The good, the bad and the ugly

When we were assigned a final blog post that would explain the most important thing we learned about media this semester, I had no idea where to begin. We covered many topics, and discussed numerous opinions and sides of each one. Mass media, in many cases, gets a pretty bad rap. Hm, I could talk about all the negative effects of mass media we learned about in class. Then again, people always discuss the ways in which technology has helped them. Okay, I’ll talk about the positive aspects of mass media instead! Wait, I do remember discussing several ways media could be detrimental to a person’s life. Perfect, I’ll talk about the truly ugly side of mass media.

I wanted to encapsulate all of these lessons, while offering the most important point(s) of information I learned in the course. So, without further ado, here is the good, the bad and the ugly of mass media.

Suggested soundtrack for this post: click here.

The good: today’s media allows us to reach a wider audience and connect on various platforms.

My generation is part of a major shift in which big media is losing control. As citizens living in the Digital Age, we have constant access to the content we want. The people are in control of the content being shared as well as the platforms for sharing, and the Internet is a major factor. “The biggest TV station couldn’t reach nearly as many people as the Internet does now.” That’s why we’re seeing a disruption in cable news and the growth of the online platform.

Using Twitter could land you a job writing for Seth Meyers. Gaitry got a job in Disney World thanks to the power of the Internet! Kristin’s story of her stolen identity went viral, and she actually became a local celebrity. Her story was also featured on the local news station, but I can guarantee she reached more people online than has ever been possible through the TV screen.

The present and future of mass media is designed to better connect us with others. Have you heard about the latest Snapchat update? It also allows us to stay connected with our friends and family without saying a spoken word to them. It’s a new kind of communication, and we’re still learning, so there are certainly a few glitches. Overall, media seems to be a giving part of our society. Of course, we still have to feed the beast to get results.

The bad: media consumers are just pawns in the competitive game between mass media giants.

Facebook, for the most part, controls social lives. It’s disrupted many forms of technology, and it will likely continue to do so. Google may or may not be plotting to take over the world (or at least our senses). Comcast just bought Time Warner Cable, not only driving up the prices of cable across the country, but also jacking up the price of our beloved Netflix. Heck, if you want to think of the U.S. government as a corporation in this case, they’ve been attempting to exert some control over the Internet in the future. Do you want to know something else about all of this? We can’t do a damn thing about it.

All of these changes and advancements have direct effects on our lives, and it’s going to have an even larger effect on journalism in the future. Our newspaper is popular online? Let’s build a paywall to make some money. We’re the most popular source of downloadable music? That means we can charge, let’s say, 30 cents more per song. People really hate those annoying ads! I bet they’d pay five dollars a month to get rid of them.

See what I mean? For the most part, these giants are unstoppable. We, the consumers, want the content and they, the providers, set the prices. And that’s the way it will continue until there’s a media disruption that changes the course.

The ugly: media has negatively affected the way we communicate with others and hindered our ability to prosper without technology.

Yes, I realize I’m contradicting myself. Earlier in this post, I said media has allowed us to stay connected throughout our busy lives. This is true, but only in terms of actual communication, like texting throughout the day or messaging someone on Facebook after being apart for a while.

Otherwise, we’re putting ourselves out there to be judged and critiqued. We seek the invisible likes on an Instagram photo or the retweets on a witty tweet. In reality, these aren’t tangible things you can put on a resume or show off to your friends. Society has become so consumed with technology that we choose it over real relationships (I’m talking to you, Tinder). And don’t even get me started on privacy.

In a world where we’re forced to opt out instead of opt in, there are no more secrets. We put information online and offer it freely to marketers and advertisers, a concept I discussed in my “hate letter” to the Internet.

If I took a “best friend” quiz that asked questions like, “what’s your favorite movie?” and “what’s your favorite color?,” I imagine my best friends would earn decent scores. What if the Internet tried to answer these questions? I guarantee it could get 10/10 correct, and that’s a major part of what this semester has taught me.

I’ll leave you with this video, titled “Look Up.” It discusses the way in which our generation uses technology, and it’s worryingly accurate. The overall message is clear: look up from your phones and separate yourself from technology. Otherwise, you’ll miss opportunities in the real world.

In closing, this class has taught me that media has promise and the potential to be good; it’s only bad and ugly when we let it be.

