Making Everyday Life Easier for us All

Jenna Bessel  * November 30, 2016

We as a country are living in a digital age that has advanced the ways in which we communicate and function. The internet has made it possible for us to seek new relationships outside of our primary friend groups. The internet has made it possible for us to search the web without going through the extra work of reading a book to find out information. The internet is a complex hole that has taken time to fill. Different companies have put in time trying to make the web faster and easier for almost everyone. Not only the internet but technology in general. Advancements in technology are what allow us to grow and function at better and faster rates. Some individuals are skeptical saying that certain advancements in technology give companies an excessive amount of access to our personal information, making it harmful and unjust, but overlook the fact that companies are being more helpful then not. Corporations are able to help individuals through tracking Wi-Fi signals, GPS signals, previous internet usages, and through adaptive personal ads calculating age and gender.

In today’s world, we are able to open up a website and see an abundant amount of ads pop up on our screen. For instance, have you ever noticed that when you go on Facebook, ads pop up that are relevant to your previous searching habits? You open up your Facebook page and see an advertisement that representing a site you recently purchased clothes off of. Or, you see an advertisement that is promoting the premiere date of one of your favorite TV shows. Below is an example of a Facebook page.

On this Facebook page and many more like it, websites are giving permission to different companies, allowing them to track the ways in which individuals use the internet. Companies help individuals search for different items such as clothes, gadgets, equipment and etc. This isn’t possible without the help of other systems built onto the internet.

Cookies
Nowadays, searching the internet is typically easy. You go on google, you type some words in, and “shabang,” you have yourself hundreds to thousands of websites answering questions related to your own personal question. Have you ever wondered how that was made possible? There is an answer to this question: cookies. Not the cookies you eat, but in an article titled Online Tracking, the author is  describing cookies as, “information saved by your web browser, the software program you use to visit the web”. Within this software, companies are able to gather certain information on individuals and customize their search engine to fit people’s specific needs. Thus, cookies are important for individuals when they are relying on a fast and easy internet search. Unfortunately, some may feel as though companies are gathering too much information on them and are betraying our 4^th amendment rights to privacy. Although this may be true, one must also keep in mind that if you don’t give websites a little leniency, individuals can make searching the web just a little bit harder. You may not know this but without cookies, you are unable to look at previous search history. This idea can be a problem when an your are doing a research project. This idea can also be a problem when you are trying to find directions to a place that they haven’t been to in years. One thing to know, if you feel as though you are being watched too much, computers do have countering software within them that allows you to control how much information websites have access to. Luckily, cookies give you the option to choose which websites have access to your data. Either that. Or, you can limit the on the amount of access they can acquire. Cookies help to make searching easier, and since it is not set in stone, you have the opportunity to get rid of cookies if need be.

Now Cookies Are Just the Beginning
Cookies lead up to bigger and better things. Cookies can even help us link to discounts and sales pertaining specifically to the individual. After websites start gathering information on you, they can provide things that are helpful to you, as a consumer. In, Crumbs of the Cookie: User Profiling in Customer-Base Analysis and Behavioral Targeting, it states how “An e-commerce website, for example, may track a user across multiple visits to its digital storefront, and keep a history of purchases, products viewed on each visit, and abandoned shopping carts” (Zainab Jamal, 2016).  The article also states how “a popular search engine such as Google tracks user’s search activities (i.e., key phrases searched for) as well as which websites are visited immediately after a successful search (i.e., downstream sites)” (Zainab Jamal, 2016). What you can see through these examples above are different companies gathering as much information on us as possible. This is made possible through monitoring the clothes we purchase, to the clothes we keep in our online cart, and even to the way we search for different items because of the mood we are in.  Companies absorb all this information on us to make website browsing easier, to make it more enjoyable, and to take make us want to come back for more. By companies learning different information on their customers, they are able to be more personable with their clientele. This isn’t the only way companies learn information about us to help us. There are more serious ways in which advancements are helpful.

