Why is Social Media Harmful For Kids?

 

            Background 

         Social media has blown up in the last decade and has impacted everybody in the world. No matter how old we were when it blew up, we were effected by it whether we started using it or was just a follower that never posted on any social media. As technology has grown, it has become easier to gain access to devices that are able to view social media. In this case, kids are introduced to social media at a young age and can be influenced by its presence. Before social media became a thing, memories of our childhood were kept in scrapbooks or physical picture copies that only few people could view, but not anymore. Now that social media exists, anybody can see what you used to be as a child if your parents post pictures or videos and there is no hiding from it. 

            Positives  

           Growing up with access to social media can sound scary to parents or adults because of the bad things that can be posted on it and kids have the chance to see it and ruin their innocence at young age, but it has some positives to it. One positive is that kids are allowed to express themselves and can become their own person at a quicker age because of the information that is out there. When gathering information from social media kids are allowed to process it and learn to have their own opinions at a young age. Another positive is they are allowed to talk to friends or other kids they know from school or close by without having to be with them. This helps them learn how to interact with people and make friends compared to only being able to see them when the parents let them see each other and have little social interaction with others. With positives there are always negatives and can out way the positives. 

            Negatives 

          Everybody has embarrassing moments growing and have gotten lucky with being able to get away from them with little consequences because they can only be seen with hard copies and stories that are told of those moments. Not anymore, kids now have to live with the consequences of these embarrassing because of social media and the ability to look back at the memories that anyone can look at once it is posted. This holds a strong grudge over kids posting on social media because of the consequence they will have to live with later on in life. Once something is posted it can be deleted but never truly away from everybody on the internet. With this kids growing up have to live with these memoires hanging over their head and cannot grow up and get away from these haunting memories that they do not want to be seen. This makes it hard to edit their own childhood and make it hard to have good memories of a happy childhood. With the ability to see the embarrassing childhood memories it is hard to see through that and view the happy moments kids had growing up when they are older because all they can see are the weird pictures they wish were not on their social media. Childhood should be a good memory and can reminisce on the happy moments growing up. Adults have grown up and have learned to forget the moments they did not enjoy growing up but can be a difficult task with the invention of social media when they were younger. Before social media people were able to start new and change identities and can embrace their new selves without worrying about who they were before but now with social media people can always tie you to the person you were before which can be a struggle and frustrating. With this being said it restricts kids growing up to little lifestyles and cannot change to someone new with people connecting to who they used to be to who they are trying to be now. I know I have changed drastically since I was younger and only very little people know who i was before and glad they do not know who I was before because honestly they would probably not want to talk to me. With this fresh start I am able to open myself to new opportunities because social media was not as big when I was a kid and people can not see who I used to be. The point of growing up is being able to change who you want to be and not who you used to be. 

            So What? 

           I did not write the pros and cons of social media at a young age just to write it, I want to show that posting pictures of embarrassing moments of kids can be harmful in the future because of the trouble to get away from those moments. Restricting kids from social media is almost impossible with technology now but can prevent them from posting something they will find to be harmful to their personality further on down the road. People need to pay closer attention to what they are posting before they click the button that allows anybody in the world can see. Parents can restrict the ability to allow their kids to post on social media and monitor to what they are watching on social media platforms and as technology grows there are more kid friendly apps that allow the same positives with very little negatives as normal social media posts. 

Re-Inventing Yourself. Is It important and why?

Prehistoric Memory Keeping

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Cavemen Scrapbooks

Ok, so for this class blog, I want to combine what I am learning in two of my classes. First, women are expected to carry on the burden of passing down cultural and familial information. Essentially they are encouraged to be present and collect as many memories as possible while the men get to sit back and do nothing. Second, I want to ask a question you may have never considered. Who made cave paintings? Of course, the answer is that ancient cultures have been lost to the sands of time. But no WHO made cave paintings. You probably assume men. After all, every movie centered around cavemen is centered around men. So why would you think anything else? I do not blame you, of course. Nevertheless, since we know women have been in charge of scrapbooking, does it not make sense that this pattern that continues to the present day might have extended from the distant past? Is a cave painting anything more than a scrapbook on the wall of prehistoric homes?

