Privacy?

            With the advent of new technology that allows people to give out so much of their information, it brings up the idea of privacy. Society’s expectation of privacy has changed because of new technology (Cakrani, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013). New technology such as social media has allowed people to post their private information in a public web location. In fact, it has even created a culture where it is normal for private information to be posted on websites such as Twitter and Facebook (Cakrani, 2013). Before these types of websites were created, it would not have been a normal thing for people to give out their current location, job information, or personal information on the Internet. However, social media has created a society that holds the attitude that it is not only acceptable to put that information on the Internet, but it is almost essential to do so (Cakrani, 2013; Packard, 2013).

            There is an issue with this lack of interest in security and privacy, though. That issue is that privacy is becoming harder for people to obtain and maintain (Cakrani, 2013). With new technology comes new ways for others to get people’s private information which, many times, has negative results (Cakrani, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013). The problem and cultural shift that has happened is the fact that people feel that is safer to release their information (Cakrani, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013). Users of social media and other websites and technology like it, are lulled into the sense that what they are posting about themselves will be kept private. Unfortunately that is not always the case. An example outside of social media is cell phones. They allow people to access all of their private information on the go. Since it is people’s personal cell phones, they feel secure using it. However, others are able to hack into phones and get that private information (Zuo & Jiang, 2013).

            So how does society go about remedying this? There are two specific things that can be done. First, people need to realize how vulnerable they are making themselves when they post their private information on the Internet (Cakrani, 2013; Packard, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013). Despite what a website or piece of technology may make people think, it is not as secure as they may feel. There needs to be a cultural shift in the opposite direction of what has occurred, which is to have people post less private information (Zuo & Jiang, 2013). Secondly, there is a flip side to the fact that new technology is causing privacy concerns. That is that there has also been technology that has been created as new ways to protect private information (Cakrani, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013). Those types of technology have been created as a way to compensate for the easier ability of people to gain other’s private information. People need to be aware of those options to protect their privacy and actually be willing to use them (Cakrani, 2013; Zuo & Jiang, 2013).

References:

Cakrani, E. (2013). Technology and privacy, internet effects on privacy. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(9), 279-283.

Packard, A. (2013). Digital media law (2^nd edition). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Zuo, Y., & Jiang, X. (2013). Internet privacy. Studies in Sociology of Science, 4(4), 32-35.

This video is a Ted Talk given by Eli Pariser titled “Beware Online ‘Filter Bubbles.’” In the video, Pariser discusses the filter bubbles that the Internet has created. People receive information from websites such as Google and Facebook based on personal information about themselves such as the computer they are using and where they are located. The reason that this involves privacy issues with the Internet is that this information about people is gathered without the people really being informed.

This infograph shows the new privacy risks that have been associated with new technology. The information shown is a result of surveys conducted. This means that this infograph exemplifies the concern that people are now having about their privacy because of new technology.

The infograph below shows how technology has changed how people do work. It explores the idea of how work was done in the past versus how work is completed now. It then shows evidence of how technology is also changing the kind of privacy society needs to protect themselves. Unfortunately, I cannot make this infograph any bigger than it is, so I have included the link here: http://www.privacyawarenessweek.org/resources.html

References:

APPA. (2014). Technology is changing… so are the privacy risks. Privacy Awareness Week. Retrieved from http://www.privacyawarenessweek.org/resources.html

Pariser, E. (2011). Beware online “filter bubbles.” Ted Talks. Lectured conducted from Long Beach, California. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles

Travelers (2013). Technology poses emerging risks. Travelers.com. Retrieved from https://www.travelers.com/prepare-prevent/home/personal-privacy-risks.aspx

Urgency – Are People Missing Something?

            In the past, this blog has discussed how news information needed to be incorporated in social media to be able to get an audience (Kolodzy, 2013). While that is true, it has caused some issues as a result. Since social media requires immediate attention, it has forced news companies to constantly be in a rush to be the first to post news information (Kolodzy, 2013; Tandoc, 2014). This has created a cultural shift to a world of urgency.

