Social media is always changing. When I first got into social media, my sister set me up with a Myspace account which was all the rage. Nowadays, basically only musicians use Myspace, and a very small percentage of them at that. Even the ubiquitous Facebook is not safe. I personally see a whole bunch of my friends deleting their accounts. It is hard to tell exactly what the next big social media trend or site will be, but we can of course make predictions.
The two social media sites I use the most are Facebook and Youtube. I have definitely noticed changing attitudes about both of these sites since I started using them years ago. For Facebook, I have noticed a ton of my friends either not using the site anymore, or deleting their profiles altogether. They do it for various reasons, but three of the more common reasons are that they want to spend less time on the computer, they are tired of having every family member following everything they do on the site, and they don't trust the company wit any private information they have. I have also seen people say the site is just getting stale and they are ready for something new. As for Youtube, a lot of users are quitting because the advertising revenue has been cut drastically, and they are censoring a whole bunch of content and even deleting videos and channels that have controversial viewpoints. They say that the site is favoring the old media over user-generated content, that the algorithm gives a bigger platform to establishment media companies and conglomerates like FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and also censors conservative or libertarian points of view in exchange for "social justice warrior" and 5th wave feminist content.
I think that social media is trending toward switching sites, and also more real-time video interaction. Just as movies and TV shows have nearly (obviously not fully) replaced books to communicate stories, the same will happen with our text-based social media sites. We can already see this happening with the recent influx of live-streaming options and "story" options that are being incorporated into most platforms. Snapchat started the "story" trend, which is basically video snapshots of your day played back-to-back. Then Instagram had a "story" option, and then Facebook Messenger. There is a meme going around the internet of people saying "X has just added stories!", with X being a microwave, a car key, etc etc. And as for live streaming, we can also see this trend happening as well. Periscope was one of the big platforms that let anyone do a live-stream, sort of like how the MSM does live broadcasts. Facebook then incorporated a live-streaming service, and just recently Instagram did as well. I predict that Snapchat will have a live-streaming option in the very near future as well.
In conclusion, I see two main trends happening that could be predictive indicators of the future of social media technologies. One is I think that the sites that dominate the space right now are dwindling, which will create a vacuum for new sites, and I think we will see a huge shift over to new platforms and sites very soon. The other is I see more and more video and live-video communication being used over text-based communication, so I think we will see these new platforms be very heavily focused on video technology and features. One thing is for sure though, we do not know for sure what will happen.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Monday, May 1, 2017
Mental Health and the Digital Divide
The internet is an extremely helpful tool for people who have mental health issues if they know how to use it effectively. However, in order to use it effectively, they must have access to it. The Digital Divide refers to the idea that certain groups of people do not have access, in general, to as much technology as other groups of people.
For example, minorities and those on the lower rungs of the economic hierarchy in general have less access to the tools for improving mental health. This means that they will possibly suffer more because they do not have these resources available. According to an infographic on Mashable, 46% of poor people do not own a computer, while only 4% of those who are wealthy do not own a computer.
The internet has been an invaluable tool for my personal mental health. I struggle with a few mental health problems, including OCD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and hypochondria. I have found valuable resources for each of these problems using the internet. What is unique to the internet in terms of finding help with mental health problems is that you can search for a very individualized problem, such as "I am having a panic attack about being sick", and you will often discover a result specific to that problem. If someone does not have internet access, they would have to rely on books from a library or perhaps someone who they know, but they might not be able to get the individualized attention and advice for their specific problem.
The idea of The Digital Divide is related to the ideas of capital that we discussed earlier in the year in class. Social capital is available through the internet far more than it is in a local physical location since people from all around the world use the internet, it is the world's largest marketplace. There is also a power inherent in the internet and social media that is not available without the internet, which is to instantly self-publish whatever you like in an instant for free, such as this blog.
The Digital Divide is related to mental health since mental health resources, such as videos about how to help with OCD, or what diet is best for mental health, etc etc, are only available to people with internet access.
For example, minorities and those on the lower rungs of the economic hierarchy in general have less access to the tools for improving mental health. This means that they will possibly suffer more because they do not have these resources available. According to an infographic on Mashable, 46% of poor people do not own a computer, while only 4% of those who are wealthy do not own a computer.
