Has social media changed the way in which we communicate for the better?
Here are two fantastic TED talks in which Jon Ronson and Sherry Turkle discuss the impact of social media on the ways in which we communicate in the 21st century.
Jon Ronson: When online shaming spirals out of control
Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?
What do you think of the way in which we communicate with each other now? Has social media had a positive impact?
English at Lutterworth College 
Before watching the two videos, my opinion of social media was that it benefitted us in terms of communication in numerous different ways. It provides us with a vast number of ways to which we can contact people all over the world and allows anyone to voice an opinion about any subject they wish to this is perfectly summarised by John Ronson who states ‘voiceless people to have a voice which is powerful’. However the TED talks have had great impact on my opinion of social media. Especially the thoughts and ideas of Ronson who describes the likes of websites such as twitter as ‘radical de-shaming’. Ronson views on these social media sites are ones that are negative as he outlines that on such sites people can be ridiculed by other users who can say whatever they want as they feel that they are safe to say what they want to who they want over the internet. Also John Ronson touches upon the deterioration of face to face social skills between people. This is due to people communicating more over social media where users can plan out exactly what they are going to say.
Sherry Tuckle’s TED talk implies that social media and technology is becoming too prevalent in the modern day lifestyle and slowly going to places that we don’t want it to go. Tuckle suggests that social media holds a ‘psychological power’ within us that change ‘ what we do’ and also ‘who we are’ and has become more and more socially acceptable in recent times to constantly be connected with others via social media even when in the company of family and friends. Although social media is generally though to be something that is having a positive impact on us in Hein site it is causing is to become lonely with very little social and interactional skills with others.
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Before watching the two videos, I was very much fixed on the idea that social media has changed the way in which we communicate as there are a vast variety of social media sites that are very accessible and that are quick and easy to use. I am however aware of the dangers that social media can have upon certain people. Some people allow social media to take over their lives and they very much become reliant upon technology, in the long term this can affect people’s social and communication skills in person. Not only can social media have an astonishing affect on our social skills but also the harsh, opinionated views that can be voiced on social media accounts can be very damaging to a person’s state of mind.
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If I were to have my phone taken away from me, I would be lost. Lost in not being able to endure my habit of continuously refreshing twitter, Instagram, snapchat, to interact and communicate constantly. But why am I so interested in what other people are doing? Why do we all need to know the ins and outs of each others lives, when actually, all that it is doing is stopping our own lives in progressing.
I feel as though social media is an addictive drug. It is a live thing, constantly around us. The bad day that we may have had, comes home with us on our phone; the work that needs to be done to enhance us, is intercepted by activity on our phones. People aren’t themselves. Drinks are bought, clothes tried on, food ordered – all to show followers. No one enjoys holidays, or festivals, or days out – because the enjoyment is instead falsified by impressing people on snapchat.
As shown in Jon Ronson’s TED talk, with the story on Justine Socco, written information gives no scope for emotion or tone in someone’s voice and meaning. It is proven that one tweet, that could be interpreted as many different things, has the ability to ruin someone’s reputation. The tone in which a phrase is read on a text message, or a tweet, or a status, has so much dependence on how it is actually perceived – which is why, surely, the answer must be to physically talk a conversation with someone, where prosodic features can accurately be received.
This is not a criticism on my behalf, as I would be a hypocrite. However, I dislike that I am a part of a dependent society that relies on social media for every form of communication.
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Social media allows us to share our thoughts and communicate in ways that are harmful to others as well as ourselves. Misinterpretations are easily made with the way our opinions are worded on these sites and our ability to correct them is restricted as our words travel so quickly, moving from one persons feed to another in a matter of seconds.
It is this media that enables individuals to claim false identities and do or say things that they wouldn’t possibly do if communicating face to face. As identified by Sherry Turkle, social media gives us the opportunity to edit what we want to say which we might not otherwise say in a true conversation. Personally I think this is harmful, especially to the younger population as they will never get to learn the true value of a conversation in person with a friend or family member as they are already too immersed in texting or perhaps what is happening with their favourite celebrity on twitter.
Social media has had an extremely useful impact on our lives as we are able to become more connected across the globe. However, it is the extent of this connection that is worrying and limiting to us as we become addicted to it.
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Prior to watching the two TED talks, I have always seen the blossoming of technology as a sort of blessing. The idea that so called ‘robots’ enable us to do the unimaginable, such as communicate with our peers whenever we wish (even those that are out of touch), the ability and tools to ‘surf the net’ of anything we want to know about and also the idea that we can promote ourselves and our interests in a way that we can control through websites such as Twitter and Instagram. All of the above seem too good to be true, and like most things, that is the case.
The first of the two talks concerns internet ‘shaming’ and how it’s vicious power can end with unforgivable consequences. The idea that we can say and do whatever we please anonymously over the internet ignites evil in a handful of people as finally, they are able to voice their opinions to their peers and thousands of others all around the world. This concept is abused as it allows the careless and arrogant to attack anyone they please with an audience that are willing to add to the destructive flame that is internet shaming, as illustrated in the case of Justine Sacco. From a personal point of view, I think this is one of the most terrifying aspects of technology and I question whether being apart of the millions on the internet is worth living in fear of those who are waiting for their next pray to humiliate and ‘shame’. Furthermore, I find it even more worrying that despite the damaging outcome that shaming someone can have on their victims, there are no real consequences for the guilty because even though their words are present on the internet for everyone to see, they’re still a face behind a screen.
The second Ted talk highlights that as a human race, we find comfort in technology and rely on it in our everyday lives. Tuckle touches on the idea that as technology has grown we can no longer face being alone, as we don’t know how to be anymore. But to the surprise of many, we would rather find affection through our phones, rather than to find it through face to face interaction. She explains that we are loosing touch with the real world and soon enough our ability to hold a conversation with another individual will be a distant memory if we continue to idolise talking though the virtual world, as she adds “we’re smitten with technology”. I find this somewhat heartbreaking because by communicating through our phones we loose our emotions and our personality and to an extent we become an airbrushed version of ourselves and without noticing we become dehumanised. So for these reasons alone, I believe that technology has gone too far and before we know it, we will lose track of our real lives and just become a mere sketch on the internet.
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Before watching these videos, with some debate, I would have come to the conclusion that social media has changed the way we communicate in a positive way. In contrast, the points that were made, especially from Sherry Turkle, have changed my views on the matter. Turkle decided that these devices that we all use so frequently have ‘not only changed what we do’ but ‘they have changed who we are’. We, in the first world, rely on our phones to be able to ‘communicate’ and ‘stay sociable’ with the rest of the world, when in fact this is doing the opposite. An example being that the moment we pick up our phones; we isolate ourselves from the people around us. Many believe that texting someone is better than having a real conversation with them because it gives us the opportunity to plan our responses, when in fact it is destroying our social skills. From a personal view, I am able to see the effect social media has had. From the moment I received my first device and comparing that to now; I am able to support the fact that my social skills have declined. I find it more difficult to have a conversation with someone now than I would have those years ago. Some people could argue that it is because of the age but if we think about it; wouldn’t it make more sense for me to have better social skills now that I’m older?
