What is the definition of social media? A published article written by author Maya Dollarhide talks about what social media is and how to understand social media. This article was published by Investopedia, and the name of the article is “Social Media”. I feel as though this title was a little lazy and doesn’t tell the reader much about what they will be reading about. Are we reading about what kind of social media platforms there are? What kind of effect social media has on the world? What social media is? I feel like the author could have made the name of the article a little bit more specific to narrow down a reader’s search when looking up specific articles about social media.
The next part of this article is about understanding social media. This section of the article mainly talks about the demographics of who uses social media and not about the how social media affects its users or how the algorithm’s work within social media platforms. That is what I expected to read under the “Understanding Social Media” section of the article.
Another section in the article talks about the “Types of Social Media”. You would think that this part of the article would talk about the different types of social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, FaceBook, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. Instead, these paragraphs talk about how people choose to use social media to keep in touch with their friends and family.
A few scrolls down the article, there is a subheading called, “Examples of Social Media”. There are only statistic facts about how many people use each social media platform. There were no examples of any kind about social media, and also the subheading “Examples of Social Media” has no context behind that. I’m confused about what the subheading even means. What examples are there to provide about social media?
I think that this article has a poorly written title and some poorly written subheadings about the paragraphs below. The subheadings of these articles have little to do with the text below the subheading trying to explain the meaning behind the subtitle.
You essentially cannot live without a credit card. Anytime you want to inquiry about; renting an apartment, buying a house, purchasing a car, even getting a credit card requires you to have credit! This website lays out Pros and Cons of Credit Cards written by Latoya Irby.
Getting a credit card will increase your chances of having a better future due to being able to qualify for loans, purchases, and renting. This website often uses a scare tactic in many of their paragraphs. They use factual statements but at the same time say things like, “Credit card debt is a vicious cycle to get into and tough to get out of.” I feel as though this cite leaves out that having a credit card and building credit is just a big game of life. There are so many different ways to build your credit and if you make one wrong move your credit score can go down. For example, opening multiple lines of credit at the same time is not a good way to build your credit. You should spread out your inquiries throughout time in order to build your credit score.
This website also gives out links to their sources throughout the article as well as lists the fact checker at the top of this article. Irby states, “Making payments over time can be beneficial if you need an item or service immediately but do not have the cash at that moment.” This statement is very deceiving for those who want to build up their credit because paying overtime while continuing to charge the credit card can cause your credit score to decrease over time! Irby even contradicts themselves within the article by stating this sentence because then at the end of the article Irby states, ” It’s good practice to pay your credit card balance in full each billing period to avoid fees and interest.” So, it’s beneficial to pay off your credit card overtime but at the same time you should pay your credit card off in full to avoid fees and interest…? Very contradicting within the article and makes you wonder about some of the other points that have been made throughout the article! It’s a good idea to ask friends and family about their credit card experiences as well so you can hear about their real-life experiences with building their credit.
A cause that I am very passionate about is adopting your animals from a shelter. When you adopt an animal from a shelter you are saving an animal’s life and emotionally rescuing them from their past as well. There are plenty of animals living at rescues that are in need of a home and need to be shown that they are loved. You could be the person that changes that animal’s life when you take them in.
Benefits of Adopting an Adult Rescue Dog
There is a big stereotype around shelter dogs having many behavior issues but actually many shelter dogs have been through some training. In the shelter, many dogs have been updated on their vaccines, and checkups through the vet. The shelter staff can also share important information about your new furry friend’s personality. This way you will know what to expect when you bring you dog home with you. This link that I found explains the many benefits, including the ones that I have listed above about adopting a dog from a rescue shelter. Adopting vs Buying a Pet — Are Purebred Dogs Better than Mixed Breeds?
This is the Best Time to Adopt a Dog
Ever since the pandemic started in 2020, most people have been stuck working from home. If you are one of those people who are working from home all the time, this is the best time to invest your time in getting a new companion to enjoy the time at home with you. Adopting a dog could not only save your new friend’s life but save another dog’s life who needs a shelter to save them as well! By adopting you will also discourage mass breeding from taking place as well. This link tells all about the benefits of adopting a dog: Why Adopt a Shelter Dog
When you decide to adopt a dog, please consider going to your local dog shelter and saving a dog’s life that day!
I’m sure that EVERYONE has heard about the famous slap that happened at the night of the Oscars on March 27th. As many people are picking sides over who was in the right and who was in the wrong with Will Smith and Chris Rock, I am actually here to talk about the article that I had read about claims that the slap was staged. I have seen many discussions back and forth about the slap being real or being staged on the night of the Oscar’s. There are many points to back up both sides of the arguments.