Pictures On Walls

To make this easy, every time I use the term "scrapbooking," I am referring to Humans recording memories and information about themselves for people years later to view. So follow along! Scrapbooking in the 90s was heavily photo album based and verbal. Now in the present day, it is digitally based, and "scrapbooking" is done mainly on social media. This is because times have changed, yet we are still doing the same thing, just with different vessels. Now think back to the past. Like the Before Common Era past. They did not have scrapbooks or cameras. Instead, they had their fingers and wet red clay along with other minerals to make a variety of colors. In came cave paintings. Now not much is known about the people who made these except the fact that they were our ancient ancestors. However, recently, an Archaeologist named Dean Snow actually believes women did a majority of cave paintings. At least, this is what he noticed when looking at paleolithic cave art.

Dean Snow has been studying the size and finger length left behind on many cave paintings. Men's index fingers tend to be shorter than their long ring fingers, and women are the opposite (usually). Snow was studying a painting when he made the realization that the handprints had to belong to women. This led him down a rabbit hole. Furthermore, in modern people, Snow's theory was right 60% of the time, and he believes ancient cave people most likely had more pronounced differences as features now overlap. The main reason cave art was believed to be done by men was because of the depiction of women and wild animals. However, what about that really says a man drew it? Nothing at all. If anything, that strikes me more as a woman drawing a story to put her kids to sleep. Alternatively, a retelling of the time she met the love of her life. Whatever the story is, why do we inherently think a man had to do it yet also believe women have always been society's "scrapbook"? Why hold these two ideas at once? Do they not contradict each other?

Those Who Write History…

Now, this may or may not surprise you, but the answer to the question of why we assume men made cave art is a fairly straightforward one. Sexism. Most modern archaeologists who first discovered cave paintings found them in a time when gender roles were very rigid. Snow believed that since male archeologists were doing the work, they most likely assumed so were men eons back then. As Paul Whitefield puts it, "those who write history often determine who makes history".

So it seems to me that the earliest form of scrapbooking was cave paintings. Moreover, while these were not solely done by women, it is safe to assume they did a large portion. At least more than the general society thought before reading this. However, it is also essential to recognize that men and adolescent boys did a noticeable amount. So with this notion, should we throw away the idea that scrapbooking is inherently gendered? Because historically, the earliest form was not. While it was mainly women, men were still present in this "scrapbooking" more than present-day men. So why was there a shift? Why were women banned from popular society as painters and artists in medieval times? Why did men take over as historians of lineage just to give it back to women centuries later?

The Story Continues

If you want to learn more about the real history of cave painting, then I suggest keeping up with Snow and his research. An article that really goes into depth is "Were the first of prehistoric times women?". Snow explains his methodology and elaborates how this small sample may represent something entirely bigger. However, a lot of people still try to disprove Snow by saying the artist of "stencil art" may be different from the artist of other forms of cave painting. I believe that women painted a majority of all cave paintings. In a society where men handled the hunting, this just makes sense. Plus, if you want to hold on to "scrapbooking" being inherently gendered, then you have to believe that the most ancient form was gendered to an extent as well.

Works Cited

Cannizzaro, L. (2022, August 3). Were the first artists of prehistoric times women? Archeotravelers.com. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.archeotravelers.com/en/2021/03/16/were-the-first-artists-of-prehistoric-times-women/ 

Whitefield, P. (2013, October 15). Women did most prehistoric cave paintings: Religion, or just lazy men? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-oct-15-la-ol-prehistoric-cave-paintings-men-vs-women-20131015-story.html 

Yirka, B. (2013, October 11). Archeologist suggests much of Paleolithic cave art was done by women. Phys.org. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://phys.org/news/2013-10-archeologist-paleolithic-cave-art-women.html

Social Media and Athletes

 Social Media Matters In The Life Of An Athlete 

                                                                                                                                          Written By: Jacob Forton 

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Background: 

Social Media has constantly found a way to improve year after year, when you truly think about it, it seems as if when one social media app is on a downfall there is just another waiting its turn to takeover for a couple of months and then complete the same cycle. With brand new advancements in our technology and our expansion of our social media apps brings more opportunities for us to either promote ourselves or demote based on what we post. Because of this these apps aren't always the friendliest for athletes at all ages. 

