Other Issues in Media and Society

Here are some interesting blogs from my classmates to visit!
Some of them even on similar issues as mine:)
For example, my friend Nadya wrote about using social media and it's consequences including depression. Here is her blog http://nssmedia.blogspot.cz/ .
Also, Laura mentioned some points about correlation between media and its influence on teenagers https://lauras08.wordpress.com/ and Josef talks about some interesting things connected to social media and psychological aspects such as reducing self-worth https://josephfrombelize.wordpress.com/.
More positive point of view on this you can find on Anne's blog. She shows the other side of this issue: how the Internet could help children https://childerenandmedia.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/children-and-media/ .  
Sviatlana supports Anne and suppose that the Internet helps people in sphere of education https://socialnetworkunyp.wordpress.com/.

So, now you can find some more interesting and useful information connected to Media and Society. Welcome!

How I see it

 In the modern world there are many problems people have never had before. With development of digital technologies humanity received not only much more convenient living but and many problems in addition. Our parents and grandparents did not  have as much opportunities to communicate with each other and to learn as we have now. Also, they did not know what is computer or Internet usage in contradistinction to our generation, but they did not know what is addiction to this inventions, too. 

Today social media world is becoming one of the most important and irreplaceable part of life. People have a tendency to be on-line constantly. They are afraid of missing something. That is why they desire to observe and contact (Weckler, 2015). At least this addiction takes people all their spare and even constrained time, which leads to serious relational, occupational and social problems. Moreover, there are many studies which showed that dependency on social media may cause some health problems such as mental ones. Finally, all this problems together sometimes leads to tragedies.  

First of all, I think that the culture of computer and the Internet using should be taught by parents. A great responsibility of their child's safety lies on them. Limitation of computer using and provision some activities in their power. Heavy and uncontrolled Internet and social media usage may interferes with daily life of a person. The Internet usage among students is 92,3% and that affects such spheres of life as business and personal life (Liu, Bao, & Wang, 2010). That is why firstly family and then a person oneself should concern about it. 

Besides, it was found the strong connection between uncontrolled Internet usage and  some health problems. It was always known that all day long computer or cell phone using worsens vision. And nowadays there is certainly proved that in some cases it leads to five kinds of  psychiatric disorders such as manic-depression and feeling of loneliness (Malcolm, 1998). There are many studies about the link between Internet addiction and mental illnesses, for example "the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were 'Internet addicts.' and many of these were depressed"  (McNamara, 2010). I think it is an extremely  high level of people who suffer these problems because of inventions which was created to help them. 

Sometimes consequences of Internet or computer addiction become even more serious than mental illnesses. In some cases people cannot manage this trouble themselves. There is even a special camp for Internet addicted in China (Zigor Aldama, 2015). And this is not the only institution for Internet addiction. For instance, in South Korea  there are more than 190 hospitals specially for treatment of digital addicted patients. They were opened after 10 deaths during playing video games (Kirkey, 2008).  

In my opinion, the problem of any kind of digital addiction is the one of the most urgent today. People should not be amenable being dependent to virtual life and computer. It is not a problem of anybody separately but humanity at all. Uncontrolled usage of internet, cyberbullying, “Facebook depression” and other consequences of the addiction are not appropriate for our modern world. If we have found the way to create not only helpful and uniting inventions as computer and the global network we should find a way to protect people from them, too. 

References: 

[1] How to tell if your social media habit's an addiction. (2015, Oct 18). Sunday Independent Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1722690976?accountid=17238 

[2] Liu, X., Bao, Z., & Wang, Z. (2010). Internet use and internet addiction disorder among medical students: A case from china.Asian Social Science, 6(1), 28-34. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/821865691?accountid=17238 

[3] MALCOLM RITTER: The, A. P. (1998, Jun 01). Study: `Addiction' to internet often accompanies psychological disorders // COMPUTERS: Manic-depression and other problems are common among those who are online excessively, a researcher says.Orange County Register Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/273194249?accountid=17238 

[4] McNamara, P. (2010). 'Internet addiction' linked to depression (sigh). Network World, 27(3), 42. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/215997310?accountid=17238 

[5] Inside the chinese boot camp treating internet addiction. (2015, Jan 17). Telegraph.Co.Uk Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1646247833?accountid=17238 

[6] Kirkey, S. (2008, Mar 17). Internet addiction a mental disorder. Star - Phoenix Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/348944286?accountid=17238 

Current Events II

 When I was searching some news to write in this post I lost my courage because the information I have read just do not go out of my head. I had found an article in Wikipedia (can you imagine, the whole page in electronic encyclopedia!) about... deaths while taking selfie. People. Died. Because. Of. Taking. Self-portrait photograph.

  I still have no thoughts about what makes people do that. Desire of popularity? Habit to take photos of everything? Or may be just aspiration to demonstrate their followers something? The most resent accident which I found happened in November. Two young guys felt from bank and drowned in the Narmada canal in India trying to take showy photo. I am sorry, that it happens to young people but sometimes I feel like some of them in pursuit of likes and comments cease to think about anything.      