How do you use Twitter?

A recent study suggests around 44% of Twitter accounts have never even sent a tweet. For a site that prides itself on being the most popular social networking site, this is pretty disparaging news, especially considering the percentage equates to over 428 million “dormant” accounts. Now, “dormant” doesn’t necessarily mean “inactive” in this situation. Many Twitter users choose not to tweet, but instead to read. “To be sure, people don’t have to actively tweet to find the service useful. There’s more than enough stuff to read on almost any topic in the world on Twitter to keep users occupied.”

Twitter, like any other social media site, is designed for active participation. Researchers claim passive participation is highly negative and can lead to the downfall of a website, but they rarely highlight the benefits of this kind of involvement. In fact, some say passive users are a necessity to social media sites.

“Unless you can build a firm foundation of people who are engaged with you at a more passive level of watching and sharing, it’s very difficult to create that audience for the people who are commenting and producing content.”

Another startling statistic is that only 13% of Twitter accounts have written at least 100 tweets. Almost every individual user I follow on Twitter has tweeted over 100 times. I don’t tweet nearly as often as some of the accounts I follow, but that’s no indication as to how much time I actually spend on Twitter. I enjoy being a somewhat passive user of social media; I contribute content, but I take in content more often.

That being said, I don’t think Twitter should worry about the survey findings. Sure, most of inactive accounts are permanently inactive, but many are likely just passive readers. If you consider that 127 million users are active tweeters, that’s still a pretty impressive following.

Facebook stalking: the new normal?

This morning, I read this article on the famous Eleven Madison Park restaurant in New York. Prior to the dinner hour, the maître d’ googles the names of every guest, giving him the ability to comment on personal details. With this level of familiarity, he can greet guests with their names or congratulate them on a special occasion. “If I find out a guest is from Montana, and I know we have a server from there, we'll put them together. Same goes for guests who own jazz clubs, who can be paired with a sommelier that happens to be into jazz. In other words, before customers even step through the door, the restaurant's staff has a pretty good idea of the things it can do to specifically blow their minds.”

“All that Googling pays off when the maître d' greets total strangers by name and wishes them a happy tenth anniversary before they've even taken off their coats.”

This attention to detail reportedly makes the guests feel welcomed at the restaurant. Eleven Madison Park takes service just as seriously as the food they serve, evident in the way they carefully stalk every guest before they walk through the door.

When did this become okay to do? Rather, when did online stalking become associated with feeling welcome in an establishment? Let’s be real, we’ve all stalked someone online (probably on Facebook) at some point in time. Of course, I use the term “stalking” loosely here. “Researching” may be a more appropriate term, but it doesn’t quite do justice to the action of this extreme research. Furthermore, since you can discover an abundance of information on a person based on their Facebook, the terms “online stalking” and “Facebook stalking” may sometimes be used interchangeably. Stalking someone on Facebook may include searching their name and attempting to discover as much information about them as possible, for example, their job, interests, photos and opinions. Although motivations for this stalking differ, it’s usually kept a secret from the person you’re stalking. Most people don’t continue this process; once they find out as much information as they can about a person, they move on.

“The art and joy of the Facebook Stalk is unavoidable, even for the most of the “light” Facebook users out there. Just dipping your toe into the shallow end – the News Feed – can result in a bout of creeping so thorough that you feel adequately prepared to give a PowerPoint presentation about the last few years of your victim’s life.”

Is online stalking so normal that we’re now incorporating it into restaurant service? Sure, it could make a guest feel special if they were dining at Eleven Madison Park, but it could also really freak people out. These searches also raise the issue of online privacy. If you Facebook stalk someone prior to meeting them, you probably won’t introduce yourself by letting them know how much you really discovered about them (you may even pretend to not know certain things about them). There is little difference between this scenario and greeting guests based on what Google told you about them.

For a funny (and somewhat far-fetched) representation of “Facebook stalking,” watch this video.

A month of my life

I remember seeing a link on the Rebelmouse site to a counter by Time that could tell you how much of your life you've wasted on Facebook. Now, there's a TV show version. You simply type in a TV show you've watched or are currently watching, enter the number of seasons and the counter will calculate how much time you've spent watching the show. If you continue entering in shows, it will add the values to your total. I stopped when I got to a month. Now, you give it a try. Click here.