The Problem:

People forget that athletes are humans too. Athletes just like any regular human live a life based off of choices and those choices lead to consequences good or bad. However, recently I have seen athletes ruin their reputation based on what they post and how they act on social media. Social media used to be a way that athletes can share their highlights with friends and mainly college coaches to play at the next level. But times have changed... Yes twitter is still a great tool for recruiting, but athletes are not watching their actions and it clearly shows with what they like and who they follow. It gets so bad that even athletes are posting themselves drinking and smoking because the pros do it. 

Whats next:

As scholarships are pulled from kids everyday based off the content posted. Athletes started transitioning into the use of "spams" which are burner accounts where they can post themselves partying where only their friends can view it. But why are athletes like this? is this because they have a different identity that they don't want the world to see, or are they doing this because their whole life they are told not to drink or smoke because its just gonna make it worse.

Finally: 

Athletes social media can be tempted and influenced by a ton of things and we need to understand not every athlete is a superhero. Athletes make mistakes however their mistakes seem to be pointed out a lot more than non-athletes but they are lucky because sometimes they get let off the hook and face easier punishments such as a fine or missing one game. So let's face it if athletes get let off easier and if they make mistakes and are just like you and me, whos to say they cant post themselves drinking partying and having fun especially when they are over 21 years old. Everyone used to do it when they were younger so what makes athletes any different? After all, they are prob just trying to relax when they are already in top shape and they hardly get any time off as it is and I know some people who crack a cold one open as soon as they finish work. 

Social Media and Ones Personal Persona

Social Medias and Ones Personal Persona 

Written By: Mireia Bustamante

When Reading My Life Might Look Great On Social Media, But Deep Down, I'm a Ciranolid
Isopod, I noticed there is in fact a repetitive pattern for the number of people who like versus don't
like mine or your posts. On my own Instagram, I have noticed a pretty significant change in my
feed over the past few years.

What Happened?

Over the years as I grew up with the people who followed me, like the friends I went to elementary, middle, and high school with gradually started to unfollow and not like my photos as much. What can you do, it happens with age and as you turn into an adult. The middle school I went to was private and very secluded from the rest of other schools, the only people I knew were the 30 that were in my class for all three years of my life, during that time. I graduated and went to a public school where my class size expanded and I met new people, the same also happened with my junior high peers. As I began posting more and discovering myself and finding the things I was interested in, my middle school friends gradually faded and became acquaintances. Yeah, it sounds cliché, but it’s the truth! I started seeing fewer of them in my notifications and started seeing more of my new friends. Our conversations started to fade and we all stopped talking, but somehow we all still knew what was going on in each other’s lives, isn’t that the beauty of social media.
For a while during my transition from one school to another, after a while, I noticed that I was always photographing and posting my life more than others, not sure what it was, but this phase of mine lasted about a month or so. Once I got out of this trend, I never realized how annoying it was until others started doing it. Oops sorry… but as Taylor said, “how genuine could these Instagram moments be if I'm constantly photographing them?”.

I truly never thought about those moments until after seeing them from an outside perspective. I learned lots of things when viewing these images from others, and as much as I wanted to be private about my life and what I did, I couldn’t. I learned what I was comfortable with posting and what I wanted to keep private, so I began to only show my followers events or pretty places in Austin and everywhere I would travel to all around the United States. For example, this past September I went to a concert that I have been waiting for since 2017, I tried too hard to stay in the moment and put the phone down, and not think about even bringing it out, but I had to, that is a moment I wanted to remember forever but I'm not sure how reliable my phone is because I can’t trust my iCloud or even think about the video being gone years down the road from now. I would get sad, not to be corny.
I posted the video to my Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, it was a happy moment for me, and I wanted others to experience it too, although many people may not know of the artist that I went to go see, some may watch the video and may be persuaded to listen to his music with how cool I made the video look. Well, frankly, I didn’t make it cool, the artist did. That’s almost like what Taylor said, who wakes up so perfectly and posts a “good morning 😁” photo on Instagram? Nobody realistic, which is unfortunate because as much as we want it to be, it isn’t.