GPS
Currently, if you have a smartphone, you may have some familiarity with using a Global Positioning System (GPS). If you aren’t familiar with what a GPS is,  it is little signals sent off from certain object, hitting satellites in space, pinging off relative locations. The reason this little device is important is because it can save lives. Say you are in an accident and you have to call the police. You explain what happened and then your phone call completely cuts out. You panic. You never had they change to tell the operator your location. This is when GPS tracking can come in handy. In Jianmei Cen’s, GPS Tracking and the Right of Privacy, the author exclaims how, “cell phone users in America can either choose to expose their location only when an emergency call 911 is initiated or choose to report automatically to emergency services all the time” (2011). What the author means by this is that an individual can set up his or her phone to a setting, allowing for is or her location to be shown solely during an emergency or at all times. What GPS tracking gives you is a chance to be prepared for bad situations at any moment.  For this reason, even if you turn off your location, or if your phone is off, or even if you are on airplane mode- GPS is never fully disabled. This idea may be scary to some because they feel as though they can never get away from being watched like hawks. But, if you can look at it this way, phone companies have made this happen because your safety is important to them. If you were in a situation out of your control, wouldn’t you want someone to be able to find you and help you, especially when you disconnected from them right before you told them your exact location? GPS tracking saved the life of an Wisconsin man who was injured in a snowmobile accident, and only had an approximate location of the crash sight (Susan Nicol Kyle, 2005). He was saved within hours. What we can see here is the idea that GPS tracking is a relatively good thing. But wait, that’s not all. There is another helpful advancement in technology that has helped us immensely.

WI-FI Signals
One reoccurring idea in today’s society is the awareness that cellphones are one of the main ingredients fueling companies pull to want to know more about individuals. One of the main purposes of using this technology is to gather information on people through Wi-F signals. Wi-Fi signals are taken from cell phones and are then used for numerous occasions in different companies. One of the main purposes of this technology would be that it helps individuals connect to businesses. This starts with Wi-Fi signals giving companies easier access to watch us and record our movements. In a passage titled, What Secrets Your Phone Is Sharing About You, it explains how, “Verizon Wireless last year began crunching its own information from customers to help retailers see which neighborhoods shoppers arrived from or limited information about their habits, such as restaurants they drive past” (Elizabeth Dwoskin, 2014). Verizon Wireless is giving multiple businesses recorded data of its customers, helping them to learn different information about us. This information includes; where you eat, where you shop, and what stores you drive by on the daily. This could be seen in a negative light. One may say that phone companies are giving out personal information without permission. The problem is, while an individual is using Wi-Fi to have a better connection with the internet, companies are utilizing these Wi-Fi signals to have better connections with the people. But, think of this. If companies aren’t able to collect any information on their costumers, how will they know what to sell, when to give discounts, or what music to play? Wi-Fi signals help companies gather information on their customers. These signals help show the specific ages, genders, musical preferences the people entering into specific stores. By doing this, companies can make the atmosphere more comfortable for the age group that uses their particular company the most. Overall, they are using the information taken from Wi-Fi tracking to accommodate you.

