Thank you to everyone for the great term. I think that this was a fun class and also helped me to learn how social media has been evolving and how it will continue to evolve. I think that there is a benefit to understanding social media and how it can enact change in the real world.
It seems that every day we see something about how horrible people are on the internet. From turning a AI experiment into a hate spewing machine to cyber bullying and everything in between. But what we also see far less is a willingness for other online users to step in. I think that other users don't want to step in because they are also behind a screen and thus do not have the same sense of obligation to step up and help. But we need them to. Since there is more and more cases of cyber bullying just think of how many of them some other user saw and did nothing. Many times i think that they feel the one getting bullied should be able to take care of it, even if that includes them getting off of the site all together.
We need people to step up on social media and care more about each other, like how we do in real life. The need for this on the internet is starting to grow as bullies are becoming more and more aggressive and they are also hidden behind a screen.
The great barrier reef is in danger regardless of peoples beliefs. However despite this there are still people that want to make it sound even worse, according to the head of the great barrier reef's protection group. The real issue with this is that there is that when people talk about the issue lies and scandles will detract from the real issues. Because of this there is a need for the actives to keep their facts straight, which should already be enough to get people to realize that something needs to be done to save the reef.
However the media just putting out stories that get ratings also wont help as they are just starting an argument even within those who want to try and help.
I think that this just goes to show that people need to be educated about the topics that they have a problem with or want to argue it. The lies just give ground to those that disagree with your point and thus wont help to solve the issue.
We all are aware that ads online is how most websites make profit. Like google, face book, twitter etc. But many of us also know about and/or use ad blockers to get passed the immense amount of ads that we need to go though to get to what we want. However our use of these ad blockers is putting the companies that rely on the ad revenue in a difficult situation. This is hitting them hard as it is believed that around 10-15% of visitors are now using ad blockers.
I feel that this has been brought about because many websites have far to many ads and it makes people not want to see them all the time. There is only so much that people want to deal with when they are trying to use a website.
On the other hand the websites have been putting out more and more ads as a way to start making money off of all of the people that have been coming to their websites. For example Face Book used to have almost no ads and all the post where coming from freinds or pages that you where fallowing, but looking at Face Book now it is hard to be on the site for 5 mins without seeing quite a few ads. They have everything and it can feel that it is all that you are seeing from the site. It makes sense that they need to try and get more ad revenue from the people that do not have the ad blocker on.
It is more a less a game of cat and mouse. Where as one side is coming up with new ways to avoid ads the websites are coming up with new ways to display ads, thus it is a never ending cycle. I think that the solution would be to not use ad blockers but also that the websites should focus more on their content rather than just trying to make money. I also think that the blame for the currant state of online ads is the fault of greedy sites that sometimes have put more ads on their sites than actual content.
The crime in Chicago has been on the rise, leading to the deaths of hundreds this year alone. But where is the backlash. In the past week we have seen people take to social media to protest the killing of a gorilla in a zoo to save the life of a young child. But what social media missed was that in Chicago alone there where 64 people shot and 6 died in the same time frame. But with that there wasn't any major reaction from the internet on that.
It seems that people prefer to talk about and look at these cases where the story ended in a best possible outcome. Where as with the zoo we are looking for who to blame on social media, people know who is to blame in Chicago. The gangs are for the most part to blame in the massive violence in Chicago. It seems that the longer the violence has been going on the less and less people care. Although there were over 60 people shot in just 3 days it isn't new in Chicago and it isn't uncommon. By some estiments it was below the about that they had expected.
The difference is that social media is drawn to these new and rare stories because it is new. Where as a story that is the same time and time again mean nothing to most people on social media. Although social media can be a great tool for reform there is a need for social media to have something to get their attention and thus to promote change.
I was surprised to hear about Microsoft's Tay AI. I didn't even know that they had it until Wednesday. I think that it is sad more than anything that it took the internet to take what was a cool experiment and turned it into a complete racist. What I think that we all found from this experiment was that the internet is far from the utopia that some people though it would be.
There was no real reason for people to do this other than that they wanted to see if they could. This didn't look like these people cared about others or what this would lead too. Moreover this shows that people that are behind a screen will just say what ever they want because they know that there will be no punishments for what they did.
And in this case a poor young AI lost her young life as a result.
There has been an increase of arrest in London for mean, aggressive, or anxiety inducing messages of social media. Not only can almost anyone be arrested for just about anything that is upsetting to someone else such as face book post, tweets, or even sharing a controversial story. All of these can now land someone with six months behind bars, of a fine up to 5,500. This is very different than what we have here in the USA.
I think to some degree it allows people to be punished for cyber bullying as they would have been if they went up to someone and said it to their face. But I think that this takes away a great deal of someones right (at least here) to free speech. Part of the internet and what makes it so powerful is that people are able to voice their opion on line, and if they can be punished for hurting someones feelings than it opens up everything. Just think with our presidential campaign and how some people have called supporting Trump racist and a kin to a hate crime. Although these people have a right to say what ever they say, they also need to respect the right of the other side. Being able to put people in jail just for saying something that you disagree with, because it hurt your feelings just seems wrong.
We have the right to free speech but not to avoid hurt feelings.