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Show OPINIONS A5 As Twitter become an ever more popular source for news and information, it's time to start looking as social media as a serious contender for information delivery. Can we trust that it won't dumb us down in the process? TYLER MUNDY/UVU REVIEW The triumphs of social media The evils of social media Social media is changing the way we communicate and how we experience the world around us By Cameron Simek Opinons Editor @Skabomb As future generations look back at us and what we accomplished, will they appreciate the groundwork we laid in delivering information quickly and efficiently? Maybe they'll be too busy drowning in the millions of pictures taken of various dinner plates. They'll possibly still be enjoying the astounding ignorance that existed as anyone with a phone or the internet took to social media to share their every thought. Maybe in the future they'll use Twitter to push new and interesting garbage that no one wants or share images of themselves committing crimes. Not even kidding, it has been done before. I don't see that for our future, because I have a hope for mankind. Mostly because I spend my time reading positive news that is shared with me and less time focused on all the ignorance flowing from Facebook and Twitter. As we have progressed deeper and deeper into our always-connected digital age, all the harm that can occur, and is occurring, is easy to see. What we need to focus on are the strengths that come from a well-connected society. As we share news and information with one another we are creating a society informed on current issues. Though at times what is shared may be skewed one way or another, over time the best will rise to the top and become what people share most. Well, in a perfect world that's what would happen. Finding news isn't an easy task, as no one page you frequent will have all the news that is fit to read. Yes, the "important" news will be covered by the bigger outlets. I'm talking about the news that isn't going to bring in the readers like celebrity gossip, the news that shows us the darker sides of humanity, or maybe just the weirder side. The news you see from someone's blog, the things that doesn't make sense to post on a bigger news site, that is what will redeem social media from all the foodies and pictures of cool bags as they float in the breeze. When we share personal stories about people losing their houses to big banks and corrupt cops taking out aggression on an We share what matters most to us. We share what we love. innocent civilian, we are sharing stories. As we began as a race, stories were what we had to learn about our history. They were grand epics that took a lifetime to learn and pass on so the next generation could experience it. We have moved on from that, and some may say it's not a good thing. But I would argue that it is. As we share our lives and what we find important, even 140 characters at a time, we carve out our niche in the annals of history. We share what matters most to us. We share what we love. We share our souls to strangers on the Internet, and there they will remain until the day humanity ends, whether by our own hands or another's. It's easy to look at social media as just another phase our society is going through. We don't think about what we are doing as we read an interesting story, or comic or just share what someone else has said for the enjoyment of our friends. But what matters is that we are sharing it. Social media is just a new form of what has existed since language has existed, a way to share stories about us and the world in which we live. Hopefully future generations will overlook the sepia tones in every picture. Social media, while effective, is ultimately harmful to you By Alex Sousa News Writer @TwoFistedSousa I want to get something out of the way first. Yes, I do use social media. I also attend UVU, own "Jaws: The Revenge," and call up ex-girlfriends on lonely nights. My point is, I do a lot of things that make me hate myself, but that doesn't make any of them right. So, before anyone starts waving a pitchfork and calling me out for hypocrisy, let's be clear: Social media is something we're living with, but that doesn't mean anybody has to like it. A recent study by Berlin's Humboldt University and Darmstadt's Technical University said Facebook and other social networks can be a cause of depression and negative feelings. The researchers said that using social media can provoke feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction with one's own life. Clicking through the updates and photos of friends can give a false sense of security and happiness in the lives of others, making one feel isolated and envious. Another study, this one by Mark Urista, Qingwen Dong, and Kenneth Day, said that social networks were addictive. The gratification that comes from likes and re-tweets can cause people to check these sites frequently looking for those responses to "serve as approval and support from mediated relationships." That's something people not only look for, but crave, so they sign in repeatedly, hoping for that online comfort. And then there are people like Edward De Bono who say that social networking makes people "lazy and stupid." Research shows that Facebook users average 40 visits a month, spending about 23 minutes each time. That's over 15 hours a month. And then there are the scholars, like Mark Bauerlein, who are afraid that social networking sites are degrading people's ability to converse in a natural, organic way. People are becoming complacent in their armchair relationships, neglecting the nurture of human contact because they can just catch up online. That's great. So science has proven that social media can be bad. But in all fairness, that isn't the real problem with social media. People will always find something to be addicted to or depressed about, and there were plenty of lazy, stupid people long before the advent of social media. So those aren't the real problem. No, the real problem with social media is Jared and Savannah. Who are Jared and Savannah, or "Javannah" for anybody who doesn't like syllables? Jared and Savannah are, or were, it can be hard to keep track sometimes, a teen couple with accounts on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube. And why has anybody heard of them? Because they have accounts on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube. They posted gratuitous detail about their relationship from beginning to end to beginning to end to beginning to end on all of those sites, all written in high school vernacular, and amassed a huge following. Their Facebook page has more than 240,000 likes. That's about 50,000 more than the Smithsonian. They are the Internet equivalent of the cutest couple in high school yearbooks. And that's the evil of social media; It has become a digitized high school from which no one can graduate, only log off. But Online High is always there, and we're always enrolled. Twitter is passing notes in the hallway, Pinterest is just decorating the locker, Mr. Zuckerberg is the principal, and Jared and Savannah, they're the cool kids. Social media is the distillation and digitization of everything wrong in every after-school special. People can herald it as this great, liberating thing that's connected the world, but it boils down to nothing more than those awkward teenage years that most people couldn't wait to leave behind. Letter tithe Editor Introduction I have made it my goal to run stories that evoke a response from people. I guess it hasn't been going very well since most people don't respond. I have an e-mail address and a Twitter account and I am open to being contacted by students who want to vent their frustrations or congratulations about a piece that I or another member of the staff has written. Have some corrections? Those are just as welcome. I love it when someone proves me wrong, it inspires me to work harder next time, and to do better in the future. I have received one e-mail from a reader about my Faux News story, and a correction on my Campus of Fear story, which I have published below. Feel free to contact me about any of my future stories. I always appreciate it. Cameron Simek Opinions Editor @Skabomb What people fail to realize with news sources like Fox News, and MSNBC, is that they are not really news networks, and the people working there are not necessarily journalist. These networks would be more appropriately termed news commentary or news entertainment, sense they rarely report on stories that they have put together, but merely comment or re-brand stories that other journalist have put together from other news organizations. There is plenty of quality balanced news out there for consumers (ABC world news, CNN, NPR, PRI, PBS, BBC, USA Today, The New York Times, ECT.). People watch news commentary because they like to be reaffirmed of their convictions by listening to people that they already agree with. It is much harder for people to listen to a news source that may at times presents a story or a piece of information that is contrary to their belief. The problem is not that people are being fed bad news, but rather the problem is that people are often too weak to challenge their beliefs. lig -Trevor Marshall Haglund !_=i'litahMarshall Feb 25 @Skabomb the #Browning #M1911 was designed for the 45 ACP, not #9mm. #uvureview #UVU pic.twitter c om/S3MOyS0vGi< |