When looking at how we communicate in the world of social media rather than outside; Jon Ronson highlights the fact that in many cases we use it in a negative way. He describes it as a ‘place of radical de-shaming’. Putting someone behind a screen, gives them the confidence to say what they want as they know there are no direct repercussions. There is no one next to them who will immediately give them feedback on their actions and therefore we use this to our advantage. Ronson said ‘voiceless people become voiced’; people will say things that they would not have usually said even if it is for the worse. This is when social media can get nasty. Since technology has been introduced, there is a new type of bullying that schools had to make pupils aware of, cyberbullying. This is the result of social media being used badly. Of course there are many advantages of using social media, for instance staying in touch with a friend who has moved to another country. However, if social media didn’t exist, you were more likely to have taken a flight to go and see them rather than talking to them through a device.
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for me, social media has only had a positive impact, allowing me to easily talk to whoever, whenever. These two videos show how social media can be harsh in the sense that small things can be blown out of proportion and how social media and technology can cause people to be alone rather than being connected with people. However, I still stick to my opinion that social media has a positive impact as long as people are weary and sensible about what they post online and don’t overuse it.
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Before watching these videos I was determined that social media had more benefits attached to them than negatives. However now I am in the mind frame that social media is actually pretty bad and it is damaging our lives more than we think. Without my phone I would be lost. I wouldn’t know where to go or what to do and like these TED talks prove, the majority of young people feel this way. It is crazy how much technology has moved on and developed in the past 10 or so years and because society has had their heads down on their phones the whole time we haven’t took the time to lift our heads up and take a gaze at the bigger picture. Social media is controlling us. We as humans get the chance to sacrifice real relationships for those on the internet. A place where we can edit our lives and perfect them. Even though we believe as humans that perfection doesn’t exist. Slowly we are turning into fake controlled robots and I think social media is taking over too quickly. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. are all fantastic sites, don’t get me wrong I adore them. We have to take a step back and stop letting them determine our future, else they will become our future instead.
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Before I watched these two videos I though that social media was a positive thing. social media has allowed people to share their thoughts on Twitter, post pictures on Instagram and keep in touch with their friends who could be on the other side of the world. However after watching the video of Jon Ronson, he explains shaming on social media. I never think that a simple thing like a tweet could cause so much damage across the globe, when some people tweet every day. that one tweet the woman sent made her life hell, and to think she only said it was a joke makes it worse. therefore I now see social media in a more negative light than before I watched Jon Roson’s video. The way in which many people communicate these days is through text and social media. I personally thought this was a positive because of how easy it is to speak to friends and family, however sherry Turkle has made me view this in a different way. she talks about how we are not as connected as we thought, and how we ignore a simple conversation because we don’t feel in control unlike a text where you have time to think about your reply. after watching these two videos my view hasn’t changed dramatically as I still view social media and texting in a positive way. however its just made me more aware of how much social media can affect you.
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In my opinion, social media has had both positive and negative effects on how we communicate. Social media sites are very accessible and easy to get onto. Scrolling through Twitter etc, takes up a lot of people’s time. This could be seen as a negative aspect of social media because we could start to rely on technology and begin to struggle with communicating in person. Twitter, for example, is a site where opinionated views can be stated. This resulting in a harming an individual’s state of mind.
However I think that social media does allow us to communicate quickly and easily. In some cases the use of social media is very, if not the most appropriate way of communicating with an individual. It’s important to remember the positive things that have came from the development in social media, as well as the harsh reality of the negative aspects.
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After watching the TED talks I have gained an understand on how much social media has changed both our habits as people and how we communicate with others. The two TED talks have also made me realise how much we are now reliant on mobile devices and the impact even a single tweet can have on people and how quickly that post can travel. Also, the TED Talk by Jon Ronson provides insight on how people can misinterpreted social media posts and take a tweet that was meant to be a joke and turn it into a hateful comment.
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The way in which we communicate with each other now is almost necessary to include technology and devices such as our phones to communicate. The way in which we communicate does start to exclude physical conversation and the capability of starting and maintaining one. Sherry Turkle explains that this is because we do not have the time to prepare what we want to say and how we present ourselves in a real life situation, but we do have the capability to present ourselves how we want whilst using technology, with the ability to edit and delete things we say and do.
Social media has had a positive impact in some respects and has not in other cases. Jon Ronson discusses how social media has gave a voice to voiceless people in terms of how they display themselves and what they say about other issues and topics that are talked about in the media. Twitter is a large online social networking service that includes millions of people who can speak freely of their opinions to whoever they choose, which is considered a positive of today, but this freedom does get abused and would be considered as a negative of social media, where it can be too powerful when ‘social media shaming’ starts to get out of control. This is a type of social gang that says what they think against particular things on the internet, where it can get to a point that can ruin someone’s life.
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Before seeing the TED talks I had not been as aware to the impacts of social media and technology as it is available daily, essentially blending into the norm.
Everybody now has access to an internet based technology, thus consequently social media also. Social media has its uses which when applied appropriately can improve the way day to day life runs but this is not always the case. Social media is abused frequently since it holds an ever-growing power. Technology has revolutionised our mental state creating a shameless self and lack of empathy; it lets us not only sense empowerment over our own lives but others too. Through technology we are able to create illusions and control all actions, which in reality are not possible, our virtual actions have authentic consequences and this needs to be recognised more openly. Society is losing touch with the boundaries as technology evolves, with reference to Turkle, humans are beginning to create stronger relationships with technological devices than another humans.
Since listening to Rhonson and Turkle I’ve began to understand the importance of technology on today’s world, we rely on it so heavily that it can become a danger to us. As a society we should make more people aware of our downfall to the media and risk of losing individuality before we begin to produce a backwards realism.
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It’s challenging, for myself of a mere 16 years, meeting communication ripe at the surge of social media, for me to distinguish a contrast between the modern technological day and age to era that preceded it.
What I can say is that, a world without digital communication would be alien to me. Perhaps this is due to my ignorance, scarcely living under such a restriction, or perhaps this may be down to the way in which the world is swept into the social media frenzy in the modern day and age.
I feel as if, on a personal basis, I am programmed. My actions automated by an overpowering social media power. The first thing I do when I awake is browse Twitter, and nine times out of ten my last action before sleeping is similar. I feel as if we have been indoctrinated by social media, in the sense that it’s creeped its way into society, and no longer perceived as a luxury, rather a necessity.
It’s brilliant, this international network of communication, isn’t it? The notion of person x beaming instant image from Austraila to person y in California, who can view this in a matter of seconds is awe-inspiring. The fact that one can exchange messages with the likes of a Kenyan cleaner and whatnot through our miniscule telephonic devices is something of inspiration and innovation.
As with anything however, with all of social media’s strenghts, come limitations. Limitations that the common man is blind to, ignorant in regard to. Why? Because it’s not their problem. The Sacco story was a real eye-opener for me. The fact that a single person’s life can be turned upside down due to a misconstrued attempt at a joke is a major cause for concern. And this is one of many cases of that ilk. Twitter can be brilliant in so many ways, an invigorating chapter in this emerging story of technology, but it can be abused to the same degree. The Sacco case was a prime example of how Twitter can be used to become an online bullying outlet. There’s no other way of wording it.
I think social media is brilliant, but with engaging in activity on this network, one requires a mental toughness and resillience, because one wrong turn and it can be a harsh, gruelling industry.
