Social Media

Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology transforming monologue into dialogue. Also, it is a democratization of information that transforms people from content readers into publishers. Social media is extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business (Wikipedia, 2009).
Social media is growing rapid everyday with sites and tools like RSS, Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Delicious, Google, Twitter and Facebook. Social media can be very beneficial, for example, Delicious is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save your favorite bookmarking. You will be able to access the bookmarking from other computers, not just your own. Also, it allows you to share your bookmarking with other contacts, which are categorized by tags. In addition, social media can also help you find a job. For example, one can create a fan page or group in Facebook about the industry that one may be interested in or connect to people and get testimonials. There are many ways that social media can be beneficial, but done in excess, can be detrimental to one’s life. I believe that with the whirlwind of innovation and creativity in social media, it is easy to lose sight of the need for balance between the online and real world. You still need real world interaction. With using anything in excess, one must find a balance.

Advantages of Social Media:
· Relationships and conversations
· Creativity and remix culture
· Embrace your passion and identity
· Community, sharing and connecting
· Increase transparency in government and organization
Criticisms of Social Media:
· Lots of great content still gets over looked
· Writers have problems delivering content consistently
· Anonymity can engender polarization and hate
· Information overload and social networking overload
· Work/Life balance is hard to achieve

Explaining the Impact of Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Media 2.0

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”—Lao-Tze

Take-Away Realization: Social media has its advantages and criticisms. Nevertheless, do the advantages out weigh the criticism? Can a balance be achieved from social media and reality? Or, do we get accustomed to the new world of technology or get left behind?

Reference:
http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-social-media/
http://www.slideshare.net/pkitano/twitter-friendfeed-080602 (slideshow)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

http://update.snd.org/.../cache/social-web_598x262.jpg -(image of stick people)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.mrmeyer.com/wp-content/uploads/(image of various web sites)

Plugged In

Addiction is an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as; drug addiction, video game addiction, crime, money, alcoholism, work addiction, compulsive, overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, etc. (Wikipedia,2009)

Technology has a way of making us dependent, like an addict. We now live in a world where advanced technology is all around us and easy accessible. We want things fast, easy and user friendly. With new technology and advanced communication devices on the rise such as video games, laptops, I-pods, and cell phones, being addicted to technology is inevitable. It is imperative to identify symptoms that may occur as a result of overextended use of technology, these include:

• Risk of loss of a significant relationship, job, educational, or career opportunity due to excessive internet use
• Internet engagement to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
• Internet engagement used as a way of escaping problems or relieving feelings of guilt, helplessness, anxiety, or depression

The article "The End of Alone", examined how technology can put an end to loneliness. Cell phones, (i.e., Blackberries/Bluetooth) for example, will give the illusion that he or she is never alone, even if no one physically is with them. The Washington Post reported that people who rely on Bluetooth ear sets just can’t get enough of wearing their accessories. Also, technology gives a person the sense of importance; it keeps him or her in the loop at all times.

Take Away: Technology is an absolute necessity for the fast paced world. But when technology becomes a barrier to our relationships and evolves into an addiction, its benefits are squandered.

Reference:
Am I Still Here? (Doerr, Orion Magazine, 2009) <http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4234>
The End of Alone (Swidely, Boston Globe, 2008) <http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2009/02/08/the_end_of_alone/>
Meet the Life Hackers (Thompson, NY Times, 2005) <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/16guru.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1>
The Washington Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjhjS-MiTIc&feature=email (media clip-Tyra Banks Show)
http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=381891 (image)

Consumer Psychology

Gatekeeping is the hierarchical structure of formal organizations that places certain individuals or groups in crucial positions from which they can control access to goods, services, or information. They, therefore wield power far in excess of their formal authority (Highbeam.com)
The gatekeeper is a person or people who decide which information will pass through or not. In the media realm, the gatekeepers control the public knowledge by letting some stories pass through and not others. For example, in the film This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) has industry raters that operate anonymously as the gatekeepers for the film industry. The MPAA controls 95% of the film business. They rate movies from G, PG, PG-13, NC-17 and X. Each rating has control on what extent and to what capacity the movie will be seen. The rating will also control on how the movies will be distributed and marketed. Kirby Dick states, “The anonymous raters are untrained, given no standards by which to judge movies, have no apparent qualifications, and whose seemingly arbitrary decisions and inconsistent applications of standards determine film content and have played an informal role in shaping cultural landscape.” Nonetheless, media gate-keeping is showed to base their decisions on news values, organizational routines, input structure and common sense. An example of the MPAA rating system is the rating on the movie Boys Don’t Cry. The MPAA rated this movie an NC-17. The reasons: One of the scenes portrayed an actresses wiping semen off her mouth, an anal rape, and a long orgasmic scene.

Bias that contribute to gate-keeping starts with the person or people who decide what passes through or not.

Do we as consumers feed into what the producers and directors what us to see? Do consumers have to accept not knowing the full story? Or do we accept only what the media wants us to know?

Take-Away: Gate-keeping is necessary because the public should have some information censored. But in contrast, it can create a unilateral view of the topic and give an incomplete perspective.