In the article “Was Chris Rock Wearing Protective Cheek Pad Before Will Smith Slap?” by Dan Evon, it talks about the viewers of the Oscar’s thinking that the whole situation was staged. There are some points in the article that may not have been fact checked before being publish or they just didn’t do the due diligence of showing the proof behind their statement.
The Claim
At the beginning of the article under “Claim”, Evon states, “A photograph shows Chris Rock wearing a protective cheek pad before Will Smith walked on stage and slapped his face at the 2022 Oscars show.” There is no picture evidence next to this claim to show that this statement is factual. You should always try to fact check posts before believing the post and especially before reposting the information on your own social media platform.
The Origin
Under the “Origin” of the article, Evon explains the story behind the slap. He then goes on to explain what some conspiracy theorists had put out onto social media; “On March 28, a doctored image of Rock wearing a protective cheek pad in the moments before the slap was spread online in support of this “staged” theory.” He shows the post with the doctored images and the caption at the top saying, “In 8k quality images you can see a pad on chris rocks cheek, yeah conspiracy theorists gonna go crazy with this one”. Other articles that touched base on the topic of the slap being staged stated that this image that was shared was a doctored image of Chris Rock. It would have been better if the author had added this image at the beginning of the article next to the “Claim.” This author only talks about the misinformation that has been spread across the internet, but they have not talked about what the facts are.
Now, we are just left with the misinformation that the internet has put out there instead of the facts of the event that actually happened that night. People fall for conspiracy theories all the time because of how interesting they are. Conspiracy theorists are like people trying to find the criminal. They put together all these stories that may or are not 100% true.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock since 2018, you know what TikTok is. Although, for those of you who don’t; TikTok is a social media platform where lip-syncing, dance covers, and other forms of entertainment are created and posted. TikTok has become a part of most people’s daily lives and culture. There are many different categories in which TikTok has made such an impact on the pop culture world such as Education, Self-Expression, Talent Discovery, Career Revivals, Cultural Diversity and Inclusivity.
Education
Many of the TikTok users that are still in school anywhere from grades K – 12 have found the TikTok platform very resourceful when it comes to educating them academically or culturally. There are many TikTok influencers that create content for the sole purpose of educating their viewers. These influencers will create content anywhere from academic knowledge such as math, history and science all the way to daily life skills such as cooking and cleaning. There are many TikTok influencers that are teachers in high schools or middle schools. This is so the teachers have a way of connecting with their students and also educating them in an entertaining way.
Self-Expression
TikTok is a great platform for expressing yourself freely and creatively. This is a space where content creators can show their talents and participate in entertaining “challenges” posted on the TikTok platform. Many TikTok creators have used their platform to go against fake social media norms such as photoshopping and editing to make their posts look better. This makes other creators feel more open to expressing themselves on their TikTok page and expanding their platform. Many TikTok users will post their hobbies or side talents on their page that draws attention and then creates a chain of posts leading from one comment to another asking them to create content pertaining to the comment posted.
Talent Discovery
In today’s society, you don’t need to be discovered by Usher or J-Lo in order to become famous. Just by posting multiple entertaining videos on TikTok and going viral, you can create this huge platform, get “verified” and then become a social media influencer. Many have released their own songs on TikTok that have went viral and ended up on the radio and have then gone on to get discovered by famous artists who want to sign a contract with the song creator that went viral on TikTok.
I don’t use TikTok, but Instagram has started to take on their platform by adding what they call “Reels” to their app. This is essentially the same as posting a TikTok. I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of responses I would get from posting a reel on Instagram using a popular sound that has been trending all over social media.
Career Revivals
Everyone ranging from not famous to famous and young to old, have found second chances on TikTok to revive their career or even start a new one they didn’t even know was possible. For many who thought their career was over, a few viral videos on TikTok can change that all around to making them a social media influencer. An app that started as an entertainment platform has now created many career paths for influencers around the world to grow in the path and take advantage of their newfound opportunities.
Cultural Diversity and Inclusivity
TikTok has been a great place for many users of many different cultures and ethnic background to educate viewers about their culture. Many users on TikTok are welcoming of all from different backgrounds and is inclusive of everyone and anyone who wants to use and post on the app. From the website listed above, influencer YanYan De Jesus says, “The platform is proud to be a place where everyone belongs, regardless of nationality, gender, background, or any other dimension of identity.”
While TikTok has created a lot of positivity in the pop cultural world, there is also a negative side to the TikTok platform. It can be very bad for users’ mental health when using the app.
Many have been glued to the TikTok app ever since the platform released. TikTok has become even more popular ever since the pandemic in 2020. The website listed above was written by a concerned parent who took it upon themselves to download the TikTok app to see how the platform worked and evaluate for themselves if it was an appropriate platform for their kids. There are many reasons why this parent thinks that the TikTok platform is unsafe for their child, such as: dangerous challenges, automated feed, TikTok predators, TikTok is addictive, harassment, and data privacy.