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Social media for me is a great way to stay connected and involved with people, however due to the nature of social media, misinterpretations often occur. I found Sherry Turkle’s point especially interesting -The point relates to how mobile phones are so ‘psychologically’ powerful that they are influencing our lives in the way that they allow us to ‘remove ourselves’ and avoid certain situations that we would rather avoid. After watching the TED talks, I believe that social media has changed the way which we communicate and that it has done so in a negative way and will continue to do so if we don’t resist against usage. Initially my views were set that the benefits outweighed the drawbacks concerning social media. Now I feel that the over usage of social media is poisoning today’s society.
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I believe that social media is incredibly beneficial for communication between young people, its a great was to stay connected with people over great distances. As I see a younger generation (as young as 2 or 3) walking round a shopping centre transfixed by some form of digital device s it any wonder that young people are becoming increasingly dependent on social media as a form of support? People can easily connect and form friendships with people like themselves from all over the world, creating groups and social circles of similar people who, otherwise would never have met. On the contrary, because it is so easy to find people of certain cultures or subcultures using hashtags and facebook pages it is also incredibly easy for online ‘trolls’ or predators to seek out people to bully and harass. This makes the internet a particularly precarious place for young people to spend such a vulnerable time in their lives. However, I strongly stand by my initial opinion, even after watching the ted talks, that social media websites can be used to form a community and help to create an invaluable sense of identity.
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Prior to watching the two videos, I was adamant that social media and the way in which we communicate with others using the sites available, impacted our lives in a positive way as it was easy to keep in touch and chat with people when you aren’t with them.
The problem with constantly communicating via social media such as Facebook and Twitter is that it effects the way in which we maintain a verbal conversation. If we only communicate using electronic devices and social media, it attacks our ability to talk to others naturally. After watching this, it is safe to say that we need to reduce the amount in which we use social media to reconcile relationships between humans rather than obtaining unhealthy relationships with mobile phones.
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This really spoke to me on a spiritual level I never knew that social media impacted on our lives as heavily as it does. its ironic how we are using social media to communicate our ideas. here is a little poem i wrote in memory of social media
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech—which I have not—to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
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I have written this on paper and given it to Mrs Spowage.
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I have always thought that social media has almost no flaws and that any flaws it did have are small and do not matter but watching these Ted talks has proven to me that it can have a huge impact on your life. Finding out about the women who’s life was ruined by a single tweet which was a joke made me realise people act completely different on social media and feel better about themselves after trying to destroy someone. I also found that it can affect your conversational skills if you use social media constantly. It can be harmful socially and mentally if you use social media too much. I still believe social media is a good thing even if there are bad things inside of it, I do not believe social media is the problem I think it needs to be taught about at schools and people should be better informed about how damaging it can be.
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Living in a technological morphing society just appears to have a way of making the world become smaller and smaller. Many people even believe that technology- enabled communication channels have changed the English language as well as how, when and why we communicate. The language of social media is evolving daily and seeping into the mainstream. The velocity of change will not abate any time soon. Language is alive, vital, and highly mutable: we all have to adapt.
The biggest factor may be the ever increasing velocity of communication. You can communicate quickly – efficiently, effectively – because written exchanges have condensed. Social media has spawned new words, and morphed old ones. An alphabet soup of acronyms, abbreviations, and neologisms has grown up around technologically mediated communication to help us be understood. The language we use to communicate with each other tends to be more malleable than formal writing, the combination of informal, personal communication and the mass audience afforded by social media is a recipe for rapid change.
On researching the effects of social media, I stumbled across a certain quote that truly highlighted that social media has not just affected the younger generation, but in fact it has even made its way through large corporate businesses such as Sky Sports and BBC sports. However, I’m left asking myself why? Why is social media so prominent in modern day society? It’s a question that has never failed to puzzle me. However Phil McNulty, the chief football writer of BBC Sports, demonstrated the great power that social media holds:
“I don’t think there is any turning back now. Twitter is here as an important tool reporting live in matches, events and also breaking stories. I think more and more journalists will use this immediate form of reporting.”
The implications for the media as an industry and journalism as a profession are profound. Large media organisations will collapse through their internal contradictions and will be replaced by spontaneous user driven associations without reporters and editors trying to control what they think, say and do. I do not believe the collapse of the regional media is because it is not needed. What is being rejected is the model of a profit-driven media controlled by people who want to impose their own agenda on what is reported, discussed or shared.
Social media has not just made it through our language, but also through our professions and day-to-day lives. In fact it has become so influential that we find ourselves demanding what would we do and where would we be without it now?
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Before watching the videos I would’ve said social media has changed the way we communicate for the better. However after watching the videos, I believe that both Jon and Sherry made points which need to be considered. When you post something on social media or make a comment it is there forever even if you delete it and you can’t just simply take it back. If you meant a post to be a joke people can take it differently and be extremely offended even though that wasn’t your intent. Many people are obsessed with connecting over the internet or texting so much so that they don’t take part in real life activities. When taking part in real life activities social media is always around and can therefore take over the real life activity. Many people prefer virtual conversations over real life ones, which I believe is partially because when having a conversation online it is all done if you get bored, it can be done at your own convenience and if you don’t like the conversation or person you can simply turn your phone off. Whereas in a real life conversation if you just walked away it would be considered extremely rude. Therefore I believe that social media hasn’t changed the way in which we communicate for the better.
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Before watching these two clips I was all for social media as it is a fantastic way of communicating with people from around the world. Even though this point is still extremely valid I have evaluated my opinion on other areas like for example people not making eye contact because they are too busy texting to their friends that are sitting next to them!
In the video clip by Sherry Turkle ‘Connected but alone?’ Has opened up my eyes to how much we actually base our lives around social media and people we don’t even speak to in person online. I agree with the statement ‘Alone Together?’ because you can have all the friends and followers you want online and on social media however you can be the most lonely person in real life as you will not have anyone to talk to face to face which has more value than texting on social media. Social media to an extent has a negative impact on us as it creates the illusion that we have many friends and that having a conversation is easy. Where in reality it’s the opposite. People, like me sometimes, find it much easier to talk to people online as you can hide behind your screen. People feel that you can get away with saying more over text than face to face which yes is true to some extent. Because once it has been said you will not have to face the reactions and response from the receiver therefore you can just turn your phone and continue living your life. This was demonstrated perfectly in the other vide clip by Jon Ronson: ‘When online shaming spirals out of control.’ The whole story of Justine illustrated some of the negative effects that social media as a whole has on us as a community. This all started in the clip where a light hearted joke which was not intended to be bad spiralled out of control. From this she got thousands of people she has never even seen before let alone spoke to threatening her with death, rape threats just from one miniscule tweet being put out.
Jon’s speech showed us that what we say online can effect someone’s life drastically. The person sending the threats can just shut their device down and continue living their lives however the victims cannot. This will haunt Justine for the rest of her life. This all tis down to the simple fact of how much we abuse this system that allows us to communicate with anyone at anytime.
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Like numerous people, I was all for social media and all of its aspects but after watching these two videos I have since reviewed my opinions and I have come to the conclusion that it’s not the golden ticket we thought it was. I now believe that social media has changed the way we communicate but not necessarily for the better.
