When Snapchat was first introduced the concept was unheard of. It was texting but with pictures and videos that disappeared after you had sent them. This is what initially caused users to become early adopters. People are often threatened by the permanence of the messages that they send, snapchat took that worry away. Not only was snapchat used for directly sending pictures and videos you could also post to your story. Story posts are set to disappear after 24 hours once again touching on the non-permanence of messaging on this app.
Additionally snapchat added fun filters for pictures and videos. People were influenced to download the app to try out these fun filters and send funny messages to their friends. Making snapchat super popular among teenagers and young adults. To keep users engaged over the years snapchat has added many other features including Snapstreaks and Bitmojis.
The pros for snapchat can also be viewed as cons. The non permanence of messaging on snapchat led to an increase in cyberbullying. People could hide behind their screen and say hurtful things that they might not say to your face. They got the courage to send these messages because they knew that it would disappear after the recipient viewed it. Inappropriate content also became widely exchanged on snapchat, once again because of the lack of message permanence.
Overall snapchat can be used as a fun and different way to interact with friends, but it is also important to not abuse the platform, and to be aware of the potential risks of using snapchat.
For this blog post I explored both https://www.antiwar.com/ and https://www.theamericanconservative.com/, before today I had never heard of these sites. As I was reading through and hearing anti-war voices in my head as I was doing so I started thinking about why we don't hear about this in the mainstream media. I think the United States as a whole is a very patriotic country and we take pride in our military forces, and highly respect veterans. Growing up we were always taught that the military fought for our freedom and that they were selfless people doing the right thing for their country. Which is why antiwar voices are silences, or at the least not published in the mainstream media. However I think that both things can be true, we can both value and support our military while also thinking objectively about whether we should be involved in a war or not.
While scrolling through these sites and reading articles this one stuck out to me in particular. Why are we not hearing about a mass grave containing the remains of over 300 people. Instead the media is showing protests on college campuses about the war. Just today I have seen at least 5 videos on social media about the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi at UNC Chapel Hill protecting the American flag from being destroyed. So it's not that we aren't talking about the war, we are just not about the right things. People are dying and the media is covering the actions of fraternities on college campuses. Not only that but people are raising money to "throw them a rager" for their "bravery and patriotism." They have raised over $100,000, do you know how many starving people that could feed overseas?
After reading the articles and information on these sites I am now much more aware of how ignorant the people of the United States are. I am also aware of how little we truly know about foreign affairs, unless we go find out information for ourselves.
I got my first iPod touch when I was in 6th grade, and my first iPhone when I turned 13. Immediately I created accounts on snapchat and instagram. I wanted to be on social media because everyone else was, at the time I didn't know how much my life would change because of it. I quickly became obsessed with how many followers and likes I was getting on my posts, and I constantly compared myself to the beautiful Instagram models that were all over the internet. Looking back knowing what I do now, I was definitely way too hard on myself. I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self that what you see on social media is not the truth. Those girls posting about traveling the world and not having to work a day in their lives is not the norm, and that is not what I should have been aspiring to be. Now that I'm older and have gone through high school and almost all of college, I know that people tend to post the good parts of their lives and leave out the bad. The content that is put out by influencers are highlights of their lives, not their real everyday experience.
Even now that I am aware of how fake social media is I still find myself comparing my self to or being jealous of people that I see online. I also am still addicted to it regardless of how harmful it may be. Not a day goes by that I don't open an application of social media and scroll until I'm bored. Now with recent advancements in technology these apps show you exactly what you want to see to keep you engaged for as long as possible. Bringing you to a point where you don't want to ever put your phone down.
This is a video that we watched in class from the 1964 World Fair, predicting the future advancements of technology. It's fascinating to see how the predictions made in the 1960s about the future have, in many ways, come to fruition. Concepts like space exploration, climate research, and advancements in transportation have indeed progressed significantly since then. However these progressions come with implementations. This video shows the good that can come out of technology, and none of the bad.
Another video that we watched in class showed the negative impacts of social media on society as a whole.
The people in this video are constantly looking at their phones and paying attention to absolutely nothing else. They wouldn't even notice a burning building unless it was sent to them on social media. The director of this video was able to get their message across to viewers by exaggerating the actions of today's society. Although the scenarios in this video may have been exaggerated the points that it makes are all valid. Today people all over the world are constantly on their phones, rarely does anyone go anywhere without it. Some people can't even go to the bathroom without bringing their phone with them. This causes us to be less present in real life, and miss out on the things that make human life so special.
I feel lucky to have grown up during the time that technology was evolving into what it is today. I'm glad that I wasn't an "iPad kid" and that I played "house" with my friends instead of watching YouTube together. As I reflect on how far technology has come I am impressed however I am also disappointed. In the future I want to be a mother, and I do not want to raise my kids on social media. I am disappointed in parents all over the world for not protecting their children's childhoods. I want my kids to grow up playing outside, playing board games, being part of a sports team, riding bikes, etc... I don't want them to be watching a Youtube video of Ms.Rachel on an iPad while we're at the beach.
