The Dangers that New Media Users Face

                There are many dangers to new media users that can cause depression, unsafe situations and even suicide. One of these dangers is sexting. Sexting is sending provocative pictures to another person through text messages or one of the most popular ways, Snapchat. With today’s technology and the newest apps coming out for smartphones, sexting has become incredibly easy, but what teenagers and even children don’t understand is that sexting can cause a very dangerous situation for them. According to Today.com, a girl named Jessica Logan committed suicide because of an incident of sending nude pictures to her boyfriend over the time. When they broke up, he ended up sending them to different high school girls that they went to school with. The girls that he sent these pictures to made Jessica’s life literally a living hell by calling her a slut and harassing her. She literally felt like she was being tortured. While all of this was happening in school, the officials did absolutely nothing to help her or to inform her mother of what was going on during school hours to her daughter. There was one day when Jessica felt like she couldn’t handle this anymore and she hung herself in her bedroom, where her mother found her hanging in her closet and her cell phone in the middle of the floor. I think that the issue of sexting will never disappear or go away, but there are ways to help prevent this and to protect your children from this. When you are a parent and your child is a teenager there are ways to stay aware of the new ways that high school students communicate with each other and are able to send different forms of media to each other. Just by looking up different articles and summaries of what is going on within the world and by keeping your children aware of the dangers that come along with sexting can help make them safer and to help make the world a safer place regarding sexting.

 

Celizic, Mike. “Her Teen Committed Suicide over ‘Sexting’.” TODAY.com. NBC News, 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.  

Podcasting is Awesome!!!

            Podcasting is a “smaller potato” that I believe should be used more often than not. Podcasting is basically files that are normally audio or video that are created within a series that people can follow or subscribe to, according to Brian Bertucci. There are many positive aspects that come along with podcasting that most people in today’s society don’t know about or just haven’t taken the time to try it out. Some of these positive aspects involve being more personal with the audience, it is very convenient, it is cheaper, and lastly, it is portable. All of these factors make podcasting a great option for almost anyone with all of our busy day to day schedules.

            Podcasting is great for people that want to be feel more included into what the podcaster is speaking about or showing. The reason it is more personal is because “the content is communicated directly to you,” according to Learning Times. Rather than receiving an email, which has no emotion, just words, you could listen to an hour long talk of a subject of your interest and really get involved in a series that fits your interest.

            This is a very convenient way to keep up with different things that you want to learn about or are just interesting to you. It is possible to have podcasts on your phone, on your computer, and even in newer cars that allow you to play things through your phone. This shows how convenient podcasts are because you can listen to podcasts while you’re at work or working out by plugging earphones into your phone. While you’re at home on your laptop you could just plug in your earphones and listen to different podcasts that you have on iTunes or online. Lastly, you can actually listen to podcasts on your way and on your way home from work. Basically if you wanted to you could listen to podcasts all day long because of how convenient it is to work into your schedule.

            Podcasts are super cheap because everything being sent is being sent digitally, which according to Learning Times means that you are cutting the costs from “postage, printing, and paper.” There is no cost to send letters in the mail talking about certain subjects, there is no need to buy books and the great thing is that when you buy a podcast, which is usually cheap to begin with, you never give it back. Instead of holding meetings at work which can be somewhat costly you could set up a podcast and send it to everyone that needs to hear about it and to update a podcast is time efficient and easy.

            Lastly, podcasts are portable and aren’t hard to carry around. It not like you have to drag around an elephant just to listen to a podcast. You can download it right onto your phone or computer and listen to it at any point in time. It’s literally right at your fingertips wherever you go. You don’t even need Wi-Fi if you have it downloaded onto your phone or computer so you can easily access it and listen to it wherever you are at a certain time.

            Podcasts can be extremely useful because they are more personal with the targeted audience, it is convenient, they are super cheap and lastly, you can bring them wherever you go because they are completely portable. All of these positive impacts of podcasts can help people of all different professions and even races to learn about things that they are interested in and are excited to learn about or discuss with other people.

