Social Networking - The Solution - Continued

So like I ended my last post about making our weaknesses stronger, it is the same concept with how we should approach situations such as suicide and bullying. We need to recognize it faster and make others self-aware of this issue. You see, we try to ignore and forget about the little things that bother us and move on and we have spread that concept too far over time. An example would be if we are getting bullied, we are told as children to simply ignore these kinds of things, but are we told why? Why is it that ignoring something that can increase in magnitude depending on the person be simply ignored? These are questions that need to be talked about in classrooms.

As high schools become more and more lenient on the devices we are allowed to bring with us into the classroom, it allows students to be brought in more information faster than ordinary causing more possible problems. People tend to notice and point out problems quicker and faster nowadays, but are parents able to acknowledge the same things our kids are seeing in everyday school?

I know this also seems quite random but don’t worry, it all comes together just keep reading damnit! Schools have the most power over your child’s psychological life in my opinion. As a child, you have most of your social interactions with others in school such as school activities, classroom interactions, and sports. Now I am not saying we should have our parents checking up on us using Facebook all the time, but parents should definitely have a strong bond with their kids so that they do not feel alone, parents should become aware of what their kids are doing, who they are talking to, and what kind of activities they are participating in. I also believe everyone should have a psychologist. Personally, being able to vent to someone is always a good piece, but being able to vent to a professional about your problems and getting advice is even better, but some people are not that fortunate to have such help. It comes down to the parents to talking to their children and keeping their minds healthy. But overall, none of these solutions seem to be really needed. In fact, cyber bullying awareness is increasing just as fast as computer advances. I hope this information was helpful and interesting to read about. All I ask is that you keep the idea that social networking is a huge benefit to our society because it gives us a better look into someone else’s life, helps with security risks, and can help us get notified of others emotional problems, allowing us to take action upon all of these things is one less thing we have to worry about in society.

Social Networking - The Solution

Something I would like to have everyone to think about is how secure out government is. I know this is quite random but trust me it has some relevance to my topic. When we talk over the phone or even text someone through some sort of email, instant message, etc., the government will actually match up certain words to protect the country from any threats. For example, when you text or instant message a certain set of words all in one message, analyst in the government servers will actually track and sort out certain messages that could seem extremely dangerous to our country. Words such as Kill, President, Bomb, Gas, Leak, Explosion, Weapons, etc., the servers pull that information out of the message and do multiple things. First, they would probably check out recent history under your name such as addresses, checking accounts, passwords/emails, and past messages. Then they would put together what they would know and determine if you were a real threat or not. This is very true in our nation; the reason for doing so is to find terrorism with our best possible chance.

Now to make this connection, I would like you to think about words or phrases such as ‘I have no friends’, ‘no one likes me’, ‘this is depressing’, etc. These are possible candidates for thoughts in suicide, suffering from anxiety or depression, or even cyber bullying. But how exactly would we know? I mean, as a friend or acquaintance of a person with such problems, I would try to make some arrangement to talk to them about stuff like that. But for people without friends of this nature, for those who have people that do not quite notice the severity of this kind of problem, I would suggest the main point of my solution, analyzing messages and government tracking of some sort. This would help in so many instances that could help others around the world understand how serious a topic of some sort is. Now I understand there are people who come to schools to talk to people about cyber bullying and the affects it has. But it also comes down to parents keeping an eye on their children and if the parents themselves are being bullied, they need to seek help immediately; these practices such as therapy, venting, or seeking help should not be recognized as showing our weak side, if we teach people to only be strong, that is great but at the same time we need to explain to people that being strong is also about finding our weaknesses and working with them to make them stronger. This is where I will come in and mention the other part of my solution. But for now the main solution I would like you to take from this is that we need to recognize and identify signs of depression and anxiety sooner.

My source for the government tracking system is as follows:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-words-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.html 

Social Networking - Today - Continued

Society has switched over to using social gathering websites as their primary way of showing themselves to the world. This is a great thing that not many people have noticed if you ask me. The problem with these websites is that people do not look more in depth to what people say or bring up in their conversation. My point kind of runs off of a tragic accident that happened on October 10^th, 2012 where Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old Canadian girl who committed suicide after suffering torment that led to depression and anxiety.