The first video by Sherry Turkle: ‘Connected, but alone?’ Has changed my view greatly. Turkle has opened my eyes to just how much we change ourselves to suit the social media figure we create of ourselves online. I strongly agree with Sherry Turkle when she says that we’re ‘Alone together’. You can have hundreds and thousands of followers on all of your social media sites but you can feel more alone than ever if you don’t have someone to talk to in real life. Social media creates the illusion that we have friends and that we are great conversationalists but in true fact it is having the opposite effect on us. I think you can agree that you find talking online, in email or texting is much easier than face to face communication, I myself find it easier to do so as well. I’m a shy character in person but online I feel like I can say what pops into my mind, I can converse with people I wouldn’t do normally. It’s easier because when we’ve said what we’ve said, we don’t have to see the reactions, we can just shut our phone or computer off and move on with our lives but what you say will never truly fade away and will haunt you for the rest of your life. This was shown perfectly in the example of Justine and her light hearted joke that turned horrific used in the second video by Jon Ronson: ‘When online shaming spirals out of control’. The story of Justine illustrated some of the negative effects of social media perfectly, this started with a light hearted joke that wasn’t intended to be bad but soon spiralled out of control. She got death, rape and mutilation threats from thousands of people she didn’t even know and they didn’t even know she existed before one single tweet was sent out.
Jon’s speech showed all of us that what we say online can effect someone’s life directly. We can say these things, turn our devises off and move on with our lives, the victims on the other hand can’t. Justine will be followed by this for the rest of her life, she lost her job, her friends and I wouldn’t be surprised at times, her will to live. It just shows how much we abuse this power to communicate with anyone at anytime, as Jon said ‘We’re clever and stupid’.
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Before I even watched the videos my immediate thought was that social media had changed our lives for the better. I thought many of the jobs we now do wouldn’t be possible without the use of internet or social media. After watching both Jon and Sherry’s speeches i would have to admit that social media has taken over from many of our lives. They both share very important information which many would think to consider. Like many, having to spend a day or even a few hours without their phone is a tricky task because of the huge impact social media has over our lives. One of the problems that Shelly picked up on would be that we are all “connected but alone”. The idea that we are all connected through our devices but are really alone should be a wake up call to many that we are watching our lives pass through our phones. The idea of having to actually talk to someone face to face when the choice of texting or calling is also an option seems to be a trick question. We shouldn’t be living our lives through social media. It can be seen as an escape from our real lives which we can see through the new ‘crime’- Cat fishing. People like the idea of being someone else online or simply just being their selves. Social media is a problem or at least is becoming one which we need to control. Social media can be seen as an easier option to having to live our lives. therefor in my opinion, social media has changed the way we live and communicate for the worse as well as the better.
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Before watcing the TED talks I was unaware of the impact that social media has on our society. Social media compels you to want peoples’ acceptance; you crave for them to like a profile picture, a tweet or your story on snapchat.
Sherry Turkle’s video ‘Connected, but alone?’ showed me that messaging on social media can be good as it allows you to control what you say because you can edit or delete what you type, whereas in an actual conversation, you have less control with what comes out of your mouth and once you’ve said it you cannot edit it or make it sound better, however text messages can be interpreted in the wrong way, such as, a text that was sent short and quickly can be seen as blunt or angry which could then create upset. Turkle has made me see that people change to make themselves look better on social media, we create a figure of ourselves that we see is better which then could create anxiety about ourselves that we have to change because we arent good enough.
Jon’s speech showed me that one single tweet can be taken the wrong way which can affect someone’s life and ruin their reputation. Justine posted what was supposed to be a joke but it actually turned out to be recieved racist which cost her, her job and her friends. Her life was now destroyed because of one innocent tweet that was left for people to turn it around to be seen as racist and turn people against Justine. She lost her job because of the influence of thousands of people claiming she should get fired which then caused her employer to take action and she lost her job, showing the power that social media has on people which can be abused.
I believe that social media hasn’t changed the way in which we communicate for the better because although you can edit what you say, messages and tweets can sometimes be interpreted in the wrong way, social media also allows us to change who we are because we feel that we are not good enough, which is wrong as we cannot change for other people.
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Before watching the videos I had thought to myself that social media had more benefits and changed us for the best. However, from watching the videos it helped to understand that social media is bad and is potentially damaging our lives. The videos helped me to realise that technology are just robots that are controlling our lives. It can be seen that social sites e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. can in fact cause people to be more lonely than actually socialising with other people. A lot of people don’t see this as they just see the sites as ways to post thoughts/feelings and to get in touch with people who they may not be able to face to face and they are all easily accessible. Communication has hugely changed over the last decade and has now become a huge part and hobby in peoples lives. Therefore it has changed my opinion on the positive side of social media and that the negatives out weigh them.
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The development of social media has given us the ability to communicate quickly and clearly with each other; in the present day. In the process helping people feel like they have the attention of people and are listened to. Although, this is the case as social media sites such as twitter or Facebook does give people social freedom to communicate and present themselves to people ,it also can take away peoples social freedom and isolate you from actual human contact, negatively effecting some users of social media.
In my view I believe the way we communicate through social media now is bad, as it has a removed the human interaction component of communication, making it so every message or tweet has been refined, in order to present a false image the user wants to portrait, making the user almost embody a person he or she is not, and trying to make themselves more likable to their people by becoming an almost false persona that is not true to their actual personality.I am not an old man with a Luddite view of technology, I do think social media now has really helped all people be more confident in themselves and be more outgoing. However I do think social media now can sometimes be too controlling on peoples lives in a negative way , and I hope that in the future that people will rely less on social media and more on human interaction ,as it helps establish useful skills needed in life.Overall I believe that social media has made a positive impact but at the cost of isolating certain individuals.
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Before watching either of the videos, I knew what technology had done to us. That the use mobile devices had numbed our capability for empathy and compassion. The Jon Ronson talk enlightened me of the true nature of humans when exposed to the use of technology. A group of innocent people could devolve in a vicious hunting party that wants your life to be left in ruin. It showed how Twitter in its early days way a platform for providing a voice to the voiceless and giving the minority a chance to be welcomed with open arms. Ronson shows how the voiceless are best staying voiceless to prevent their downfall by others. Twitter is shown to oppose a democracy in which everyone is accepted as when someone who opposes the standard ideas expresses themselves they become victim to the hounds of Twitter. After watching the talk, I was appalled at how Twitter exposes our true selves as animals that feed off the destruction of others.
Sherry Turkle in her talk mentioned how humans are alone but connected. That we yearn for attention from others to prevent solitude, but solitude is what allows us to form attachments and bonds with people. That technology is the start of a spiral to isolation and loneliness. Turkle talks about our desire to edit and change our lives for the better with the aid of technology as it gives us more control over what we say and how we appear to others. Some choose to use technology to remove themselves from their problems. The psychological effect our devices hold over us is mentioned in the talk. Our dependency upon devices and the way they control our lives is a pressing matter highlighted in both of the talks. I see that due to this being the early days of social media we still have a chance to unplug ourselves and take control back over our lives.
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Before watching these videos I held the belief that social media had made a mostly positive impact the way that we talk and communicate with each other. I now feel as though it has quite a few negative aspects that I hadn’t previously realised.
As Jon Ronson said, social media sites have given us a voice to the world that many of us previously didn’t have; this allows us to talk to groups of people from all over the world and allow us to relate to them and share our opinions, which is very much so a positive outcome. However, this isn’t always a positive thing as it can also damage relationships and careers, like Justine Sacco’s, due to the lack of emotion that a tweet or a message allows us to portray leaving them open to different interpretations. This shows that despite Twitter and Instagram being there to allow us to speak our opinions freely, they also mean we have to be careful not to cause any offence to the millions of people with access to them, even if it is down to bad wording, which I now feel is more effort than it’s worth.