           

Works Cited

"At A Glance: 7 Benefits of Podcasting." Learning Times RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

Bertucci, Brian. "What Is Podcasting?" About.com Podcasting. About.com, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

Being Aware of the Dangers Online

There are many different things that people should be aware of when accessing the Internet and different forms of media. Some of these include cyber stalking, false identities, internet predators, countless websites that can be potentially dangerous, not all information posted is private, kids are in control when using the internet, colleges looking at social media pages, bullying, jobs basing people’s social media sites on their character, and lastly, sexting. All of these topics listed can be hazardous to children and teenagers and all parents and guardians should be aware of this. 

Cyber stalking is definitely an issue in new media that any user of the Internet should be aware of. The difference between cyber stalking and cyberbullying is that with cyber stalking the stalker has an obsession with a specific target, according to Paul Gil. They basically are willing to involve the targets family members in order to control the target in some way. An example of this is when a man stalked his ex-girlfriend by planting a cell phone underneath her car and was able to track her by the GPS tracking device, according to Alexis Moore. The victim called the police and told them that he would randomly “bump” into her at random locations, but they couldn’t do anything because they had no proof of stalking until one day when she caught him underneath her car changing the battery in the phone.

On the Internet there are billions of people to talk to and within those are your friends also, but are all of them really your friends? You can’t see what’s on the other side of the computer so a dangerous person could pose as someone else and you would never know it. According to the Child Development Institute, “For example, if your child is using social networking websites online, they have to enter in their age.  They could easily lie themselves or they could be talking to someone else who is.” An example of when this has actually happened according to ABC News is “Avalos, a mother and part-time model, claims that her pictures have been used in hundreds of fake profiles on Match.com without her consent.” This could happen to anyone. If you have a Facebook or any other type of social media and there are pictures of you on there, then go on Google Images and type in your name and your picture will most likely pop up. I know mine does.

            Another problem on the Internet that people need to be completely aware of is Internet predators. According to the Child Development Institute, the internet predators that target children are the ones that usually change their age or gender on websites in order to make children think that they really are their friends. There usually is no way to tell that this person is a predator until they eventually come to approach your child. According to James B. Kelleher of the Chicago Tribune, a 63 year old Roman Catholic priest was arrested because he had possession on child pornography. He may not have had a fake profile, but he was still preying on young children in pictures that were engaging in sexual activities with older men. This goes to show that you never know who is out there preying on children, especially when a priest pleaded guilty to doing so.

            On the Internet, there are billions of websites and this can be very positive for school, but among those billions of websites are also dangerous sites that children and teenagers shouldn’t have access to. According to the Child Development Institute, some of these websites include “social networking websites, adult chat rooms, pornographic websites, and websites that are violent in nature.” Social networking sites are not completely bad, but there are certain aspects of them that could be dangerous for children and teens, such as child predators mentioned in the previous paragraph. All of these websites are able to be blocked by certain firewalls, but many teens know their way around these. This is why it is important for adults and parents to know how to use the Internet just as well as their children these days.

            On the Internet, not all information is private anymore. According to the Child Development Institute, the biggest problem with people not having privacy is because they create their profiles on social media to be public instead of private. When someone does this it automatically allows people they don’t know to view conversations, potentially finding out where they are and even finding out where they live. Also, according to the New York Times, people will not just give a stranger information about themselves, but they will go on the Internet and give it out to websites. For example, if you are buying something online, you have to put in many different pieces of information about yourself and people can easily access this if they put in some effort and just “simply” hack into a website. This is how identities are taken from people because just by putting in a credit card number, a whole world of possibilities is available to anyone that gets ahold of that type of information.