The internet has been an invaluable tool for my personal mental health. I struggle with a few mental health problems, including OCD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and hypochondria. I have found valuable resources for each of these problems using the internet. What is unique to the internet in terms of finding help with mental health problems is that you can search for a very individualized problem, such as "I am having a panic attack about being sick", and you will often discover a result specific to that problem. If someone does not have internet access, they would have to rely on books from a library or perhaps someone who they know, but they might not be able to get the individualized attention and advice for their specific problem.
The idea of The Digital Divide is related to the ideas of capital that we discussed earlier in the year in class. Social capital is available through the internet far more than it is in a local physical location since people from all around the world use the internet, it is the world's largest marketplace. There is also a power inherent in the internet and social media that is not available without the internet, which is to instantly self-publish whatever you like in an instant for free, such as this blog.
The Digital Divide is related to mental health since mental health resources, such as videos about how to help with OCD, or what diet is best for mental health, etc etc, are only available to people with internet access.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Social Media and Education
The internet has greatly changed the landscape of pedagogy. I would argue not in a fundamental way, but verging on it, and even more so as time goes by. Even in my own short 14-15 years in school I have seen technology, computers, the internet, and social media creep more and more into classrooms and homework assignments. For example, from Kindergarten to about... 8th grade I did not use the internet at all for homework assignments or papers. Then around high school my teachers started incorporating occasional assignments on that utilized the internet. Then around senior year in high school and continuing into college my teachers started using not only the internet, but social media profiles for homework assignments or class supplemental material.
Social media and the internet are powerful pedagogical tools for two reasons. One is because the world is becoming more internet-driven every single day. The landscapes of business, trade, networking, communication, recreation, and more are all being guided more and more toward the internet. Because of this, is extremely important that students not only be proficient in their usual day-to-day internet activities, but learn the more powerful tools that the internet offers for creativity and upward mobility.
The educational community is having mixed responses to this changing landscape. Some teachers I have had do not allow any sort of technology to be used in the classroom, be it computers, cell phones, mp3 players, tablets, etc. And in other classes, we spend the entire class period using computers, or students are encouraged to take notes on their devices. However, when it comes to social media specifically, these sites and services are usually barred from the classroom. But should they? This is a difficult question. Because on one hand the students could get all kinds of distracted from the lecture by surfing their social media news feeds, but on the other hand these tools are incredibly powerful for brainstorming, group thinking, debating, and networking with others in the same area of business or study. In my opinion, social media could be used effectively in the classroom if the teacher sets up some kind of group or profile where all the class activity takes place so he or she can monitor the activity of the students to an extent and make sure they are engaging in activities that are relevant to the class. Alternatively, the teacher could develop homework assignments that use social media so that student do them in their study time instead of risking getting distracted during class.
Social media and the internet are powerful pedagogical tools for two reasons. One is because the world is becoming more internet-driven every single day. The landscapes of business, trade, networking, communication, recreation, and more are all being guided more and more toward the internet. Because of this, is extremely important that students not only be proficient in their usual day-to-day internet activities, but learn the more powerful tools that the internet offers for creativity and upward mobility.
The educational community is having mixed responses to this changing landscape. Some teachers I have had do not allow any sort of technology to be used in the classroom, be it computers, cell phones, mp3 players, tablets, etc. And in other classes, we spend the entire class period using computers, or students are encouraged to take notes on their devices. However, when it comes to social media specifically, these sites and services are usually barred from the classroom. But should they? This is a difficult question. Because on one hand the students could get all kinds of distracted from the lecture by surfing their social media news feeds, but on the other hand these tools are incredibly powerful for brainstorming, group thinking, debating, and networking with others in the same area of business or study. In my opinion, social media could be used effectively in the classroom if the teacher sets up some kind of group or profile where all the class activity takes place so he or she can monitor the activity of the students to an extent and make sure they are engaging in activities that are relevant to the class. Alternatively, the teacher could develop homework assignments that use social media so that student do them in their study time instead of risking getting distracted during class.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Social Media and Politics
Never has social media taken a larger role in politics than in the 2016 presidential election. One of the reasons for this is how the 2 major candidates (plus a large number of underdog candidates) used social media constantly to connect with their base, communicate their thoughts, and promote their campaigns.
