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“The Good and the Bad: How Social Media Affected Me as a Gen Z Individual”

Social Media is the most used invention in this current era. It is usually utilized by expressing oneself to others through stories, posts, or comments; communicating with other people despite the distance and time, and gathering information, may it be educational related questions and answers or a simple gossip. Also, social media has taken over the majority of the people and became a part of our daily lives because we rely on it even for the simplest matter. It created an impact on people to the extent that it can influence how a person thinks or acts. As time passes by, technology including social media has been continuously developing to fulfill and satisfy our wants and needs. It aims to bring comfort and entertainment to everyone, but some downsides affect us all. This is where the most FAQs and debatable question enters, “How did social media affect us, the Generation Z individuals?” 

In my case, which can also be relatable for others, social media helped me in so many ways such as expressing myself to others and honing my thinking skills to bond and create a connection with other people. However, I also went through a phase wherein I was intoxicated by it due to the social media “standards” or shall we say ''unrealistic beauty standards'' set up by the people. I overshared in social media, my emotions depended on it, and I became numb enough not to think rationally and critically which is a big disadvantage for me. In social media, a person must be wise enough to decipher real intentions behind the screens. These are the negative effects that I got from social media. To make everything shorter, social media affects the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health of a person. There is no such thing as a haven in this world. There will always be flaws, imperfections, and bad experiences, but these effects that we got from social media could be an advantage if we are going to use it for good. As for me, I turned these negative effects into a realization that will surely be helpful for me in my future endeavors. As you can see, if we reflect on our actions and knowledge regarding social media, we'll come to apprehend that we have the power to help ourselves in times like this. Social media is a product of a human being’s mind and we, Generation Z individuals, are humans who are capable of thinking. If we learn to discipline ourselves to prevent these negative effects to leave a mark on us, then social media would be a better place, not just for Generation Z individuals, but also for people from other Generations.

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Impeding Digital Gap in the Physical and Digital Realm

The world changes timely and it is inevitable. If the world changes, so do the alteration of norms, values, and beliefs in life even from before our lives were influenced by gadgets and the internet. Historically speaking, minding boundaries such as cultural, socioeconomic status, social classes, language, and physiological appearance from the past is what made the gap between us mainly because we thought of putting a wall or perhaps a diversion would suffice to avoid racism and discrimination. On that note, we can infer that the existence of the internet and gadgets has strengthened these boundaries to the point where even our own family, relatives—our own flesh and blood get to put walls between them and us. Most people from the upper class belittle the people living in the lower class of the society mainly because of the advancement and their superiority over the lower class, thus, results in promoting discrimination with fixed discretion. As a student, equality in every single aspect is what we need to keep us from having thoughts of favoritism in terms of academics and life itself. We keep getting divided digitally because of our social classes and socioeconomic statuses in the way of interacting with other people. We need a law that bridges the gap between inequality, economic pricing that is feasible enough for those living in lower classes, an education system that bridges the gap between scholars and payees, a government that is competent to handle the priorities and necessities of the country, and the consideration of teachers in every kind of situation—virtually or physically. In conclusion, bridging the digital gap depends on the actions of the people, not just the government but from us itself. We need to be literate, considerate, and mindful of our actions to avoid putting walls virtually and physically to people whom we know and to those who are strangers to us. Upholding these three aforementioned leads a step towards a responsible person that’ll help promote equality and equity and impede the digital gap with each other in the physical and virtual realm.

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The Setbacks of Piracy

Inventions were being made by those who are gifted, where they would able to pour out the ideas they have kept in themselves. However, there are people who are uneducated or having no experience in a certain area so they tend to steal or copy other people's work for their own desire and envy, which makes them gain profit out of it. Piracy takes place in this kind of situation where there is a duplication of material that came from copyrighted work. In addition, many people can benefit from piracy, for it gives them the advantage to survive by selling and money to be able to sustain their everyday needs. Even though piracy is a crime, many people are constantly utilizing it, but the consequences are most risky and will be severe. Moreover, due to the tons of dilemmas and cases regarding piracy, people are being petitioned to cease this kind of activity. In line with this, it is a transgression in the law, if an individual was convicted because of piracy. Piracy can be a source of many products like DVDs and videos, it can also be a cause of computer viruses that can harm the software on the computer. In conclusion, the result can cost a professional's way of living. Most creators, authors, and inventors creating original content tend to have second thoughts in showcasing their work, proposals, and inventions to the public. Furthermore, the heaviest consequence in committing piracy is imprisonment if you were caught recording without consent, permission, or authorization to replicate other people or professional's confidential work. As a result, people around you will become reluctant as they find out your deeds of doing piracy. Private agencies would contact those people who had done piracy or to track them through the information that was being gathered on the internet.

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Media: A Ray of Hope in Times of Dark.

"It's a small world after all", a famous quote that indeed makes sense especially in this era of modernity where technology keeps on evolving and developing. Through technology and the things that we could do because of it, the world is indeed, getting smaller each day, as there are things that bind us all together despite the location and the distance. One of those things is the information usually conveyed to us through different types of media. However, since there are different types of media, then there are also different ways of how the information we need in everyday life is provided. These types of media namely: print media, broadcast media and new media doesn't have the same tactics in delivering information. Although they have different ways, the goal is clear and that is to serve people with credible information that will help in making people's lives easier, better and up-to-date. Time has made these three very different, not because of the year they were created and developed, but because of the year their mediums were mostly used and cultivated. However, despite of their differences, their goal and mission keeps them related and connected with each other to the point that they actually complemented each other and yes, they aren't the better versions of old to new, but rather a better versions by means of information. It is quite obvious that their existence made a very significant role in delivering information but more than that, they became people's light and hope to living in the dark. Because of these three types of media's existence, people no longer have to live in the dark without being informed and updated, and without waiting for the credible information to pop out of nowhere after months. It is basically like eating fresh meat all the time. Thanks to print, broadcast, and new media, information are updated and there is now light after the dark.

