Blog posting #12 Due FRIDAY 5/4, 11:59 P.M. (NO COMMENT required for this one--but welcome to offer some): Final reflection/discussion

This last post is really open...and meant as a kind of final reflection/discussion. We'd like you to do the following:

  1) Choose one thing from this class (a text, an issue, an image, a concept, an object, a theme, a case study, etc.) that you are taking away with you from this class — something that still excites you, or bothers you, or intrigues you. Ideally, something that has changed, even in some small way, the way that you see and act in the world. Maybe go back and look at some early blogs, or review the Keywords. If all else fails, use a Poster Presentation.Examples? All our issues around WHY we should bother (or not) with critical studies of science — and how to do it right (or wrong). What's it help us to know about Earl Butz' shifts in agricultural support? Or that 'GMO free' is largely a marketing tool? Or that money, more than anything, determined some drug development? Or that regulations can be monetized? Or that we've forgotten about how many scientists really believed in spontaneous generation? 

2)  Describe it, briefly: what it is, and why it excites/bothers/intrigues you.

March for Science in Washington, DC

3) Reflect on what about it you are taking away from this class, and how it has (in whatever way) altered your thoughts about and actions in the world. If possible / appropriate, make reference to how the issue played out in class discussion, in the context of other topics / issues / themes / texts / concepts / cases we have been dealing with. And put some people in, if you can! Think about our colleagues--who said what, who takes a particular kind of position, who gave you a different view of things, and see if you can get their voices and presence into what you bring us. You know: Ashley's kids loving the bot-generated vids, or those 'paleo' cookies with turquoise sugar on them (eat your hearts out cavemen), or Svetlana telling us that American food is just too sweet for Chechnyans (so are we all 'sugar addicts'?). Or the nurses loving the fad diets.







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"Let me type you in"

Penciling people in for a future meet up is not uncommon. However now days with platforms like Apple calendar or Google calendar, everything can be consolidate into one, easy-to-read place. As with everything, there are benefits and drawbacks to all improvements. Despite certain claims of the internet and technology being all mostly bad, I would have to disagree for certain organizational aspects of people's lives. One could claim that online scheduling has allowed younger generations to become more "flaky",  this could be due to the fact that they can link social events that their friends post on Facebook and other outlets to their calendars. This, in turn, could give them the opportunity to weigh all of their options and choose the best one at the last minute. Yet, I would say having the wide variety of options right a one's finger tips makes it easy to see sources of overlap in a person's schedule and easier to decide to commit or not to an event ahead of time, if they so choose. Online calendar applications allow users to stay up-to-date and on schedule for their busy lives, along with other people's lives. There are many positives to utilizing this resource. Just to name a few, online calendars allow users to share their schedule with friends, families, and colleagues, access their calendar from anywhere on virtually any device, and set reminders for those who are forgetful or just simply have a very packed schedule. The biggest bonus is that almost all online calendar services are free, so why not use a resource if it is readily available?
While using an online calendar may curb potential innovative "in-the-moment" planning. It may be a problem with a person individually being unable to look beyond what is prioritized on their calendar.  However, having an application that allows users to more efficiently use their time and not over commit to events that they cannot partake in can help a person in many aspects of their lives: academically, professional, and socially. If anything, I would be so bold to say that actively using an online calendar, or honestly even an old-school pen and paper calendar, allows a person to more effectively, realistically, and efficiently designate their time. While the internet has provided us with a lot of negatives, there are plenty of platforms out their that aim to boost things in our everyday lives that technology is reasonably and consistently used for: an increase in performance and output.
If you are interested in starting your online scheduling experience, I would honestly recommend starting in college! I can easily say that looking back, I can tell the difference in how much use I make of my time now, and how much more relaxed I am due to the ability of being able to look ahead in my schedule and gauge my week.

Internet and education

Ever since the internet was discovered, it quickly consumed people’s life and changed the way we live and the world. While thinking about the internet or technology in general, a question came up to me: how did people back then wrote scholarly papers while having to cite valid and reliable sources? We can probably assume that they got books from the library or some sort of journals and use them to support their paper. If the people back then did this, it must have been so hard for them to find sources that is relevant to what they are doing since they will have to search for the books, journals, and such. Unlike now, all we have to do is use a search engine in the internet and find sources. This relates how education is evolving and how the internet is affecting it.

Education these days, or should I say schools in general incorporate the use of technology in their teachings. For example, when professors give students research papers or papers in general, they usually want student to have reliable sources that supports their arguments. The students will usually find sources by searching using “key words” that relates to their topic and hundreds and thousands of results will show up with just one click. Isn’t that crazy if we compared it to the old times? I mean, this the positive aspects of the internet on its convenience and speed. However, the internet has a lot of negative aspects to it.

