Media and Politics

On Tuesday the group covered the important issue of media and politics. Much it is reminded me of my media and politics class Pols 317. We learned about the cnn effect and many other news related things that the media does in order to present the news, whether its good or bad. The media has so much power in politics and I think that more people follow politics through social media rather than watching debates or making an effort to locate candidates and talk to them. Social media has really changed how we view politics. It has changed how candidates actually get elected and it is how they promote themselves now. Obama was one of the first to campaign through social media and it worked. His campaign reached younger, liberal audiences. Most of the younger generations are liberal and most of the younger generation speaks out through social media. Even celebrities are more liberal and some celebrities are using their status to really help outline key issues in politics and bringing those issues up through social media. One of the best examples of social media and politics as it pertains to me was the Emma Watson "he for she" campaign that she set out. I've used Emma Watson's feminism campaign in so many classes because it is such a prime example of media and politics and it is an amazing social movement. When Emma Watson made her speech about equality and women, so many people followed this movement online because much of the younger generations saw this and took it as a step forward in society. The younger generations are the ones who are the future and democratic/liberal parties know this so they campaign to those audiences.

Book Panel

One of the books was very similar to the last expert group on social media. The social media group talked about how people are constantly attached to their phones and how people are communicating less in person and more online. We feel the need to constantly be online because it's addicting and it creates this culture where we view other peoples life highlights and it makes you think that you're not good enough because your boring and sitting on the couch. The social media group is similar to one of the groups that did a book panel presentation because they talked about how we now expect more from technology and less from each other. I think that is very easy to relate to because we always expect to be online, present and with technology it allows us to be on constantly. I think we have high expectations of our technologies and we heavily rely on them. Another point that the group discusses is that we seem determined to give human qualities to objects and content to treat each other as things. This was an interesting take away because I feel like we do take things for granted and even though we could lose this technology we kind of act wasteful. I'm not sure if wasteful is the right word to use but it is one word to describe how we go through technologies. I think humans do a horrible job at taking care of things and we don't treat things with care because everything can be replaced. Like phone screens. People drop their phones all the time, so we are constantly replacing phones and screens.
One really important take away that the group brought up that I resonated with was that even though our devices may not be in use, we feel disconnected with them. In the social media group they showed a video that mentioned a "phantom vibrate" which mistakes an itch for a phone vibrate in our pockets. So even if our phone isn't going off, we always think it is. I know that if I ever leave the house without my phone I feel lost and confused which is an awful thing to be attached to, but its just the culture we're used to. We feel lost and separated from society when we forget things like our phones at home. I don't think anyone has the ability to lose their phone because it is always attached to them. The feeling of disconnect is something we all can relate to. Whether our phone is in use or not we clearly identify with the feeling of being without our phones, computers, any sort of technology.

Social Media Group

The social media group did a great job on their presentation! I think that they showed amazing videos, and the definitions were good and how they set up their discussion by talking about Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr was all great. Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking is the definition of social media found on Google. This was a great starting point. I also loved that they talked about the important points of communication throughout history. From letters, to the telegraph, radio, phone, mobile phone then today with all the different types of social media that is out there. There are so many ways to connect and there are so many things that we can use to communicate it is almost overwhelming. 

When we got into groups, my group discussed snapchat and every detail about it. I use snapchat almost every single day. It's almost a part of my daily life as is Facebook. And the need to always be present online. I see the same amount of pros as I do cons with social media. We always want to be online and we always want to be present that we don't live in the moment. We talked about without Instagram would we take that many pictures? I honestly don't think I would take as many pictures if I didn't have a place to post them. I end up deleting them, and I will admit to taking so many selfies just to find the perfect one to post. Like the 19 year old Instagram famous girl, who worked so hard to build "fame" on Instagram and YouTube that she destroyed her image of herself, and she destroyed who she is through social media. She wanted to feel value and the only she thought she could do that was through social media. The only reason I can really understand why she did it, because at 12 years old she wanted to be fabulous like the girls she saw on the magazines or online. 

Pinterest and Tumblr are infamous for showing pictures of unrealistic beauty that is photoshopped as are the magazines. Tumblr people I don't think are photoshopped, they are just naturally beautiful and honestly it does ruin peoples self esteem. By looking at pictures of these skinny fabulous women, it is becoming more and more detrimental to young girls health. It is ruining how they view themselves and how they value themselves. The Instagram star at 15 was posting bikini photos thinking it was what people wanted to see, so that was the only way she gained value of herself was through others. Instagram and other social medias like this continue to make us more and more narcissistic which is awful and we shouldn't aspire to be like that. Nothing on social media is really that real. With instagram we can post the highlights of our life, then Facebook we post the general parts of our life, Twitter we post our expressions and thoughts regularly, and snapchat is for things that can disappear quickly and it's more for fun. 

I think Snapchat has definitely become a bigger part of social media because it's more fun to send pictures and videos. With those you can add filters of time, temperature, funny faces, emojis and many other things! It's exciting and addicting because you get instant results, you have "best friends" and you can share things with other people. The only downside to it is the stories, when you see how much fun your friends are having without you, say like a concert or just a regular fun party and you are on the couch eating popcorn and watching movies alone, and you see your friends stories and you think that your life is so boring compared to theirs. That is what social media does. Everyone posts the highlights of their life when realisitcally they are doing the same thing as you, and that is something everyone should always remember!