The task of writing down every activity that we do, whether online or offline, is quite interesting. It makes you realize the small tasks we do in-between the more important ones. I was assigned to write down everything I did online for an hour, but what I did not expect was how many things I did! When I am on Facebook, I am not only on Facebook. I am on Instagram, Youtube, Gmail, and a myriad of news outlets that are a click away from my newsfeed. It’s truly amazing how Facebook has become so user-friendly that you can find everything you need in one website. Before I knew it, it has become integrated into my daily life, with the latest updates and news in my fingertips. When I screened through my notes, I took a deep breath. In between commenting on pictures, tagging people in funny videos, and becoming increasingly skeptical of political media, I realized something: we are more connected with the world than ever before. But is this a good thing?
Before social media and smartphones, we only knew the people in our community. The only time I would communicate with people outside of the country were through distant relatives and pen pals. Now, the world is interconnected. As Couldry broadly describes, some of positive outcomes of this digital revolution is connectivity and social freedom. We are able to express our thoughts and voice our opinions with more visibility than ever before. It’s crazy to realize that we can now influence people at a global scale. Couldry says, ” The internet has brought a shift in information production from a limited number of discrete forms… The result has been an exponential growth in data volume and archiving capacity.. and a space for us to interact on all scales” (Couldry, 10). We are all connected at a increasingly fast pace. This may seem like a good thing, but it does have its setbacks. Couldry explains the digital revolution, but he fails to cover what happens almost immediately afterwards: the information age. We live in a time where everything is free to sign up for – so long as people share part of their identity to social media platforms, which are also
data corporations that track what we like and subscribe to.
Although he could not have predicted the future, Couldry was spot on in categorizing socially oriented media theory. He describes that one of its apexes, political economy of the media, is concerned with “not only media ownership but also power inequalities across social life.” (7) To be frank, I miss the good old days where I did not feel like my privacy was being invaded by these corporations. It has made me realize that I am connected in the world, but I do not have control of my own identity anymore. Perhaps we should focus on meeting people in person. It’s crazy to see how the digital age has affected our day-to-day lives, but one thing it doesn’t change our natural instinct to be social creatures.
You take an interesting direction in talking about how our personal information serves as a goldmine for brands and advertisers. I think this would be a fantastic topic for a class discussion, seeing if people feel taken advantage of or discouraged from sharing personal information knowing that it is going beyond their desired audience. There definitely is a price to pay to be active online.
I really agree with your last part that privacy is invaded by the social media corporations. It was so creepy to see my picture on image section when I googled my name.
I agree that our privacy is being invaded my social media. Many people don’t realize the magnitude of just how little privacy we have on the Internet. I always find it weird when I randomly clicked on a product on Amazon and five minutes later I see it being advertised on my Facebook page.