            People want information immediately (Kolodzy, 2013). They do not want a lag time between an event happening and hearing about the event that happened (Kolodzy, 2013; Malesardi, 2012). Social media has allowed this to occur. Social media has allowed news companies to post news information the minute that it happens (Kolodzy, 2013). However, there is a question of the accuracy in what is being posted (Malesardi, 2012). It is impossible for news stations to report on something the minute that it occurs without there being a possibly for mistakes (Tandoc, 2014). With events, there are emotions running high, sometimes something looks to be happening that is not, and oftentimes people want to already have an answer for why something is occurring (Tandoc, 2014). All of these facts actually take hours to work out for accuracy. However, now the audience demands that information immediately. News companies are complying with that demand (Kolodzy, 2013). However, as a result, there are mistakes in news reporting (Kolodzy, 2013; Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014).

            Urgency does not only mean the urgency to get information out, though it does include that. For news companies to be able to maintain the small audiences that they have, there is an urgency to keep them (Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014). This means that those companies are much more willing to adapt to what their audience wants, as a result (Tandoc, 2014). That very concept perpetuates the problem of urgency in the news even further. Because news audiences want information through social media and want it the minute that it happens, news companies are trying to provide that (Tandoc, 2014). In doing so, mistakes can happen which circles back to how this cultural shift to urgency is actually causing issues (Kolodzy, 2013; Tandoc, 2014).

            This was seen in the news reporting of the Boston Marathon. There were bombs exploding at the Boston Marathon, and each media outlet was fighting to be the first to post information about it. However “in the rush to uncover new information, the media got it wrong… repeatedly” (Siddiqui, 2013). “Whether the coverage was on television, in print or online, facts were misreported, suspects were misidentified, and presumptions were made about unknown motives” (Siddiqui, 2013). These mistakes in reporting were a direct result of the media trying to rush to be the first to post this type of information. This problem becomes even worse when one media outlet posts wrong information that other media outlets grab on to and repost (Tandoc, 2014). All of this need for urgency both created by the media outlets and the audience is causing false information to spread about events (Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014).

            So how does society go about changing this? This is a particularly difficult thing to change because the Internet and social media have created a world of instant gratification, so people want that same thing when it comes to the news (Kolodzy, 2014). The problem is that it is not realistic for the news to be reported with 100% accuracy the minute that it is occurring. As a result there are two options for people. The audience needs to start understanding that they may not be getting 100% accuracy in the news stories that they are hearing (Kolodzy, 2014). Or, the other option is for the audience to be willing to accept a slower turnaround time for news information (Kolodzy, 2013). The urgency and the mistakes resulting from that are becoming more and more apparent, so those options are all people have to work with at this point.

References:

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Malesardi, M. (2012). Advances in reporting. The Journal of Government Financial Management, 61(4), 4.

Siddiqui, S. (2013). Boston bombings reveal media full of mistakes, false reports. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/boston-bombings-media-mistakes_n_3135105.html

Tandoc, E. C. Jr. (2014). Journalism is twerking? How web analytics is changing the process of gatekeeping. New Media & Society, 16(4), 559-575.    

This infograph shows how social media is influencing news reporting. This is so important because it is the fact that social media is influencing news reporting that started the urgency in that reporting.

This infograph shows the impact of social media on the news and how people get news information. This relates to social media allowing news to be reported the minute that it is occurring.

This infograph supports the information in this blog because it shows the fact that now everyone has the ability to post news information. This also explains the fact that there can be misinformation posted because of social media and new technology.

References:

ING. (2014). Impact of social media on news. Social Embassy. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/ING/infographic-impact-of-social-media-on-news-sming14-36054221

Marino, K. (2012). That’s old news! How social media is replacing traditional journalism as a news source. Schools.com. Retrieved from http://www.schools.com/visuals/social-media-news.html

University of Florida. (2014). Evolution of news media and social media. Digital Media Café. Retrieved from http://jbertho.com/2014/02/24/social-media-is-quickly-becoming-a-major-source-for-news-infographic/

Can Society Still Communicate?

            Technology has changed everything, and our brains are no different (Keegan, 2012). Technology has literally changed the way our brains function, which has caused a huge cultural shift (Keegan, 2012). That shift is to a world where people can have entire relationships online and never actually meet their partner in person, face-to-face. This is a positive thing in the fact that it allows so many people to create new connections with others that they never would have been able to before technology (Petric, Petrovcic, & Vehovar, 2011). However, it does also create one major negative result (Petric et al., 2011).