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The Standing of Media in the Next Five Years

Information is essential to us in many ways, either verbal or non-verbal interaction. In the past, information was delivered through print and broadcast media, where some people are fond of using it as their main way of acquiring knowledge despite the developing information age. Information age on the other hand, made other people more dependent on technology where it draws their attention in order to be entertained as well. Nowadays, print media is prominent for people who can’t attain technological devices even if they wanted one for themselves, as well as the broadcast media that became essential when mandatory information was given. Perplexity would be the outcome for some people who couldn’t adopt the information age for they always rely on the printed and broadcast media. With that, we could conclude inevitable consequences importantly for those people. As the information age acquires or attains supremacy of being an important channel of media, it would affect our mental, physical, and social interaction. Conclusions are many for those who rely on technology for it is easy for them to adopt, but it is rigorous for those who aren’t. The interaction of those channels of media could probably have complications, for this reason-- ‘’time is constant’’ in terms of developing our system, most especially on deploying information. It could be, that the information age would progress further than the print and broadcast media, which makes people become dependent on the technological system. As the years ascend, we could expect bizarre events that we can't fathom and a lack of social interaction as we rely on technology.

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Understanding the Relevance of Information and News Literacy in the Midst of Social Era

After going through various eras, the world has entered an era wherein making connections with one another is easy-- the Social Era. Here, people connect through sharing of interests, ideas, beliefs, plans, and knowledge, which result to short or long term objectives and relationships such as collaboration in businesses, romantic relationships, or simply a connection to go to whenever a need arises. This occurs in public places like school, workplace, church, and markets. Due to world’s advancements, social era also takes place in televisions (News) and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), in which there are numerous platforms created for people to socialize despite the time and distance. Social era offers a great opportunity for everyone. However, there are disadvantages if a person is not careful and knowledgeable enough. In addition, Bradberry claimed in the year 2015 that there are people who’ll have negative intentions and will take good advantage of pulling people down in order to gain something out of it.

In accordance to Sockman (n.d), "The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder." Therefore, a person is recommended to learn and understand the relevance of the following in preparation for involving oneself in social era: First, News Literacy to improve one’s critical thinking skills for a better analysis and judgment in terms of various news and information, which are shared and gathered by huge number of people with different backstories. Second, Information Literacy for the skills of knowing what is your needed information, where to find it, and how to use it properly. These are basic knowledge a person must be equipped of to help themselves reach their goals in this era. Whether it is for awareness of what is true and false or an additional knowledge for something important, learning these will be of great help most especially if a person has to make huge risks in a certain situation like voting and election for example and the consequences afterwards will create a negative impact in their lives in the long run.

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“Media and Government: A Love-Hate Relationship”

Each side has the audacity to dominate every individual through various information that brought them to be more skeptical on choosing what side to rely on. Everything has a complication in every situation, especially when media interconnects with government as it investigates it’s manifestation. The government is an independent factor for it has the advocacy to protect the population but when the media eventually sprouted, it depicted every phenomenon the government has. The relationship between the both sides has been affiliated with love and hate liaison that leads to confusion of the population where they would choose what side to be on. As a student, I confess the connection between both sides with its love portion and hate portion that brought me perplexed on where to believe. The government has been corrupted as well as the media and because of this reason, it led me to frustration which made others as well. Furthermore, the government were in good terms with media as it took care of it on giving information towards the population, but there is one thing that made us realize when media technically achieved higher demands on the government. This is how our artist contemplated her judgement, the way she made it with conviction on how she comprehended the situation and testified what the government has been doing to our media. Everything revolves in money, that even media could guarantee information whether it’s relevant or irrelevant with deceitful sincerity. We know that our Government has been treating our mass media in an abashed manner even though the media was functioning only for their money which portrays the toxicity of the Philippine government forgetting the word FIDELITY.

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The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual

As the years go by, the usage and purpose of technology has been gradually increasing and developed. Information stored in search engines are vast and unlimited in terms of quantity but is limited as to quality. The purpose of being a Media and Information Literate is to engage in a digital society where one needs to be able to use, understand, inquire, create, communicate and think critically. In addition, to be a media and information literate individual, one must be able to critically evaluate and distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information in a certain situation which makes the value of being a media and information literate individual significant. Furthermore, it helps individuals as consumers of information and media to view and make rational decisions and therefore become professional creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right. Simply speaking, being a media and information literate individual doesn’t just concern you but for you to be concerned at spreading the information to others.

We must uphold the value of being a media and information literate in order for us to avoid conveying implausible arguments or flimsy information that might confuse the mass of individuals, and by this, we can become a brilliant receiver and sender of information in media and any other platform. That being said, a certain Mass Media that provides information can also prevent their audience to have trust issues on the information they want to convey. Within the contemporary media environment, developing media and knowledge skills is particularly important.