microbot89

[microbot89]

Social Media and Society

Considering the world that we live in, social media has a very strong presence in almost every aspect of everyday life at the touch of a finger tip. Considering race, gender, class and many other demographic factors, social media has impacted society in a way that nothing in modern times can compare to it. In a young person’s life, social media can have an immense impact on the mental well being of teenager. Some of the good impacts such as exploring new ideas and having a platform where young people can have a voice as well (Phoon et al., 2017). A couple of bad aspects come in the forms of low self-esteem, body dysmorphia, and a certain feeling of disconnection with family and friends (Phoon et al., 2017). Now, in regards to how social media affects the work environment, or professionally speaking, it is good to keep you social media presence to a minimum as well as keeping it clean to the public. Having a social media presence is huge in the world and good amount of employers are going to do a search of your social media history (Phoon et al., 2017). Because of this, it is important to stay professional and polite when dealing with social media and it can be observed by employer and employees alike. Personal use of social media, on the other hand, can be used in any way you want as you long as it is used within the guidelines of whatever platform you are apart of. These two differ greatly, professional and personal use of social media, in regards as to how you should act. On one hand, you must stay professional and to not engage in bad activity, where as personal accounts you can do, say and believe what you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else. Both ways need to be treated delicately, but as to which is more personal and professional is a given. Because of the degree of how social media has taken over the world we live in, there are risks of expanding social media that we do need to take into account. Having so many forms of digital communication tools may have issues for younger people to have developmental issues (Allen, 2019, Risks of expanding social media). 

References

Allen, S. (2019).  Social media's growing impact on our lives. https://www.apa.org/members/content/social-media-research

Phoon, A. (2017, September). Social media and its stark influence on society. Journal of First-Year Writing, 1(1), 1-6. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=writ

[microbot89]

Computer Mediated Communication Cont.

Going into this previous week, I dealt with my learning group in playing a massive multiplayer online role playing game. Because of the aspect, there was a great amount of communication with my learning team and the online community inside of the game. Esports are a huge market now, and it is slowly starting to be considered a real sport in some senses. Tang (2018), “esports teams operate in a highly task-based environment. While for casual players the main goal might be having fun, the competitive nature of most MOBA games renders the objective of winning an essential component and a priority of the overall gaming experience” (Team Cohesion in Task and Social Dimensions). Even more so, the communication between the payers is extremely crucial and for the most part is extremely successful in getting players to communicate with each other. Because of this, mobile tools such as Discord, Zoom, and Twitch have become an important part of the online community for conversations. Because of the Coronavirus, there has been a massive uprise in these platforms for online gaming and communication alike. Recently, a man named Sean Kelly lost opportunities to visit his son regularly because of flight restrictions. Being that he was working in San Diego and his son living in South Carolina they started to play Minecraft together and talked and video chatted on Discord (Kharif, 2020). The great thing about playing games and video chatting at the same time gives the aspect of being an active role in someone’s life, rather than just talking about life with other people (Kharif, 2020). An even better aspect is Twitch, where you play video games for others while they are able to contribute to the game as well as social commentary and social interaction. Now, outside of the video game world, there is still a huge amount of information that people are getting there hands on from computers, smart phones, and television in general. Personally, I consume most of my information by watching Youtube News channels, we do not use cable here at home, such as ABC News, NBC News, CNN, and Fox News alike. Consuming news online is a really easy thing to do with all the access to the internet, but it is always nice to listen to radio stations talking about news, it’s more personable in my opinion. Also by reading the newspaper so that you might be able to find out the information that is more pertained to your own community. Now, we have gained a lot of useful skills and applications to use in this current time to communicate with each other, however there is a loss of real human contact and interaction. My smartphone is the easiest way to consume news, going onto my google app to read up on stories that interest me, and find out new things in the world. Considering we live in a world where social interaction is not the safest thing right now, it will affect how everyone connects to each other in the future. Less physical interaction and more engagement over video calls is slowly becoming the new norm. Because of this there is a great demand for visual stimulation instead of talking over a phone text, video calling will become the new normal. 

References:

Kharif, O. (2020).  Gaming services like twitch, discord are booming. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/twitch-discord-and-other-gaming-services-see-coronavirus-boom

Tang, W. (2018).  Understanding Esports from the Perspective of Team Dynamics. https://thesportjournal.org/article/understanding-esports-from-the-perspective-of-team-dynamics/

[microbot89]

Computer Mediated Communication in My World

On a daily basis now in my world, it is extremely important for me to keep in touch with with classmates, family and friends in a safe and socially distanced way. My cell phone, my laptop, and my social media presence is the easiest way for me to safely and accurately communicate with everyone. The cell phone comes in handy for talking to my family and friends, and even more so when I want to face time or video chate with them as well. My laptop is a daily portal for me to talk to my classmates, I am an online college student working towards a communications bachelor's degree, and for me to check my daily emails and do all my work from home. The only social media that I engage in is Instagram, and with this tool I am able to really engage in my interests and discover new ones as well as communicate with many varieties of people. Now, my opinion on whether or not these forms of communication enhance a sense of community, it really does considering social distancing is a still a real world issue. Because of these online platforms and digital commnications, we are able to still feel the embrace of community and togetherness as well. Privacy, however, is something that is still a very big concern because of how easy it is for people to gain access to people's personal information if they do not have a some type of protection against it. Going into the future, computer mediated communication is going to be a bigger and better way for everyone to work, play, and engage with an ease that wasn't as available as it is today.