            When children and teenagers are online, they are in control of what they are doing, according to the Child Development Institute. Their parents don’t always dictate what they are allowed to do even if they put up firewalls. There are always different websites that allow a person to get around those firewalls and access any type of website. Teenagers especially know how to do this. In high school my friends and I used to do this in the library at school because certain websites were blocked that we wanted to go on. These websites that get through firewalls give you access to any kind of sites including pornographic sites and inappropriate chat rooms. This can be a huge issue and get children and teens into trouble.

            A huge mistake that many kids in high school make is posting different pictures and posts on their social media sites of drinking and drugs. The mistake here is that colleges look at this to see if you will be successful within the classes that you take. According to Time, “a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of 350 admissions officers, more than 25 percent of school officials said they had looked up applicants on Facebook or Google.” This can affect students negatively especially if they were associated with the wrong crowd or just committed activities that colleges do not approve of. Everything you post online can come back into play in your life no matter when it occurred, especially when dealing with colleges.

            Cyberbullying is a huge issue that occurs online that all Internet users should be aware of. Cyberbullying, according to stopbullying.gov, “is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites.” This is a huge issue because kids can say things anonymously and the person they are targeting might not know how to handle it so they don’t tell anyone and just deal with the criticism. This is particularly easy for the bully to do because they don’t see the reaction or have face-to-face contact with the victim so it is easier to feel no remorse. This is something that all children and parents should be aware of to help prevent it.

            To go along with schools looking at social media, a huge factor in getting jobs today is that employers looking for future employees look at social media websites to find the right candidates. According to Forbes, “A third (34%) of employers who scan social media profiles said they have found content that has caused them not to hire the candidate.” This is kind of scary when you think about it because you could miss out on an opportunity that will never come around again, just because of one thing you post that they may not find professional. This is going to make it incredibly hard for the next generation to find decent jobs if employers keep using this as a way to find potential employees.

             Lastly, sexting is a huge epidemic in a way that parents should be completely aware of because according to Forbes, “A study by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reveals that 88% of self-made sexual or suggestive images and videos posted by young people, often on social networking sites, are taken from their original online location and uploaded on to other websites.” This is a huge problem because teenagers may think they are just sending their “nude” picture to their boyfriend or girlfriend, but really, they are sending this to the whole world.

            All of these issues need to be addressed by parents to their children and all parents should be aware that these topics happen every day to millions of people. Most of these things will never go away and will continue to haunt people for the rest of their lives. In today’s world, these activities and facts will continue to get worse as technology increases at an even more rapid rate than it has been in the last two decades. All parents should be aware and make their children aware of the dangers of the internet.

Works Cited

Gil, Paul. "Cyber stalking: What Is Cyber stalking? How Should I Deal with Cyber stalkers?" About.com Internet for Beginners. N.p., Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

"Internet Safety for Children & Teens – What Parents Should Know." Child Development Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Kelleher, James B. "Pennsylvania Priest Gets 8 Years behind Bars for Child Porn." Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 02 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Lohr, Steve. "How Privacy Can Vanish Online, a Bit at a Time." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Luckerson, Victor. "Time.com." US When Colleges Look Up Applicants on Facebook The Unspoken New Admissions Test Comments. Time, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Mohney, Gillian. "Model's $1.5 Billion Suit Against Match.com Claims Fake Profiles." ABC News. ABC News Network, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

Moore, Alexis A. "Women’s Press » Blog Archive » When Stalking Goes Online- Examples of Cyber stalking." Women’s Press » Blog Archive » When Stalking Goes Online- Examples of Cyber stalking. N.p., 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

Smith, Jacquelyn. "How Social Media Can Help (Or Hurt) You In Your Job Search." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Apr. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

"What Is Cyberbullying." Home. Stopbullying.gov, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Worstall, Tim. "The Perils Of Sexting And Parasite Websites." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Positive and Negative Effects that Facebook has had on Society

There are several positive and negative effects that Facebook has had on our society today. Two positive effects of Facebook are communicating with family and friends that live in a completely different area from you and being able to share anything on your mind without seeing people’s reactions to it. Two negative effects of Facebook on society are cyberbullying, which is bullying over the Internet, and distraction amongst teens and even adults. Facebook has had a huge impact on almost everyone in the world, but is it really a good thing or bad thing?

