The Way I See It

While approaching what the future holds in regards to social media and digital communication, there are always going to be two sides of the story. When it comes to the technological innovations we have seen over the past decade, we have come a long ways since dial-up. But, not everything can be all flowers and rainbows. There is a dark side to the way our society has adopted and adapted to digital communication.

From a business standpoint, digital communication and social media platforms are the probably one of the greatest things to happen. I don’t think there is a company out there right now that doesn’t use any social media platforms to help build and market their brand. According to Forbes, some of the most desirable internship and full-time opportunities are working for these giant tech companies. Social media has such a massive reach that companies are able to use target marketing and online surveillance to reach their target market easily. They are also able to promote sales, events, food, festivals, and everything else under the sun. The future of marketing is incredibly promising because of digital communication and the technological advances that are yet to come.

Now here’s the negative side. Social media and digital communication has changed the way we think and act with one another. When I say this I mean we are interacting more yes, but we are not interacting the way we should be. We rely heavily on our mobile devices and the Internet and it has made us become dependent on them as the technology keeps advancing. We are not living in the moment anymore and we constantly feel the need to refresh our newsfeeds and timelines while documenting everything. What many of us are unaware of is how every digital footprint we leave, people are using that, analyzing it, and selling it. We are constantly being targeted by companies because of our previous searches and our privacy is diminishing. Whether we like it or not, what we think we are keeping private is actually up for grabs by anyone (mainly corporate giants) who is willing to use it and capitalize off of it.

Ultimately, in our digital future I hope to see more privacy changes despite the fact that it probably won’t happen. There is so much data flying around that it will be impossible to collect it all and “dispose” of it or make it untraceable. Aside from the privacy matter, I am excited to see what the future holds in terms of digital communication and digital technologies.

Questions:

Do you agree or disagree that digital communication has affected our social relationships for the worse?
Do you think there will be any privacy changes, gain more privacy, in the future? Or do you think the issues will only go further downhill?

Did you Agree to That?

While watching this documentary, I wasn’t quite surprised about how little privacy we do have. However, there were many aspects of how our information gets passed around that I was not aware of. Personally, I have never read a Terms and Agreement or Privacy Policy simply because they make them so long and tedious they almost don’t want us to read the fine print. (#1) They mention that our information will go to whoever can price the price. Essentially, giant companies are bidding on our private information. Isn’t that something? All of the irrelevant things I believe I have posted on various social media accounts can actually mean a whole lot.

Big Brother

What we don’t realize is by accepting these terms and conditions, we are actually allowing the government to track our location, emails, text messages, Google searches, and virtually everything we have ever done in our lives. I also didn’t realize that Instagram has the right to sell our images for advertising purposes and users do not need to get compensated or notified. It also amazed me that Mark Zuckerberg asked for his privacy and to not be recorded, which he was not granted as they kept recording.

They bring up how they are using our information to “prevent.” In the example, the Irish guy got pulled aside and questioned for 5 hours because of a tweet. They mentioned how they can look for key words and in his case it was a part of a tweet that said, “destroy America.” Without context, this can be of concern but the two young tourists actually meant they were just coming to America to party and have a great time. They were held and actually handcuffed solely because of this keyword. (#2) This goes to show how easily our information can be pulled and analyzed without even knowing it. (#3) Obama actually said, “Watch what you put on Facebook.”

After watching this documentary, it is crazy to me how willing we are to sell our privacy. They raise the question is privacy dead? I would say yes, it very well might be. In this article, they give tips on how and why we should be more careful on the Internet.

My questions here:

What do we do if innocent people keep getting nailed for innocent tweets and searches?
Since there seems to be no law that deals with the policies that allow the U.S. government to abuse personal information, what kind of law would you put in place?

What is Our Actual Comfort Level?

Over the past week, I have spent more time being aware of my online presence. It is crazy to see how much of my personal information is actually available to the public. Not only is my Facebook linked to many of my other accounts, i.e. Spotify, Airbnb, and Pinterest but I am now ruthlessly followed by everything I have ever looked at in the form of advertisements. According to Mark Andrejevic, “Digital enclosure is the creation of an interactive realm wherein every action and transaction generates information about itself. Although the term implies a physical space, the same characteristics can apply to virtual spaces [Andrejevic, 9].” This speaks directly to websites like Facebook that constantly generate information about you and your preferences, lifestyle, etc.

On market surveillance, I believe there is a line between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in terms of accessibility to private information. Many companies to track consumer habits and shopping trends use digital surveillance. Mark Andrejevic suggests that there is a blurred line between content and advertising. We are so bombarded by advertisements and product placement that I agree the line is very blurred. The question raised here is: is this attractive or can this be considered a violation of privacy? I am targeted by advertisements from things I’ve looked at on Amazon, Priceline, WebMD, and pretty much everything else I’ve ever searched in my life. “When I buy a book at Amazon.com, I’ve purchased a commodity; if Amazon.com sells information about what books I’ve purchased and viewed to a data-mining company, it is selling what Mosco calls a cybernetic commodity [Andrejevic, p.14].” This gives insight on how our information is passed around online. In an article published on Salon, Google argues, “it has the right to collect your most sensitive data, as long as it flows across an open Wi-Fi network [Rosenfeld, Salon.com].” This may concern many people who aren’t too familiar with how Wi-Fi and many other aspects of the Internet work.