            People feel less pressure and feel that they are able to connect easier when there is computer-mediated technology involved (Petric et al., 2011). Those are new skills that have been created because of new technology. Gaining those news skills is not only a good thing, but has become necessary to be able to survive in the technological age (Petric et al., 2011). The problem that is surfacing, though, is that people are not maintaining the old skills necessary to communicate with others when there is not a computer screen between them (Keegan, 2012; Turkle, 2012). Furthering that, the youth of today is even beginning to no longer learn the interpersonal skills that are required in face-to-face interactions (Turkle, 2012).

            It is vital for people to gain the new communication skills necessary to remain as a valuable source both professionally and personally (Kolodzy, 2013). However that does not mean that the skills required for communication outside of the technological world are no longer relevant and needed (Turkle, 2012). Those skills seem to be forgotten. Society is in the process of raising a generation of people who will be able to communicate with anyone in the world when they have a keyboard in front of them, but no one when they are facing someone in person (Turkle, 2012). This situation becomes even worse when research has shown that people actually have more positive impressions of others when the communication is face-to-face as opposed to computer-mediated (Okdie et al., 2011). Society is going to raise a generation of people who are connected around the world, but in that same sense are completely alone (Turkle, 2012).

            So how does society go about solving this dilemma? There is an easy solution to this problem. Society cannot let the communication skills that do not require technology to be left behind. They have to teach the younger generations to put their computers down and learn to communicate face-to-face with others or those skills will be lost (Turkle, 2012). The difficult part of this solution is finding a balance. Though society still needs to have the older communication skills, the new ones created because of technology cannot be forgotten either (Turkle, 2012). Society cannot progress if it does not hold on to some skills from the past (Kolodzy, 2013; Turkle, 2012) However, it also cannot progress if it does not gain some skills for the future (Kolodzy, 2013). It is important for new skill sets to be gained, but at the same time, completely losing the old ones cannot be an option (Keegan, 2012; Turkle, 2012).

References:

Keegan, S. (2012). Digital technologies are re-shaping our brains. Qualitative Market Research, 15(3), 328-346.

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Okdie, B. M., Guadagno, R. E., Bernier, F. J., Geers, A. L., & Mclarney-Vesotski, A. R. (2011). Getting to know you: Face-to-face versus online interactions. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 153-159.

Petric, G., Petrovcic, A., & Vehovar, V. (2011). Social uses of interpersonal communication technologies in a complex media environment. European Journal of Communication, 26(2), 116-132.

Turkle, S. (2012, March). “Connected, but alone?.” Ted Talks. Lecture conducted from Long Beach, California.

This video is a Ted Talk presented by Sherry Turkle. She explores the concept that people are living in a world that is more connected than ever before, but yet they are really alone. She explains that because people are becoming more and more tied to their computers, they are becoming less and less tied to other people, outside of their computers. She even presents the idea that people may be losing the communication skills necessary to interact with others in person. This is because the young are only learning to interact with others when there is a computer in front of them.

This infograph shows the communication channels that people now use. It shows multiple channels and includes the positives and negatives of each channel.

This video explains five ways that social media is changing people’s brains. Since this blog focuses on how social media is changing people’s brains and interactions, this video helps to further explain that concept.

References:

AsapScience. (2014). 5 Crazy Ways Social Media is Changing Your Brain Right Now [YouTube Video]. United States.

Pimanova, J. (2012). Communication channels infographic: Facts and figures, pros and cons. EmailTray. Retrieved from http://www.emailtray.com/blog/communication-channels-infographic-facts-and-figures-pros-and-cons/

Turkle, S. (2012, March). “Connected, but alone?.” Ted Talks. Lecture conducted from Long Beach, California.

How Technology is Changing the World

Technology has changed the world of today. The social world, work world, and just the world in general now completely focuses and relies on technology and technological devices to function. Technology has spread to the social world because many people form and maintain their interpersonal relationships through social media. It has almost become a requirement for people to be on social media to actually be included in their interpersonal relationships (Packard, 2013). What this really means is that a whole new set of skills is required to successfully manage interpersonal connections with others (Packard, 2013).