One of the negative impacts of the internet, specifically in terms of education, is plagiarism. Many things in the internet these days, for example papers, are posted online meaning that it is accessible to the public. I mean not all students do this and it is a very rare case where they just copy and paste their paper and turn it in, which hinders their learning. Similarly, the internet is a huge distraction now because of social media, online games, entertainment videos, and so forth. Lastly, how credible are the sources online? A lot of people read a lot of articles online these days but how can we know if they are reliable? One common way that we know that sources are credible is because of the url/links, the website, the publisher, and some other ways. However, there are people who don’t know these or people who just believe everything on the internet and that could influence other people as well.

My point is that because of the internet a lot of changes happened in the educational system and how it affected people in positive and negative way. Back when the internet didn’t exist, people probably had to search really hard for sources that are similar or relevant to their research or study. Unlike now, with just a few key words and a click of a button, we can have access to thousands of sources.

The Effect of Technology on Sexual Preference Related Culture and The Creation of Group Identity

Whether through a social media platform or through a more germaine platform such as online publishing, technology has shaped the culture surrounding different sexual preferences. What do I mean by this? Technology created the hyper drag queens in Ru Paul’s show, and technology created hyper straight heterosexual male linguistics. Every niche, from big hair on men dressed as women, to emotionally underdeveloped straight men, technology can validate their life choices. (I should point out here that I have no issue with drag or gay culture, and do take issue with the bro-life type men. I just want it be clear I have full love in my heart for all sexual preferences among consenting adults). I would also like to acknowledge that culture surrounding different preferences existed before technology and easy to media platforms. What I’m suggesting is that technology has given voice to, and thereby validated and supported, the most polar of positions. Whether you are a homophobic man or a drag queen, you can find an online community to reify your views and develop your practice.

Where did this idea get into my head? To tell you the truth, it began during a haircut. I recently started to see someone new, as my previous hair person had started to leave me looking like a prepubescent metallica fan. A friend of mine (happens to be gay) has impeccable hair. So, I asked where he got it got. A few weeks later, I was in the chair at a salon that’s also an art gallery. I was talking to my stylist (also happens to be gay) about his pants, and asked where he got them. He showed me the website and I fell in love with the pants they offered. In the most delicate way I can phrase this, the website is not selling pants to midwest trump voters, or to “ball is life” type men. Media representations of how a certain sexual preference dresses serves to condition the market for technology to reach out and sell a solution to that, or to validate it. Now, pants from london are only 24 hours shipping away (quite the website).

Media has transformed male facial hair from stubble being a pinnacle of style to manicured things that look like the barber knows geometry. Straight men seem to have an affinity for beard care products and neatly defined edges from straight razor shaves. Somehow, my sexual choices get wrapped up in the fit of pants and type of facial hair. I believe that one could argue that people accept these cues and display them in order to gain acceptance from their desired group. If a wear a v-neck shirt and puma shoes, somehow I’m typified as straight. If you change the cut of the shirt and swap out the shoes, maybe I’m typified as something else.

Through a variety of platforms and the interactions they facilitate, technology has defined the parameters for how someone with a certain sexual preference dresses, looks, acts, etc. While there are exceptions to this (many, in fact), the effect it has on blossoming people still finding their way and developing their confidence is not to be neglected. As people seek to fit into a group, they will follow its style of dress and manner of speech. People that could not previously find a community which with they could identify (for loving or hateful reasons) can know have a sense of belonging and rightness. The power of this lies in more polar cases such as the case referenced on the blog assignment. People will model more complex behaviors when under greater distress. The source of that distress may vary, be it social or neurological, but the representations of groups communicated by technology will inculcate people to follow those representations.

Confessions of a former Fifa player

As we near the beautiful month that only comes every four years (The 2018 Fifa World Cup) I want to take a moment to talk about the benefits of Fifa video games and how they change us.


Since soccer is the most popular sport worldwide, it is fitting to talk about a game that has successfully integrated the majority of the aspects from real life soccer into a digital platform that benefits and changes a people.


1). It helps you play better. As seen in the picture below, famous soccer stars Messi, Neymar, Pique, etc are playing for one of the best soccer clubs in the world as well as starting 11 in their countries for the world cup. Contrary to popular belief, many Fifa video game players, are in fact real-life soccer players. During the summer when my friends come back from college, we dedicate 2 or 3 hours of playing soccer outside, order some food, and play Fifa until 2am so that the loser of the earlier outside match has a chance to redeem themselves and restore bragging rights. Another benefit is that the skill moves that the game allows you to do with high rated players, are skill moves that take time to learn and do in an actual outdoor game but nonetheless it challenges players to see a skill in the video game and practice outdoors. You would not want people practicing games such as GTA, COD, etc in real life, so Fifa provides a safe and healthy way to do this.

