Welcome.

Welcome to my blog, please enter with an open mind.

My blogs and research consists of negative and positive outlooks in social media.

Religion, Health, Psychology, religion and other topics that strikes my interest.

We all might not have the same outlook on things but I simply summarized my understanding of the research articles I have read.

There are links for the specific articles and websites to view for yourselves if you wish to take a look and develop your own meaning for each article.

I really enjoyed reading about the different areas and aspects that social media can impact in our lives.

Thank you for your time, and enjoy.

-Rebecca Lee

What's Privacy?

Clark, J. (n.d.). Social Media and Privacy. Air Medical Journal, 104-107. 2010



The medical field requires a Federal law that restricts access to individuals' private medical information.
The act is called HIPAA a.k.a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Although the medical community became very “privacy aware” in the age of  HIPAA, it has not done a very good job of defining acceptable behaviors relative to personal behavior (Clark, 2010)

A young engineer was creating a computer modeling for a company in Switzerland, his work was considered conception of the World Wide Web.
 His goal was to find a better way to organize files and link related documents on his hard drive on his computer in a “brain-like way.”1 He wanted a program that could “keep track of all the random associations one comes across in real life”1 and create a system that would facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.
The issue here is not just patient privacy, but also the portrayal of organizations in the public eye (Clark, 2010).

The concept and reason behind this computer modeling program was very useful and also helpful to medical facilities and establishments that needed to pull up information but it went against our federal law that protects our people and keeps confidentiality.
 Never before have individuals had so much information at their fingertips, and never have people had such an opportunity to share information that they would never have considered sharing with strangers before (Clark, 2010).

The creation of this program was a big risk factor, although it was helpful to doctors and researchers, people that were within the files behind the screen wouldn't think or agree with what the new program had in mind. This is one of the scary things about social media, when it comes to peoples privacy it tends to be so hard to keep and respect.
If not protected by the Federal law who knows how many lawsuits, and lives would've been jeopardized. We ensure and trust certain applications, and places to keep our names and information confidential. But it seems inevitable, we have access to see everything someway somehow, there seems to be no privacy, or confidentiality.
As helpful we may think utilizing social media for certain benefits of the world, some laws are made to remain and be respected.

Its hard to be happy.

McDaniel, J. (2013, Nov 20). Social media impacts happiness, research says. University Wire Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/docview/1459554345?accountid=14473


Link: http://search.proquest.com.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/docview/1459554345?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14473


While sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were created to connect users and enhance social interactions, many research studies show the opposite is occurring -- people who use social media heavily throughout their day can experience detachment, boredom and even loneliness (McDaniel, 2013).
Temporary happiness from likes, shares and social media popularity all exist only on the internet and social media world.
The psychological understanding of acceptance pertains a lot to why social media impacts happiness within us.
If others 'like' this false image, it does not necessarily feel like a real connection and leaves people worried that if they were known more fully, they would not be liked or accepted (McDaniel, 2013)
We worry so much about being accepted, and liked that social media allows us to put a pseudo identity about us so we can be liked, accepted mentally knowing we are happy, socially accepted but internally within us we remain unhappy because we thrive on others acceptance rather then our own.
Many hide behind a fake smile, and become unaware of how they truly feel inside.
Also some choose not to show it and continue on to keep it to themselves; it is mentally hurtful to us and has negative consequences, this is one bad impact social media has made for people today.

Blame Facebook for my personality disorder.

Drouin, M. (n.d.). Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 608-614. March 2012

Link

Social media allows us to change and conform to who we may not truly be, without even realizing we are changing.
Observing and researching, account users on the popular social media accounts shows a difference in personality pertaining to who they are realistically and cyberly.
 The author lists her research into multiple points and dissects the topics individually that support her research and theory of personality disorders that occur from the use of social media.
She begins with discussing the usage of and social media; where the change occurs in someones character and what contributing factors are that play a role.

1.1. Social media use
1.2. How often and who is posting inappropriate or illegal material online?
1.3. Potential links with personality disorders
2.  Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Procedure
2.3. Measures
2.3.1. Posting illegal material
2.3.2. Recording illegal material
2.3.3. Social media use/excessive social media use
2.3.4. Antisocial personality disorder
2.3.5. Borderline personality disorder
3. Results
4. Discussion
4.1. Limitations
4.2. Conclusion

One major factor that opens the door to personality change is the alter-ego like character within us.
Illegal acts, living your life, being in the moment, not giving a damn, and simply having fun.
We are surrounded by so much that media either inhibits or prohibits our thoughts, actions and who we become from environment. A thought leads to words, and words lead to action, and actions can open up new doors for us.
Back to when we did overly use myspace, this pertains to some of the found research.