Furthering that are the new skills that are required to remain as a viable employee in the workforce of today (Shea, 2010). Technology has changed how workers communicate with each other, how work is accomplished, and even what work actually needs to be completed (Shea, 2010). For example, e-mail communication has become one of the most prominent forms of work communication (Shea, 2010). Without the skills to communicate effectively through e-mail, a person may not be able to contribute to the working world of today (Shea, 2010). That exemplifies how a generation of people that are not willing to adapt to technology and learn to use the necessary skills associated with technology will likely not prosper in today’s working world (Shea, 2010). Even more than that, many of the jobs required today are technology related and thus require people to have the skills necessary to obtain those jobs. This has caused people to have difficulty competing in the workforce of today, if they do not have the technological skills necessary to do so (Shea, 2010).

The negative effect of this is that it can be creating a generational gap between those that are able to use and fully adapt to the technological world and those that are not (Shea, 2010). This can be seen both socially and professionally. Socially, the general population keeps in contact with each other through social media. If people do not use social media, then they are losing out on those interactions, which can lead to the gap between those using technology and those not using it (Shea, 2010). Even more noticeable, and probably more important, is the professional gap that occurs between those that know and understand new technology and those that do not (Shea, 2010). Technology is rapidly changing. Those that do not or cannot adapt to that, are likely to become no longer necessary in the workforce (Shea, 2010). They will no longer be a necessity to a company that is fully digital, now (Shea, 2010).

Technology is literally changing the way our brains function (Keegan, 2012). Because of that, to successfully navigate both the social and professional world of today, people have to adapt and learn the new skill sets necessary (Keegan, 2012).

References:

Keegan, S. (2012). Digital technologies are re-shaping our brains. Qualitative Market Research, 15(3), 328-346.

Packard, A. (2013). Digital media law (2^nd edition). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Shea, B. (2010). How the Internet changed everything. Crain’s Detroit Business, 1, EO50.

 

The videos below were created to explain how technology has changed the world. This first video was created in 2008. Though that makes the video already six years old, it still holds some interesting information about how new technology has influenced the world.

 

This second video is actually the updated version of the first video. This was created in 2014 to update the facts that were released six years ago. Watching these videos one after the other is particularly interesting because people can see what facts have changed and what facts have not changed over the last six years.

References:

Mesjms. (2014). Did You Know 2014 [YouTube Video]. United States.

Skikull, R. (2008). Technology- Changes [YouTube Video]. United States.

The World of Social Media

Social media has created a new outlet for people in many aspects of life. First, it is fairly obvious how social media has influenced personal life. Social media has created a way for interpersonal connections to be created and maintained all from behind a computer or phone screen (Petric, Petrovic, & Vehovar, 2011). This allows people from all different parts of the world and types of lives to meet and connect on social media (Petric et al., 2011). It also allows for people to keep connections with others that move away (Petric et al., 2011). That is the positive aspect of social media; it allows for connection. This does require people to learn new skills in order to use social media as a way to create interpersonal connections, though (Paus, 2013).

Professionally, though, social media has had a much more complicated presence. The positive side of social media for professional use is that it has provided companies a free way to market and reach audiences that are attracted to social media (Petric et al., 2011). The advent of social media found audiences being pulled from companies because they were more interested in spending their time on different social media platforms. This meant that companies needed to adjust or be left behind (Kolodzy, 2013). Companies began using social media platforms as a way to market themselves (Kolodzy, 2013). This proved to be profitable because using social media websites are free, but can provide an outlet for wide audiences (Kolodzy, 2013). Because of this, companies needed to learn to use social media to their advantage (Kolodzy, 2013).

A good example for what kind of skills communicators needed to learn to advance with social media can be seen through the dissemination of news information. Social media caused a huge hit to be taken by newspaper companies because people no longer wanted their news in that form. Many companies took to creating online newspapers. While that has been somewhat successfully, news companies still needed to do more (Kolodzy, 2013). This resulted in a necessary change for newspaper companies, which was to integrate news information with social media (Kolodzy, 2013). Instead of fighting with social media to get users’ attention, news companies worked through social media to get users’ attention (Kolodzy, 2013).

Though this has been successful, it has caused new skill sets to be necessary for journalists. A journalist now needs to know how to get an audience’s attention on Twitter by being able to post headlines in 140 character or less (Kolodzy, 2013). A journalist now needs to know how to get an audience’s attention on Facebook by posting interesting pictures to go along with the written story (Kolodzy, 2013). Finally, a journalist now needs to know how to get an audience’s attention on YouTube by posting a video along with news information (Kolodzy, 2013). All of this has caused new training to be completed by communication professionals for them to remain vital in the professional world of today where social media is only becoming more and more integrated (Kolodzy, 2013; Paus, 2013; Petric et al., 2011).

