Blog Post #11

 Final Blog Post

  My relationship with technology and social media is equally distributed, in my opinion. There are times where I think technology and social media in general are very bad for me, especially for my mental health. But then there are times where I think that I wouldn't know where my life would have gone if I didn't have the experience I had with technology, especially since I have my own platform on social media. My own platform on social media has gotten me to so many milestones in my life that I never would have thought could happen, so for that aspect of the use of technologies, it's really impacted my life. But there are definitely downsides that come along with that. There have been multiple occasions where I've been on my technologies including my phone, laptop, and iPad for an excessive amount of hours. This is obviously not good for myself --- both mentally and physically. There have been times where I've spent over 2 hours on TikTok, and I've really procrastinated doing homework because of this. This affected my work ethic at school tremendously and showed that the use of technology took up a lot of my time, when it shouldn't. 

    For my friends and family, I think technology has its advantages and disadvantages with them as well. With my friends, I'd say their relationship with technology is similar to my experience with technology as we were all born in the generation where technology has become such a powerful and special thing to us. With my parents though, I feel that their relationship with technology is not the same as my sibling and I's, but my parents definitely see the positive in the technologies, especially with the way it supports us in doing such tasks like transferring money with our phones, communicating via text messages, FaceTime, and so much more. But my parents sometimes will also think technology, and social media in general have more negative impacts, more so regarding technology with the younger generation. My brother is considered a part of the "younger generation", and he is definitely more glued to his technologies, along with kids his age. I've seen my parents limit his screen time, especially since it's affected his work ethic at school, and not only that, but it also was not good for his health --- both physically and mentally. Since my brother is always looking at screens, his eyes have gotten really bad and although he has glasses now, this shows that his eyes have gotten tremendously worse due to technologies. On the other hand, with the use of technology, it allows my family and I to communicate with our families all over the globe. Having family members overseas is very hard sometimes as we can't see each other all the time, but technology has allowed us to keep in touch with each other with just a click of a button, which is definitely a huge benefit of technology. Studies have shown that 54% of people think technologies helps them be closer to their families and friends, which could be why we're always glued to our phones.

     If I was applying to a job, my prospective employer would see my social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. They would find the content I create for my own personal platform and for the school I'm attending. I have quite a presence online as one of the first things that pop up when I search my name up are my social media platforms. In addition to the social media platforms, my prospective employer would also see my LinkedIn profile, which shows all my information on where I attend school, my major, work and internship experiences, along with my skills and achievements. This paints a positive image on myself when applying to jobs as it expresses my professionalism. Although there isn't really anything I would edit out, I would double check all of the content I post on my socials, especially my old content to make sure there isn't anything on there that I wouldn't want shown to the public, especially towards my employers.

Overall, we can see that there are both positives and negatives to technology and the use of social media. While I think sometimes there's a good balance between the benefits and costs of technologies and social media, I wouldn't necessarily take technology away from people because it definitely has a huge impact on our economy and the way our world works. Although I don't personally think getting rid of technologies overall is a good thing, there are many ways people can try to limit their use of technology, which can then lead to better and happier outcomes of it. As I've grown older, I've learned to set limits for myself, and one of them is to try and balance out my use of technology, especially social media, with what I'm doing. I've struggled with mental health before and a big part of that was due to the use of social media, and I've recently started going on walks and moving my body to try and boost my health, both physically and mentally. Being a content creator who's always on social media, it's hard to separate myself from technology as social media content creation is something that I am passionate about. But learning to be more active, while also balancing content creation on top of that, I've learned that it's one of the best and easiest things an individual could do to help boost their mental health.

Blog Post #9

 The Progressive Era

    

    To be "anti-war", it implies that you disagree or oppose of the any action, usually by the government on going forward with efforts that lead to war with another country. Anyone who is anti-war view war as unacceptable to society. All of these media posts on websites with strong anti-war voices are usually obscured from the mainstream media news because authorities or the government want to keep peace within the country. Although that can seem very "messed up" to people as it's concealing their right to their freedom of speech, some people would rather this as it lessens violence in the specific country. For example, there can be protests, sometimes violence included in those protests, and it's something that the government would prefer not to deal with. The idea of war also scares many people, because no one really wants to be involved with war with all the damages it causes, both politically and economically. This is why anti-war voices are cast away because the government does not want those voices to persuade more anti-war people. Along with the idea of scaring the public, this is important to touch on because this can cause serious panics or worries within people. 

    In addition, anti-war voices are also merely just opinions on news of war, most of the time the anti-war voices are not news, which is another reason why most of the websites on anti-war are not directly mainstreamed on news channels. Going along with the idea of opinions, the anti-war voices are human beings making these comments, which means anyone can make any comment they'd like on anything they'd like, whether they're right or wrong. Therefore, some anti-war voices can be spreading completely false information, which is something the government would prefer not to reach as much audiences.

   

Blog Post #10

 EOTO Presentation Reflections

Online Influencers vs. Social Media "Influencers"

    The one presentation on online influencers really sparked my interest as the world we live in right now have a ton of these "online influencers" and not many people know the difference between some influencers on social media. Online influencers are not just the typical social media "influencers" that we think of, although there are so many people who have built a reputation and use their platform to share and persuade their audience. Most of these influencers have been so successful with their platforms because they provide their audience with authentic content and information. Some of these online influencers include music artists like Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande. They have both gained a reputation from starring on tv shows and movies and have developed into music artists, but they are considered online influencers because they have a huge platform where they create content for their audience. On the other hand, social media "influencers" are people like Addison Rae, Zach King, and Charli D'Amelio, who have established a following on some type of social media platform, and create content based on whatever industry they're in. These influencers can persuade their followers and other people to buy a certain product due to their niche, along with their content and popularity. 

Pros of Being an Online Influencer

    Effective marketing reach is one of the most significant benefits of online influencers, especially for companies as they rely on influencers the most to help them with marketing their products or service. Since most people trust influencers who create authentic content, most people in the world, are more likely to buy something or do something from the influence of an individual online, than the actual company itself. Influencers can even do better with their content than actual company ads, which is very helpful for brands as it allows them to reach a wider range of audience. This is a huge benefit for companies as it can help them save time, effort, and a little bit of money as well since they don't have to pay a huge amount for billboards, advertisements, etc. 

Cons of Being an Online Influencer

    One of the disadvantages to being an online influencer is authenticity concerns. There are online influencers who create content on things that aren't necessarily related to the contents that they showcase on their platform. This raises concerns within the influencer's followers because they see it as they're only doing it for the paycheck. This becomes a huge issue as people want to see authentic content from the person they admire or follow. If the influencer is always posting advertisements on their page, then they could potentially lose a lot of followers over time as most people don't want to engage with people who are only posting for money. 

Affects of Online Influencers on Society

    With online influencers, everyone in the world is affected --- whether you're rich or poor, young or old, majority or minority, these influencers have an affect on everyone. Online influencers can range from teenagers to college students, young adults, and even elders. There is a wide range of online influencers in many ages who create authentic content on their own niche, which is why everyone is greatly affected by influencers everyday. 

Takeaway

 My biggest takeaway from the online influencers presentation is that it is very important to be very authentic with the content that you are putting out to your audience, especially for brands because building trust is one of the most important things when it comes to building a relationship with your audience. I learned that it is very easy for an individual or a brand to lose people from not producing real and authentic content and information. In the marketing and advertising world especially, being truthful with your audience will help build the relationships between the company and the media and this can very much affect how well a company does.