I heard an NPR broadcast that called Donald Trump's Twitter arguably the most important social media account in the history of the world. They argued that if someone was able to hack his Twitter account, they could tweet things about starting a nuclear war that could wipe out the entire planet. Something that is also interesting to note about Donald Trump's twitter is that entire currency's have been devalued after he Tweeted about them. This happened to the Mexican peso after he Tweeted a mean remark about Mexico.
For me personally, I was more involved in this election than any other election. I believe that is probably in part due to social media since I am on it fairly often.
Something that I found interesting in the readings for this week was how social media eliminates the middleman when it comes to the communication between potential voter (or constituent) and the candidate (or representative) themselves. This has upsides and downsides. One of the upsides to this is that we get up-to-date information about what the politician is thinking about. We do not have to wait hour or days for news sources to report on what the politician said. This leads to the second good thing about this, which is that the words are coming directly from the politician themselves, so they are not filtered through a third-part media source that may construe what they said for ideological purposes. However, that could also be considered a downside since there is less accountability for what they said. The voter or constituent can look at the social media post written by a politician (Facebook post, Instagram post, Tweet, etc), and believe what the politician is saying even if it is wrong because there is no ombudsman or fact checkers.
In the grad scheme of things, I think social media in politics is a force for good rather than for bad because we can look at the raw data of what the candidate is saying and use our own critical thinking skills to determine the validity of the statements rather than rely on someone else to do it for us since they may be corrupt or have and agenda that they are not telling us.
I heard an NPR broadcast that called Donald Trump's Twitter arguably the most important social media account in the history of the world. They argued that if someone was able to hack his Twitter account, they could tweet things about starting a nuclear war that could wipe out the entire planet. Something that is also interesting to note about Donald Trump's twitter is that entire currency's have been devalued after he Tweeted about them. This happened to the Mexican peso after he Tweeted a mean remark about Mexico.
For me personally, I was more involved in this election than any other election. I believe that is probably in part due to social media since I am on it fairly often.
Something that I found interesting in the readings for this week was how social media eliminates the middleman when it comes to the communication between potential voter (or constituent) and the candidate (or representative) themselves. This has upsides and downsides. One of the upsides to this is that we get up-to-date information about what the politician is thinking about. We do not have to wait hour or days for news sources to report on what the politician said. This leads to the second good thing about this, which is that the words are coming directly from the politician themselves, so they are not filtered through a third-part media source that may construe what they said for ideological purposes. However, that could also be considered a downside since there is less accountability for what they said. The voter or constituent can look at the social media post written by a politician (Facebook post, Instagram post, Tweet, etc), and believe what the politician is saying even if it is wrong because there is no ombudsman or fact checkers.
In the grad scheme of things, I think social media in politics is a force for good rather than for bad because we can look at the raw data of what the candidate is saying and use our own critical thinking skills to determine the validity of the statements rather than rely on someone else to do it for us since they may be corrupt or have and agenda that they are not telling us.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Social Media and Mental Health Activism
Activism has changed much in the last 20 years. When people 20 years ago heard the word "activism", they probably pictured in their mind, masses of picket sign holders chanting some kind of catchy phrase about what they are for or against. While that type of activism still happens to this day, the landscape of activism has changed dramatically. With the advent of the internet, social media, and Web 2.0, different types of activism have arisen.
Mental health has been a topic that has a lot of activism behind it for a while now. One of the main things that mental health activists want to end is the stigma around mental health disorders. A stigma is a "mark of disgrace" associated with some type of condition. People generally do not talk openly about mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and OCD. This is especially true with males. When someone talks about these types of things, they are seen as weak. That, or that they are complaining too much. Both of these ideas are antiquated and incorrect. Although the stigma is less than what it used to be, social media activism has played a role in reducing the amount of stigma surrounding these things.