I believe that this lack of emotion that social media causes us to portray can also stop us from developing relationships and having real conversations with people. Sherry Turkle said that social media allows us to have “automatic listeners” which may be a good thing if you’re lonely but how much can you actually get across in a message or a tweet and how strong a relationship can you actually create with them? It’s fundamentally like talking to robots rather than humans which can lead to poor communication skills in real life. Overall I now believe that whilst social media can be positive there are a lot of negatives to it surrounding how it’s caused us to communicate in real life.
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Before watching these videos I held the belief that social media had made a mostly positive impact the way that we talk and communicate with each other. I now feel as though it has quite a few negative aspects that I hadn’t previously realised.
As Jon Ronson said, social media sites have given us a voice to the world that many of us previously didn’t have; this allows us to talk to groups of people from all over the world and allow us to relate to them and share our opinions, which is very much so a positive outcome. However, this isn’t always a positive thing as it can also damage relationships and careers, like Justine Sacco’s, due to the lack of emotion that a tweet or a message allows us to portray leaving them open to different interpretations. This shows that despite Twitter and Instagram being there to allow us to speak our opinions freely, they also mean we have to be careful not to cause any offence to the millions of people with access to them, even if it is down to bad wording, which I now feel is more effort than it’s worth.
I believe that this lack of emotion that social media causes us to portray can also stop us from developing relationships and having real conversations with people. Sherry Turkle said that social media allows us to have “automatic listeners” which may be a good thing if you’re lonely but how much can you actually get across in a message or a tweet and how strong a relationship can you actually create with them? It’s fundamentally like talking to robots rather than humans which can lead to poor communication skills in real life.
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The TED talks have made me become much more aware that social media is becoming a necessity in our day to day lives, especially amongst teenagers. I feel that we are the first generation of young adults to be bought up not knowing very much of the era that came before social media and advanced technology. It is like a compulsion, we have to constantly refresh Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook and for many of us checking our social media pages is the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do before we fall asleep. Knowing the ins and outs of other peoples lives has unfortunately become a obsession.
Just the thought of having to be without my phone is challenging. Sometimes I feel like we depend on having access to social media, it’s a comfort thing, our generation thrives off sharing information hoping that someone out there finds it relatable or amusing.
Jon Ronson’s TED talk exposes social media when it is at it’s worst, when people become threatening and how it may effect an individuals life. The story on Justine Socco is a prime example of how a written post may be interpreted. What started out as a innocent joke, mocking the narrow-mindedness of others, turned into death and rape threats due to simply not hearing the tone of which the text was supposed to be said in.
Sherry Turkle shows the positive side to technology when she mentions that the text she received from her daughter was like receiving a hug. I feel as though Sherry Turkle removes the stereotype that the main culprits of being addicted to social media is only teenagers, throughout the talk Turkle emphasises that not only young adults are fanatics for all things technological but adults may be just as bad.
Social media and technology have helped improve communication between people and has been very beneficial in many other aspects, however the negative side proves that communication over social media can take over and isolate individuals lives, we’ve lost conversational skills and it has lead people into depression. I feel as though the negatives outweigh the positives.
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Before social media, individuals were drastically limited in regards to social interaction – rarely stepping outside the boundaries of people they knew in person. Even if you had other friends, such as pen pals, communication was extremely difficult in comparison to the present day. For example, many pen pals exchanged letters to communicate, but these would often only be on a weekly/monthly basis, stemming the flow of conversation. Whereas in 2016, you can both send and receive the digital equivalent of these letters in a matter of seconds, allowing easier and more efficient communication with people you may necessarily have never spoken to otherwise. Therefore, social media has inaugurated a hugely positive change in communication; we can talk and make friends with people from different areas and cultures easily, expanding the way we communicate and developing our opinions through this experience.
As digital communication takes a hold over us and becomes increasingly quicker, the world seems to get smaller and smaller, also creating a negative impact on our daily lives, such as the story of Justine Sacco. Her experience embodies the darkest side of social media, one that crushes people for one-off remarks and harmless opinions. The original hope was for social media to connect like-minded people and give a voice of change to the many, but instead users band together to become a form of global witch hunters, such as those who saw Justine’s seemingly harmless attempt at humour and worked together to destroy her. Since online communication isn’t face to face, misinterpretation can be very easy, causing a negative impact on communication as people struggle to understand the intention of others – the difference between Justine’s intention to joke about the bubble we live in is majorly different to how it was received as being ‘racist’ and highlighting her ‘white supremacy’.
Communication through social media has become a double-edged sword, some people are so dependent they’re incapable of conversation (as highlighted by Sherry Tuckle), yet some are able to use it to their own advantage.
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Before watching these videos i thought social media had a positive impact on the way we communicated with people but now i have mixed views about it. on the one hand i think it is a good thing as you can talk to family/friends who may live far away or you may not see as much. So social media would be one of the only ways to keep in touch. However the down side to this is that is can prevent you from having real conversations with people and can sometimes stop you from getting to know a person which could have a negative impact in the future.
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In the first video on TED, Jon Ronson helps make it clear that social media is a new and powerful way for us to communicate with each other. He made a strong point that it helps smaller people point out the mistreatment from people who take their privilege for granted. However, it can make us turn into savages when finding flaws within what others say online. However, it also makes us oblivious to what we do ourselves when confronted with other peoples problems – which is one of the many flaws of social media communication. However, it shows with that with the positive of people being given a voice, it can often mean that this voice is used in the wrong way and human error being more apparent than ever before. In the second video on TED by Sherry Turkle, she makes a similar point to Jon that modern communications in the form of social media turns us into different kind of people, and also helps us to forget and blank out the real world. Where social media helps to people to connect and communicate with each other, Sherry makes the good point that it is just converting physical interaction with virtual form. I think that all though social media help people converse, it doesn’t help people to get close to one another and words that we say quickly lose meaning as our conversations lose emotion. Although social media seems to take us away from the real world, when used right, this communication can help us to open new opportunities in life and understand that there are certain things that the real world gives us where social media does not. Although I believe that social media has made the way we communicate better, it does however make problems that people have with conversing and confronting worse as we can use social media as a cover for what matters.
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People will always argue about whether social media has changed communication for the better or not. In some ways social media can be deemed a positive change for communication with it allowing for you to contact people who you may have never spoken to before, or maybe you want to stay connected with friends or family who live away. However, social media also allows people to judge individuals for everything they do whilst hiding behind their phones and computers. It is safe to say that the majority of people living in the first world are dependent on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Even though social media does not seem like it can do much, it can be seen to impact on people’s lives in a negative manner, as seen in the Jon Ronson video, with Justine making one small error that would have taken her 15 seconds to type and send and it has now impacted negatively on her life, her career and her future.
As social media grows, real interactions between humans decrease. If you were to ask 100 young people ‘what was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning?’ I guarantee, for most, it was checking their social media. The truth is that social media controls the lives of many people; it is as if people care more about what others are doing than what they are doing themselves which makes some people feel inferior to others around them. On reflection of Sherry Turkle’s ‘Connected, but alone’, social media is an incredible way of staying connected, however, are you really connected to each other? I think the positive impact of social media is dependent on how much involvement an individual has with it; ultimately, I do not think social media will ever change society solely for better or worse.