People always say watching TV is a waste of time, but one of the biggest arguments is the lack of educational content in the programs. When I watch TV shows, I may not be learning in the traditional way, but I'm certainly learning. Now, this is my opinion, but I'm not wasting time when I watch TV. Even on Netflix, I'm learning. These shows teach us how to act in social situations. Sure, real life isn't exactly how it's depicted on television, but it's similar, and we learn that. You can't say it's a waste of time if we get something out of it.

Do I wish that number was a little lower? Well, yes. I even wish there was a book counter that could tell you how much time you've spent reading, instead. But one thing is for sure, I didn't waste a month of my life. I spent a month of it learning in a new way.

I'm unfriending you

Everyone always says, “If you don’t like something a person says on Twitter/Facebook, just unfollow/unfriend them.” I’ve also found it to be common for people to put “if you don’t like this, get off my page/status” at the end of their posts on social media. Okay, I’ll unfollow them, but what am I supposed to say when they ask me (most of the time in an awkward face-to-face conversation) why I did that? We talked a little about this in class, and I picked up on two major arguments. “I unfollow them because they document the major happenings in their lives (that I don't care about),” Kristin suggested. Marriages and babies seem to be the most common happenings that appear on my social media feeds. On the other hand, “we’ll all do the same thing one day,” Gaitry said. So, what’s the right answer?

Better yet, instead of finding the right answer, we should create a formula that tells us who to delete and lets those who we unfriend/unfollow know what happened. There may not be a formula, but according to this article from The Guardian, it is an art, and it involves recognizing people as “clutter.”

“There are Facebook friends with whom you want to share everything, those you've grown apart from, and those you've barely heard of. (You can assign them to different lists, but then you've introduced a whole new layer of decisions: who belongs where? What qualifies someone to be switched from one list to another? And so on.) There are Twitter followers with whom your acquaintance is strictly professional, those you know from school, but didn't necessarily like, and those who are your dad. Not long ago, I realised, with a feeling of dismay, that I'd started to think of some of these contacts – not most of them, but some – as clutter.”

The author later includes advice about decluttering your social media feeds, and it’s a pretty bold move.

“Mullany recommends a friend-decluttering exercise that she admits sounds ‘weird’, but that she predicts will become more and more widely accepted. She advises making a public proclamation on Facebook in which you specify the criteria by which you'll henceforth be defining people as ‘friends’. Maybe you'll resolve only to remain Facebook friends with people you've met at least once in real life, or maybe you'll use a stricter standard, such as whether you'd invite that person to your wedding. Explain, in the same proclamation, that the consequent defriending shouldn't be taken personally, and that you're doing it to a number of people at once. Then start clearing out the clutter.”

Oh, and one more thing. You can always use the criteria set forth in this list to determine if your Facebook friends will make the cut. Honestly, this is the list I’ve been searching for. So, before you ask me why I unfollowed you on Twitter or defriended you on Facebook, check to see if you did something in this article.

“Increasingly, Mullany argues, social media will force us to evaluate our friendships in this way – to take stock of our connections, so as to reserve our energies for those who matter most. She equates this to drawing up the guest list for a wedding: ‘It's stressful but, for many people, making that list is a really important, meaningful moment.’”

Unfortunately, even if I unfollow you on Twitter, I’ll probably still have to invite you to my wedding.

P.S. I encourage everyone to read the two articles I linked to above. The first is interesting and informational, and the second is hilariously accurate. 

PSA: Update your iPhone NOW

As a class, we've talked a little bit about privacy, specifically our privacy online. Since you're already aware of the privacy issues that can potentially arise online and through other technologies, you should stop reading this post now and go update your iPhone. Seriously, if you have an iPhone, download and install iOS 7.0.6 as soon as possible. I'll tell you exactly why. When I receive the iOS update pop-up on my phone, I usually close out of the box and forget about the update until I get tired of the little notification on my settings app, which is exactly what I did this time around until I read this article.

Upon releasing the update, Apple issued a press release saying the new iOS would fix a bug in which "an attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS." SSL and TLS are essentially protocols keeping user information private and secure. The Apple bug to be fixed by the iOS update leaves you vulnerable to attackers who can intercept information you send over the server. That means if you're on a public network, an attacker could be targeting you. Through this bug, they have access to whatever you send in Safari, as well as your mail accounts or any personal information you submit on your phone. To put the icing on the cake, this has been going on since September of 2012.