MySpace references to “health risk behaviors” (i.e., substance use, sexual behavior, and violence) on their web profiles. More than half of the MySpace profiles included in their study contained some reference to a health risk behavior: 41% referenced substance use, 24% referenced sexual behavior, and 14% referenced violence (Drouin, 2012).

Psychologist Albert Bandura discovered with the Bobo doll; how our behavior can be influenced by what we see and do.
We focus on what the world finds important, but also social media makes it all about us, my account, my post, my feed, my opinion etc.
We are focused on us, with all these influences around; we are less focused on who we are becoming and more of who we should become.

Conformed religion

Brington, H. (2010). USA today (Arlington, Va.) ISSN: 0734-7456 Date: Page: 11. USA Today, (News), 11-11.


Link


Today we can easily search on the internet with the help of social media to look up churches, and now even review them.
It astonished me that without even realizing it even churches have been conformed to the new use of social media in their churches.
Online church viewings, offering, donations, and even social apps to follow them and what the church is up to. Henry G. Brinton the pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and also author of few books on Christianity writes,

Our culture is going to lose the sanctuaries that have been sacred escapes for thousands of years."
The use of social media has made the sacred meaning of attending church (physically) for holy intentions and religious practices broken and conformed into a new way of practice in religion. (Brington, 2010)

Religious vitality requires a balancing act between private contemplation and public conversation, and both practices require the establishment of trust (Brington, 2010)

The use of social media does benefit in some ways for religion and churches, such as good reviews, or location whereabouts, what their religious background and practices are.

But what if the media tells another story? We cannot always rely or be accountable for what is said within social media, especially about religion.
Each religion is made and continued from a relationship and a cyber virtual relationship wouldn't be considered fulfilling in most religions.
When religion utilizes social media to connect with the world and allow people to feel more comfortable they must also be mindful for what could happen.
If private information leaks out, or if someone is offended by a post on twitter or Facebook, that could cause damage to the church and also the outlook people have on that religion.
Social media has many benefits but for religion it's a bit messy.
Churches today are so fearful to say something offensive or worry what the public will do or act from how the church uses social media.
Churches and religion conform and become weak from the use of social media, allowing years of tradition, culture and practice to be broken and slowly disappear.

Small Change: Why Revolution Will Not be Tweeted by Malcolm Gladwell

In this essay by Malcolm Gladwell, he captions this "Small Change: Why revolution will not be tweeted."
I see this story as a ripple effect, all it takes is one drop; then it becomes bigger.

"Social networks are particularly effective at increasing motivation," Aaker and Smith write.
"But that's not true, social networks are effective at increasing participation - by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires."

This is where I see the ripple effect that implies to what is said above about lessening the level of motivation required.
Today, due to social networks, it is easy to hit a "like" button on Facebook or "share" to help support a cause, petition, etc but from that, social media has taken away our voice and actions to do something.
In my opinion, back when we would not have social media, but rely on each other, forming a unified group or community to support or have our voice be heard; we would do all we can, such as physically protest and riot.

Hitting like or share is the evidence of what Aaker and Smith write about how it is lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.
Small change, like a ripple can grow bigger and be shared, seen and heard around, but it will eventually die if no one participates and continues that ripple effect.


"Small Change: Why the revolution Will Not be Tweeted" by Malcolm Gladwell (pp 169-180 in 50 E)

Is Google making us stupid? By Nicholas Carr synthesized summary.

This picture here I believe defines this title of Carr's essay. 

His title and question : " Is google making us stupid?"

Take a look at this image above and then ask yourself are we really asking a computer, internet resource, a.k.a google for answers?

In his essay Carr talks about Scott Karps blog. 

Karp's posts online writes, " What if I do all my reading on the Web not so much because the way I read has changed, I'm just seeking convenience, but because the way

I think has changed."

When I read this, the blurry sheet over my mind and eyes that clouded my understanding was removed. 

I understand where Scott Karp is coming from. 

I was a bit confused to where Carr was going but reading his supported statements and facts to his title, "Is google making us stupid?"

I think has changed, the way we as a society think has changed because we depend so much on this search engine it defines who we have become.

Before we "googled" everything , we searched and found out for ourselves by putting in work and finding the answers independently. 

And now we are simply in the palms of Google's hands.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr  (pp. 91- 101 in 50 E)

Public health thanks twitter!

Marathe, M.V.; Ramakrishnan, N. "Recent Advances in Computational Epidemiology",  Intelligent Systems, IEEE, On page(s): 96 - 101 Volume: 28, Issue: 4, July-Aug. 2013

Link : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/xpl/abstractCitations.jsp?arnumber=6285937&tag=1

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6285937


This Electronic document was a very interesting piece to read and find unique discoveries.
We talk about how social media can distract and also take so much from our lives but ever think it would impact our public health ?
Recent work has come to discover a machine that has demonstrated to learn and process language. This machine utilizes social media such as twitter, and shows promising benefits to public health information.
Twitter is one of the most popularly used and sourced social applications today.