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I have come from a generation where having multiple social media accounts from a young age is normal. We spend the majority of our lives looking into a screen and is becoming a necessity. Any person will check their phones as soon as they wake up with no knowledge as to whether or not they have been contacted. Social media is addictive and an obsession amongst teenagers and young adults. I’ve always believed that social media is a beneficial privilege to have as it allows us to communicate with others and share our thoughts and emotions. However, everything comes with a downside and for social media the downside is free speech. Everyone is entitled to express their own opinions but when worded wrong, becomes a keyboard war of who can be the meanest. Social media has the ability to make us feel alone in a room full of people as we continuously isolate ourselves, in order to be accepted into the social climax. We feel the need to over edit our photos with the fear of being judged and hoping to get multiple likes for a photo that no longer resembles you. Our lives revolve around social media and the fear of not fitting in. Vast amounts of people are using Facebook, twitter, Snapchat and Instagram by the minute, sharing and posting what they believe is going to be socially acceptable. At the touch of a button your life can change dramatically. Wording a status wrong can end in complete disaster as it will take under a minute for a person to react to the status. People are too quick to judge and do not allow you to defend or explain yourself. We come from a world that is too quick to judge other people without knowing the story behind it. We let our phones dictate our lives.
However, social media allows its users to communicate with each other no matter where they are in the world. It allows you to stay in touch with long distant relatives or friends which live near by. It allows us to delete and refrase what we have to say before we say it. To me I find social media apps, easier to express thoughts, as it means I will not be ignored. We allow social media to corrupt our own opinions in order to fit in with our peers.
Overall social media does have its own perks one in which allows us to speak to others that we may or may not know; but also has its cons as once something is said that may be out of context, there is no way of changing it as it’s already out there for the world to see. The TED talk as helped me to see that no matter what our age is, our lives would not function if we did not have small device in our hands. Even when being friends, we are not fully there as we still exsist and use social media when we are out. We should not fear judgement. I do not think that social media has changed for the better, nor do I believe I has changed for the worst. I simply believe giving a person sociali media, gives a person the power to say anything, no matter what the concequences.
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Like many, I’m sure, I believed that there were positive impacts to the use of social media. Our parents grew up in a time where is was evolving quickly and texting, calling, posting and commenting was the “In thing”. When we grew it it was still relatively new and some people were experiencing the social media for the first time.
The videos were a real eye opener in the negative ways that social media can be perceived. Both the TED talks talked about how social media is isolating and even when you are surrounded by people you feel lonely until you turn to your phone.
Jon Ronson explained that the way that social media has effected communication between people is bad. He said that social media, such as Twitter, can spiral comments out of control and change people’s lives for the worst to an extreme where they can lose their job. It suggests that the younger generations need to follow a crowd and if one person is blaming someone for a joke posted online then everyone must do it as well because it is not normal to stand up for people anymore. No one has a voice unless it is on the internet, and only then some people will post things; thinking nothing can go wrong because it is not a face-to-face conversation and ruin someone’s life.
Sherry Turkle talked about positive aspects of social media, such as how she would text her daughter and it felt like a “warm hug”. This shows that the way communication has changed may be positively because it shows how people can wish others lovely things from far apart; quicker that sending a letter. However she also covered how people again felt isolated from others and that they had become a human being that was revolving around the idea of needing to check social media every seconds of every day looking for new updates and trending hashtags to keep up with everything.
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Prior to watching the two videos, I thought that technology improved our lives and our ability to communicate with one another. After watching them however, I have discovered that in addition to the positives, there are also negatives. Jon Ronson’s TED talk showed how these negatives can affect the lives of the people that use twitter; this made me realise that despite the fact it “gives a voice to the voiceless”, social media also provides a platform for shaming one another, therefore showing how social media can be used to negatively impact upon someone’s life.
Despite not having twitter myself, I am fully aware of the effect that people can have over the internet. I am part of a generation that will delete a profile picture because it doesn’t have enough likes, spend an age agonising over the correct Snapchat filter, only to let it self-destruct 24 hours later, and have a complete mental breakdown after accidentally double tapping a 63-week old selfie on Instagram- and why? Because we need constant validation from our ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ on the internet. Their opinions of us have become the motivation behind our actions. Before I watched the TED talks I thought this was harmless but Justine Sacco’s story has made me aware of the much darker consequences that can occur as a direct result of other people’s opinions.
One of the consequences highlighted in Sherry Turkle’s speech was the idea that we may become so dependent on the opinions of social media, that we no longer depend on the people around us. She gave the example of three girls, all together, not talking to one another. Her idea of being “alone but together” is something that I often see but had never realised was an issue. Concerts are spent staring at a screen while taking bad quality videos to post online, and meals with friends are repeatedly interrupted by the constant buzzing and beeping of everybody’s mobile phones. The TED talk made me realise that despite the fact I thought technology improved our ability to communicate, it also makes it harder.
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Before reading both transcripts, I didn’t want to believe that social media could really change who we are. After all, it’s us making those comments. We are the trolls that Jon Ronson mentioned when telling his audience about Justine Sacco.
However, I think both Ronson and Turkle are right. We edit what we say to come across as somebody who our peers will listen to and approve of. In a conversation, you can’t backspace and delete something you say and forget it happened, because a real person will remember word for word what you said and what hurt them. On social media, we are backed up by other people and hiding behind them as well as screens as though we gain so much more courage when we can’t be identified individually. People can be so nasty without thinking about the damage they are doing to a person because social media allows us to dehumanise someone and pretend that they are just a profile, forgetting that there is a real person behind that screen.
When I’m talking to people, I’ve noticed that I struggle to make conversation, making these situations so much more awkward to deal with and making social media and virtual communication more desirable because it relieves the awkward silences or faint laughs after you tell a joke that only you find funny.
Both speakers make social media out to be ruining our face to face communication and changing who we are. Although I do agree to an extent, and we do edit what we say to become a more popular identity, it is just our online-self that is different. The person unplugged is generally still the same, though may appear more awkward in real life because the risks involved in conversation are present when they aren’t on social media.
Despite the obvious negatives of social media such as trolls etcetera, it does also give ‘voiceless’ people a voice and these can make positive impacts, for example, somebody who is relatively low in the social hierarchy may be able to put forward their opinion about a topic that affects the public, and if others share the opinion, strength in numbers might allow them to be heard when it’s quite possible that nobody would listen to them in real life.
Even though it sounds terrible that a person might only have power through social media, at least they have power. Some people might say that this power is worthless because technically it isn’t real, but if it’s real enough to damage someone, then isn’t it real enough to build somebody’s self esteem in a positive way? This boost in self esteem that social media can provide might be enough to encourage this person to exercise their new confidence and take part in a real conversation, and this idea, instead of the negative views, could spread. After all, this addiction to the online world and forgetting how to communicate in real life could just be a phase while we get used to it as the generations go by, and it might actually have a positive impact on our communication given time.
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I agree that social media has affected the way in which we communicate for the better. However, I also believe that social media has had a negative impact on communications.
The positives on social media would be that correspondence between people who are geographically undesirable would easier. Another pro of social media would be that it gives you the confidence and opportunity to express your opinions, especially for those who lack a high self esteem; being behind a computer screen does not put a person in a confrontational position.
In contrast, social media has had a negative impact on everyday life as people have abused their ability to speak freely on social media websites. The boost of confidence given to users through anonymity has in some cases encouraged unpleasant behaviour, causing users to post comments which others would find offensive. In effect this has resulted in the new term ‘Cyber Bullying’ which would not have existed prior to social networking.