References:

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Paus, V. (2013). New media and leadership: Social media and open organizational communication. Manager, (17), 73-78. (this one is a stretch but can be used here because it talks about interpersonal communication between teams and through social media)

Petric, G., Petrovcic, A., & Vehovar, V. (2011). Social uses of interpersonal communication technologies in a complex media environment. European Journal of Communication, 26(2), 116-132. (this discusses the interpersonal side)

This infograph depicts how social media is affecting the workplace. It provides percentages of how much social media usage is being used in the workplace both personally and professionally.

 

This infograph shows how social media is being used across the world. It exemplifies how social media is being used in all parts of the world, but how some use it in different ways. What is particularly interesting about this infograph is the fact that looking at the future in the United States shows trends of common usage of the hash tags conflict, war, and terrorism. On the other hand, many other counties will be using the hash tags environment and green.

 

This infograph shows the relevance of social media both in general use and in professional use. It particularly shows how corporations are using social media as a way to connect with their customers. It also explains what type of social media is more popular for companies.

References:

Adams, D. (2013). How technology changed our workplace communication. Bit Rebels. Retrieved from  http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/technology-changing-workplace-communication/

Social Media Facts. (2013). Core Vision Technology. Retrieved from https://corevisiontechnology.wordpress.com/tag/whatsapp/

Wallace, D. (2011). Digital Technology: Global Game-Changer for Social Change. Infographic Journal. Retrieved from http://infographicjournal.com/digital-technology-global-game-changer-for-social-change/

Information Overload - Deciding What is True

With the ability of anyone to have Internet access comes the ability for anyone to post information on the Internet. This has created a new necessary skill which is for people to be able to distinguish what is true and what is not true on the Internet. This becomes particularly difficult considering that even news stories that are reported on the Internet are not always reliable (Gunter et al., 2009). From journalists, to anyone reading news information posted in the Internet, it has become a necessary skill to be able to check the sources that are posting that information (Gunter et al., 2009). There are so many ways that people can post information that may or may not be true. A prime example of this is blogs. Blogs have been a result of new technology. Many people do post true and factual information on blogs, but how does one go about establishing if a blog’s information is true and factual (Gunter et al., 2009)? This is where the new skill sets come in.

            For example, this blog post itself could be false, perhaps what is being written about is not accurate information, even though it is presented as such. What would be necessary for readers to substantiate the claims made in this post would be to research the topic, and read the sources referenced in this blog (Gunter et al., 2009). These are all news skills that have to be learned by any communication professional and any person that wants to know the facts of an idea.

            Before the technological age when a newspaper was the only way that people could receive the news, there was no need to fact check what was being written about (Kolodzy, 2013). Furthermore, even if people did want to fact check what was being written about, there really was not a way to do that (Kolodzy, 2013). Now, though, different information can be given to different parts of the world (Sylvie & Chyi, 2007). Because of that, it has become a necessary skill for people to fact check the information that they are given (Sylvie & Chyi, 2007). This is particularly necessary for those in the communication field, such as journalists, whose careers rely on the factual information that they post.

            It is extremely easy for false information to circulate on the Internet, so being able to establish what is true and what is false is a necessary skill.

References:

Gunter, B., Campbell, V., Touri, M., & Gibson, R. (2009). Blogs, news and credibility. Aslib Proceedings, 61(2), 185-204.

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Sylvie, G., & Chyi, H. I. (2007). One product, two markets: How geography differentiates online newspaper audiences. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 84(3), 562-581.

This infograph covers information about social media. It is particularly interesting to see the information about blogging and other types of social media used by companies.

This infograph shows who bloggers are. It also shows how many of them are blogging for fun or professionally.

References:

 

Goodwill Community Foundation (2014). What is a blog? GCF Learn Free. Retrieved from http://www.gcflearnfree.org/blogbasics/1.2

Van Den Beld, B. (2011). The future of marketing: Blogging and social media. State of Digital. Retrieved from http://www.stateofdigital.com/the-future-of-marketing-blogging-and-social-media/