Hashtags are words or phrases that are preceded by a pound("#") sign that help people find posts with that same hashtag. Hashtag activism has become incredibly popular at raising awareness for all sorts of causes. #blacklivesmatter is probably the most famous example of this. It's presence is now ubiquitous, and the hashtag has turned into a full on movement. A hashtag relating to mental health is #endthestigma. People will put this hashtag after a post of them explaining their experience with mental health disorders, for example. Then, if someone wanted to see similar content to that, they can click the hashtag (if the website allows) and it will bring them to a page with that same hashtag. This allows for people to share their stories and for their stories to be read by an audience that is interested in them.
Another form of activism that has been proven to often be quite effective is the online petition. Online petitions are just like the paper petitions that you see at your school, in the park, on city sidewalks, etc, but they are all electronic. They can be petitioning for anything, including mental health things. So, for example, if a government stripped funding for a heroin addiction center, for example, a petition could be started to oppose that since addiction is a mental health problem. Online petitions are usually emailed to the appropriate person who they are petitioning. Sometimes, some online petition websites will have a custom text field where you can write your own message to the receiver of the petition.
Another interesting form of online activism that, at the time of reading this has passed but is still worth noting, is the ALS ice bucket challenge. For this, a person would intentionally spill a bucket of ice over their head and then say something about ALS and how you can help, and then they would challenge 3 people to do the same thing. This was an incredibly popular camping, with high profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures joining in.
Social media tools have given birth so many novel, and often very effective, forms of activism and activism campaigns. It will be interesting to see what news techniques people will use to do their activism online. One thing is for sure though, it is a constantly changing phenomenon.
Mental health has been a topic that has a lot of activism behind it for a while now. One of the main things that mental health activists want to end is the stigma around mental health disorders. A stigma is a "mark of disgrace" associated with some type of condition. People generally do not talk openly about mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and OCD. This is especially true with males. When someone talks about these types of things, they are seen as weak. That, or that they are complaining too much. Both of these ideas are antiquated and incorrect. Although the stigma is less than what it used to be, social media activism has played a role in reducing the amount of stigma surrounding these things.
Hashtags are words or phrases that are preceded by a pound("#") sign that help people find posts with that same hashtag. Hashtag activism has become incredibly popular at raising awareness for all sorts of causes. #blacklivesmatter is probably the most famous example of this. It's presence is now ubiquitous, and the hashtag has turned into a full on movement. A hashtag relating to mental health is #endthestigma. People will put this hashtag after a post of them explaining their experience with mental health disorders, for example. Then, if someone wanted to see similar content to that, they can click the hashtag (if the website allows) and it will bring them to a page with that same hashtag. This allows for people to share their stories and for their stories to be read by an audience that is interested in them.
Another form of activism that has been proven to often be quite effective is the online petition. Online petitions are just like the paper petitions that you see at your school, in the park, on city sidewalks, etc, but they are all electronic. They can be petitioning for anything, including mental health things. So, for example, if a government stripped funding for a heroin addiction center, for example, a petition could be started to oppose that since addiction is a mental health problem. Online petitions are usually emailed to the appropriate person who they are petitioning. Sometimes, some online petition websites will have a custom text field where you can write your own message to the receiver of the petition.
Another interesting form of online activism that, at the time of reading this has passed but is still worth noting, is the ALS ice bucket challenge. For this, a person would intentionally spill a bucket of ice over their head and then say something about ALS and how you can help, and then they would challenge 3 people to do the same thing. This was an incredibly popular camping, with high profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures joining in.
Social media tools have given birth so many novel, and often very effective, forms of activism and activism campaigns. It will be interesting to see what news techniques people will use to do their activism online. One thing is for sure though, it is a constantly changing phenomenon.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, and Mental Health
Crowdfunding is a byproduct of Web 2.0. Crowdfunding is when people use the internet to contribute to causes they want.
GoFundMe is a website that was specifically designed for crowdfunding. Someone can set up a campaign for a cause that they want to help and people can donate as much or as little to the fund as they want.
When it comes to mental health, crowdfunding can be invaluable. Take a look at this project on GoFundMe. To date, Katie has raised around $3,500 toward her mental health treatment and Master's degree to help other people with mental illness.