            The first positive effect of Facebook on society is being able to communicate with family and friends even if they are on the other side of the world. According to Jhon Lam, Facebook is a great way for troops overseas to stay in communication with their families. This is definitely a positive effect because imagine being a wife to a soldier and not knowing if they are okay or not. Well, if they can communicate in some sort of way then it will make both sides feel safer. Also, communicating with family or friends that live in a different part of the country or a completely different country. For example, four years ago I went on a trip to Europe and I had a homestay while I was there which means that I stayed with a family for a week while I was in Switzerland. Today, I still talk to them because they are on my Facebook and we catch up with each other almost weekly. This is a huge positive effect especially on people involved in the armed forces.

            The second positive effect of Facebook on society is expressing any kinds of feelings that you have. On Facebook, you don’t see people’s reactions to anything that you post so this makes it easier to post pretty much anything. According to Nick Barricella, “venting” is easier on Facebook. He explains that posting anything from song lyrics to an outfit that you think looks super cute on you is easier to post on Facebook than to say or wear in public because you don’t actually experience the reactions that people will have to your actions. Nick says, “It is a lot harder to feel embarrassment over the internet than in person…” I believe this is true because sometimes I find myself doing this. I feel prettier on my Facebook than I actually do in person and it is easier to express having a bad day on Facebook than it is to everyone around you.

            The first negative effect, cyberbullying, is one of the worst effects Facebook has had. This form of bullying, according to Scott Meech, is one of the worst types of bullying there is for a couple reasons. One of the reasons is because there is no face-to-face interaction, so the bully has lots of control because he/ she can say whatever they please and not worry about being caught or feeling any remorse for the person they are bullying. Also, the bully could literally be anyone. It could be the smallest little, shy kid in school, but no one would really know who it is because they can’t even see who it is, especially if they bully anonymously. Different forms of cyberbullying on Facebook can be posting inappropriate photos that some people would not like posted, especially if it has to do with them, fake profiles being created to hate on certain people, and messages being sent deliberately to hurt someone else. In the past, this has caused suicide among several middle and high schoolers. On Facebook, messages and pictures can be spread that can really hurt other people and the consequences for doing this can be very risky.

            The second negative effect is distraction. This I can admit that I am guilty of because I will be on my phone for hours and realize I didn’t even start my paper that is due in 2 hours. This can be very problematic, especially if you’re in class or at work or even just trying to get your homework done. Sometimes when people are in the middle of doing something they think they will just go on Facebook for a few minutes and take a break from the work they are doing, but it doesn’t always end up like that. In most cases, thirty minutes turns into three hours and you wonder where all the time went so fast. According to Nick Barricella, there is a group called “Facebook Detox” that is trying to lower the extreme use of Facebook by people. Their website is a way to show people how they can live a life Facebook-free.

            All of these effects have helped shaped the way that society conducts on a day to day basis today. There are several positive effects anywhere from communicating with people you are close to and being able to express your true feelings without being judged. Although there are also negative effects such as cyberbullying and distraction. I think as long as you use this social media site the correct way, then it can be a major positive in everyone’s lives today.

           

Barricella, Nick. "The Positive and Negative Effects of Facebook." HubPages. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Lam, Jhon S. "Positive and Negative Effects of Facebook on Our Society." Positive and Negative Effects of Facebook on Our Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.

Meech, Scott. "Cyber Bullying: Worse Than Traditional Bullying." Classroom Technology News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.

