Are you addicted to social media?

There are a couple profound things you will notice when you step foot on a college campus. One being that we usual look dead tired and usually have a coffee in our hands and another thing you will notice is how many people are looking at their phones, either texting, scrolling instagram or facebook, and maybe even snapchatting. I mean other than the fact of the obvious possible dangers to staring at your phone will walking there are some other concerns. The question is are we addicted to social media? I feel like I might be. I have anxiety just thinking about not checking instagram in more than 14 hours I can't imagine how I would feel if I only checked it once a week. I would say this is true for the majority of social media users. I think the aspect that we are addicted to is the idea of being "plugged in" as social beings we have a natural want to be in the loop and know about our peers. I think the addiction is more about being plugged in and wanting to stay updated with what everyone is doing. Also some of us do it just for fun of course, or to kill time and that is very understandable, but I think for myself it is more about staying connected and within the group. Social media allows us to be social with hundreds, thousands of people without even leaving our bed, that's the beauty of social media!

So tell me, would you consider yourself addicted to social media? And if you are what part is so attractive to you, or what do you think you're addicted to? I'd love to know, comment down below!

Who are you online?

In response to Danah Boyd's book " It's Complicated " she mentions the culture online during the 1990's when many took to the Internet to find themselves or create a new persona. They went online to talk to new people and find a community and essentially be who they want to be. It was all fantasy and escape. Even though there are still plenty of online communities and fantasy play online when I think of social media I think of this "new persona" in a different way. If you ever get on twitter, instagram, pintrest, or tumblr you will see posts about "relationship goals" "bae goals" "instagram goals" or just "goals" posts. I'm even at fault in this situation I say these things all the time and yes I would love to have a so called  "Instagram goals" Instagram profile. When we post anything on social media we are posting for a couple different reasons. One being that we like how we look in this picture, two we want everyone to see what we are doing or what we are accomplishing, or three we wanna show someone off, whether that be your family, you boyfriend or girlfriend, or even show off that bomb donut you had for breakfast. We post because we wanna show off and make our lives seem better than they actually are. It's like when you take a picture and then post the picture on Facebook or Instagram and there is always that one girl that is like delete that picture or un tag me! Why does she care? God forbid someone saw her looking a little imperfect. We want our social media audience to be jealous and want what we have. Whether that be looks, or that new pair of shoes we got, or be jealous of the "perfect" relationships we have with our friends and family. It is not necessarily bad, we have all done it including myself. However there is a connection to the 1990's when we wanted to create new personas and escape the world, for the fantasy that now on the internet we want to make new personas but new personas of who we are. The "perfect" us.

Tell me what you think! Would agree most people post for these reasons? Let me know in the comments below!

What is really private?

There has recently been much debate over what is private on the Internet and what exactly we should be trying to keep private. I think about this a lot when it comes to social media. I keep most of my accounts on the private setting but does this really do very much to protect myself on the Internet? I took to Google ironically enough to test this out. I Google'd myself and found that you could find so many of my private accounts. There is my twitter, instagram, facebook, pintrest, almost every social media account I use! I remember when there was a time that I didn't have my Instagram private and my mentality was that " Well I'm not posting anything bad so I have nothing to hide" then my friend told me one day about how many young girls were being stalked and kidnapped or sold into sex slavery strictly on having their social media, specifically Instagram public. Dangerous people could potentially look at your tagged locations, your friends, your school, and find out where you hang out. That's when I decided that it wasn't about being cool and not hiding anything it was more about being more private, and potentially safer. Now let me clear that just because your accounts are private that means anything. There are potentially dangerous people out there and they have all sorts of ways to find you and take advantage of you. So next time you post on social media don't just think about the drunken pictures from last night that you don't want your employer to see but also think about your location, your friends, and putting out all of that personal information. You never know who is on the other end.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!!! Are your accounts private, and if they are why? If they aren't is there a reason I should make mine public again, I'm curious let me know!

Social Media Rights?