This is related to the topics of previous weeks, such as social and financial capital. By using crowdfunding, Katie is increasing her social capital by putting her goals on the internet for all to see, colleagues, potential investors, or just friends who are in a similar situation as she is. She is increasing her financial capital by raising money.
Crowdsourcing is when people make media assets themselves, be it stock photos, stock videos, music, etc, and then post in on websites such as iStockPhoto for other people to either download for free or pay for a greatly reduced price as compared to something like Getty Images. Some websites, such as PublicDomainPictures, also has images that you can use for totally free and you don't even have to attribute their creator. There are other licenses, such as the Creative Commons license, where you don't have to pay for them, but there are varying degrees of attribution and other rules, such as distributing under the same license, and mandatory remixing of content.
For example, if a startup company, say one that focuses on helping anorexic people recover, had limited financial capital, they could make an (almost) free website by self-hosting Wordpress, and then using stock photos and videos as their featured images or videos.
Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are invaluable for people who do not have a lot of money and ned help. They are one of the positive byproducts of Web 2.0.
GoFundMe is a website that was specifically designed for crowdfunding. Someone can set up a campaign for a cause that they want to help and people can donate as much or as little to the fund as they want.
When it comes to mental health, crowdfunding can be invaluable. Take a look at this project on GoFundMe. To date, Katie has raised around $3,500 toward her mental health treatment and Master's degree to help other people with mental illness.
This is related to the topics of previous weeks, such as social and financial capital. By using crowdfunding, Katie is increasing her social capital by putting her goals on the internet for all to see, colleagues, potential investors, or just friends who are in a similar situation as she is. She is increasing her financial capital by raising money.
Crowdsourcing is when people make media assets themselves, be it stock photos, stock videos, music, etc, and then post in on websites such as iStockPhoto for other people to either download for free or pay for a greatly reduced price as compared to something like Getty Images. Some websites, such as PublicDomainPictures, also has images that you can use for totally free and you don't even have to attribute their creator. There are other licenses, such as the Creative Commons license, where you don't have to pay for them, but there are varying degrees of attribution and other rules, such as distributing under the same license, and mandatory remixing of content.
For example, if a startup company, say one that focuses on helping anorexic people recover, had limited financial capital, they could make an (almost) free website by self-hosting Wordpress, and then using stock photos and videos as their featured images or videos.
Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are invaluable for people who do not have a lot of money and ned help. They are one of the positive byproducts of Web 2.0.
Monday, February 27, 2017
User Generated Content and Mental Health
User generated content is any content that is created by someone that gets posted to a website, whether they own the site or not. Many sites run almost exclusively off of user generated content, namely social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. The recent influx of user generated content has a lot of consequences, some good and some bad. Whether it is for the greater good or bad is up for debate, but one thing is certain, UGC is not going away anytime soon.
There are upsides and downsides to UGC. In a nutshell, some of the upsides include the availability of highly targeted and customized consumable content, the ability to create and publish your own content, and the democratization of information. Some of the downsides include the lack of a oversight to ensure that the content is factually accurate, the possibility of being falsely represented by someone, and how it could possibly be putting traditional journalist's jobs in jeopardy (which could be an upside or downside depending on one's current opinion of traditional journalism).
I'd like to share my own experience with UGC as it relates to mental health and well-being. I have OCD, not the cutesy "I have to have all my pencils aligned parallel lol", but like washing hands so much that they sometimes bleed OCD. This is obviously not normal, and falls into the domain of this blog, psychology and social media. So how has UGC helped me with this? I have found amazing resources from Youtubers, Facebook groups, and personal blogs about things people have tried to help their OCD, how OCD is treated professionally, how to stay calm during an anxiety attack, how to try to cope with OCD in a healthy and productive manner, etc. This is something that would probably not be explored into as much depth in Psychology Today magazine as it is in some Youtube channels and such that I have gotten information from. Some channels are devoted to just OCD, and deliver content covering many different and idiosyncratic elements within the domain of OCD. This is why UGC can be a good thing in terms of mental health.
