Introduction to Usage of Media , Social Media and The Affects of Our Lifes

As we all have connection of the use of the social media network or own any sorts of electronic media, we may not have the knowledge of the risk factors that may be link to our everyday life. Some people may not see the affects in there life but others do. Social media is highly among us. The usage of media in our everyday life impacted our surroundings. We seem to wastes most of our time on media uses, which can impact on how we eat or pay attention to what is going on outside the media world. Where people suffers from media addiction, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and low self esteem. Others may be a victim of cyber bullying, cyber predators, deception and suicidal behavior.

Cyberbullying

Ryan, K. N., & Curwen, T. (2013). Cyber-victimized students: Incidence, impact, and intervention. SAGE Open, 3(4) doi:10.1177/2158244013516772

"Cyber-Victimized Students: Incidence, Impact, and Intervention," by Ryan and Curwen discussed the impact and prevention of cyber bullying for adolescents. Cyber bullying is characterize to be a harmful act by using electronic media like social networking, texting and emailing. Cyber bullying can be implied to both gender and age from six years and up. Male cyber bully is more physical and female is more emotional. Research shows that cyber bullying is impacted by emotional, social and academic. Emotional is a source of embarrassment, loneliness, depression, fear and low self esteem, where as social is caused by social status. Academic impact is both associated with emotional and social functions.  There is also ways to prevent cyber bullying. School have develop an education program for students about the safety of cyber bully, which also created awareness for the victim to have a support system. In conclusion, the authors of this article is to help raise awareness of cyber bullying.

Response to Simic Quote

In the essay by Charles Simic "A Reunion with Boredom" was about an outcome of the hurricane disaster that happen, on which brought up our dependency with technology. He points out "a sudden and unmistakable realization that we are only puppets jerked this way and that way by whatever device we think we are operating." In his statement of "realization" which meant that we have awaken our self to the dependency. He also stated that "we are only puppets jerked" which meant that our technology is controlling our lives and that we are the string attach to it.

Media Addiction

Baer, S., Saran, K., Green, D. A., & Hong, I. (2012). Electronic media use and addiction among youth in psychiatric clinic versus school populations. The Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry / La Revue Canadienne De Psychiatrie, 57(12), 728-735.

Article "Electronic Media Use and Addiction Among Youth in Psychiatric Clinic Versus School Population," by Bear, Saran, Green, and Hong addresses the use of media in the youth life that may develop behavioral addiction. Youth had a dramatic increase of use on media; they spend more time on using any sorts of media. Psychiatrist had surveyed 110 from a regular school students and 100 from a psychiatric clinic on the length of the usage with medias. It showed that the psychiatric clinic spend twice as much time using media than the regular students. In this case people with psychiatric disorder like ADHD, impulsivity and a low social competence may develop media addiction.

Cyber Predators

There are many high risks of cyber predators but there are ways to prevent or at least minimize the risk of being a victim of online predators.  Cyber predators attract people that are emotionally vulnerable. Ways of minimizing of being a victim: Parent should discuss about the safety of online use for adolescents; set up a safety features on computer; monitoring the use of internet usage; and to inform adolescents to avoid response to strangers messages. If any evidence that adolescents is a target of cyber predator, adolescent should save all sorts of documentation that can prove that he/she is being harassed. Adolescent should also discuss this with the adult, so they can report it to the authority.

Online Health Information

WebMD is online source for any sorts of health information. Having this access for people can be a negative and positive. Depending on the symptoms that people input to the site; the reaction of people may cause some severe concern, but this is also depending on the patient as well. The websites gives a more board information than the actual real symptoms is. Always consult with your physician before accessing online sites.

Depression and Anxiety Associated with Social Media

Becker, M. W., Alzahabi, R., & Hopwood, C. J. (2013). Media multitasking is associated with symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 16(2), 132-135.

