It can be hard to express feelings into words, sometimes a photo, meme, or gif tells it a lot better. It’s hard to translate sarcasm in texts/tweets/statuses etc. or any emotion in general sometimes. Which is why emojis can come in handy in texting and gifs on Twitter. And just like a profile picture can show a person’s vision of their identity, I believe that the memes and moving images they share is also showing a glimpse of a person’s identity, even if that identity is very temporary such as an emotion. Profile pictures change too when a person feels like their identity changed as they’re always trying to portray the most accurate version of their selves like we learned earlier. Profile pics are a little more for the physical identity while memes/gifs show more of a glimpse of the internal identity without writing a whole biography about themselves or writing statuses like a diary entry each time. Gifs can show a current emotion without putting out the details of personal experiences, and most people understand that when a person captions #Same or #Me that they aren’t “literally” the gif/meme but are really feeling the emotion that the image gives off.

#Me the closer it gets to finals

After watching this documentary in class, some classmates felt slightly offended by how naive and gullible this film made users of social media sound; especially younger users that are in love with selfies, likes, and pop culture. The documentary seemed to show businesses using media as a dark manipulating scheme that lures the general public into buying their products without them being none the wiser, which is kind of a stretch to say the least. I think “Hunger Games” girl understands that she is promoting the films for free and doesn’t mind doing so as she is in love with the series. This is a practice that dates well before social media, as it isn’t much different from someone in the 80’s buying a tshirt of their favorite band – which is also free advertising for the group. There’s no question that businesses are benefiting from this newer form of socializing, but it doesn’t necessarily make them bad businesses for taking advantage of this new way of marketing. “Hunger Games” girl is benefiting just as much as they are as she is able to show her loving devotion to the series through the bonuses she earns from sharing. People have always liked to show their hobbies as it helps other people to understand them better, so users of social media don’t mind sharing a movie or band’s promos just like they didn’t mind buying music to share with their friends. Social Media seems to be benefiting everyone in this scenario, which is hardly a problem. To be fair, social media can be misused and can also be hard for people to understand who haven’t gotten fully on board with social media yet; this may have been the case with the creator of this documentary. That fear of the unknown with technology is a lot like what we have discussed in class earlier in the year and is a normal reaction to something new.

 

Documentary: Generation Like

Ever think you know a person until you add them on Facebook (or vice versa)? Consider your relationship with that person. In person, people behave the way they want to be perceived by you, while online they show a side of them that is meant for their “target audience”. I’ve noticed that the peers I graduated high school with tend to share more pictures and statuses on Facebook about exciting events in their lives, such as a trip they took or a school they got accepted to; while on Twitter these same people tweet a lot of complaints and rants and use more explicit language even on happy/humorous posts. I feel like the audience on Facebook is a broad range of acquaintances so the posts people make on there are more generic, as in posts that most people will relate to and enjoy seeing. I also feel like older people use Facebook the most so people my age tend to post “safe” things as to not upset any of their older relatives or acquaintances. Continue reading →

Last week in New Media class we watched the film “War Games”, a film about a high school student who accidentally breaks into a military computer that is over the strategies of nuclear weapons, which he mistook as a new computer game. I believe the overall purpose of the movie was to show just how much power people have with technology and that technology cannot be relied on by itself. Some believe that technology is in the process of “taking over” and will eventually take over humanity. But this movie shows that that is impossible because the computers only understand what they are taught by humans and can’t do any thinking on its own. Technology can actually help humans. It can help us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But it can also be used for the wrong reasons and could turn a simple mistake into a disaster with whatever power its given. When using technology people should be aware of these possibilities and could watch this film to do so.

The definition of media in the dictionary is “the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, that reach or influence people widely.”

That being said, I consider the newest form of media to be one that isn’t mentioned in the definition above – “social media”

Social media is more than simply news stories posted to the Internet, it is an interactive news – that can be posted quicker and spread faster and written by anyone.

Gone are the days of waiting for the news to be thrown on your front porch every morning; now the news is on your nightstand or in your pocket and is delivered as it is happening.

The news that is shared so quickly isn’t strictly limited to politics or celebrities either, now the news of a friend’s engagement or baby shower comes quicker than an invitation in the mail.

Even the Breaking News interruptions on television aren’t fast enough to beat an eyewitness who shared a live video of the latest eye catching story.

Social media is honestly a league of its own and it won’t nessesscarly ever be beaten, but will be the foundation of the bigger things to come for media.