Dangerous Challenges
TikTok has become a platform where creators will post “challenges” for their viewers to partake in; most are harmless, but others are very dangerous. TikTok’s audience is made up mostly of young children or teenagers who are easily influenced or crave the need for instant fame. There was a challenge on TikTok that the site talks about where it encourages pill popping Benadryl to get high and have hallucinations. This has led the creators of the videos into seizures, comas, or even worse, death.
Automated Feed
The content uploaded to TikTok play automatically as soon as you open up the app. This is what sucks people into watching TikTok content for hours at a time. Automated feed on apps is made on purpose to keep viewers on their platform longer and glued to their phone for long periods of time. Automatic feed is also a bad idea in the sense of not being able to control what videos that you watch on your feed. There is always a possibility of coming across a video that you wish you would have never seen.
TikTok Predators
Unfortunately, there are many predators all over social media platforms. Although, TikTok lacks the security protocol needed to be put in place in order to keep predators out of children’s private messaging inboxes. There have been many reports of child predators trying to direct message children with explicit messages to their accounts. The social media platform has made it easy for child predators to contact children and message them privately and does not do a great job at getting rid of the predators quickly.
TikTok is Addictive
With the constant entertainment that TikTok provides, there is always the feeling of wanting more content. Not only is TikTok addicting for viewers to scroll through, but it is addictive when you are the person posting the content because you are always looking for more likes and comments on your posts. Many users on the TikTok platform will intertwine their online feedback with their self-worth on the app. This can lead young people to having severe anxiety and depression from the social media app.
Harassment
Many negative comments are made on social media platforms. There will always be trolls and people who make themselves feel better by bringing others down with their comments and hiding behind their smart phones. For an adult, most negative comments can just be brushed off, to an impressionable child who is still forming their identity, those comments can make these children fall into depressive episodes. Cyber bullying is a huge problem in society today and social media makes cyber bullying very easy as users can create anonymous accounts.
Data Privacy
There are many social media apps that require you to share permissions such as your camera, audio, pictures, location, contacts, and more. TikTok is owned by a company in China, so there are very many unknowns surround how their data is collected and used. This was one of the main concerns when TikTok first came out, the fact that it is owned and controlled by an external country can be very concerning for many reasons.
It is important to make sure that you are aware of the dangers that social media can possess. TikTok is a great place to be discovered, entertained, and connect with people; but users still need to be aware of the dangers and walk on the cautious side of the platform when using the app. Both of these sites connect by one giving you the benefits to using TikTok and the other giving you some of the dangers that can come about from using the platform. Both of these websites have helped to inform me better on what the TikTok platform can be used for in both great ways and bad ways.
This blog posts informs about how young girls can react to various social media, pop culture and entertainment in a positive way. Many social media influencers have a habit of posting very photoshopped and unrealistic images that make young girls think twice about how they are supposed to look. Social media has become such a common factor in our everyday lives that teaching positive interactions to the platforms in schools could help benefit child and teen development. Social media has been in connection with causing depressions, obesity, and bad grades in young girls worldwide. I had made some Instagram posts (posted below) that enhances this blog more by showing images that reflect on how society is portrayed on social media. I also went ahead and posted about two songs that relate to the topic of this post all too well. If you have time to listen to the songs posted, I would. They give some great insight into how women think about themselves in today’s society.
Social media is one of the main sources in today’s society that causes depression, especially in young, impressionable children. Social media platforms are revolved around posting entertaining content to go viral which causes people to be obsessed with the amount of likes and comments they obtain on their posts. This can cause obsessive behavior and unfulfillment that can lead to depressive episodes in young girls.
It is proven that depression is linked with obesity in young girls. Many people will stress eat when they’re depressed which can lead to overeating and obesity. When seeing the social media posts with the photoshopped, unrealistic, ideal images of women that society portrays, this can lead to a vicious cycle of young girls having body dysmorphia.
Childhood obesity also leads to bad grades in school. This is on the forefront of public health issues that also lead to poor performance in school. These students are so focused on their body image, social media platforms, and popularity status that it takes away from their academics and schoolwork to be focused on in school. Society has a way of influencing young girls to be so obsessed with their social media platforms and appearances that it affects their performance in school.
Ultimately, Social Media Affects the Health & Education of Young Girls
The solution to this issue is to educate in empowering young girls so they know that social media is not worth the obsession of wanting to be perfect. The way to do this is to invest our time and energy into these young and developing girls to help them achieve their goals and dreams in life rather than encouraging them to obsess over their body image. Many have taken to social media to use their platform specifically for showing how unrealistic and untruthful social media can be with photoshop and extreme editing of videos and pictures. This has helped young girls to be empowered to love themselves just the way they are.
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