Social media has so many fake personas people feel the need to live up to, well, only people who are unfortunately influenced easily. you're influenced by others around you, friends, videos you watch, everything. Social media has expanded over the past few years in drastic ways, I see so many promotions and advertisements for brand deals they're working with in hopes to get a good cut or portion of the money they make, it’s business through social media. A business is where one person is paid to be and act on something that they're not. I can say it has expanded over the past few years but to think about it, it’s everywhere, not just on social media, it’s on the news, commercials, billboards, and much more. I only see the change in social media because I grew up with it, during the years of 2014-2020, I noticed the change and it grew rapidly.

I am not the only one who has noticed this drastic change in media, some are more verbal about this change than others. Here is an example of a more open social media user who has some words to say based on the influence of other people around you. 

Is social change possible? 

Of course, it is. it is always changing. It can be irritating because we all see how easily persuaded people are, but if we all put the phone down and get it away from our faces for a bit, it will be good to see the real world in a more open perspective. 

Social Media Relationships

  Social Media Relationships 

     Is it really necessary for people to post on social media  to show they are in a relationship or pictures of every moment they have in their relationship? As social media grows users expand the content that is being posted and show what is going on their life. The topic of posting about relationships has lingered around. The debate is if people have to post a picture of them with their significant other to show they are in a relationship. People argue that it is unnecessary to post these pictures to show they are in a relationship while others need to show other that they are and they are happy.

        The people that are the side of the argument that feels they should not have to post they are in a relationship feel that people that do post about the relationships are having to prove they are happy. In Why I Don't Share My Relationships Online, by Rainesford Stauffer, she finds it odd that people need their "relationships to be content" This quote shows that Stauffer is arguing against people that post regularly because she feels like people are posting for the content instead of really showing their happiness in the relationship. This is a recurring problem in social media because users get carried away and start posting every day of what they do with their partner and people become annoyed because they start getting tired of the same post over and over again everyday. Stauffer comments, "For the most part, though, I love seeing my friends' happy posts, and in general, I say let people have their happiness." In this section of the blog she agrees that people are allowed to post pictures of their relationships and show they are happy and she points out she is happy for them. After this statement she talks about an argument she had with her friend about why she does not post about her relationships that says, " I like to keep my private life private." This is a perfect statement about why people do not post about their relationship because they do not feel that it is necessary to share to others what they are doing on their own time. 

    As the blog goes on Stauffer realizes she might not be posting about her relationships because she is scared that they will fail and have to take it all down and have people ask about it. Stauffer asked some professionals if it is a good or bad thing that she does not post about her relationships and found some interesting answers. She found that people that do not post about their relationships struggle with opening up to their partner and takes longer to get their trust. She realizes that she is worried something bad will happen and not work out so she does not post about her relationships. She finds another professional's comments on the topic and finds that "under-sharing" in todays world was normal ten years ago because of how social media has grown throughout time. Rachel Sussman, a licensed psychotherapist, states, "People tend to share all aspects of their relationship to day at all stages, and I'm not sure that is always  the best way forward or the healthiest way." this helps prove that it is not a good idea to post about relationships every step of the way because somethings are better off private or kept between the two partners. A result from posting every step is people may try to spread information that is not true or even lead to negative backlash on the relationship. Shortly after Sussman talks about how she knows people that base their relationship on what they post and can be very dangerous and is not a healthy way to maintain a relationship. She states, " I think it is dangerous for us to think that just because someone is not posting, they are not happy, It could actually be just the opposite." Sussman helps show that people have a better chance of being happy in a relationship when they are not posting because they are keeping things private and no one knows what they do on their free time. 

    In conclusion, people post everyday about their relationships and show others some things that can benefit the relationship if it were to be left unposted because privacy is a strong factor in some relationships. People that do not post about their relationship are not necessarily scared that the relationship will fail but just may need longer to gain trust for them to be able to post. There is a happy median for how much to post about relationships because not posting might hurt one person in the relationship while posting too much can hurt both people in the relationship. As social media grows the normal amount to post about the relationship increases and I believe people need to slow down and find that somethings are not meant to be posted about. 

Social Media Fixer Upper

 

. In my group chat on kik I will text the group chat daily.

.Every day I will be posting on this new app called funnel in which I was post food for the day.

.For twitter I will be tweeting at three times a day  

.On an app called playsee I will post a reel every morning

.For Instagram I will post at twice a day