Telematics

Wifi tracking, GPS signaling, and cookies are all connected to advancements that go along with the internet and the computer specifically. Meaning all three need the internet to work at any given time. Then, there are gadgets that store information and then are transferred onto the computer, where specific data is collected and calculated. In the past couple years, a little device was introduced to the car market. This technology is placed in the cars and helps to track individual drivers. To the left is a picture of a gadget being placed in a car, and this gadget is called telematics. Car companies are beginning to realize that people are paying too much for their car insurance, and they want to help cut down on certain cost because not everyone is a “horrible” driver. Most people today are looking for ways to cut down on certain cost, and this is one way. In an article titled “How Car Insurance Companies Are Tracking Your Every Move”, author Daniel Jennings exclaims how “Telematics devices enable insurers to see what speeds you drive, how much you use your brakes, and when you drive. These factors enable the company to create patterns of drivers and identify dangerous and safe drivers” (n.d.). The whole point of this device is to watch the driving habits of different people, and use that to calculate the cost of how much a person’s insurance should be. The car companies are advancing with the times. Although this is very positive, some individuals may believe that this device is a hindrance and not a savor. Yes, this car gadget may be helping some people, but it is also hurting others. Daniel Jennings proceeds to caution some drivers to shy away from this device. He explains “insurance company could raise your rates if you started driving or changed when you drive” or “it is fairly easy to gain access to the data and to hack it” and “insurance company could use its telematics to monitor your movements” (“How Car Insurance Companies Are Tracking Your Every Move”, n.d.) The negatives overall that come out of this device are the fact that rates go up if you drive at night, your data can be hacked and insurance companies now have the ability to track you. Some may find this unsettling and say that this device can do more harm than anything else. But….If you could cut down on the cost of car insurance to buy your childs first car , would you? Or if you could save up enough money to buy the house you always wanted, would you? Car insurance is a big chunk of change out of your pocket.  Thus, advancements in technology like telematics, can help you save money. Now you and your kids can put a big smile on your faces.

Companies and Technology
Advancements in technology are inevitable. Today we are able to open up a website and see an abundant amount of ads pop up on our screen. We are able to search the internet at ease. We are able to find discounts and sales on clothes and different object that we want or need. We are able to walk into a store and feel comfortable, and feel as though we belong in the atmosphere. We are able to save money. Overall, what is happening here is, companies are making it possible for us to do all the things that we are used to.  However, we may not realize that what companies are doing is helpful, and we may say that they are using advancements in technology to “stalk” us. What we must realize is the fact that most companies want to do what they can to make life easier on the customer. Even the producers in the world have to buy things. They realize our struggles and use the information they have on us to try and help us anyway they can.

Work Cited

Dowsskin, E., & George-Cosh, D. (2014). What Secrets Your Phone Is Sharing About You. Retrieved November 02, 2016, from https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/what-secrets-your-phone-is-sharing-about-you/

Cen, J. (2011). GPS tracking and the right of privacy. Frontiers of Law in China, 6(2), 334-342. doi:http://dx.doi.org.udel.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s11463-011-0132-6

Jennings, D. (n.d.). How Car Insurance Companies Are Tracking Your Every Move. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from http://www.offthegridnews.com/privacy/how-car-insurance-companies-are-tracking-your-every-move/

Trusov, M., Ma, L., & Jamal, Z. (May 01, 2016). Crumbs of the Cookie: User Profiling in Customer-Base Analysis and Behavioral Targeting. Marketing Science, 35, 3, 405-426.

Serwer, A., Gibbons/Flickr, E., Aleaziz, H., & Suebsaeng, A. (2012, August 16). The US Government Can Track Your Location at Any Time Without a Warrant. Retrieved November 07, 2016, from http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/court-warrant-cellphone-gps-data

 

 

 

blog 18

R1. Read texts critically, attempting to understand purpose, audience, argumentative and rhetorical techniques, and tone.

While I did have some background in reading texts critically, the topic of social media that we focused on brought new forms of text that I hadn’t really dealt with. In my previous experiences, I’ve only dealt with novels, poetry, essays, historical accounts, etc. It was new for me to critically read online articles, scholarly articles, tweets, and comments.

W1. See that writing is a form of social interaction.

Throughout most of my high school career I know that I did not take enough time learning about the subject I was to write on before I began drafting. Most of the time I would just take whatever my initial reaction/thought/stance was and run with it, without really delving into it and fully understanding it. There were times when I was halfway through an essay and would realize that I  agree with the other side of the argument. The analogy of the conversation that we talked about in class and learned about on the video quizzes really helped me understand how to get into the social interaction that is writing well enough to be successful.

