Final Blog Post: My Online Presence

The Fast Company Article I'm 14, and I Quit Social Media is a very interesting take on the dangers of online fingerprints. The eighth grader provides a detailed narrative on how other people were posting about her, and she had no knowledge of any photos or text that was being catalogued by her family. At her age, it would be dangerous and scary to have "unauthorized social media presence" because like anything on the Internet, it may come back to harm you later.

Personally, my online footprint is quite small. I browse and post certain types of content on a private account that has no ties to my identity, but my name appears on social media sites scarcely. I have a private instagram account that I rarely use, I run a YouTube channel where I post my projects, and I have a website about myself to show to future employers. 

My parents were very strict about my social media usage. I was unable to have any social media accounts until I was a sophomore in high school. They were afraid for me during a time where many different popular figures were defamed because of old posts to social media that were unacceptable. They were constantly monitoring and reminding me about the things that I posted, even if they were seemingly harmless. Their messages encourage me to keep my digital footprint as professional as possible.

From a public view, visitors to my sites would not learn much about my personal life. Unless they were to make their way into my private accounts under my knowledge, the only thing the public eye would see are things that I would want employers to see. I surmise that people feel isolated without social media and try to fill that void by making their presence online as noticeable as possible. There are, however, many psychological downsides to social media presence on the Internet.

Many users online are unforgiving and ruthless. Anonymous or not, people can be malicious while hiding behind a screen. This leads to cyber bullying and toxic environments over different social mediums. I agree with the notion that the rise in social media has led to an increase in depression and suicide rates. According to an NBC News article about the correlation between social media and suicide, between 2007 and 2015, suicide rates doubled for teenage boys and girls. This is a truly concerning statistic. The general amount of smartphone consumption by teens is a high statistic, and measures should ethically be taken to decrease the psychological threats of media.

While here are many benefits to having a social media presence, but I do not prefer to have information about myself accessible to the public for as long as the Internet will exist. I think it best to keep it professional.

The Danger of Echo Chambers (EOTO 2 Response)

One of the dangers of modern media consumption is the threat of echo chambers as a trap in which people's perspectives are polarized and reinforced only one sided. Millennials who grew up getting their news from social media have tendencies to seek sources that only agree with their own point of view. Why is this so prevalent, and how is it harmful?

According to GCF Global, echo chambers are environments where a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. One factor leading into this selective process is the nature of big tech companies recommending media to consumers that they would like or agree with. An example of this is Instagram's "posts you might like" or YouTube's "recommended videos." Echo chambers are created when an individuals feed is clouded with material that complies with their views.

Echo chambers are not only a beast of the Internet. They can happen anywhere that information is projected. The Internet has made this exchange of information more rapid and large scale. This is why echo chambers are more common in people who consume media solely from the Internet. The danger lies in online algorithms filtering content for consumers that will in turn have no exposure to conflicting opinions or content. It is healthy to dabble in both sides of any spectrum to see the point of view of "the other side." To avoid echo chambers, seek news from multiple different sources from different perspectives.