With this story hitting the mainstream, everyone had their opinions and, well, all hell kind of broke lose. There were massive anti-bullying movements going on all around the world to show their support for Amanda and others who are being cyber bullied. Others however went the opposite direction and opposed what Amanda did claiming she did it to herself. Whatever the case may be something is definitely for sure.

Signs of depression, anxiety, and mental disorders and becoming more easily identifiable with the different methods we can approach a scenario. With social networking, it is even easier to point out signs of depression or anxiety even more. Though these social networking websites are not 100% “true material”, it is still a good concept that others should look more into. People are beginning to use social networking not only as a hobby or something they come home to check and update their status on. It is becoming a part of life where people cannot leave their homes without their new smartphones because of all the new social networking applications they can use on their phone or keep off Facebook at work or school. It is something where people can definitely blow steam at and is considered a comfort zone for some. One thing that strikes me as the main problem is that we hear about all these suicides and acts of cyber bullying, yet it as not hit the mainstream to take action, more or less, use this as an advantage for helping those in need. All the data is there, all of it, people need to start noticing that these social networking media websites are huge advantages overall.

Social networking has taken over some people’s lives just like all of social media is corrupting the role models and themes we all loved and supported. It is looked downed upon to talk about your life on social networking sites and people believe it should be considered as if you are talking to the world in real life. But people have found that they can talk about who they truly are where ever they please on the internet. Though everyone seems to look down upon this there are massive advantages to this. People can spot out problems that a person might have based on evidence they could support themselves with on the status’s people post on their social networking accounts, it allows others to see how the real world thinks and opens up new thought processes for young people to become attuned with, and my most important point of this blog entry, it allows us to identify possible signs of depression and anxiety accurately.

My sources are as such:

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uis.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=12&sid=1bb5b2c3-d3cf-43e2-9bfe-648b19a16e63%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=73888444

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uis.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=1bb5b2c3-d3cf-43e2-9bfe-648b19a16e63%40sessionmgr4&vid=6&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=77970127

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uis.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=16&hid=12&sid=1bb5b2c3-d3cf-43e2-9bfe-648b19a16e63%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=82981835

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uis.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=1bb5b2c3-d3cf-43e2-9bfe-648b19a16e63%40sessionmgr4&vid=20&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=73500808

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/amanda-todd-bully-anonymous-suicide_n_1969792.html

Social Networking - Today

Society has greatly advanced in the time from which computers hit the mainstream and now. Today, computers are extremely fast, micro technologically advanced, and easy to use, allowing those who are foreign to computers to become more attuned with the concept. Computers can do more than we ever imagined. They allow us to communicate over the internet almost instantaneously with other viewers to discuss, debate, and dispute problems among the world. It also allows us to bring up information about a certain topic with no limitations. The internet allows us to open our minds to the cultures outside of our home lives.

The reason I state these common facts about computers is because of the many things they are capable of doing. But computer are more than just information tools, they allow us to experience something different. Something that people 30 years ago would not dare dream possible. The idea of limitless power all within such a small conversion of 0s and 1s is now something that is impossible to not see in everyday society.

The Importance of Computers

Computers today allow us to view any source of material we wish. This gives us a whole new perspective on what we see in everyday life. But not only does social networking allow us to communicate and discuss with fellow viewers, but even start relationships and find love with people you would have never met. These relationships can now be achieved through dating sites, and even more on websites such as Facebook or Twitter, two very popular social interactive sites that almost everyone has today.

 Job interviewers use it as a background check, a tool to help determine whether someone is simply putting on a fake persona for a job, or if the person the interviewer sees is really that person’s main identity.

Social networking has hit the mainstream and has made a huge impression on society all around. People base a lot of what someone is by the types of photos they upload onto Facebook, what they tweet about on twitter, and even chatting on MySpace. But I would like to bring up one specific topic that has not been truly addressed within the social media that could have some serious benefits.

Online Awareness

Over time, people have grown accustomed to writing whatever they wish to post out to the world. It has made some massive impressions, started arguments, and destroyed friendships. It all seems silly to be so serious over a silly website on a computer, but more and more people are beginning to take things way over of the top and begun bringing more and more of their personal life into the mix to share with the world. 