W5. Engage in a writing process that includes idea discovery, narrowing a topic, structural and organizational development, revision, and editing.

The step-by-step process that we took when developing, planning, and drafting our assignments really helped me understand how much thought, effort, and time it took into crafting a well-planned out argumentative paper. My latter years of high school for AP Lit were so focused on analyzing and writing an essay in 1 hour and I never had much experience with planning and writing lengthy papers with an adequate and reasonable amount of time.

 

Social Medias Effect on Long Distance Relationships

 

A long distance relationship is a relationship between two people who live far apart and so are unable to meet on a frequent basis. Out of the 3.75 million long-distance relationships in the U.S., 70 percent of them fail. However, that number seems to be going down with the increased use of social media. Social media, especially Facebook, has made long distance relationships a thing of the past – or has it? Facebook has effected the way we go about long distance relationships in a tremendously positive way. Facebook allows us to be connected all around the world. It allows us to stay in touch with friends, family and romantic partners that we do not get to see every day. However, even though it has changed the way we go about long distance relationships, Facebook cannot always save these long distance relationships with a romantic partner. Facebook can rekindle and strengthen relationships with friends and family members, but with a romantic partner, Facebook could actually jeopardize these relationships. Romantic relationships are much more complex than ones you have with your friends or family, and I do not believe that Facebook can save a romantic relationship, when you are not seeing your partner for long periods of time. Also, with 14 million couples claiming they have a long distance relationship, this issue is a very prevalent one in society today.

Romantic relationships are not the only kind of relationships that are affected over long distance. Relationships with friends of family can be equally as important as ones with a romantic partner, and equally in danger of being jeopardized over a long distance. However, with the increased use of Facebook, you do not have to give up on these relationships. Facebook has done a tremendous job with keeping people connected. Facebook has allowed people to rekindle a friendship with someone that they knew as children. It also allows people to stay in touch with family who may not live near you. I personally still have family that lives in Italy. Facebook allows me to form relationships with aunts and uncles and cousins that I have never actually met. Facebook has revolutionized the way we form and maintain relationships. “Facebook gives you the opportunity to maintain relationships with friends and family, regardless of distance. Beyond social media’s role in dating, we can now stay in touch with old friends through sites like Facebook, keeping updated on who’s getting engaged, having children, etc. With a few clicks, we’re able to share in others’ life experiences, be it old colleagues or friends from high school. I think online communication can even make face-to-face, offline relationships stronger; parents are able to keep in close contact with their children who are traveling abroad or going away to university, and couples who are in long distance relationships can stay connected and be a part of each others’ lives. There’s a reason why Facebook has over a billion users: it works.” (Koifman, 2014) Facebook has connected us in ways we’ve never imagined. This quote shows that aside from helping romantic relationships, Facebook can form and strengthen relationships with distant family members and old friends.

Going away to college can be a tough time for anyone. For many kids, this is their first time living away from home. For me, personally, going away to college was very stressful. It was the first time in my life that I would be away from my family. The first time that I would be away from my friends that I’ve known since kindergarten. However, with Facebook and various social media platforms, the fear of going away to college can be diminished greatly. Before social media, it was very hard to stay in touch with high school friends once you entered college. You might call or write to them once in a while, but over time you would stop hearing from them less and less. This would cause you to lose a substantial amount of “social capital”. Social capital is defined as the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. Studies have showed that young adults could become stressed from the loss of “social capital”. However, with new technology like text messaging, email and social media, young adults going off to college are able to maintain their existing social capital, while adding to it. “Some researchers have coined the term “friendsickness” to refer to the distress caused by the loss of connection to old friends when a young person moves away to college (Paul & Brier, 2001.) Internet technologies feature prominently in a study of communication technology use by this population by Cummings, Lee, and Kraut (2006), who found that services like email and instant messaging help college students remain close to their high school friends after they leave home for college. We therefore introduce a measure focusing specifically on the maintenance of existing social capital after this major life change experienced by college students, focusing on their ability to leverage and maintain social connections from high school.” (Ellison, Steinfeld, and Lampe, 2007) Leaving for college can be a very stressful time. Modern technology allows us to stay in touch with our friends and family who live far away, and can ease some of our stress.