A year and a half later, consumers are finally offered an update to fix the problem. But what if a hacker has already intercepted your information? I guess it's just too late for you! It's scary to think these big companies that create products consuming a major part of our lives aren't fully informing us on important issues such as this one. Most people will upgrade and move on. Is that really the standard we're setting for corporations like Apple? Consumers threw a fit when they realized their personal information may have been compromised in a security breach in Target stores nationwide. So, why is it any different when it's our iPhones, a device so near and dear to our hearts?

iPhone users or not, most people (myself included) should stop being so naive when it comes to our privacy in the new technological era. Odds are, this recent Apple bug bug was not meant to be malicious or harmful; it was likely just a mistake in the coding. Nonetheless, it's a mistake that could cost users big time. We need to start questioning large corporations and small businesses alike to make sure they're doing everything they can to ensure our personal information is protected.

I can already hear Apple saying, "I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Just Ask Jeeves

When I was little, I remember my mom using the Q&A site www.askjeeves.com when she needed to find something online. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ask Jeeves, the earliest version asked the user to input a question and it would provide results. When I was old enough to use the computer with my mom's help, she let me type in my own questions. As a kid, it was neat to think someone named Jeeves was on the other side of my computer screen, and he knew it all. How many teeth does a shark have? Ask Jeeves. When is the next full moon? Jeeves could tell you.

At that point in time, Internet was dial-up and Google didn't exist. Over the years, search engines transformed from question-based to search-based. Pretty soon, you didn't even have to search in question format, and now you have the ability to input only a few terms which will still return results. It's interesting to consider the transformation from asking questions to searching for answers. I googled the phrase "number of teeth in shark," and Google provided me the exact information I was looking for, and then some.

Ask Jeeves no longer exists in its original format; it's now ask.com, and it's nowhere near as popular as its competitors (who could compete with Google, anyway?). In the beginning of the Internet, users wanted simple answers to simple questions. Now, we use search engines for personal research on any given topic. Because of this, Q&A sites like the original askjeeves.com will never be as popular as they once were.

As for Jeeves, I'd say he's doing pretty well...

Dear Internet

This letter is a response to Mary's post. Let me preface this post by saying this is not at all how I actually feel about the Internet. I agree with Mary that the Internet's impact on my life has been positive. But, I don't often get the chance to be this cynical, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Dear Internet,

You and I both know a lot of people don’t like you. I’m one of them. You’re reckless, distracting and cruel, and you exhibit absolutely no control. You’re an instigator, and you take too much; much more than we want to give.

Some might say you gave them a chance at a new life, or even gave them a shot at being famous. But the trade-off isn’t fair. We offered our undivided attention and you offered us Justin Bieber; you made people like Perez Hilton and Kim Kardashian famous. According to you, they rank higher than people like Tim Berners-Lee (and because of you, this important name is buried along with others in the depths of your great abyss).

Subtweet, cyberbully, astroturfing. These are all words that have serious implications, and they were all coined because of YOU. Maybe you don’t understand, so let me be clear. People have died because of you. You allowed others to play with their emotions to the point they just couldn’t take it anymore. You are an instigator in every sense of the world; you facilitate unnecessary drama and allow hurtful exchanges to occur. Perhaps what angers me most about this is the fact you won’t do anything about it. Your anonymous platforms stay open for anyone to attack other people, and anonymous words hurt the most. You allow people to lie about who they really are. This damages relationships with others and these actions have repercussions, but you refuse to take responsibility for them.

Because of you, Internet, we’ve become creatures that prefer to be alone than with other human beings. I mean c’mon, you have us talking to walls (here’s looking at you, Facebook)! Kids beg to stay inside to play with you instead of their friends. You’ve made children dependent on you for answers, instead of their parents. You are a comfort to the little ones, but in the most negative way; your idea of comfort is mindlessly streaming TV shows. Because you don’t maintain control, children are often subjected to violence or cruelty. Their innocence is stripped of them and they grow up too fast.