2). Fifa helps players make important decisions. Although it is true that fast-paced video games increase your reflex skills, it also helps make informed decisions. Below is a photo of the Fifa Ultimate Team transfer market page, one of EA's most profitable aspects of the game where players may spend anywhere from $5-$20,000 opening packs in the hopes of getting a 99 rated Ronaldo or Messi, keep in mind the game is already worth 60 bucks. The cool yet dangerous thing about the transfer market is that you can either play the market or it can play you. The process is simple where one basically buys medium to medium-high players on the market from other players online and resell them to make a profit. Players keep in mind that for any successful sale of one of your players, Fifa charges 5% of the price that it was sold for so it is important that players make careful decisions in not selling them too low where they lose coins (in-game currency) or too high where no player wants to bid on what they are selling. This involves investigating what the player is generally worth based on the prices of the market, and as new cards come out with higher ratings, one card that once costed 3,000 coins now costs 6,000 after one day or could cost 1,000 depending on the market.











3). This soccer video game involves a lot of emotions. There's always that one friend who talks so much smack throughout the day that when you see them being humiliated 9-0 in a match, nothing gives greater joy to your heart and everyone else present to see them blaming it on the controller. Apart from laughter, a 1-1 match with a friend you've bet money with and as the clock ticks to the 90th minute does come with an immense adrenaline rush that you need during the day. You also get to know people's characteristics based on their style of play. If they do skills and take long shots, they are confident, if they pass the ball around the whole game they are afraid to lose, if they tackle too much in the game and get red cards shows that your friend loses their cool, and if you see a friend who loses and doesn't cry about it, you can trust they are generally pretty chill. As we talk about emotions, the dopamine rush in the brain feels so good when you score a last-minute header and attain full bragging rights until your friends come home to face you again when the semester is over.

(El Piojo Herrera: Former Mexico national soccer team manager who was famous for his hysterical expressions)

4). Fifa encourages diversity. Every year Fifa tries to add more clubs than the year before. It was in Fifa 17, I believe, that 10 women's international soccer teams were added including the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. It's a huge leap forward as not only other men from different countries feel included but the unfairly stereotyped women are also able to prove that they can compete just as well as men can. Perosnally, I believe that the US women's team is far superior to the men's team.

5). But then there's the bad.... As previously stated, emotions can overcome a player, especially when they're losing 11-0 and with 3 players sent off. One big cause of anger amongst Fifa players that unfortunately leads to broken controllers, consoles, discs, and tears is how Boromir puts it, "One does not simply stay connected to EA servers." If you haven't won a match in forever but are somehow dominating an online match this time around say 7-2, when you get the message that the servers are down, you lose the whole match and any rewards that were going to be given to you for the win.  Not everyone is a team player and unfortunately, some players get too over their heads. The other big problem is mini microtransactions that many people and YouTubers fall for. It becomes an addiction to buy pack after pack as you feel you are closer to getting a good player. Fifa is a great example, however, of how digital media can be used for good in our lives to increase diversity, play outside, come together with friends, and make well-informed decisions, all with a reasonably balanced amount of play time.

"Like My Pic on Insta"

Social media has changed our lives. Each platform has its own way of taking over our lives. Instagram, for example, has become a great way to show off how amazing our lives are. We post things that are “insta-worthy” and aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching. Instagram used to be fun when you would take a cute selfie with your friends and post it right to Instagram for your followers to see. However, now Instagram has become so overdone. You have to get the right angles, the right lighting, nice crisp and bright editing to amp up the picture to get likes. You have to make the picture what its not. People post the best travel pictures from their room with a view or a sunset, or a posed picture that a boyfriends took of his girlfriend guiding him along on their journey. Listen, I’m not hating on the platform, I love Instagram and use it a lot more these days since I have been traveling and going to some cute food places (because everyone loves some good food porn, am I right?) However, what’s happening behind the scenes of those photos? You see all the good and cute pictures people post, but maybe the room with a view was actually a picture taken at a window in the hallway, or the picture of the girlfriend guiding the boyfriend is just for looks and the two are actually fighting. All I’m saying is that Instagram is this endless circle of people wanting to post cute pictures for their friends to see what amazing things they’re doing or eating, then those friends are doing the same thing. Instagram is just filled with really cute, super edited pictures for likes. A fun life is about all the likes.  

