I believe that I am one of the many people that feels they grew up alongside technology. All photos of me from birth to age five are developed and stored in a bin, and all videos are on tapes from our oldest video camera. Then after age five all photos and videos simply became virtual. To me this is very scary. All the photos that are developed are easy to find, but can get damaged easily and may never be found again. On the other hand, all photos that are virtual may get lost easier and can be disappear with one click of a button. When I was growing up my family had a landline until I was nine or ten and then we all got our own mobile phones and had no use for the landline. I believe there are many diverse pros and cons about technology and how far it has come.
In ‘An anthropological introduction to Youtube‘ Michael Wesch sheds light on ideas surrounding the ways technology is influencing human relationships, he states that as media changes, so do human relationships. Social media constantly produces important and thoughtful messages, but also many dark, frightening and unrealistic ones as well. Michael Wesch says that the more technology develops, the more we as humans have to rethink ourselves and how we may be being affected by these unrealistic conditions. Wesch explains how his video, ‘Web 2.0 The machine is Us/ing us‘ went viral above all videos from the Super Bowl, the internet allows anyone to become famous, and even more in todays world with TikTok.
This article, by Tara Scirrotto Drames explains the results of a study focusing on the impact of internet social networking on a young women’s mood and body image. The study included fifty women of different sizes in each assigned to a group of (very attractive-thin, very attractive-not thin, average attrative-thin, average attractive-not thin). The women were shown pictures from a social media site and the results showed that “participants exposed to very attractive-thin images had changes in the negative direction in mood and body image state satisfaction” (Scirrotto Drames, Tara. “The Impact of Internet Social Networking on Young Women’s Mood and Body Image Satisfaction: An Experimental Design” (2016). While on the other hand, “participants in the nonthin conditions had changes in the positive direction on these same variables” (Scirrotto Drames, Tara. (2016). I believe that this is a real thing, and a very unfortunate thing about social media for young woman.
Overall I believe that social media has many positive effects, but also many negative ones. The internet holds so many different resources at the click of a button, for anyone, anywhere, which is great, but sometimes it seems that the cons outweigh the pros. For example, we wouldn’t be able to still attend class during a global pandemic without technology, but less women would have body image and self-esteem issues, and cyberbullying would not be a thing without technology. So I wonder where is the fine line between helpful and hurtful? And how far will technology really take us?
One Comment
Rosalie Krengnektak
Hello Paige, I found your post interesting as you mentioned how technology has changed through your experience. I may not be that old (giggle) but your post got me thinking of when I was about my daughters age when I used to listened to my music through my Walkman and then upgraded to a MP3 player, I was so excited to own a MP3 player. The article you chose suited your post about how technology can really change and influence how people see themselves, other cultures and the world. I do agree with you that technology can have it pros and cons when it comes to education, I think we as future educators we are to find that balance between the both and thinking bout bringing awareness of what works for our students.