coalcole12-blog

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The reading “Dicks Everywhere: The Cultural Logics of Trolling” focused on the topic of internet innovation and the influence it had on the advancement of trolling. The main difference between “sick” jokes then and now is that technological advancements and social media do not accept this as much as they have in the past. A quote from this reading read “television blurs the line between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction.” This quote is very applicable to situations we face and see in daily life, because while the television provides entertainment and the action, it also sends messages and sometimes people are unable to cope with them. The advancements of technology sometimes bring out the “trolls” because the consumers of mass media are gullible and they don’t really negate the beliefs by doing research and finding the truth. Some memes on twitter joke about the events that took place on 9/11. Our culture accepts these jokes and memes about events and situations that should not be joked about because 9/11 is and will remain one of the darkest days in the U.S. history. When the issue of gun control came up, many tweets and memes were posted regarding teachers, police and citizens with guns because of the laws regarding gun control. Online “trolls” typically transform actual issues and things into visual jokes which will aid in turning people against or for that topic at hand. Memes often focus on who’s are funnier or who’s get the most likes, but they do not always focus on serious topics. Because internet content spreads so quickly, people easily create content and a snowball effect is present because of the ability for media to spread so quickly. The internet guarantees rights and freedom for people to see the contents they choose to read without making them see the other side. Trolls will constantly provoke their targets online until the person feels they have no other option but to counteract this and it leads to where basically the troll is manipulating people’s beliefs. It is important for people and internet users to understand and adapt to this so they do not fall into this fallacy and allow their beliefs to be altered. 

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Social media and mental health issues

Social media has been on a rise in popularity since the early 2000′s and has become one of the main forms of communication and a part of daily life for many people, of all ages. Mental health issues have also been on a rise in this time period and it’s relation to social media is a very interesting and heavily researched topic. Many sites, like Twitter contain many things that almost idolize mental health issues. Many people who have a bad day or who feel sad for the night tweet things like “I’m so depressed” or “I have major depression” although they do not have a diagnosis. There is a difference between depression and the feeling of sadness or being upset, which many people do not understand. People posting these things or posting memes of how they are depressed, makes it more difficult on the people who actually live with these problems and diagnosis. On the other hand, there are many people who post things that almost make fun of these mental health disorders, such as posts like “how do people be depressed all the time? lmaooo” but they do not realize that these disorders are caused by environmental and biological factors that people sometimes cannot control and must seek help. Although, social media has become very accepting of these disorders, people often do not fully understand them and their posts reflect that. Social media can be great for communication and sharing your life with your friends but it often idolizes things that are not worth idolizing. It has also been idolizing girls being “bipolar” and “crazy.” These things are not accepted in society and are frowned upon, and often times the feelings these women show on social media to fit in, are things they should be evaluated for, by a licensed mental health professional. While social media commonly idolizes mental health issues, it does also provide a great forum for people to share their stories and experiences and provide support for one another. People sometimes experience and feel the same or similar things and social media can be a great place to support one another and try to help one another through these tough times. I think social media can be great for many things, and can even be a great platform for showing how common mental health is and providing a place for support, but when it comes to idolizing mental health, it can become an issue. 

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Politics of Illusion.

Our main focus in class for the past month has been politics in the media and how writers are trying to influence people to read their articles by using over exaggerated texts and fonts luring people in, or using misleading headlines, and having unreliable headlines. This article talked about how the first bits of the internet was created. Through time the internet has evolved which led to it becoming a huge part of our daily lives and a main source of how we receive news and information. Media was first used to replace news papers in order to communicate to the public more efficiently, but in recent years media has been about who can receive the most views per article. Since the importance has shifted from sharing reliable news to attempting to get views, media has not been reliable in a sense of getting truthful information rather to lure us in with things we want to hear. Many journalists work for a larger corporation or business where money becomes the main concern. These journalists are writing and working to bring more clicks and views of their articles in order to bring more money into their corporation. A term used frequently lately has been “fake news”; fake news is a type of propaganda consisting of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via media. I have personally noticed when watching different news sources, they construe the stories differently. The only way to seek the truth about a news article is to take from each source with a grain of salt. The internet is a way for citizens to receive information that has not been skewed, but this information is not commonly found or provided due to higher officials and corporations controlling these things. In the reading Bennett compares the opposing arguments of where the news is now compared to where it should be. One side argues that we can not relay news to the people the traditional way but in fact need to go outside the box to distribute news to citizens.