Living My Best Life (on Instagram)

Surprise! (Another) post about how Instagram ruins our perception on the every day life of us and our peers!!! Disclaimer, I haven't read any of them yet in fears I'd be completely plagiarizing ideas if I ready any beforehand. So, I would like to apologize upfront if this sounds exactly like other posts....

The reason I wanted to talk about Instagram is the fact that I have been a victim to the "my life is better than you" or been the instigator for this phenomenon. Here's a little story for you all.

My freshman year of college, I moved to the state of Minnesota from Illinois not knowing anyone. I was placed in temporary housing which meant I actually didn't have a normal dorm experience and didn't have floor mates to be friends with, except for my three roommates. So, my first semester of college was a really lonely experience for me. With a lot of free time and little access to my friends, I would go on social media sites, like Instagram, to see how my friends were doing. I would see them posting pictures with their "new friends" and making it look like college was a fun time for them. I thought that I was alone in not having friends, there was something wrong with me since I was lonely but my friends weren't. When I went home for Thanksgiving, I was talking with my high school friends and we all realized that 1. none of us had friends despite what we posted on Instagram 2. we were all lonely and 3. we all kinda hated our first year of college. I knew all of this was true now by our verbalizations, but you could never tell by my Instagram or by anyone else's.

And now to my own Insta. I took a screen shot of my Instagram.
 

From this, you can see some trips I've made recently including: Utah and Paris. What you didn't see is how shitty of a semester I had including: CO poisoning in my house and getting kicked out and the time my car got stolen a week after the CO thing (lol yeah). I don't help with this phenomena either. If you go on my Instagram, you only see the things I want you to see, my "best life", and the fun adventures I went on since I'm such a "fun person." This isn't accurate at all to my life. I've realized writing this post how I don't help with our perceptions and I should be more authentic to my real life.

Mental Illness

This blog assignment really made me think about the vastness of mental illness and how technology and digital media are connected to our ability to have control and free will over our lives.

To some extent, I do believe that we have created different beliefs and wants as we have increased our classification of different mental illness and increased people’s freedom. When I think of the internet, I think of how easy it is to gain knowledge about… basically anything, connect with anyone who uses it, and how this impacts our ability to learn, decide what we believe, and create our identity. Knowledge really can be powerful.

When thinking about technology and mental illness, I can’t help but think of all the ways that digital technology has provided resources or a way to access resources to promote mental health. Whether this is finding support, treatment, medical attention, knowledge and understanding, or advocating for destigmatization. This doesn’t mean that naming and classifying doesn’t create mental illness. However, I would say that in the case of addressing mental illness technology and digital media will do more harm than good as we continue to discover the importance of mental health as a society.

As science progresses, people become more empowered and more informed, and find resources that help them deal with challenges, I think people automatically gain free will because it becomes harder for other actors to control them. With this said, I think the continual creation of new mental illnesses is inevitable. However, hopefully with new ideas and increased access to services that accommodate different physical and mental needs, this will lead to a greater acceptance of and kindness for differences and challenges that make us unique. When we have conversations about how we are supposed to deal with the extremes (hatred that led to killing, fear of different people, mental illness that leads to suicide, etc. etc.) we start to address these issues so that we can hopefully not only prepare for them but prevent them in the future.

As I think about all the things we’ve have talked about this semester, I think the internet and technology go hand in hand with these issues. With new technology, increased communication, and free speech comes new ideas, connections, and access to resources.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore the dangers but as they become more apparent. As a society, hopefully we will learn about dangers of technology and take measures to prevent them from being used in harmful ways. As always, easier said than done. I might be too optimistic about these issues considering we have more free will for good and bad than we maybe ever did but I honestly believe that we can let digital media change our lives for the better.

Isaiah breaks up with Instagram

Alright Girls and Boys, buckle up, because for this blog post, we will be delving into the murky and treacherous waters of the personal and love life for one Mr. Isaiah W. Ogren, and specifically, what drove me to delete half of my social media profiles and wander into the digital wilderness.

Before I proceed, allow me to elaborate on how I view the social media ecosystem. I believe that we can all intuit that Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are never used in a vacuum and that the identities we construct on these various platforms are never divorced from each other. This is explicit in Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, as well as the multitude of ways that they cannibalize each others ideas, desperate to chisel out a few hundredths of a percent greater market share. The story feature on facebook and instagram (stolen from snapchat), features to save and later edit and share pictures on a snapchat story (stolen from instagram), live streaming on facebook (stolen from periscope/twitter) and of course, the ad driven business model accompanied by ever more sophisticated algorithms that everyone more or less stole from Facebook are all examples of the ever more tangled web that silicon valley is weaving. But who is it doing the deceiving? Well, the Russians certainly are, for starters. They clearly understand that an ecosystem is a work, and that you must play on all of the parts in harmony for maximum social effect.