I use social media about as much or more than the typical 19 year old. I'm attached to my instagram, twitter, and facebook. I try and keep my accounts on either private or atleast monitor my accounts enough that an employer could see it and still want to hire me. I like to use the phrase don't post anything online that you wouldn't want your grandmother to see, that seems like a pretty solid rule to follow. I remember in high school I would question some of the things my peers would post online. It would either be nasty things about a fellow student peer or about a faculty member, and I remember thinking how bad that would be if the school ever saw those posts. Schools today are riding the fine line between whether they should be monitoring their student's accounts and if they are not monitoring them then what happens when school issues and online social media issues intermix? I'm not really sure what the right answer is. Being online should be free speech and expression and people should be able to voice their minds and opinions but at the same time there is nothing good that comes out of the things they say. This is specifically targeted at adolescents who have access to this technology and may not be making the right decisions on what to post. This is a good lesson, if you have seen or taken any online safety courses they always say be careful who you talk to and what you post. We do this because we wouldn't want future employers or say schools to see what we are posting. Author Lori Andrews is one advocate for creating an online social network constitution saying that future employers cannot hire based upon online presence, even countries like Germany are already highly considering this law. This law would seem quite controversial. The internet and social media are already so involved in our lives, and in the future it will be even more. I'm not sure that a law like that would work. Part of keeping things we post online PG is because we know employers will be looking so if we take away that power, will people be even worse online or will they simply not care? It is hard to tell. I personally don't think that it is that bad that people have to watch what they post online. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future and what individual countries will decide to implement or not!

I'd love know what you think about the issue! Should these laws be implemented?? Comment down below!

Who Runs the World? Google

Let me just start off by admitting that I am an avid "Googler". I use Google everyday, all the time, probably partially because I am too lazy to do otherwise. I use Google for questions I have on my homework, online shopping, and I also use Google's handy assets like Google Docs and Google Maps. To be honest I'm even young enough I don't really remember a time before Google and just thinking about a time before Google makes me really sad and feel anxiety about how people lived! The fact of the matter is Google is just another part of my body at this point, so the question is, Does Google have too much power over our lives? In short my response to that would be yes they do. However let me be clear that I am for the most part at ease with that fact. I'll speak on behalf of society and go ahead and say that we are in fact addicted to Google. Could you imagine what your day would be like if Google just stopped working for an entire day? People would be going insane! When something as global and consistently used as Google, it is natural that we would all become addicted so don't feel too bad about your current addiction. In 2016 and specifically the United States we are so fast paced and want everything right now, we don't wanna wait, we have other things to do. We want a search engine that will read our mind and tell us what we wanna know with 3 million hits in 32 seconds. Google gives us what we want in an extremely fast manner and that is why we like it so much.

Recently there have been many talks about whether Google is respecting our privacy rights or not. If you have any type of Google account, Google plus, Gmail, etc. you would know that Google syncs with everything and very quickly obtains as much information about you as your neighbor knows. Some are at ease with that and some are extremely concerned with the type and amount of information Google is learning about us. For example a couple months ago I bought some clothes from a website online, while I was doing my homework and a couple days later I noticed that on the right side bar of the article I was reading was one of the shirts that I had bought a couple days earlier. I just started noticing that type of activity recently. I assume that it should freak me out and while it doesn't exactly please me, I'd be lying if I said it doesn't really bother me. Now I do see where some would say that this is only the beginning of the access Google has in our lives. I would probably predict that Google will only start getting more and more personal. That is the number one aspect that people love about the Internet, is that it is customizable. Google has capitalized on customization and made it its number one priority.

The only thing I can say about the threat of Google is that our dependence is already on it. Like I said early could you imagine a day without Google? It is a scary thought! It will be interesting to see what will happen in the future. We may be losing some of our own independence to a search engine.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Will Google run our minds one day? What would life be like without Google? Do you remember a time before Google? Let me know in the comments below! :)

Bloggers blog about blogging

Hey everyone, it's Grace coming at you again with my second blog post ever! 

I will be responding to Tiffany B. Brown's interview about her own blogging experience. What first stood out to me about Tiffany was her passion and expression. She says multiple times throughout her interview that she blogs for fun and to either tell her readers about things that make her happy or make her upset. I feel like that's attractive in a blogger, you want to read about content from an author that is excited about that they are writing about.  I like how she is very relatable, she has a normal day time job and uses blogging as her hobby. She says she does make some nice extra spending money through advertisements, but she does acknowledge the fact that she doesn't think she will ever be a professional blogger, even though she would love that. Even though this is a hobby for Tiffany, she admits that her blog has helped her in her career, landing interviews and getting face time with recruiters. I think that is it really cool that even a hobby that seems as pointless and "low key" could be interesting to supervisors looking for employees. Tiffany likes to write several different topics including feminism, race issues, and wine. I like how she is relatable and passionate! 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your interactions! :) 

Best, 

Grace