Therefore, we can conclude that there are both positives and negatives to social media, but that we are responsible for our own actions and that we cannot hide behind the keys of a message board.
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Prior to watching this video, I strongly believed that social media impacted the way in which we communicated for the better as we are able to stay in touch with old friends, meet new people and stay up-to-date in what is happening in the world today. However, after watching ‘When Online Shaming Spirals out of Control’ and ‘Connected, But Alone?’ by Jon Ronson and Sherry Turkle, respectively, I have come to the conclusion that the use of social media has ruined the way that we lead our lives greatly.
In the first video, Ronson talked about how social media could be used to speak out against people who had done something ‘bad’. The example of Justine Sacco was used to convey his point as she had tweeted something that was seen as racist online and other people used this social media as a platform to create ‘justice’. While I understand that this tweet was racist, I think that it was unnecessary for people to call her a ‘bitch’ and make jokes about raping her. With the use of social media, it has become easy to dehumanise people as the only thing that you know about a person is the ‘bad’ thing that they have done. As a result, it is made increasingly easier to bully people online for something they have done as they can be seen as a villain. But real life isn’t like this. Through social media, it is easy to see people as either a hero or a villain when in reality people are a mix of both. Furthermore, it allows people to seek approval from others online by bullying the ‘villain’.
While watching the second video, I felt that Turkle made a very good point as she highlighted that technology allowed people to avoid feeling lonely as they could use social media to ‘talk’ to people and to feel heard and important. Also, Turkle raised the point that social media allowed people to feel connected to others in a way that they could control it which was highlighted when she stated: ‘I share, therefore I am’. By this, she meant that people could pretend that they were having a good time online and others would believe it. Also, she raised the point that technology was being used to replace human interaction when she used the example of an old woman being comforted by a robot baby seal as the woman had experienced ‘pretend empathy as though it were the real thing’ as she was trying to make sense of her grief. Often, people prefer to communicate with a robot or online as the conversations are predictable, unlike a real conversation, which reinforces the need for control we experience today.
In conclusion, while social media can be very useful, I believe that it has ruined the way that we communicate because we are tricked into believing that we are never alone which means that in the absence of technology, feelings of anxiety and discomfort seep in as we cannot handle feeling isolated even though when we are in a situation where we need to communicate face-to-face, we can’t hold a real conversation.
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Before watching these two TED talks I, along with many other 16 year olds who know nothing other than the social media and technology orientated world in which we were raised, was adamant that social media had changed the way we communicate with each other in a positive way and for the better. It meant people with family members living abroad were now able to talk the same way they would if they were sitting right next to each other and army officers serving overseas for long periods of time could use technology to see their families whilst still fighting for their countries’ freedom. Social media also meant that we were able to keep updated with what our favourite celebrities were up to and what our idols were doing, sometimes even talking personally with them, even if they were miles away which obviously would give people a buzz if their hero or idol spoke to them personally or liked something they did. However now, I feel like I agree with Ronson, when he says that Social Media has almost become a way to either gloat or shame.
Social Media is typically very influential on a persons life, as we spend more time worrying about whether they have more followers than our friend on twitter, or more likes on our Profile Pictures on Facebook, rather than more important things like school or work and it is sometimes taken to the point where we are secretly in competition with people who we care deeply about and will do almost anything to try and ‘win’,when we actually wouldn’t dream of communicating with each other like this face to face, just like the example of Justine Sacco in the first talk. As Ronson suggests we are all to fixated on getting commended for being funny we sometimes go too far to achieve it, which ultimately led to the unfortunate incident Justine got herself into.
Overall I feel that social media is both a good and bad development for us; yes it has its positives like giving people a chance to communicate with others they are unable to communicate with face-to-face and also gives us a voice to be heard online when topics pop up that we are passionate about, but as soon as we start to abuse that power to feel like with social media around we are never ‘alone’, we then feel anxious or uncomfortable without technology meaning social media is too much of an extreme and could be considered serious threat to many people.
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After watching both videos, it was very clear to me that both subjects spoken about are ones that I and many other people are already aware of. The use of social media has had such a massive influence on the way in which we live our lives. Being able to use so many different websites – all with different purposes – to interact with people across the world is so intriguing, that sometimes it stops us from actually realising what is important in life. As Sherry Turkle said, these technological devices have become so “psychologically powerful” that they make us remove ourselves from reality – an easy way of escaping what’s really going on around us. We as a human race lack basic face to face interaction. We are all lured in by these machines that somehow offer us companionship.
The way in which we communicate with each other nowadays is mainly through the use of social media. We open ourselves up and let everyone else know everything about us, thinking that people will accept us for who we are – but it’s not always that simple. Bullying is such a common thing and it mainly takes part within different social media platforms. People use the advantage of hiding behind a smartphone to put other people down just to make themselves feel better. Whether they have bad intentions or not, this doesn’t benefit the factors for social media having a positive impact. Circumstances like this lead to people only being able to survive “by being voiceless,” as Jon Ronson says. The idea of being humane seems to be non-existent nowadays. People violate the use of social media and why it was made. You could sit here for ages listing all of the positives, but they could easily be outweighed by the negatives.
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Asking the question, “has social media changed the way in which we communicate for the better”? I see, that over time, social media viewing has become an addictive habit. But before watching the TED discussions I’d still argue it has created a better way to communicate. We’re able to communicate with anyone around the world. Looking into the idea of modern communication changing because of social media, we were asked to watch two TED talks discussions, the first being a Jon Ronson. In the first 20 minute clip, Jon Ronson discussed the activity of social media, shaming individuals on the internet, and how shaming spirals out of control. In his discussion he focused on how journalist Justine Sacco’s unintentionally offensive joke began to ruin a woman’s life and career. He describes our social lives being “dismantled piece by piece” as we only start to have a loud enough voice online. He describes shamers and trolls on the internet as “Toddlers crawling towards a gun” and trying to cause as much damage as possible. Interestingly, Jon Ronson describes this activity as a “hunt” and states that “The hunt is on” to torment and shame individuals.
Sherry Turkles discussion of being connected, but alone, was thought provoking on how we live in an age where we see real life relationships and conversations not enough and we have lost the ability to create conversations. With friends, we spend our time on our phones and not talking with each other, that we are “alone together”. After listening to TED talks discussions, my view has shifted. I can see the negative effects social media is having on us, how we live today and the negative effects it has on friendships, relationships, and family conversations, and more importantly the effect shaming has on our lives.
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Before watching these two videos I believed that social media had a more positive impact on our communication with other’s, of course I was aware of the negative problems with using social networking sites but I personally thought the pros outweighed the cons. Social media is hugely influential and controls many people’s actions – not just young people which is proven by Sherry Turkles. Due to the amount of control that many of these sites have many people forget to actually have face to face contact with others and do not interact with them the way they should, many people do not see this as a problem as in their eyes they are communicating through tweets, status’, texts’ etc. As Jon Ronson showed we are so fixated of seeking approval and feeling part of a community that we sometimes find ourselves in bad situations like Justine proved which can then lead to negative impacts on our day to day life e.g. getting fired, lack of friends. On social media we are so quick to judge other’s without thinking about the effects it may have on the individual/group, we are just so eager to join the ‘hunt’ as Ronson said. As Sherry Turkles said, social media provides an escape from reality. People do this to seek some sort of companionship from a machine to hide the fact that they’re alone despite having real friendships, these devices are ‘psychologically powerful’. By escaping to social media it distracts us so we don’t realise we are not interacting with other people in our day to day life. After watching the TED talks it shocks me to know that this is happening. However we can easily list the negatives of using social media and how people take advantage of having power of someone else’s life, but we can also make a list of the positives social media provides. E.g. being able to communicate with people who live a long distance away. There’s nothing wrong with the actual social site itself it’s the way people use it that depends whether the site is good or not.
