social media is what you want it to be!

Personally, I'm not a big fan of social media anymore. Reading the articles about "fakebook" and how technology is designed to bring humans closer together but is actually making us become more distant really drove me to write this specific blog. In some ways I completely agree with the article "If Facebook Making Us Lonely" for example, Moira Burke describing the way you use Facebook as showing signs loneliness. "Scanning your friends updates and updating the world on your own activities via your wall, is what Burke calls "passive assumption" and "broadcasting"-correlates to feelings of disconnectedness. I feel like he's saying that person is crying for attention. I have seen this personally on may occasions, mainly on Instagram. A person will take a picture showing something off or blanantly putting something in the camera view, but acting like it wasn't meant to be there or writing a caption that has absolutely nothing to do with the picture being posted. In my eyes it's desperation. I

The biggest reason I do not care for social networking is because people get to be whoever they want to be. Because the internet isn't in first person, individuals take that as defensive barrier that they can hide behind and play ghosts. Fake profiles, fake pictures, fake conversations, and fake relationships are all very common occurrences when it comes to social networking. Take the MTV show "Catfish" for example, it's because of technology allowing humans to communicate at such a high level from a great distance that we see awkward relationships such as the ones on the show. Technology advancements have made it so easy to communicate with anyone from a stationary position, giving people the freedom to be non-confrentational on any type of level.

I don't want to sound like I am blaming technology for this, because as said in class today on 1/30/14, a statement I completely agree with, "it's user generated" and that's the bottom line. At some point the people are going to have to accept the fact that we as a whole are falling victims and becoming too lazy to technology. Social Networking is an addiction and can cause changes of psychological states, in reference to "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely". It can only change you if you let it.