References:
http://www.wordsinspace.net/ (cartoon image)
www.itbusiness.ca/.../Mar31/gatekeepers.jpg (diagram image)
This film is Not Yet Rated, 2006
www.HighBeam.com

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekeeper_(politics)

www.slideshare.net/adrodgers/news-gatekeeping-146206 - 46k

Consumer Psychology

Consumer psychology seeks to describe and explain consumer behavior. It provides the advertisers opportunities to investigate issues such as factors that are most important when people decide to purchase a particular item. Also, it seeks to analyze the benefits of a product or service relating to a set of market segments; and whether or not advertisements such as, television, billboards or magazines can convince an unenthusiastic customer to try a new product or service for the first time.

The first noted consumer psychologist was John B. Watson. Watson suggested that baby powder advertisements should play on the inherent sense of insecurity experienced by many first-time mothers.

“If psychology would follow the plan I suggest, the educator, the physician, the jurist,and the businessman could utilize our data in a practical way.” -John B. Watson

In addition, Ivan Pavlov’s introduced his philosophy of Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning is a condition centered on stimulus association. Classical Conditioning has 4 components:

• Unconditioned Stimulus: Causes automatic reflex response.
• Conditioned Stimulus: Something that is learned before creating a response.
• Unconditioned Response: A reflex that has happened automatically without having to learn how to do it.
• Conditioned Response: A reflex that can be evoked in response to a conditioned stimulus.

Each Component generates a stimulus response through association. Therefore, in theory, Classical Conditioning is used to stimulate the unconscious trigger from a previous association with a product.

John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov noted that conditioning is the process of learning. Consumer Psychology is, based on these applied theories, motivation of particular interest groups by appealing to basic needs and/or desires. Carl Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explores the range of consumer emotions and desires that advertisers hope to appeal to. The Five Levels of Hierarchy coincide with the consumers needs: The Psychology Need, Security Need, Social Need, Esteem Need and Self-Actualizing Need. Each need consists of a fulfillment that the consumer desires and each need must be met in order to reach the next level of fulfillment. The three classical Psychology authors teach us basic fundamentals of Human Nature and Conditioning which are essential when using advertising that manipulate the consumer.

Take Away: Critical thinking must be exercised when subjected to this manipulation versus the actual need or desire for the product or service.

Reference:
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/ image of dog w/leash
http://www.cartoonstock.com/ image of dog in chair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/classical_conditioning.com
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonailiy/a/hierachryneed.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637615/John-B-Watson
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/watson.htm
http://www.wsu.edu/~taflinge/psych1.html
http://www.myscp.org/media.aspx
http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/

Bias in Wording

The Prospect Theory was created by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahnmenen (pictured left) in 1979. According to the Prospect Theory, people value a certain gain more than a probable gain with equal or greater value, while the opposite is true for losses (see fig. 2). Furthermore, the discontentment associated with the loss is greater than the pleasure associated with the same amounts of gain.

To demonstrate, A study was conducted by Amos Tversky that investigated the cause and effect of the Prospect Theory. The study consisted of 120 Stanford graduates. The participants were used to give their preference of dying from natural causes versus unnatural causes. The following data summarizes the probabilities of each type of death in an itemized format.
Estimates of Probabilities of Death From Various Causes:

Cause: Subject Estimates/ Statistical Estimates

Heart Disease: 0.22 /0.34

Cancer: 0.18 /0.23

Other Natural Causes: 0.33/ 0.35

All Natural Causes: 0.73/ 0.92

Accident: 0.32/ 0.05

Homicide: 0.10/ 0.01

Other Unnatural Causes: 0.11/ 0.02

All Unnatural Causes: 0.53 / 0.08
The above data represent the probability estimate of one group in the study. Another group was not asked to estimate the probabilities for separate causes but only the probability of death by natural versus unnatural causes. The probability estimate of a natural death by this second group was 0.58, significantly lower than when the subjects considered each cause separately. The second group's estimate of an unnatural death was 0.32, again significantly lower than for the first group. The most notable aspect of the estimates is that the subjects significantly underestimated the probabilities for natural causes and vastly overestimated the probabilities for unnatural causes. This indicates that probably people give more attention to worrying about the unnatural dangers and not enough to the natural dangers (Berstein, 1996).

The work done by Kahneman and Tversky demonstrated people's attitudes toward risks concerning gains may be quite different from their attitudes toward risks concerning losses. In addition, authors use the prospect theory to create bias. When an author applies the prospect theory to his or her writing, the author can then cause the reader to change their focus on loss and gain by appealing to the reader's emotion.

Take Away: Words are powerful. When an author uses statistics, information has to be delivered without being skewed or slanted to their point of view. And ask myself, are all the subjects involved in the study being held equal, or are they manipulated to illustrate a philosophy?.