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Before watching these two videos I believed technology had changed the way we communicate for the better due to the fact that it allows us to keep in contact with people no matter where they are; it also allows us to express ourselves to so many people and share our opinions with the world. However, after watching the videos I realised that we hide behind the alter egos we have online and it is causing us to be lonely when we’re not behind a screen.
In the first video ‘when online shaming spirals out of control’ Jon Ronson talks about how we use social media to speak out against people we believe are in the wrong. He shows that we believe it’s our duty to find the people who make racist or horrifying comments and expose them to the world as horrible people. We do this without knowing anything else about them except for one comment that could be misinterpreted or just a moment of blindness. He used the example of Justine Sacco, a woman who made a comment that was seen as racist and an abuse of her privilege when it was meant as a joke about America’s naivety. This one badly phrased comment made people feel like they had the right to dehumanise her and say things like she should be raped and in the end it cost her her job. This shows that technology has ruined the way we communicate because it gives us a power that we are all constantly abusing and it allows us ruin others lives without any background information.
The second video ‘connected but alone’ by Sherry Turkle highlighted the fact that people are using technology to escape loneliness when in reality it’s what’s making us lonely. We could be surrounded by people but still be lonely because we no longer understand how to communicate without the screens between us. We allow ourselves to get lost in social media, constantly checking what others are doing and who they’re with and it stops us from thinking about what we’re doing and who we’re with. We are no longer enjoying our experiences because we’re worrying about everyone else’s and what they think about our own. We are replacing human contact with technology because it’s the one thing we know we can control.
In conclusion I now believe that technology has destroyed the way we communicate because we now find it difficult to hold an actual conversation. We hide behind our devices and use them to attack others.
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Before watching theses two talks, i was certain that social media has changed the way we communicate with people across the world. Social media meant family members could stay in touch with each other over a long distance. Social media also enables us to keep updated with world problems and keep in contact with other countries living thousands of miles away. Social media has had such a massive impact on our lives.
Jon Ronson talks about how to speak our minds, and that we use social media as a weapon, to speak out against people we believe are in the wrong. Justine Sacco for instance, a normal women who made a comment seen as racist and abusive. People around the world used social media as a weapon to get back at what she said. Some comments about the situation were foul and worse than the actual tweet. These people were let off scot free because what they said was in defense. Jon Ronson talks about how we expose people who we think are in the wrong. He explains to us that our nature as humans has adapted to see us want to take apart people piece by piece.
Sherry Turkle, explains that we are using technology to escape loneliness and that we don’t know how to communicate without looking at our phones. we no longer enjoy our experiences whilst talking to people face to face because we are too busy worrying about getting a like and what people think off our appearance.
People find it difficult to communicate to others because technology has given us an alter ego which we find it hard to hold a conversation. We hide behind our devices as a barrier to block us out of real world problems.
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Prior to watching the TED talks I was full aware that the way we interact with each other was very blurred in comparison to how we communicate through social media but it made me see it in a darker light. I know from personal experience that without social media I feel an outsider to the rest of the world forever feeling the urge to check what was going on with people I don’t really care about yet I am completely captivated by how they portray their lives through simple posts on Instagram or a ten second story on snapchat much like what the message Sherry Turkle expressed ‘Connected, but alone.’
Social media allows us to express our opinions and by doing so we are allowing ourselves to be exposed to the world without even thinking about what the effects maybe. In 2016 technology is becoming more and more advance and although that means great things for the future it also means people can quickly become sheep’s. Simple statements are seen from several different viewpoints, cultures and beliefs so one misinterpretation can affect lives through one retweet.
Communication has been massively effected by social media as we find ourselves choosing to communicate through a text message rather than a normal conversation so when put in a position where we have to speak in a face to face s we chose to speak in a text tone, shorting words and speaking without thinking of how it may seem from a different perspective. I believe that we need social media to stay connected with the world yet we abuse it in many ways and is seem as an addiction we can’t escape from. Technology has affected our communication in many ways we get the opportunity to be ourselves yet fall into that trap over sharing and losing ourselves through the social community we fear the feeling off rejection and disapproval from people we don’t know which is a scary concept. I see that social media is a great way of connecting but without it we would be more open minded and real. It would be hypocritical for me to say I would give up social media because I wouldn’t I rely on that for several ways and enjoy the benefits but I have understood the ideas from both TED talks and have opened my eyes to the reality that we are saying such brood, stupid things underestimating the power these sites have on us. The talks highlight the darker sides of the internet. How do we as addicted to something that seems so simple? The generation we grow up in is so reliant on the internet we forget there was life before the internet and that’s is a scary concept to accept.
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In recent years, technology and social media have together become a pillar that supports the everyday function of modern society. We use our phones to stay in contact with old friends and distant relatives with whom we would have otherwise lost contact entirely with if it wasn’t for the annual Facebook birthday reminder or occasional WhatsApp message. These sites have given us the chance to connect with strangers and people we know alike- but is texting and snapchatting friends an acceptable substitute to actually socializing with them in person? This is a question which Sherry Turkle explores in her TED talk. Turkle showed the audience a photograph of her daughter and her friends sitting together but with their eyes fixed on the screens of their phones. This sort of interaction gives the illusion of socialization but really it could be used as evidence in support to Turkle’s idea of being ‘alone together’. This type of social interaction s becoming the norm to some and this is somewhat disconcerting is relation to young people actually learning to have a conversation.
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Although both of the TED clips are intended to make society aware that social media has gone from a safe platform to communicate with friends to a dark world of harassment and torment, I feel strongly that almost everybody is already aware of this. Instead of demonstrating that the internet is not as friendly as we think, the videos actually just enhance the view that we know what is happening and we’re not even reluctant to halt the decline. We just learn to deal with it.
It’s in the human nature to push boundaries and keep moving forward towards what we perceive as a better world to live in. However this means that rarely do we stop and contemplate why the monster that we have created keeps destroying lives, but prefer to improve the technology that allows normal people to become nasty, spiteful trolls. The frightening thing is that it isn’t just a tiny minority of social media users who use the networks to instill fear and hatred into others, but it is a much wider problem. As Jon Ronson points out, it is just average people with average jobs in average lives with average families who go against their upbringings of treating others as you wish to be treated, due to the vast number of others who also do the same thing. This domino effect is spiraling out of control, and is not only making social media unsafe but is actually making people’s lives a misery, for no reason whatsoever.
Nevertheless, it is fundamentally wrong to blame domino effects and other theories for society’s treatment towards others on social media. Everybody of sound mind that has a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other network’s account also possesses a conscience. Therefore before they type in a nasty comment, they surely must consider the implications of their actions and consequently recognise that they are liable for their actions.
Therefore I believe that although social media sites do offer a perfect opportunity for horrible people to say horrible things, if they are made more transparent then less people will be put in danger, resulting in Facebook and co getting a better reputation.
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