Okay, if we have established that technologically, social media is integrated, and that we cannot really separate out the influence and power of each of the platforms, then it stands to reason that any claims that our behavior on individual platforms is not shaped by this ecosystem. We are not different people on twitter than we are on facebook. This may seem intuitive, but in practice, it seems that people are constantly trying to curate their social media so that they can be different people on different platforms. Let's look at a couple of those ways for a moment.

Multiple and private accounts. The advent of the ‘finsta’ or a separate instagram account where followership is heavily controlled, unflattering pictures can be posted, grievances aired, intelligence exchanged, etc is a significant one. Of all of the social media platforms, instagram places the highest premium on curation and discriminating photography. I call the virtue (or vice, depending on how you look at it) of instagram to be nostalgia. Instagram gives us highly processed memories to look back upon with incredible speed. As soon as something has happened, it is pristinely documented and ready to be gazed upon with rose-filtered glasses. The finsta counters this, and creates another layer of private interaction on top of all of the revisionist history that already going on. In other words, we are trying to be different people on different platforms, or even on the same platform.

Controlling followership. Many people who follow me on facebook don't follow me on twitter, and vice versa. This makes good sense, since the platforms have different virtues. For facebook, connection is the virtue of choice. For twitter, outrage. I am guilty of this differentiation as well. I don't want my grandparents (who I am facebook friends with) to see what I tweet, if only because my tweets might not make lots of sense to them and I don't want to field questions all the time. However, you can link your facebook and twitter to post on Facebook every time you tweet. Push and pull, push and pull. As we try to control who sees our posts, we are slowly pulled ever closer to a fully integrated epicenter, where everything looks different, but is exactly the same.

Okay, so how in Odin’s name does any of this relate? I have argued that despite attempts to be different people on different platforms, there are powerful forces of convergence at work that serve to universalize and flatten out our digital presence. This is where the money is at, plain and simple. The difficulty that this convergence binds us in relationships online that are almost impossible to extract oneself from with tact. I was treated to a unpleasant illustration of this when I broke up with my girlfriend.
To begin with, there was no initial acrimony, just the stress of a long distance relationship proving to be too much. Immediately after, a questions rears its digital head: what do I keep up on public platforms? Which instagram pictures remain. Because there was no great acrimony, it was almost as if there was a mourning period immediately after the breakup where anyone who interacted with me in real life knew, but for all digital intents and purposes, my girlfriend and I were still together. After a suitable (or at least I thought it was suitable) period of time, I took down pictures of us together from my instagram. Within a day, I received a very angry email, wherein my former girlfriend explained that her valuation of me had decreased with the deletion of our pictures together. In a perplexing way, my greatest transgression was to create a digital separation, as opposed to the physical and emotional separation I had created approximately 6 weeks prior. The arterial forces of convergence that pulled my former partner’s and my social media profiles together in referential and tagged posts, tweets, and pictures could not be severed in the privacy of a conversation, but were exposed for all to see. Rending at the public web of digital connections turned out to be the most painful part for her, even if I ultimately viewed it as necessary.
Before I proceed to a normative statement or two, I want to add a disclaimer. The feelings of my ex are totally valid. I told her that. I apologized and asked if there were ways I could be more tactful about digital house cleaning/hygiene in the future. I am not delegitimizing her pain. It hurt for me as well, even if it was ‘worth it’ to me to digitally seperate where it wasn't for her. That shit hurts, as anyone from any century can tell you. However, it is also concerning.
To begin with, I felt pressure to pretend that there wasn't real separation and pain for the purposes of digital pretension. I think this is undesirable, and prevents people from doing legitimate emotional processing and healing. When relationships of any nature rupture, there is emotional shrapnel, and to refuse to remove it is folly. Hand in hand with this is the pressure to continuing seeing, and/or interacting with someone you’ve had a falling out with online. This is particularly relevant after the termination of a romantic relationship, but also applies to racist uncles and obnoxious cousins the world over. In the case of family members, a bandaid of digital interaction can also obscure genuine need for reconciliation.
In essence, there is pressure to defer private reflection and healing in favor of public digital pretension. I am of the opinion that this is bad. Lest the strength of my convictions be doubted, I deleted Instagram and snapchat for good after getting that email from my ex-girlfriend. It was my way of respecting her desire to not feel humiliation of public reckoning with our seperation, and also give me a way out. Since, I use facebook for work and not much else. I still use twitter, but mostly as an observer. It took an emotionally charged event to realize the extent to which I had been pulled into an ecosystem that is both intrusive and voyeuristic be design. It was changing the way I evealuated relationships, and moreover, their portrayal. I decided I wanted out, and am better for it. That is the only prescription I have. We are going to have to become more emotionally intelligent creatures, more adept at distinguishing between what we post and who we are, or we are going to have to opt out. I am not sure which is easier.

