Reflection

One significant aspect of social media I learned this semester would be regarding the convenience of it. In this day and age, making things as convenient as possible is the goal as evidenced by fast food drive-thru’s, at-home delivery, downloadable music, TiVo options, and much more.

The same applies for social media. Social media attempts to always be at our fingertips, which is reality for those of us who have smart phones, laptops, tablets and so on. This article http://thesitevamp.com/social-media-growing-simplicity/ goes on to share the idea of keeping everything simple and easy, which in turn is most convenient.

While having social media available to us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year is remarkable, there is a downfall to it as well. If you pause and think about all the methods you have to communicate with people you will realize all the social media resources you utilize. Having access to this all the time means you are never completely free from it. Yes – you can turn your phone or computer off, but that is only a temporary sense of relief. Once that object is turned back on, back appear all your social media sites.

Hearing your phone go off can heighten your sense of anxiety, since you want to look at that notification, but it may be work related or unimportant at the time. There is information you could obtain at your fingertips, but forcing yourself to not check it can keep you on edge. That is a constant battle of wanting to be home relaxed, but also desiring to know what is going on within your network. Having that sense of obligation to check work emails for example, or respond to important missed calls due to having the resources available to you can end up consuming any time off work or free time you have.

Keep social media in check, and make sure you control it – opposed to it controlling you. 

Romantic Dangers

In today’s world when it comes to meeting new people or keeping in touch with old friends, social media is the way to go. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other like it have many positive outcomes. Such sites allow you to see what your friends are posting throughout the day, liking or commenting on, what pictures they are taking and uploading for others to see, and so much more. All these sound like great aspects of social media, but just as great as they sound they can also be just as bad. When it comes to social media and relationships these great aspects can turn into the roots of things like jealousy and distrust. This article, http://www.psychologytoday.com/ discusses romantic attachment and the dangers of social media. It also provides examples of how social media can create or increase jealousy in relationships and cause trust issues.

Social media allows people who are in a relationship to express publicly the emotions that they have for one another. It is also a great way of keeping in touch with your loved one. As a result of social media you are able to keep an active tab on your partner like never before. You can observe what they comment on other peoples’ pictures and statuses, notice if your partner has been tagged in other peoples’ photos, and monitor if they have been checking in at different locations. Having all of these ways to keep tabs on you partner can lead to jealousy if for some reason you become aware of situations that you would have not known about if not for social media revealing that. For instance, seeing your partner tagged in a photo with someone they should not be with like an ex boyfriend or girlfriend, would definitely stir up some trouble.

The level of trust can also be decreased related with social media usage. An example would be if your partner tells you they are going one place and they check in at a different location than what was previously stated, this could bring about confusion and dishonesty, which could ultimately lead to distrust.

All these great aspects of social media all of a sudden do not seem that great anymore when these dangers are discovered. 

Leaving a Legacy

Many things in society that are caring and sweet such as flowers, gifts and photos all eventually grow old and reach a certain expiration point. What if something could capture all those special moments and last forever?

The untraditional idea of putting a Quick Response (QR) Code on a tombstone is the next step the digital age is taking. The Washington Post wrote an article on this innovative concept, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/. When I first read about this notion my first response was unbelief and a sense that it is unacceptable to utilize social media in this intrusive way. This initially fell under my list of what is improper social media etiquette.

After a while I began realizing the many benefits of using social media this way could provide. The idea is for loved ones, or anyone visiting the gravesite to have instant access to pictures, obituaries, videos and much more by simply scanning the code. By using this code the depth of information on the individual would be greater, the appreciation for the deceased more able to be realized and the genuine representation of the person most accurate.  Gravestones typically contain a small amount of information that does not provide the extensive information like a code would. Using the code would ultimately make the deceased become as alive as possible to others.

When looking solely at a gravestone it is like you are peeping through the keyhole trying to see the person’s life and only seeing a limited amount of information. Utilizing the QR code is like opening the door into the person’s life and seeing the legacy left behind. 

Almost as Fast as the Speed of Light

Light is considered to be the fastest thing in the world that we know of. Just to refresh your memory about physics class, according to NASA light travels at a constant, finite speed of 186,000 miles per second. Putting that into relatable terms, a person could travel around the equator 7.5 times in one second. That is freaky fast. 

Light currently holds first place for being the fastest, but there are some competitors arising. Since the information age, also known as the digital age, took place in the 1990’s the evolution of technology has been rapidly growing. Along with that came the development of global communications and social media networks. Benefits of the digital age include: efficiency, convenience and knowledge. As a result, topics spread more quickly, especially those like human deaths. 

Prior to the digital age, when someone passed away there would be an announcement made in the person’s home town newspaper. Phone calls would be made to family and friends to inform them of the person’s death. These types of old school information spreading techniques have very much gone to the way side ever since the digital age. Nowadays, death announcements are more public and exclaimed. Typically the first place people find out about a death is through some form of social media.

An instance which took place a last November, was the death of Paul Walker. Paul Walker was best known for his poplar hit movie series, The Fast and Furious. The story of the fatal crash first broke on TMZ news site and then spread to Twitter and other social media sites.

An article on Mashable, http://mashable.com/2013/11/30/actor-paul-walker-dead-at-40/, depicts the massive amount of social media involvement, particularly Twitter surrounding this event. Families, friends, organizations, fans and celebrities tweeted on the tragic news.

Paul Walker’s Facebook status was updated after confirming his passing, which received almost 17 million likes, over five hundred thousand comments and almost six hundred thousand shares within hours. Due to the digital age and all their advancements, these are a few of the many outside examples on how death is becoming more publicized in our society and making the news of death spread almost as fast as the speed of light.