For example, these two girls died in head-on car crush because at the moment of bump they were taking this photo. Besides, they were driving to bachelorette party of one of them! 

  I understand that the cell phone is part of our today's life and that we cannot live without it anymore. Nevertheless, nobody could have thought that digital technologies, which are created to help people and make their life easier, may be so dangerous, though indirectly.According to statistics, more people died because of taking selfies in dangerous situations or places than by shark attacks. I suppose it is a real epidemic and threat. Addiction to social networks could have unpredictable consequences.

For Further Research

 Why do I think that addiction to any sort of digital technologies an important issue? More and more people and even children become dependent on it (whatever it is: computer or cellphone). Have you ever thought about it's causes? I have. In my opinion, people which have stable psyche and many things to do nearly are not prone this kind of addiction. Thus, I made a conclusion that culture of using technologies should be given by parents and a big part of responsibility lies on them.the article about parent's role in emergence of computer or game addiction. The article says that the fault of parents in this problem is that they just do not show love and enough attention and even do not notice when the child has problems with making friends and in communicating at all. All this emotional problems "raise their risk of Internet addiction, the researchers say."
 What about adults and their addiction to social networks? A huge amount of people use Facebook and Instagram attaching them more daily. Some psychologists of two german universities suppose that users are "triggers states of envy and resentment" according to this article.
 Do you think that you are addicted to the Internet? You can check it here :)
There are some questions to determine are there any problems or not.
My result is - occasionally addicted. And yours?

What the Experts Say II

 Addiction to the Internet and social networks has an important psychology aspect. That is why there are some articles about the connection of the addiction problem and psychology. I found a review of some literature on this issue. There is much information about outlining SNS (social networking sites) usage patterns, examining motivations for SNS usage, examining personalities of SNS users, examining negative consequences of SNS usage, exploring potential SNS addiction, and exploring SNS addiction specificity and comorbidity.
In results of this paper you can find summary information on every of six topics above. What is interesting, Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths made a conclusion that "extraverts appear to use social networking sites for social enhancement, whereas introverts use it for social compensation" and that usage of social networks "decrease in real life social community participation and academic achievement, as well as relationship problems, each of which may be indicative of potential addiction"!

References:
Kuss D.J. and Griffiths M.D. (29 August 2011). Online Social Networking and Addiction—A Review of the Psychological Literature.
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/9/3528/htm?hc_location=ufi

What the Experts Say I

There are already many studies about addiction to the Internet and social network despite they exist relatively not for long. For example, The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology studied the level of social networks dependence among students who are teacher candidates of Sakarya University in Turkey. The article say that many people have not a control over their using social networks and this usage "seriously harms a person’s life". 

  1257 students of this university participated in the study (there was 739 females and 518 males of different levels of education from freshmen to senior). Using Internet Addiction Test by Dr. Kimberly Young (director of Netaddiction.com and the Center for Internet Addiction) which consists of "Facebook Addiction Scale 20 items are about determining of the Facebook Addiction and 2 items are about personal information" they found out that males are prone the addiction more than females! (For me it is quite surprising because I have thought that girls spend more time taking selfies and chatting with friends.) So, the study showed that there is a big difference in the addiction between not only genders but also and between ages "seniors are more significantly addicted to the Facebook than juniors, sophomores and freshmen."  

 References: 

TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology (July 2012) A NEW ADDICTION FOR TEACHER CANDIDATES: SOCIAL NETWORKS  

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ989195.pdf

Current Events I

 As popularity of social networks has dramatically grown for the last few years, new ones are being created so often. Now the most popular social network in the world is Facebook but there are many smaller networks which afford different scopes. For example, Instagram allows to apply filters to photos and short videos and share them. Twitter is used for publication short notes called twits. Probably, Facebook is so famous and often used because it combined scopes from many of these small social networks.

 Nevertheless, there is still some scopes which are not presented in any network. In March 2015 the new application on the base of Twitter was released. Periscope has recently become extremely popular among celebrities and ordinary people. The app grabbed the social media world in a few months.

 It is a video streaming platform which allows to transmit a live recording of oneself or whatever for followers (by the way, not only in Periscope but and from Twitter too). For them it looks like Skype or FaceTime but they can only watch and write massages to the person who is making the broadcast. Absolutely successful experience of usage Periscope shows that it is a very convenient way of interacting.

 Of course, sometimes it can be interesting to watch famous people answering fan's questions or one's friends having fun. The point is that Periscope, from the view of developing problem of social network/the Internet/cell phone addiction, is just one more space and chance for people who cannot control their Internet usage to improve this skill. 

 I have an account there also. Despite I have it relatively recent I already know a few people which are transmitting CONSTANTLY. They do it without any purpose and even if they do their homework, drive a car, working or do nothing and nobody (!) is watching them... This desire to always be online and in breaks between broadcastings watch other's ones (and certainly not forget to update Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) is not healthy, I suppose. All their life reducing to this pictures, virtual life and ephemeral popularity.

 Do you think Periscope provides this kind of addiction among people or just helps to contact with people?