It is just a video game..

Media has taken over humanity's activity and our interactions with others. One of the main technological items that have taken over the young teenagers' interest in video games. There are many video games that are available to these teenagers such as "Call of Duty", "Minecraft", "Fortnite", "Grand Theft Auto" and much more. We sometimes take these video games as a way to entertain, yet we don't always see the possible consequences that it can bring to the teenager and/or young child. One of the categories that I will focus will be the video games that contain violence such as, guns, inappropriate language, killing, beating or any other negative action. These violent video games are things that parents and children look at it as a way to get fun with, but some parents don't. These aggressions within video games can affect the child's behavior and could increase over time, In reviewing more than 150 research papers, the task force found a consistent relationship between the games and an increase in "aggressive behavior" (cbsnews 2015). At a young age, these kids will want to feel the adrenaline through a tv screen and having control of anything that they can face in the game and play it for hours if parents don't control the amount of time their child is playing for. If this pattern of time continues through the child, then, later on, it can be much harder to have the child stop playing aggressive video games that eventually will start influencing the child's behavior. They will want to experience the adrenaline that they had while playing the video game through a tv screen to having that do so in the real life. 
My cousins are such into "Fortnite", that I would see them in front of a tv screen playing for hours, while also having younger siblings around them when this is done. The young kids that are around them, know how to play this game, which is crazy, and also start screaming and yelling when something goes wrong. Because I see them do this so much, I can notice how these kids' behavior when playing with others. When I see them play (which I see it more as fighting than playing around) they do it in such aggressive ways, like pushing each other, having anything object turn into a gun and start catching each other with it. Not do I only see it when playing, but also how they talk to older people and the language that is used. All of this is what I have seen that has influenced young people's lives and the way that they may behave when playing violent video games. We need to realize how these things have influenced us as people and essentially our kids' lives. To realize how these technological video games have seen as something not too bad play with and not think that it can influence us later on, which it does. These violent video games are a perfect target for young children because they can start developing a mindset related to games, in a way, and start showing that through their behaviors. 

Dating Today

With the introduction of apps such as Tinder and sites like Match.com dating has been greatly changed by the internet and therefore our mindset concerning dating has changed as well. From my observations this has provided both positive and negative consequences.

For our age group many people use Tinder to chat and meet with those of whatever gender they are attracted to. This opens up many opportunities to meet people you would otherwise never speak to thereby expanding your pool of potential partners. This is good because it heightens the chances of meeting someone you are very compatible with and it works for people that do not have a lot of free time, but it can also affect our behavior in negative ways. I personally only used Tinder for about a week back in high school and got rid of it after meeting one woman off of it (it's an interesting cringy story but I will not get into that today), but all of my single friends currently use the app on a regular basis. Sometimes when we are all hanging one will be on their Tinder account commenting on the women that come up on his screen and most of the comments made of the women are less than respectful. They are almost always objectifying her whether insulting her or "admiring" the way she looks. If she is deemed to be attractive enough she is swiped right upon and he sends an uninspiring or if he is drunk a slightly perverse message to her if they match A few text messages are maybe exchanged and then that tends to end the interaction there or directly after a one time hook up. This type of partner seeking encourages this type of thought and interaction as people's bios have very little information and profiles mostly consist of personal pictures. This could be said to encourage objectification which can then cognitively spread into other parts of a persons life. If persons were then to form dating habits strongly influenced by these types of thoughts it could lead to high rates of unhealthy relationships that could be reflected statistically in later years with higher rates of divorce or domestic issues.

Calcium

My cell biology professor offered us an extra credit assignment to disprove a claim made by a commercially available product. He offered this assignment because he believes that evidence-based research is essential in every discipline. For the assignment, I choose a calcium supplement that claims to treat osteoporosis by increasing bone mineral density. Osteoporosis is believed to be caused by loss of bone minerals which is why calcium supplements are often taken. When taken orally, calcium and other mineral supplements are not absorbed by our bodies. Some studies have shown that there is a decrease in urinary calcium when calcium is taken in combination with vitamin. This not necessarily mean that the decrease is due to an increase in absorption by our bones. In communicating evidence for scientific claims, it is important to understand the methods used and the limitations of the assumptions that are made. The general public might not  understand that reproducible and correlated evidence does not necessarily support the claim. At the beginning of our studies, we study science as an epistemology. But what makes good science?