When they do grow up, they grow up as beings dependent on you. You are their drug, their addiction; they crave you. I know this because I crave you. When faced with the choice of going to see friends or streaming a TV show by myself, you win me over every time. You’ve led me to believe I can multitask, but that’s just a façade. When I try to get away, you pull me right back in, breaking my focus. None of my greatest accomplishments have happened through you, and I’m almost positive you hinder my ability to learn and prosper. You don’t want me to go, and you know I can’t break you. Internet, you’re the bad habit I can’t kick.

We put good in, but sometimes we receive the bad in return. You’ve stolen from me and many others. When I was in St. Louis, my credit card was declined in the Starbucks outside our hotel. That’s because you let someone take my information, and all the money in my bank account. Because of you, someone else in this world was pretending to be me. You prey on those who are not as knowledgeable or protected, and you look for the easy targets. People may work their whole lives for an identity or a life that you let others take away in an instant.

In his TED talk, David Kelley remembers a childhood friend who was judged when he used his creativity to make a clay horse. Another child insulted his project, thereby hindering his creative confidence. But I’m sure you’re very familiar with this story, Internet, because you’re a pro at stifling creativity. We put forth our thoughts, dreams and aspirations, and like a machine in a factory, you break them down until we’re only left with a pessimistic reality. You destroy creative confidence by allowing human beings to be judged in a public arena.

Now, don’t get me wrong. You’ve made some very meaningful contributions. Remember hot dog legs? You know, photos of people on social media sites that make them look like they have hot dogs for legs? What about celebrities without eyebrows? That was a good one. And how could we ever forget the fact that you so kindly gave us “reply all?” Without it, how would we ever be able to make snarky comments about our boss and have them sent to everyone in the office?!

Please, get your shit together.

Mary, a student in JOMC 240, happens to be one of your biggest fans. She writes on the lyrics from Lorde, one of my favorite music artists. Lorde sings “Maybe the internet raised us,” and, “We’re dancing in this world alone.” But Lorde also sings, “All the double-edged people and schemes. They make a mess then go home and get clean.”

That’s you, Internet. You are the ultimate double-edged scheme, and it scares me to think I'm a willing participant.

Regards,

Ashley

"Pop!" goes Twitter's bank account

This post is based on this article. The headline read, “Twitter is monetizing your compulsiveness.” Great…what now, Twitter?

Based on the media diets of the class, I know most of us are active Twitter users. Because we like to stay up to date on all the latest information, we likely refresh our feeds often. If that’s the case, Twitter has already made a lot of money from the students in JOMC 240.

Each time you refresh your Twitter feed, the site makes a tenth of a penny. Now, that may not seem like a lot of money at first, but think about how long you’ve had Twitter and how many times you’ve refreshed the page or the app. I know I’ve made them quite a bit of money.

To increase their profits even more, Twitter gives advertisers the opportunity to add a sponsored tweet to your feed; you refresh to see more tweets, and advertisers will provide sponsored information about their company or trending topics.

The most interesting thing about the company is the fact Twitter can actually profit from the users of their website and mobile app without having the users purchase anything. They are monetizing a behavior, a habit. Most importantly, Twitter is making money and the user isn’t losing any. Other websites and apps need to take note of this unique system, because it’s the ultimate happy medium.

If a growing bank account made a noise, I’m sure it would sound oddly familiar to Twitter’s refresh “pop.”

Facebook is 10!

When I logged onto Facebook yesterday, my entire feed was covered with videos to celebrate the social network turning 10. Using the hashtag #Facebookis10, Facebook created a video that documented each user’s “journey” on the site. It highlighted photos and statuses with the most likes, as well as other popular shared content. Obviously, Facebook didn’t go through and personalize every user’s video; it was an algorithm that pulled photos, videos and status updates that were ranked the highest based on likes, visits, and other factors.

The videos certainly gave users the opportunity to reflect on happy moments in time, but they served a different purpose for Facebook. The lookback videos were a clever way for Facebook to say “we’ve been here the whole time.” Every happy moment you shared with your friends and family members, Facebook shared it too. The videos even pull from different years, as if to say, “look at how much we’ve been through together!”

It’s a rather ingenious marketing scheme. It allows the users to reflect on the past while the network looks to the future.

I would encourage all Facebook users to check out their video at facebook.com/lookback. Check out a few screencaps from my video!