Social media such as Twitter have created platforms for people to broadcast information, thoughts, and feelings about their daily lives (Marathe; Ramakrishnan ,2013).

It is open to the public, which also allows the information of users to be exposed publicly as well.
Studying the aggregation within the tweets posted by many users, it has developed accurate data for diagnosing for certain patients. What we have discovered that are very beneficial and accurate is that within these account users on twitter they expose more openly to what they feel, are going through and have existing in their lives far more greater then expressing that information to their doctor.

Since the beginning of these social apps, we are more automatically inclined to post how we feel faster then we can come up with the words to express orally to another person.
The privacy for the user must still be respected and given but this is a new and profound way public health/research have been transformed and progressed. Without prying the patient or demanding them to express how they feel, we can simply search up their twitter name and we would find more faster and accurate information to use off of rather then trying to have a conversation with them face to face.

National Propaganda Radio

I came across the NPR website featuring an ethics handbook pertaining to Social media.
The listed statements are truly from my own point of view and what I obtained from this information I came across.

Accuracy- How social media can be inaccurate and accurate, and what is required, to make sure it is  accurate. How much of what we hear can be factual and have support to make it correct information.
Honesty - What is the truth in social media today?
How do we know the information we are reading or coming across is even true?
Independence- Due to social media and internet having things go viral, we have to remember to not be so dependent on whatever we read from media.
We become so gullible and reluctant to the truth of things that if we see a good fact or support to something we want to believe what sounds better then what may actually be the truth of the matter.
Impartiality- How do we prevent ourselves from being biased, prejudice or being manipulated from what may not be accurate.
Accountability- Who is held accountable ?
We blame social media, websites, media etc but in the end wouldn't we be accountable for ourselves?
Respect- Regardless of what anyone says or the controversy over the topic held for discussion through social media, we should always maintain respect for others and also a good attitude.
Excellence- Social media has its downfalls but still is an excellent source and opportunity to help our society and every day lives.
There are more positive outlooks to the great changes and helpful sources that social media gives us today then what we mainly see on the headline news or Facebook posts.

Sharing a classmates insight.

In my classmate Cindy's blog page, I became intrigued and interested when I read both her blogs.

Her first blog is about small change; synthesizing her insight in comparison with Malcolm Gladwell.
She utilized "Small Change: Why Revolution Will Not be Tweeted" by Malcom Gladwell as a good source to compare her opinions and also come with a concluding ending to her summarization.
The written compared work discusses Gladwell's reasons to why he believes that Social Media is built on weak ties, and Cindy inputs with her comparison with facebook.
Addition to this topic of her first blog, you can also enjoy a free write about a video that is about how social media has changed humanity and also how we are today as a society.
Videos are fun and an easy way to understand someone's point of view, so if you can; take some time into viewing her blog page. :)

*Click on " Cindy's " it is a link to her blog page.

Friends around the world.

Friends around the world, social media can be looked upon in a positive way.
One example would be connections with friends.
Facebook is one of the most leading and popular source for keeping connected and also making new connections.
Its pretty amazing to see how in the palm of your hand you can instantly talk to a friend who is all the way in Europe or another country with a different time zone.
Before we had to walk or physically be there to converse or even reconnect with anyone.

This image was fascinating to me because you get to see the way social media connects the world together.

Unfriended.

Cyber-bullying, dissecting the word, it requires bullying and a computer. 

It is shown in statistics that there are approximately 4,400 deaths per year in the US, from cyber-bullying.

I've been seeing this commercial for the movie "Unfriended," quite a few times now,it looks interesting but also kind of stupid.

The interesting part of it is that in the commercial it shows pictures of the main character by searching certain topics in the search bar and then end result it shows her committing suicide due to her being cyber-bullied.

 I recently spent some time listening to Monica Lewinsky and her speech about the price of shame and discusses cyber-bullying and her experiences from it.

She begins the speech about how we all make mistakes and sometimes certain mistakes do come with a consequence. She explains how it was hard for her to deal and overcome the situation that had happened, its was inspiring to see that even a woman that is still talked about, has made history in the political world can still remain strong and persevere until this day and not let it affect who she is. 

Cyber-bullying, we all know what it is and we can all fall short and easy into being part of it as well. 

This is one thing social media and social change has inflicted negativity upon our world today. 

Here are some links to her discussion and speech on TED.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/20/monica-lewinsky-ted-talk-2015_n_6910564.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8y0WLm78U