Reference:
Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996.
symptomresearch.nih.gov (graph)

Power of Music

Music affects everyone in every way. Music is all around us: in stores, restaurants, elevators, bathrooms, television shows and theaters. Whether we like it or not, music is everywhere and is used for many things. But, we ask ourselves, could there be a ploy for when music is being used and played?" For example, when music is played in restaurants, is it played for mood enhancement, or to drown out conversation and to add privacy? Music can maintain listeners' attention by engaging them in a number of ways, including keeping them alert, intrigued, anxious, happy and even sad. During an examination, I compared the role of music in news reporting versus entertainment. I found that when music is combined with media, it has the power to manipulate and cause an unconscious reaction.

For instance, after examining broadcast WTVF News Channel 5 in Nashville, TN. I found there was no music playing during the dialogue. However, during the introduction and synopsis of the telecast, there was a strong, hard hitting, musical theme. The theme was only played at the beginning, before and after commercial breaks, and at end of the telecast. I found this to be extremely interesting as I drifted off from watching the telecast; the loud introductory music would act as a cue to redirect my focus back to the news. In addition, during some dialogues, there were the sounds of sirens, rushing water, fire trucks, etc... I believe that this type of audio realism gives the audience a brief feeling of actually being there.

Entertainment uses music that covers a wide range of emotions, such as, suspense, fun and exhilarating. I found that strategically selected music contributes to our unconscious mind’s eye by making us react physically and mentally without reason. I compared the use of music in telecasts with music found in entertainment programming, specifically episodes from HBO's series "Big Love" and "The Sopranos." I found that in the scenes that had some type of drama, there was a “moment theme” as the particular scene played out.

Applying critical thinking to the uses of music created awareness of how music is actually used and for what reasons by questioning its administrations.

Take Away: Music is very powerful. Music is used to exploit our unconscious mind’s eye for the purpose of how and why music is actually used by media producers to persuade and influence by behavior. Critical thinking is applied directly in questioning reason, sound, and purpose.

Related Studies:

• (2003)Education Resource Information Center (ERIC)-Effects of background music
  www.eric.ed.gov
• (2005)The “Mozart Effect”
  http://www.parenting-baby.com/Parenting-Baby-Music-Research/Music-Research.htmlMozart Effect
• (2001) Brain and Emotion Research-University of Wisconsin, Madison
  http://www.news.wisc.edu/packages/emotion/

"Urban Legends"

Urban legends creep through our society, by way of rumor, one person at a time. They elicited fear, anxiety, humor and caution: Will you wake up in the bathtub without a kidney, is there a homicidal maniac hiding in the back seat of your car, and are there really people in Nigeria who need you to wire them millions of dollars? It’s possible; it happened to a friend of a friend and I received the original email…

Why do we believe in urban legends? Is it the suspense? Are the stories about real people in believable situations? Or, is there some truth in the stories?

Urban legends have been around since the 1930’s. But, over the past 10 years, urban legends have increased in number because of the internet. Sending information over the internet is easy, fast, popular, and does not require disclosure. I believe that the wide discrepancies in “the truth” proliferate throughout the internet because the internet has no boundaries. When using the internet, you can be anyone, say anything, and send information to as many people in one setting, as you wish. He or she can hide their identity, pretend to be someone their not, and play out fantasies. Urban legends have become a part of the phenomena.

But why send discrepancies?

They usually contain information that is not easily verifiable. The person starting the urban legend may feel superior during its initiation. Humans have a need to trust people, for their own comfort; and if you trust someone, you will believe anything. Detailed urban legends lend to their credibility. Lastly, lack of critical thinking allows you to take things for their “face value”.

My Take Away: I believe that it is human nature to tell stories or discrepancies that feed into our emotions and fears, and if there is an audience, the rumors will continue.

Additional links:

Snopes.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B2dqUcSiJI&NR=1
http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/urban-legends-revealed/offbeat-news

A Definition of Critical Thinking

-University of South Austraila, 2006
Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking that aims to take the reasoning we all do naturally to a higher level. It is the art of analyzing and evaluating with the goal of improving thought. When making a decision, it is the difference between weighing information to come to a logical conclusion and making a snap judgment without understanding the information.

Critical thinking is described as a “development process” that requires learning and hard work.
The development of a critical thinking encompasses the following stages:

1. The Inform and Describe Stage: is when you are analyzing your topic and breaking down the context

2. The Discover and Explore Stage: is when you identify, and gain insight on your topic; and put away your bias.

3. The Negotiate and Co-Operate Stage: is when you are gaining information from outside sources, on both sides of the topic, by asking questions.

4. The Test and Revise Stage: is where you compare all information gathered, with information that you previously had about the topic.

5. The Integrate and Apply Stage: Also known as the “Reflective Stage”, is when you analyze all the information and begin to bring together all ideas and information to make you become more knowledgeable on the topic. And then you come to your logical conclusion.

My realization take-away: Critical thinking was more in depth than I originally envisioned. Critical thinking involves stages that must be completed to become effective. Critical thinking makes you put aside your own personal bias and non evidenced based beliefs. All points of view must be considered in putting everything into perspective.

"Intelligence is something we are born with,

thinking is a skill that must be learned."

Dr. Edward DeBoro

video-critical thinking overview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9s_x1zwB4