Photo Credit: Imgur

There have been a few instances when trying to download music or watch a free movie online where they promise free content and then hit you with a sign up page and sometimes even a page to enter your credit card to “sign up.” Many times I did not ask for this. I believe that the perceived existence of an “electronic panopticon” is in fact real. There most definitely is something hidden in the computer layer of my online activity and monitoring my digital movement. The actual concept of this is a little scary but it can be useful. On the contrary, I don’t believe it can be used to stop people from illegally downloading things off the Internet because there are so many people doing it I firmly believe it is virtually unstoppable. There is not real way to fully monitor every single Internet user across the globe.

Do you believe our digital surveillance has hit an extreme? Should we begin to worry?
How will an increase in digital surveillance affect those who have created lives running illegal downloading and streaming websites? Will they be imprisoned?

Social Media– From an Adult Point of View

For this interview, I interviewed my dad who is a professional in digital media and advertising.

Olivia: So, what social media platforms do you use?

Dad: I use Facebook obviously but I am new to Instagram and Snapchat. I also use Skype to conduct interviews and Whatsapp to communicate with my international offices.

Olivia: So for the most part, you are using most of these platforms for business purposes.

Dad: Well not exactly, I am new to Instagram but that’s mostly because you always rave about how its your favorite but I now see how easy it is to promote yourself and products. Even restaurants use Instagram.

Olivia: Yeah, I told you that’s how I find some of the trendy spots across Manhattan! Through Instagram. Anyways, would you use a name other than your own for any of your accounts?

Dad: Well, I don’t see why I would unless I am personally running an account for a company or business. Otherwise, what is the point of creating a fake name?

Photo Source: Instagram @Sizzle

This was just a small portion of our brief interview but it was interesting to see a professional adults standpoint on social media. I also find it interesting for someone to be so new to these social media platforms because for us, it is second nature. Everyday my dad comes to me with new questions about Snapchat and Instagram and how they are used to promote yourself and products, restaurants, travel destinations, etc. For him, it is a whole new world of vast opportunity.

On the other side, he doesn’t understand why people would create fake internet personas. He asked me “well isn’t that how people get catfished?”— exactly. I myself don’t understand why anyone would create a fake name on social media unless they are personally running an account for a company or a brand.

We both believe that many people create fake lives on Instagram. They show only their best times and best looks but the problem with that is it makes many people believe that they too should be living this extravagant life but in reality, its actually fake. Turkle speaks to this idea in her article “We have used our relationships with technology to reflect on the human (Turkle pg. 24).” Much of the time, we are reflecting on people who are promoting themselves through an exaggerated form making their lives look much happier and more extravagant than they actually are.

So my questions are ultimately:

Do you believe social media has a negative effect on our emotions when people are creating these false images of happiness and extravagence?

Virtual Reality– Is the Hype Real?

Virtual reality has become the talk of the Internet in 2016. Everyone is curious about this new technology and how it can impact social media, the entertainment industry, and life in general. In a BBC article written by Tim Maughan back in July, the author writes “… and how do they intend to profit from VR’s promise, navigate the hype, and avoid its current limitations?” In this article, he further explores this question and how we can learn to adjust to the ever-expanding world of technology.

Tim Maughan goes on to discuss how virtual reality “drops an audience into a situation and forces them to react emotionally, in ways that traditional filmmaking or journalism might struggle to do [BCC, Tim Maughan].” This is one of the leading ways in which the entertainment industry can profit from VR. This is analyzed through the consumers who attend Giant, a virtual reality experience inspired by real events. After attending Giant himself, he had asked the creator if they were worried VR wouldn’t catch on and if he thought the operation was risky. The creator of Giant responded simply: “I’m not worried because I know that it’s coming… It might not be at the rate that some people are hyping, but I don’t think as artists we’re hyping it ourselves. We’re just trying to create it.”

Photo Credit: Getty Images

After talking to many people who have experienced VR, creators of VR, and experiencing it for himself, he believes that the expectations surrounding virtual reality are so high that there is a bit of a gap right now in delivering the promise of those expectations. He does believe that the technology is coming and this is just the beginning of the hype. The technology surrounding VR can change many industries, especially the film and gaming industries. It is evident that once people try something and they like it, they will want to buy it. Many people do in fact think that VR will become the next big thing and we must all patiently wait for its break through. I agree that it may not happen today but eventually, with the hype surrounding it in the media, VR will become a huge profitable hit and will in fact change the way we look at technology.

According to Lee Manovich’s new media principles, virtual reality carries almost all of the characteristics: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding. I mostly see VR carry the modularity characteristic. “Just as a fractal has the same structure on different scales, a new media object has the same modular structure throughout. Media elements, be it images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors, are represented as collections of discrete samples (pixels, polygons, voxels, characters, scripts). These elements are assembled into larger scale objects but they continue to maintain their separate identity (Manovich, New Media, p. 51).” The final product depends on its much smaller counterparts to come together as a successful end piece. In the BBC article, the creators of Giant said they film many different shots from different angles and bring it together to give the audience the illusion of being able to look around at 360 degrees.

Do you believe VR will replace the way we play video games and watch traditional movies?

Will investing in VR technology bring profit or loss to those companies trying to make it happen?

Introduction to Digital Communication and Culture (ETRA)

Author: o.schiekofer

The Way I See It

Did you Agree to That?

What is Our Actual Comfort Level?

Social Media– From an Adult Point of View

Virtual Reality– Is the Hype Real?

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