it for and openly admitted that there was a generational gap, which earned my respect for him. He covered all the main points of Snapchat, although his coverage of the discover portion was a little too overemphasized to me since many of my friends and myself only use it occasionally now. As for what I use Snapchat for is to record funny or interesting things going on during my day for my snapstory-”I have to put this on my story” is a very common phrase. I also use it to pass the time and snap my friends, and I also use it to keep in contact with my old high school friends by sending them a quick snap to show I haven’t forgotten them or to watch their story to see what they’re up to. Snapchat is a very unique, versatile, and fun social media platform since it incorporates the notion of self destructing pictures ranging from 1 to 10 seconds from person to person and 24 hours for everyone to see, private chats and pictures, live face to face videos, and even money in the form of snapcash, which covers basically everything a teen looks for in a social media platform.

Privacy

To me private messages/DM’s/ and other forms of other personal messages are what I consider private on social media. I can control who sees what and what appears on my profiles via privacy settings, but I do realize that anything I post can get out to other people so I don’t post anything that could harm me in the long run since this information is truly private. In saying this I agree with danah’s statement that us teenagers post with the assumption that it will be public and so we keep private info confined to messages or other forms of communication not related to social media. Privacy does change for me depending on the site I’m using. For example on Twitter and Facebook I watch what I post more carefully since there is a potential for many people to be able to view what I say, but on sites such as Instagram and especially Tumblr I have more control over who sees my posts so I feel as if they are more “private” and I have more freedom to post what I like. Regarding Facebook’s mood manipulation study, I have no qualms with it. It IS their site that we are using and we probably agreed to be subjected to studies somewhere in the terms and agreements that none of us read. The study they conducted seems harmless enough and actually provides some interesting information on the human psyche, and honestly if someone’s mood is actually affected that greatly by seeing some sad advertisements to the point where they become sad or depressed then that is their problem, not Facebook’s. I believe that the study was beneficial and should not be considered an invasion of privacy.