Advantages and Disadvantages to Having the Internet

                There are many advantages and disadvantages by using the Internet on a day to day basis, especially concerning the younger population. Some advantages include unlimited sources of information, communication with any person anywhere in the world, and the ability to research at home rather than going to a school or a library. There are many different advantages, but these three are very important because of the endless possibilities that lay within them. There are also many disadvantages to using the Internet. Some of these include predators feeding on young people, false information, and people becoming somewhat “stupid” in a sense. These advantages and disadvantages are what help and hurt people within society every day.

                There are and unlimited amount of sources for and unlimited amount of information on the Internet. You can think of any topic, type it into Google and find countless websites that will talk about every different aspect or perspective of that specific topic. For example, I have recently been researching ways to make my hair grow faster because I really want to grow my hair out again, so all I did was type it into Google and hundreds of different websites popped up and some of the ways listed actually work. One of the ways listed was to use horse shampoo, which sounds really weird and kind of awkward to actually try, but my hair has grown two inches the first month I started trying it out. There are even apps that people can download on their phones that are stocked full of different information. The app “All Women’s Talk” has information that can help women on a day to day basis all the way from weight loss to keeping your house clean.

                In today’s society, you can just hop on Facebook and talk to any person that lives anywhere in the world. For example, I went on a trip to Switzerland and I stayed with a family there as a homestay and I talk to them all the time when I’m on Facebook. It is very convenient to keep in contact with people you know all over the world. You could have a friend going on a trip around the world and still keep in some form of contact whether it be through texting or some kind of social networking site.

                Back in the day when the Internet was still being created, you could only use the Internet in the library or at school. Now we have Wi-Fi so we can purchase a laptop, a desktop or just connect through our smartphones. This is a huge convenience for many people especially college students and even teachers. I have no idea what I would do if I couldn’t access the Internet from my house especially when I have online homework due every week. Even for my mom, she uses the computer at my house every day to put together work for her students because she is a middle school teacher.

                These were all very important advantages to having the Internet, but there are also some disadvantages. According to Forbes magazine, a lady dated a guy that she had met on Match.com for about a week, but she broke it off because of unsaid reasons. A few months later, the man she met online showed up to her house and started stabbing her repeatedly. She later found out that this man she met online had previously murdered his ex-girlfriend. This is very eye opening because you never know who will be on the Internet especially if you’re talking to someone you don’t know.

                Some informational sites can provide false information. One of them is Wikipedia. Most of the information on this website is correct, but the website gives people the option of changing information and some people like to abuse this by putting false information to throw people off. I remember in high school, teachers wouldn’t accept sources from this website because they didn’t want us learning false information. There was even a presentation for the whole school about websites with false information and this one was on it.

                Ever since smartphones and the Internet came out people have become more “stupid” yet not more stupid at the same time. This is a disadvantage to the Internet because instead of actually reading textbooks or encyclopedias to learn about different topics, people just go on Google. This isn’t necessarily bad, but people think they don’t need to remember it because they can just look it up using the Internet again. The days of learning and remembering information to make yourself seem more intelligent are gone because of this.

                These are all advantages and disadvantages to having the Internet. In today’s world, the Internet is used every day in order to talk to different people all around the world and even meet new people that you could possibly date, although this can be very dangerous. The Internet is very useful especially when you’re stuck at home and need to look something up. Today’s society has become dependent on this and one day we will possibly never have to look at another book again.

I am looking forward to taking this New Media and Society class because the information presented within the course seems very interesting and relevant to my life seeing as I am still very young. I love looking at statistics on how much society has shifted from not having electronics to not being able to live without them on any given day. I know for a fact I use my phone everyday to go on Facebook, play games, talk to my friends and family, and just make time pass, but when you think about it there are so many other things we could be doing with our time. That's why I am looking forward to this class because instead of being a statistic I want to actually do what I used to do as a kid. For example, when I was around the age five and older my parents would tell me to go play inside and I couldn't come back inside until lunch and after eating I had to go right back outside and play. There were no cell phones or Internet and I was very active. I think this class has the potential to help people with their day to day lives by making them realize how much technology has transformed our lives.