All on Instagram, cake by the lb

The internet has revolutionized the way in which we receive information We are more connected than ever before. There are countless ways in which this connectivity has benefited us. For example, YouTube was widely used around 2012 by activists to fuel the revolutions of the Arab springs. Because of the internet, I am able to keep in touch with my family across the world. Although I recognize the value of being connected through the internet, I believe that social media is detaching us from life.

Before the days of Instagram and Facebook, photos were taken to capture a memory. We used to take photos without worrying if the light bright, the angle is just right, and your smize game. However, the age of digital photos has transformed the sentiment of photos. I can only speak to my experience. When I travel with my best friend, we try to limit the number of photos we take because we want to be present in the moment and try to appreciate that we will never be able to recreate these memories. During our first trip together, we took a lot of photos and wasn't cuz we was carpe dieming. In all honesty, we took those photos to update our Instagram. In a way we were creating a profile of photos that wasn't representative of our experience. Instead of taking photos of our memories, we make memories for photos, to create a visual representation of our lifestyle for the world to see and I think this is what detaches us from a genuine and authentic experience. 

Media's Effect on Youth

As I stated before in class, the internet is ruining our children. There have been studies done that show the effects of media on children. One study illustrates the effects of kinds watching a violent "children's" TV show compared to watching a neutral/non-violent children's show (I can get the exact study if needed but I am unable to find it at the moment). In short, the study was done in a controlled lab setting with random assignment and parent permission.  The same group of children watched an episode of Power Rangers and an episode of (I think) Sesame Street. The results of the study were that every child acted violently towards one another after watching Power Rangers. The violent behaviors consisted of kicking, punching, and sword fighting.  Even the children's parents reported them never displaying violent behavior were in on the violent acts. After watching the non-violent show, all the kids were hugging and playing together, with none of them displaying violent behavior. That was just one variation of a study that generated significant results of the effects TV can have on children.

As far as the internet goes, that's not good either. If children's internet use is not monitored by parents or responsible adults, the kids can access ANYTHING. An example I told in class was my friend's 5 year old son looking up "boobs" on YouTube. In this case, you can't fully blame the internet. It seems to be largely due to poor monitoring. That's what happens when you give a child an electronic device to keep them occupied. They need attention and close monitoring, especially at that young of an age.

Not all media is bad for everyone. This link explains a study done on Sesame Street and how it can actually help prepare children for school. Although it doesn't cite any research articles, I believe it for the most part. I've seen articles pertaining to this subject.
-->https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sesame-street-and-its-surprisingly-powerful-effects-on-how-children-learn/2015/06/07/59c73fe4-095c-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d35100e3d55
There is too much of a good thing, though. And watching this show is good for kids in moderation.

In this TED Talk, she describes many aspects of media and the effect it has on kids. (She also briefly brings up reality, what it is and who creates it). It's short, sweet, and to the point.
---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjnclEhy960
She also brings up how media has an impact of little girls and their self esteem. Media often portrays woman and slim with boobs and gorgeous faces. Even having a nice butt is an "in" thing right now, and media shows it. It's pretty much giving girls a false perception of how they should look and how they should dress in order to be perceived as attractive. This is not good. It can seriously diminish a girl's self esteem if she doesn't look like the women on TV or in an internet ad. Media holds seriously unrealistic visions of how females are supposed to be.

Internet and media, good or bad, is taking over our world. It's becoming a possibility for a source of addiction. Soon, you wont be able to do anything with out using the internet. I've even forgotten how I knew things before there was Google. I've actually heard that hey might be incorporating internet addiction into the next edition of the DSM (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders). It's a potentially serious problem and we should start doing something about it soon.

Snapchat Again

Like before, I had discussed the use of Snapchat and how it was efficient for this generation because people's attention span is very short. Time is money, and we only want to know the highlights. A photo is worth a thousand words, a simple photo or short video can relay information faster than a few paragraphs. This may have led to the popularity of memes.

Today many people feel the need to have a connection to current events, ideas, trends, music etc. Snapchat is one the trending apps allowing people to chat, snap photos, and videos to share with their friends and the world. Snapchat allows people to stay closely connected to others by being exposed to trending content or sharing trending content. This has also pressured many people to be leading continuous and exciting lives that may be viewed as aesthetically pleasing. However, what is shown on Snapchat is often limited content that only portrays the "best" pictures, videos, and content overall. This may relate to the "best" or even "perfect" selfie, photo of food and other things, the perfect video that includes the right frames and noise or voices etc.

This has greatly affected the way we live. People will take a few seconds to a few minutes and possibly even hours, trying to take the perfect photo or video. The angle has to be right, the lighting should be good, everything the photo or video should include should be in the frame and anything unwanted should be excluded. People will tell others to not eat food until they've taken the perfect photo. People will retake a photo or video intentionally of something that was supposed to be "candid", distorting the actual memory.

