For me, I did not go an entire week without using social media. I have a facebook  but I don’t use it. I have them because a few years ago, they required you to have a facebook in order to use the ‘Messenger’ app. In terms of twitter, I do use it and it was difficult to just give it up because twitter is a window to the chaotic out side world. I use twitter to see what is going on, like if there is a wild fire in Australia. Twitter was a way for me to be caught up on what other people are talking about and to not be on twitter almost makes me feel like I am severely disconnected. If a friend texts me about if I heard about how Tesla was going to the moon, it feels as though I am not apart of society. This same feeling occurs with emails. Emails are so incredibly important and are so ingrained in our society and life that if I don’t check my emails, it really makes me feel anxious. When i can’t check my email, I am disconnected and I don’t know if a teacher has sent me homework. So yeah, I really wouldn’t be able to not check my email.

The tools of digital media seem to be both impeding and expanding our knowledge as a society because it is giving us the necessary tools to tell numerous, untold stories, but it is also giving us a false sense of reality as well. Digital media give individuals an outlet to depict their life journeys and generate their own content. But it also hinders our own extensive knowledge by always providing resources that we as humans have been accustomed to and become dependent on. In the “Long Revolution” article, it speaks about how “Internet has come to be established as a delimited public arena, and the question is if the cyberspace imaginary will become a highly monitored and regionalized social space or if the Internet will retain its potential for independent endeavors and ideological exchange.” This article goes into depth of both sides of the equation regarding the purpose and usage of the Internet. 

Then in the “Data Mining” article it speaks about the numerous cases of wiretaps that the government was issued to do on various phone calls. It mostly speaks about the process of gaining people’s information through Amazon’s wish lists by simply typing up the name of an individual. The video was interesting to watch because it seemed like a joke but then knowing the extremities of Google it seemed like a legitimate idea. The Internet is a base where any person on a computer can get the information they’re looking for but it is also somewhat of an hindrance because then dependency on the system starts to arise as well.

This assignment is brought to you by FLUSTERCLUCK– your one-stop spot for everything gaming.

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As we know, Microtransactions dominate our niche world but with safe search, they will never be recommended or advertised to anyone. Our safe search mode also hides all NSFW content which will allow children to search for their favorite games without any parental distress.

Fustercluck can be accessed through our minimalist website, a convenient mobile app, or even our desktop app- all of which include a dark mode for those with sensitive eyesight. There are no catches, no strings attached, no signing up for a premium version- just information for whenever and wherever you need it! 

In other words: Fustercluck is the Google of gaming! 

Now onto the assignment:

The tools of digital media are both impeding and expanding our knowledge for certain types of situations. When it comes to personal, it can definitely impede us however for professional situational, it can expand our knowledge on a person or company that we have shown interest in. Our actions, thoughts, and words are forever recorded even if we decide to go back and delete them; none of that matters as the original has already been saved. As Jeffrey Rosen writes, “…The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts.” And it’s true. We now live in an age where we must be conscious of what we do or say online or it will come back to haunt us many years later. Allow me to don my tinfoil hat while I say “big brother is always watching and will never forget.” Unless one makes a living from posting on the internet, we must always be on our P’s and Q’s when it comes to social media, public forums, and even the websites that we have registered accounts with. Of course, there is always the argument that the first amendment allows us freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and so on- this amendment does not apply when it comes to private companies searching your past and turning you down. The amendment is not airtight and does allow for major loopholes, as Stacy Snyder learned when she lost her lawsuit to Millersville University School of Education, after being denied her teaching license after an inappropriate post on her personal social media account.  

The thought of being data-mined from a wishlist on Amazon is terrifying- even if your list is innocent. Tom Owand mentions that one’s address can be lifted from a first and last name on a wishlist, thus pinpointing an exact location via Google Maps. Although this can be used against the average person, it is a good way to track down terrorists both abroad and locally.  Although, it’s not unheard of, especially by those familiar with 4chan- which led to the arrest of a number of murders and animal abusers and those who are into gaming especially on pc. The tracking of your IP address can lead to pranks that go horribly wrong, like swatting, or authorities at your doorstep, ready to arrest you because of what one has posted on a certain website- again, touching back on the subject that everything that is written and posted on the internet is always logged and never deleted. We must be extra careful nowadays because we never know who’s going to look us up, search our past, and even decide to track our location. 

We’re not safe but we can control what we decide to put out on the internet.

The very first day of attempting this challenge was a failure. Habitually, I opened Facebook as soon as the class was over last week. I realized that I did this out of instinct and didn’t even try to avoid it. I promised myself I would close the app and try again but easily found myself checking my email and looking at Youtube videos. I need to access my emails for both work and school, I need to watch Youtube for a class assignment, and I need to do research on Google for more homework. It was inevitable that I’d fail but I was surprised at how quickly it took me to do so! Habitual is the best adjective to describe how I accessed social media. I would pull my phone out and click on Instagram almost immediately, as if I do it every minute of everyday…and after monitoring my habits for the week, I can conclude that this is pretty accurate. This was definitely a tough and failed assignment but there is certainly a lesson learned here. I have deleted my Twitter account and vow to work better on not using social media unless absolutely necessary. And yes. I do NEED to use social media apps like Instagram for work purposes, so it is necessary at times. But I have already slowed my usage of Facebook, and to me that small step is a step towards self-victory.

Being without social media was not stressful at all but reading all the articles made me more interested in educating myself and understanding the future of technology.  I strongly believe that the internet and devices have made me unable to retain information because I am very dependent of Google , Apps and my phone. I set reminders, alarms, prepare schedule, google everything!  I can strongly feel a connection to Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”.  Definitely felt a connection to this article because I understand how much of my reading is being affected. I feel I am constantly skimming on the internet and now when I actually do pick up a book to read I do not read as many pages as before I began to feel tired.  This article was definitely an eye opener.

Moving forward, the articles “Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us” by Bill Joy and ” The Great Wall of Facebook: by Fred Vogelstein also prove that it is a growing platform that will only continue to make us more dependent on technology.  I believe the world will only become more futuristic especially from what was expressed in these articles we can see that some way somehow humans will solemnly rely on technology whether it is, social media, different Networks, or robots.  This will cause us to retain less and less.  We have also lost so much information and internet websites and have also grown and expanded in opportunities by Anil Dash in “The Web We lost”.  There is an incredible shift from our old facebook and google servers as well as apps.  These networks can be very valuable to society but indeed it has, for me become harder to retain information.

This experiment was extremely difficult for me the first thing I usually do when I wake up is look at my social media accounts and check my DMs and messages. on day one when I woke up went to grab my phone and check but then I stopped myself from looking at it I had a lot of notifications from my social media which makes it hard to ignore it. in todays society people keep up with friends and family through social media people rarely call people now a days everything is done through instant messenging so doing this experiment was out of my norm. I did realize that  I spend a lot of time on social media and it plays a major part in distracting me from important matter and causes procrastination in certain aspects in my life. i lasted about four days before I gave in and checked social media and I used google often to search restaurants or places I want to visit. I stood off Facebook because I rarely use that the social media websites I tend to gravitate more towards are instagram, tweeter and Tik Tok. I think the curiosity as to what was happening on social media got to me I like looking at trends and meme and even current events. media outlets like instagram and tweeter often provide current events at a faster speed then news outlets.