Mind Over Mass Media

Lauren Rehfeldt

Blog Post Mind Over Mass Media

The Social Media Era

Mind over Mass Media is a short piece written by Steven Pinker. He discusses how technology, specifically media, has changed in recent years. He talks about how certain things say it is dumbing us down as a society, but really our knowledge is growing. Media encompasses many aspects and plays some role in everything we are exposed to. One major part of media is social media.

Over the past few years social media has grown exponentially. As of 2013, 1.61 billion use a social networking site such as Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram (Gaudin). It’s expected that by 2017 2.33 billion people will be on social media (Gaudin). That means approximately 31% of the population will be on social media seeing messages geared toward their interests produced by the media world. With that many people using social media, there has to be a downside to this revolution.

Pinker states, “The constant arrival of information can either be distractive or addictive.” People show signs of these two things on social media in all sorts of ways. I’m using it distractively as I write this; I have Facebook and Twitter open in separate tabs for no apparent reason except to have them open while I work. I got distracted earlier and decided to mindlessly scroll through Instagram. Others display addictive behavior towards social media. For example, there are many fan pages on Twitter and Instagram, which are run by people who dedicate their lives to running these pages. They’re constantly tweeting and posting picture to Instagram to increase followers and keep other fans in the loop.

One major example of this is social media “celebrity” Cass Sersemis. She rose to social media fame by posting original pictures on her Tumblr blog and from there people starting following her on her other social media platforms (Huntsdale). She has over 21,000 on each of her social media accounts (Huntsdale). Pinker talks about the true masters of their field are the ones who completely emerse themselves in it, Cass Sersemis is one of those people. This shows addictive social media behavior because it takes a lot of work to gain that many followers and stay that active to keep that many followers.

Like Cass Sersemis, anyone can become a public figure just by having what is deemed an interesting life without even trying. Actually, the most recent example of someone becoming a public figure from nowhere is Alex from Target. After a picture of him doing his job at Target surfaced on Twitter, it spread and kept spreading. #AlexfromTarget trended for at least three days on Twitter, and the kid landed a spot on the Ellen DeGeneres show. What was so special about this 16-year-old doing his job? Nothing, but he had good looks so he was famous for about a week.

Social media is one of the biggest parts of media as a whole, 

without question. It will continue to grow in the years to come and continue to be utilized for 

different things. In the age of social media anyone can be famous just for being themselves and

having what is deemed an interesting life or for being attractive. Social media can be great to keep 

up with what is happening in the world, but as Pinker said, “The solution is not to bemoan technology

but develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life.”

Works Cited

Gaudin, Sharon. "One Out of Seven People Use Social Networks." Computer World. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.

Groenfeldt, Tome. "Social Media Has Grown Fast." Forbes. N.p., 22 June 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.

Huntsdale, Justin. "Teenagehood in the Era of Social Media Fame." ABC Illawarra. N.p., 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.

Pinker, Steven. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.

Picture of Cass Sersemis taken from Instagram. Picture of Alex from Target taken from Twitter.

Kids Speak Their Minds about Race

Darius Swearegene

Lora Strey

Comp 101

13 November 2014

Kids Speak Their Minds About Race

In the Video “Kids Speak Their Minds About Race” CNN reporter Anderson Cooper reports on students and their views on race. The video shows that the thoughts of kids 6 years old and 13 years old. The younger kids are open to interracial friendships but as African American students grow older the Idea of white friends leaves their minds. Younger white students were negative about interracial friendships.

One question I thought of while watching this video was Do social media segregate blacks and whites ? and yes on Social media races can be divided and or segregated to one race. Twitter for example has a black twitter and a white twitter. Vine an app which allows you to share 6 second videos also has a form of segregation called “White vine” and “Black vine”. Social media is affected by prejudice just like  the real world. If you see other students or others of the same race bashing another you’re more than likely to join in to feel wanted or accepted. Angela Conyers- Benton, founder of tech news site Black Web 2.0. told ABC that "when urban terms first trended on twitter, it caused some confusion "Because it was the first time something urban termed trendedon twitter , then all of a sudden it brought the 'where did all these black people come from [messages]." she said." This quote shows the ignorance of those on social media. 
Another question that came to my mind while watching the video was Do we bring what we see on social media to the real world? The answer is to this question is yes. Kids on social media are more susceptible to crude or ignorant behavior based on those around him/her. It could be friends or it could be family. what kids learn from parents or friends can translate to hate or prejudice online.Social media gives you the voice to say what you want because of free speech but if one is taught to hate free speech can be a bad thing when those who want to share hate or negative ideas.
In conclusion the way that we view each other when it comes to race on social media is all upbringing. No one is born racist, prejudice, or hateful it is all taught. You can see in the video black students wanted interracial friendships but the younger white students did not because of what their parents have said about interracial friendships. Social media can be a way to promote hate and a way to show others yours views and opinions on other races.

Work Cited

Miller, Pepper. "Digital Divide: Segregation Is Alive and Well in Social Media | The Big Tent - Advertising Age." Advertising Age The Big Tent RSS. N.p., 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.ds

"Kids Speak Their Minds about Race." YouTube. YouTube, 2 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

https://twitter.com/whitevsblacktwt

Zoe Schaefer

Lora Strey

Comp 101

2 November 2014

Friends, or Followers?

            “What does friend mean now?” is an article written by Joseph P. Khan about the ever-changing meaning of the word “friend”. In the article he discusses the way social media has changed the word “friend” in today’s society. Khan discusses the difference between close friends, (real friendship) versus “Virtual Friendship” (380). What are the observable differences of a “virtual friendship” as Khan would say, and a real, true friendship (380)? To answer these questions I turned to the one place that I knew would have the answers. The internet.  

            Turns out each social media site approaches the topic of friendship a little differently. For example, a “friend” on Facebook is anybody who you can message and view all of their content (ex. pictures, videos, news feed etc). Facebooks friends also have status’s that appear on your newsfeed. This is a fairly clear layout which depicts friends as people who have a mutual interest in one another. Another example exists on older sites such as Myspace which used a “top friends” list in order to set out a very clear image of whom you were close with but provided no benefits in regards to sending/receiving messages. However, many social media sites use the term “followers” which provides a distancing from users.

            A Follower is someone who is interested in what you have to share with the World Wide Web. Whether that be an image, a seven second video or a status update, followers are there to like, up or share it. The amount of followers does not appropriately display the amount of friends a person might have. For instance, a girl could have 4k followers on Instagram but that of course doesn’t mean she has four thousand friends and is actively involved in every one of her followers’ lives.

A second question I had regarding friends and social media was, ‘in what way can you display your friendship over social media?” Over nearly every form of social media out there you can tag photos to indicate you are with a person. Tagged photos are one way to track people’s closer friendships. For example, I have many pictures tagged of myself with Callie F on many social networking sites, this may lead a person to believe that we have maintained a close friendship within the past year. One other way which is specific to Facebook is that you can manage groups that are specific (ex. church, fantasy football league, family, etc.).Twitter also gives you the availability to tag people in photos.  More often than not you will communicate openly with people through replies and retweets. Of course you can retweet random Twitter pages however, people often stick to people they are close to in daily life. 

Those are only a few examples of how social media has reformed the meaning of the word friend. Whether it be good or bad, our world has opened up to a variety of meaning for the word friend. There's something to think about next time you tag your #bestie in your latest #selfie on Instagram, 

Works Cited

Khan, Joseph P. "What Does Friend Mean Now." Bedford/St Martin's, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.