There are also many people who Snapchats their concert experiences, sharing it with their friends and the world that they are having a grand time at this concert. However instead of watching the concert with only their eyes, they watch it on their phone as they record the artists.

Becoming Less Ignorant

Digital media - social media in particular - definitely has its pros and cons, but I think one great thing about living in this world of media is that there is no excuse to be ignorant. I remember a few years ago I did not really have a good grasp about what the Black Lives Matter movement was about because my privileged life in a mostly white town in Wisconsin did not give me a lot of experience with it. The last few years, however, with the rise of the movement over social media, I have seen second hand that racism is still very prevalent in America. I've seen videos on twitter of white male cops violently arresting black women who did nothing, white people telling Latino-Americans to go "back to Mexico," and other forms of blatant racism and oppression.

With increasing access to technology and news around the world, it has become harder to ignore these issues.  The racism is a problem, but the record and evidence of it is the start to a solution. The supreme court cannot ignore this evidence, even though our high and mighty president might. The videos below both show instances of police injustice against black citizens, but racism is present in all forms of life.

There are people from my home town that actively used the n-word in their vocabulary, with or without being aware of why it is truly not acceptable to say. I believe these boys knew it's origins and consequences, but chose not to care because their white privilege allows them not to.


Here are some of the videos I was referencing:

https://twitter.com/cj251_/status/988087772069101568?s=12
https://twitter.com/wokevideo/status/988511942443548672?s=12

****As a disclaimer, I am aware there are good police officers in America, but people need to be aware that there are bad police officers right in our backyard.

Anti-Vaxxers

Although many people are vaccinated today, there has also been a growing community who distrusts vaccinations, choosing to not get vaccinated. These anti-vaxxers believe that vaccinations may include harmful chemicals, cause autism, and are not well regulated etc. 

These are some communities of Facebook that challenges vaccines:

 

Great mothers (and others) questioning vaccines 

20,592 like this | 20,0009 people follow this

No vaccines Australia 

4,953 people like this | 4,907 people follow this

RAGE against the vaccines: https://www.facebook.com/RageAgainstVaccines/ 

33,535 people like this | 33,138 people follow this

There are people who believe that vaccinations should be a choice. There are also people who strongly believe that vaccines do not work and that they may increase a child's chances of having autism. Many of these people also believe in natural healing, therefore vaccinations are not needed to protect their children and themselves from diseases. Some of these people may live their lives without getting vaccinated or feeling the need to because many others around them often get vaccinated, often decreasing their chances of getting dangerous diseases too. 

Here is a video that debunks anti-vaxxers: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b03U6BYF9L0 

Did we really know anything before Google?

At the dawn of the internet, the way humans find and transfer information was forever changed. Instead of being limited by the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of books and periodicals that a local library had for research on a given topic, we now have the seemingly unlimited caverns of the internet. A quick Google Scholar search of the topic “green technology” brought me approximately 5,100,000 results in 0.06 seconds. Of those results, 81,600 were published since January 1, 2018. Before the dawn of the internet, information on a niche topic such as green technology would have been extremely limited. Finding information on that niche topic with the currency of the last four months would have been nearly impossible. Since looking through pages of pre-sorted information is much more convenient than attempting to find anything useful at the library, humans have turned to the internet as the primary information gathering mechanism.

However, the internet does not have any requirements about factual evidence or scientific review for the information posted. Google Scholar may pull results from reputable scientific sources, but a plain Google search will pull up listings from public forums, company websites, news articles, blogs, and more. The difference between statements supported by tested and well-established facts and statements that have no factual support or mis-represented factual support seems to be impossible to interpret for some humans. This inability to differentiate fact from fiction for humans on the internet may stem from our desire for sensational information or information that follows our current beliefs. We are constantly striving for self-gratification.

In my opinion, one of the greatest dangers of the internet is the spreading of false information. However, in order to maintain our freedom of speech and expression, censorship of false information must be avoided. Censorship effectively put blinders on society to prevent people from hearing any other information than what they are spoon-fed. Even though it may seem foolish or harmful to allow neo-Nazi information to be transferred on the internet, the visibility of it to an average internet user can alert people of controversial and even problematic issues in society. The answer is not to brush painful issues under the rug but to present them and let indivi judge what is “right”.

The solution to reckless trusting of false information is to create a culture among humans of realistic skepticism. If a site or “fact” does not state the original source, it is suspect. If a site or “fact” does state a source, follow the source to make an evaluation of the evidence supporting the “fact”. Humans are capable of critical thinking and understanding fact interpretation. We just need to be more vigilant in using our skills.