Not only does social media help us stay in touch with existing friends, it also helps us create new ones as well. Many students use Facebook and other social media to chat with potential roommates and people living in the same building as them. You can now make all your friends before you even go to college. You can form a relationship with someone who lives on the other side of the country, who you’ve never met in person. “Letters and phone calls can easily bridge geographical boundaries, but asynchronous forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) such as email constitute a fundamental improvement. They are distance-independent not only in use but also in cost; the messages are delivered rapidly, almost in real-time; and the communication is unobtrusive because of its asynchronous nature.” (Sonja Utz, 2007) You can now talk to people in real time, with instant digital messages. Even before modern technology, the only way to talk to potential roommates was with a letter or a phone call. Now you can talk to them instantly with a click of a button. This helps form a relationship and prevent problems with roommates that don’t get along. Modern communication can improve these relationships with colleagues and potentially create a friendship.

Social media also has a huge effect on long distance romantic relationships, both positively and negatively. “Technological advancements in media have made it easier to maintain relationships over long distances. Social networking interfaces and websites such as Facebook have changed the way people communicate in geographically separated relationships.” (Lapid, 2011) Specifically, Social media allows couples to chat to one another, look and pictures, and be involved in one anothers life even if they live hundreds of miles away. Before social media, you could not talk to a romantic partner various times a day instantaneously. Maybe an occasional phone call at the end of the day. Now you can talk chat with them effortlessly all throughout the day. Platforms like Skype or Facetime can even allow you to video chat with your partner. This allows you to talk and see one another as if you’re in the same room as them. Social media can help keep couples honest. Being able to see and talk to one another as frequent as possible helps couples stay faithful to one another even though they might not see each other in person for weeks at a time.

Facebook however, is not perfect. And although there is a lot of evidence that says Facebook helps long distance romantic relationships, there is also a lot of evidence that says Facebook and other social media can be bad for these types of relationships. Talking and even seeing your romantic partner everyday online still is not enough for many people. Unlike long distance relationships with friends and family, relationships with a romantic partner have a physical aspect that is very important to couples. Even with all our advanced technology and social media, nothing can fulfill this need.  Also, since Facebook allows you to constantly keep tabs on your partner, many people get full of jealousy. Not seeing your partner, in person for weeks at a time can cause people to overthink. They start to believe that their partner may not be faithful to them. Many go to Facebook to ease this fear, but it usually does this opposite. Seeing your partner like someone else post or picture can make overthink more and more. This can cause your jealously to grow and lead to the relationship ending. Even though Facebook can benefit these long distance romantic relationships and maybe even help them last longer, inevitably many people cannot take the burden that is a long distance relationship. “But those in long-distance relationships used social networking sites as a way to keep tabs on each other, gauging involvement and commitment in the relationship (read: sniffing out infidelity). As a result, those in long-distance relationships were also more likely to become jealous of something on their partner’s social networking site.” (Shoemaker, 2015) This quote explains it perfectly. People overuse Facebook to cope with missing their partner. Instead of helping them cope and keep the relationship strong, it causes them to become jealous and can lead to the relationship dying.

Social media, like Facebook, has changed the way we form relationships. Relationships with friends, family, colleagues and romantic partners will forever be effected by the use of social media. Many for the better, but some for the worse. Relationships with friends and family can blossom from the use of social media. In some cases, maybe friendships are even started from using social media. Long distance can no longer prevent you from talking to an old friend, or a faraway relative. However, relationships with a romantic partner are not so simple over great distances. Although, social media has helped these relationships, a majority of them still fail. Hopefully in the future, a genius concept like social media will come along and make the trouble with long distance romantic relationships a thing of the past.

