Cooper Voigt

Professor P.

English 102

30 January 2016

Your Brain on Social Media

The topic I have chosen is social media in our lives and how it can shape the way we

think. The reason I have chosen this topic is because as I get older I notice how differently I

think about people over social media even though I may have know that person for quite

sometime, I realize I start to judge them for the things they post or things they like. People that I

once were great friends with now seem bigoted, overly sensitive, slutty, irresponsible, or even

just plain stupid. I also noticed in light of the recent election how much information is shared

with no credible source, both ends of the spectrum spew out tons of barely credible but

extremely persuasive information and large numbers of people grab onto that information and

use it to shape their thoughts. Its not only in political posts but even posts where they are no

point in them having the wrong information. I also believe that with social media information

spreads so quickly and creates instances where something like the riot in Charlotte, NC was able

to happen. I believe social media has the ability for non-credible and credible information to

spread quickly allowing social media to change one's perception of one another or themselves.

Social Media as a Tool for Protest is an Article by Marko Papic and Sean Noonan and

they claim that social media is a useful tool for a protest. They draw this argument from looking

at how the protests in Egypt developed and continued. They claim that with the use of social

media it lowers the cost of a protest such as participation, organization, recruitment, and training.

The paper talks about how social media offers advantages in releasing messages quickly and
broadly but the messages are vulnerable to interference, in this case government spreading false

information to disrupt the protesters on social media. They claim that the key for a protest is to

inspire and motivate individuals to confront the issue, with the use of social media it is much

easier to do so, someone instead of attending meetings and rallies can just join a Facebook group

or follow the protest on other social media platforms. In addition the protest movements can

reach hundreds of thousands of adherents with a single Facebook post or Twitter feed. The

major values and interest that is at stake is the data pertaining to the other types of protests. In the

paper they talk about how the social media can only really be effective when it is the right time

to use it, they give an example of a neo-nazi posting on social media doesnt make that great of

an impact when compared to someone posting about politics in a time of political unrest. The

authors of this article are credible because they had their article published and verified on Google

Scholar. Also Papic and Noonan have both been on the news and have spoken about their topic. I

believe the paper is slightly biased towards social media being a great tool for protests, not once

do they talk about how the protests could be a bad thing or mention how misinformation from

the protestors end can cause harm. Although they talk about some of the weakness in Social

Media as a tool they only talk about how it is weak due to no quality of leadership.

Social Medias Impact on Relationships by Shelley Bonanno is an article that asks

about the emotional connect that one receives through social media. She claims that relationships

although social media are valuable they do not have the ability of providing one with the

opportunities of deep emotional closeness. Her claim that relationships through social media is

valuable is backed up by studies that link social support to positive mental health and the

negative emotional impact of loneliness. Also research on those with fewer social relationships

die sooner on average compared to those with more social relationships. Her claims of social
media lacking the deep connection is back by studies that show people try to make themselves

look good through social media, backed by her instance in the text, Displays of emotional

weakness, insecurity, or conflicts generally tend to be concealed or minimized on social

networking sites. (Bonanno 1). She then says that because of that it is difficult to reveal the

qualities that define deep, intimate relationships. The major values and interest that is at stake are

the authors ideas on what makes a intimate relationship, although it is mostly given that one

would develop a deeper relationship with someone in person, there is the chance that one builds

a deep relationship through social media. I believe the article is slightly biased towards her

medical knowledge, as said above everyone is different and it is completely possible for one to

build a deeper relationship through social media rather than in person. I believe she is credible

because she cites her sources and studies and is a licensed psychologist and writer for the Now

Magazine.

Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism by Pablo Gerbaudo

makes claims of the culture of protest movements are now in social media. He defends this claim

by looking at examples of protest fueled by social media the examples are the Arab Spring,

"indignados" protests in Spain, and the Occupy movement. Gerbaudo says that social media is

used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, basically saying that social media

allows for people to create a place to protest in short time. The major values and interest that is at

stake are as says the author, the risks of political evanescence which new media brings to the

contemporary protest experience. The bias in this article is that the author is saying the only

benefit from social media is the ability to meet at certain places in a quick amount of time. I

believe him to be credible because he had his article publish and his article contains six citations.
 Now I am asking some inquiry questions. How does social media affect our thoughts?

Pertaining to our values, beliefs, and perspective of the world. What role does social medias

have in politics? Moreover, how does social media shape politics. Lastly, how does social media

affect our relationships with those around us?

Some of the agreements and disagreements I have found in my sources are that they all

mostly agree that social media is valuable in our day and age. Where I feel, the sources disagreed

is my second source compared to the other two, the first and third source hardly touch on can

social media be bad they mostly say that it is a great tool for convergence whereas the second

source touches on the negatives from social media as in the harm it can cause. The different

perspective that may influence my own are the positives of social media bringing people together

but also the negatives where social media is harmful to the user. What else I need to know to

write with authority on this topic would be some more statistical sources that say like, 40 percent

of teens experience some form of cyberbullying or this percentage of people display themselves

differently on social media.

Cooper,

I really like this topic here. Social media and the internet is a tricky thing. On one hand it offers

great access to information and communication with friends, and on the other, it can offer

warped or completely inaccurate information. As you press forward, Id like for you to narrow

down your scope. The wide raging discussion of activisim and relationships is quite broad. So Id

encourage you to choose one of these and commit to that. There is a really interesting book I read

recently call So Youve Been Publicly Shamed by Ron Ronson. Its from a popular commercial

press (as opposed to peer-reviewed academic), but it could be a place where you might be able to
find a more specific direction. Again, think about focus, dont try to bite off too much here.

Looking forward to this one.

http://dalpemilette.com/files/pdf/infosabius/2011_03/InfoSabius_2011_03_07_MediasSociaux.p

df

https://psychcentral.com/lib/author/shelley-galasso-bonanno/

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2462754