Social Networking - Benefits - How It Blew Up

You never heard too much about social networking in the 80s because it had not truly hit the mainstream, this is of course talking about the people who had access to the internet. It was a very underground thing at the time where only a few legitimate BBSs existed, but most of them had private software rooms in the back for hackers to get a hold of. “Many were strictly underground – dedicated exclusively to niches like warez (pirated software), H/P (explicit hacking and phreaking information discussion), Anarchy (articles on fraud, bomb making, drug chemistry), and Virus code for download” (Borders). Now though these things seemed quite illegal at the time and somewhat evil to only broadcast such things across the web it did have its ups by providing more frameworks for what was to come later on in the history of web design. Since these were people very fluent in “computer talk”, they were able to accomplish a great number of new software applications to better help their goals. 

The 90s

Though the internet had existed since the late 1960s, it only had done so as a network, but the World Wide Web available to the public on August 6th, 1991. At the start of 1990s, internet was only available to main computer users at the time such as the military and schools that had connections with the government. But in 1994 and 1995, businesses started popping up called ISPs or Internet Service Providers. This gave millions of home users the chance to enjoy unfiltered, unlimited online experiences. “Usenet was the first center for most of the high-end discussion – but early internet users were extremely outspoken and opinionated by today’s standards. The first online social media etiquette standards were proposed, and called netiquette, as a reactionary to stop the rampant flaming and keep things somewhat civilized” (Borders). 

Media Sharing

Media sharing started to hit the mainstream like everything else at the time had begun doing. In June of 1999, a program called Napster had gone live. This program allowed internet users to fileshare all of their information across the internet. 

This process marked the beginning of all the music downloading that we see today. This trend raged on through 1999 and 2000 where music was freely flowing all over the internet until it was declared “illegal” and Napster was forced to eliminate all copyrighted content from their application (Borders). Though Napster was ripped away from most of its data, competing applications, such as LimeWire, filled that spot in no time. Yet something else took over, not another program, but a new sense of technology that allows users to share information without being blocked called BitTorrent technology. Since then, a Swedish website called The Pirate Bay arrived and became the main “social” media distribution.

During this time frame, we can see that a lot of information became known to the public and everyone began having computers used a hell of a lot more frequently. The Social Networking aspect did not start becoming hugely popular until around 1997 where a website called SixDegrees allowed people to make profiles, connect with others, and use the same bulletin system as before but now all together. This gained huge amounts of momentum when the same application concept came out on different websites; Friendster in 2002, Myspace in 2004, and now Facebook in 2007.

Social Networking - Benefits

Today, a lot of people complain about how social networking is destructive to the mind and how it creates more drama than in real life. I, however, find social networking to be something that is of much need in today’s society. Though it may not seem as such with all the bad talk about social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter, social networking plays a huge role in our lives that we do not necessarily recognize. From a psychological point of view, you can see how helpful social networking is to those who are mentally troubled. Social websites are places that allow you to reach out and ask for help, comfort, or even just a smile. It allows people to open up a little bit more because we are not put under that mindset that we normally do in front of others in public terms. A better way to say this is that social networking sites act as our “third place” allowing us to sit down and open up to the world and express how we truly feel about certain situations. It allows us to exercise who we are outside of the real world which I believe is truly who we are in general. The way I see it, when people act polite and formal in public, it does not show who they really are. I believe the websites help in this case because even though you express yourself to those close to you, it gives you a sense of comfort knowing you do not have to be in front of some of the people reading your text.

The main reason I believe social networking is an important instrument for those who are mentally troubled is simple. People with emotional problems are hard to pick out of a crowd, chances are they hide it from society because they think it makes them look bad or that they do not wish to act as if they need help. What makes social networking good is that you can pick out these people by how they talk about things on social websites. Since people feel more comfortable on these websites talking about their life, they tend to open up much easier and tell a more detailed story about themselves which is a way of sending messages to others that you need help.

Where did it all begin?

It was first conceived in 1979 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis who called it a Usenet. “Usenets have no centralized server or dedicated administrator, setting them apart from most BBSs and forums” (Chapman). BBSs “Bulletin Board System” was developed in 1979 by Ward Christensen and were small servers powered by personal computers that had been attached to a telephone modem (Borders). These BBSs held discussions, community conferences, and played games. So the social networking has been around for 30 years and we are now starting to use all of this stuff as not only more frequently, but rather a part of our lives today, why is that?

My name is David Bova and welcome to my blog!