In the article "Media Multitasking Is Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety," by Becker, Alzahabi and Hopwood discuss how media may affect depression and social anxiety. Because of the dramatic increase of media uses; which created a high risk of social interaction between people. Surveyed over three hundred college student by using the test PHQ (Patient Health Questionnaire) which is use to survey depression and anxiety levels and MMI (The Multimedia Index Questionnaire) which is use to survey the total use of media and multitasking. Studied did not show on how using media affected the symptoms of depression and social anxiety, but it had created a environment for the people who are in the high risk of this symptoms. 

Games Addiction Affects Health

In reading Don's Blog which caught some interesting fact about the use of video games. On how games can affect people life. It had stated that playing video game can be a type of addiction; that can developed some serious health problem and all sort of disorders. It showed that more and more people are into video games which may create less social time for any sort of other activities.

Social Media and Suicide

Luxton, D. D., June, J. D., & Fairall, J. M. (2012). Social media and suicide: A public health perspective. American Journal Of Public Health, 102(Suppl 2), S195-S200. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300608

In the article "Social Media and Suicide: A Public Health Perspective" by Luxton, June, and Fairall explains how social media can be a high risk of suicide, but can be a source of suicide behavior prevention. Many research where done, but there where no sufficient evidence that stated that social medias can cause suicide behavior. Neither the less online access is an attainable information to suicide. Even though it's an accessible access organization now have created a more restrictive web search on suicide information. Studies showed that social media does have a high risk of cyber bullying and cyber harassment. In Hinduja and Patchin research showed that 2000 middle school student are being bullied via social media website and that more than twice of the victim commit suicide. In conclusion social media has both negative and positive aspect on suicide behaviors. 

Catfish: The Tv Show

Catfish the highly publicized tv show that highlights the use of social media like Facebook causes deception in the online world. Where anonymity is guaranteed, users of social media have no way to be certain who they communicate to or presenting themselves accurately. Acceptable levels of limited self disclosure or image management which exist in the real world that are being exaggerated online, and when the truth comes out that ones trust is broken it can have a devastating consequence at the end.

Eating disorder due to Social Media

Fernandez, S., & Pritchard, M. (2012). Relationships between self-esteem, media influence and drive for thinness. Eating Behaviors, 13(4), 321-325. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2012.05.004

In Sofia Fernandez's article "Relationship between self-esteem, media influence and drive for thinness is about how social media can affect the ways on how our ideal body look like due to the ideal image of celebrities in the magazine/television which can cause a eating disorder. The purpose of this article is to be aware of how social media can affect people lives. The writer points out the affect of eating disorder due to social media. There where studies that was done by the university in the Rocky Mountain region. Student where tested by doing a survey with scales from one through five. In conclusion to this survey it shows that men and women where affected to have low self esteem due to the ideal body type of a model. 

"Is Google Making us Stupid" Nicholas Carr

 In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he notes that the more time he spends online, the harder time he has reading deeply and he struggles with concentration and contemplation.  Carr says others have felt this too; they report skimming texts instead of sustained attention. Recent studies back up these claims. Carr interviews psychologist Maryanne Wolf who says the Internet, with its emphasis on speed and volume, may be destroying our ability to engage deeply with texts. Carr points out that Nietzsche’s writing style changed after he acquired a typewriter, and even the invention of clocks affected the way people think about themselves and their world. The Internet has changed people’s thinking even more. It has even shaped traditional media to become more like itself. Carr discusses Frederick Winslow Taylor who used a stopwatch to promote efficiency in early factories. His ideas have become the cornerstone of modern industry, and this approach has now come to dominate the Internet, and by extension, thinking.  Google is the best example of this, in its effort to organize everything with the ultimate search engine. Carr wraps up by suggesting that perhaps new technology has always changed the way we think, but then again the Internet’s effect is deep and profound. He fears we have become “pancake people:” wide but thin, and that human intelligence is more and more resembling artificial intelligence.

 In conclusion to the paragraph above, I think that its very true that our mind is program itself to changes. For instance, with the invention of the clock our mind has it on routine in our every day life in the social media world. For example, when waking up on the morning most of us will go online to our social media account to check what is up on the news feed.