However, the very thing that makes UGC so valuable to mental health patients is the thing that can be harmful to them. That is, the fact that anybody can say (almost) anything, even if they don't have any credentials or experience with the subject matter at all. So for the OCD example, someone could get on and make a Youtube video about how when you feel the need to "ritualize" (which basically means doing the action or thought that will make the anxiety temporarily cease), you should ritualize just to make the anxiety stop and keep doing that to stop the anxiety when it comes and basically run away from your problems and fears. That is, according to the theory of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a very unhealthy coping habit, and will only make the condition worsen. But since the information was delivered via a UGC platform, anyone could upload a video saying that, and the ignorant viewer may not know it is bad information, which could possibly make their condition worse. One of the ways the can sort of get an idea of whether information is good is to read any comments or rating systems that video has on the website it was posted on. Sometimes the community of commenters will provide further information on whether the information in the video is true or false, but then again, since the commenter is using a UGC platform, they could be right or wrong. This means that if you are using UGC to get health advice, you should always cross-check it with credible sources like doctors, licensed therapists, nutritionalists, scholarly articles, etc.
Even though UGC has downsides, I think it is ultimately for the better. It is important that consumers of UGC that pertains to important things, like health advice, career advice, etc, exercise diligence in cross-checking claims to make sure the information they are getting is good. In my opinion, if one exercises this type of discipline, UGC content will most likely be beneficial to them since it will probably contain information that they might not find in traditional information sources.
There are upsides and downsides to UGC. In a nutshell, some of the upsides include the availability of highly targeted and customized consumable content, the ability to create and publish your own content, and the democratization of information. Some of the downsides include the lack of a oversight to ensure that the content is factually accurate, the possibility of being falsely represented by someone, and how it could possibly be putting traditional journalist's jobs in jeopardy (which could be an upside or downside depending on one's current opinion of traditional journalism).
I'd like to share my own experience with UGC as it relates to mental health and well-being. I have OCD, not the cutesy "I have to have all my pencils aligned parallel lol", but like washing hands so much that they sometimes bleed OCD. This is obviously not normal, and falls into the domain of this blog, psychology and social media. So how has UGC helped me with this? I have found amazing resources from Youtubers, Facebook groups, and personal blogs about things people have tried to help their OCD, how OCD is treated professionally, how to stay calm during an anxiety attack, how to try to cope with OCD in a healthy and productive manner, etc. This is something that would probably not be explored into as much depth in Psychology Today magazine as it is in some Youtube channels and such that I have gotten information from. Some channels are devoted to just OCD, and deliver content covering many different and idiosyncratic elements within the domain of OCD. This is why UGC can be a good thing in terms of mental health.
However, the very thing that makes UGC so valuable to mental health patients is the thing that can be harmful to them. That is, the fact that anybody can say (almost) anything, even if they don't have any credentials or experience with the subject matter at all. So for the OCD example, someone could get on and make a Youtube video about how when you feel the need to "ritualize" (which basically means doing the action or thought that will make the anxiety temporarily cease), you should ritualize just to make the anxiety stop and keep doing that to stop the anxiety when it comes and basically run away from your problems and fears. That is, according to the theory of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a very unhealthy coping habit, and will only make the condition worsen. But since the information was delivered via a UGC platform, anyone could upload a video saying that, and the ignorant viewer may not know it is bad information, which could possibly make their condition worse. One of the ways the can sort of get an idea of whether information is good is to read any comments or rating systems that video has on the website it was posted on. Sometimes the community of commenters will provide further information on whether the information in the video is true or false, but then again, since the commenter is using a UGC platform, they could be right or wrong. This means that if you are using UGC to get health advice, you should always cross-check it with credible sources like doctors, licensed therapists, nutritionalists, scholarly articles, etc.
Even though UGC has downsides, I think it is ultimately for the better. It is important that consumers of UGC that pertains to important things, like health advice, career advice, etc, exercise diligence in cross-checking claims to make sure the information they are getting is good. In my opinion, if one exercises this type of discipline, UGC content will most likely be beneficial to them since it will probably contain information that they might not find in traditional information sources.
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