 

Works Cited

Ellison, Nicole B. Steinfield, Charles. Lampe, Cliff. “The Benefits of Facebook ‘Friends:’ Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites” Wiley. Online Library, vol. 12, no. 4, 2007, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x/full. Accessed 25 October 2016

 

Koifman, Natasha. “Can Social Media Actually Benefit Relationships?” The Huffington Post, 17 October 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/natasha-koifman/social-media-and-relationships_b_4115588.html. Accessed 4 November 2016

 

Lapid, Stephen-Paul. “Maintaining Relationships: Facebook’s Affect on Long-Distance Friendships.” Eastern Michigan University. Digital Commons@EMU, 2011, http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1276&context=honors. Accessed 3 November 2016

 

“Long Distance Relationship Statistics.” Statistic Brain, 14 May 2016, http://www.statisticbrain.com/long-distance-relationship-statistics/. Accessed 25 November 2016.

 

Shoemaker, Natalie. “Social Media Plays a Big Role in Long-Distance Relationships.” Bigthink, http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/social-media-plays-a-big-role-in-long-distance-relationships. Accessed 24 November 2014.

 

Utz, Sonja. “Media use in long-distance friendships.” Taylor and Francis Online. Information, Communication and Society, vol. 10, no. 5, 2007, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/13691180701658046?scroll=top&needAccess=true. Accessed 2 November 2016.

 

 

Modern News

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Intro
Oscar Wild once said that “The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read”. This quote hits home for me and many others who are unhappy with the types of articles the news provides. Much of the news in this age of social media where we have essentially become our own reporters, has become largely irrelevant for the quick spreading of important stories. To combat loss of viewership the news has begun further pandering to its audiences, the news now tells people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. This topic is important because the news influences what the public believes, and if news is biased it can lead to political polarization, also it makes it difficult for people who wish to learn about what’s happening in the world because they have to wade through all the petty news. But I concede that journalism is a profession with the intention of making money, and I can’t entirely blame journalists for posting the things people want to see.

Polarizing our society
The rampant bias that has permeated through modern news and journalism has created a dangerous political climate where people of respective parties can’t seem to agree on anything. This can easily be seen in the recent election between Donald Trump, and Hilary Clinton. This election was one of the most hate filled, and dividing elections of all time. This is largely caused by all the hate, and biased opinion that is being shoved down our throats by the media. According to the authors of “political polarization and media habits” “When it comes to getting news about politics and government, liberals and conservatives inhabit different worlds. There is little overlap in the news sources they turn to and trust”(Mitchell, Gottfried, Kiley, Matsa n.p). This quote shows how due to the amount of bias in the news people are unwilling to even trust the news provided by news stations of altering views. This vast polarization within our news, and our society makes it harder for people of opposing views to find common ground, and make concessions, and that has left us where we are today.

One examples of  political bias in the news is the blatant difference between the following two articles about basically the same thing but they are  written so differently its difficult to tell. The Huffington posts article “Paul Ryan Makes Huge (Yet Really Obvious) Admission About Obamacare”, and the Fox news article “Obama’s not on the ballot – but his legacy is”. Just by reading the title of the articles you can probably guess what the writers  ideological stance is. If you are a reader, and you only read one of these articles assuming the article was simply stating unbiased facts, you would believe that the one view you were exposed to is innately correct. This is why bias in the news is so dangerous. If you only hear one side of the story you must assume that side is right, then when election time comes and you are suddenly shown the opposing point of view, you can’t begin to understand why anyone would have that point of view. In order to avoid this in the future, we need either to change our ways as a population, and increase our exposure to alternating views, or we need a change in the media, to show more alternating/less biased views.

The flood of petty news
It has become so difficult to just find out what’s going on in the world on an average day through the news because of all the petty useless news stories that seem to flood the media. It seems that the news has become a space to simply talk about celebrity gossip, and feel good stories, rather than world issues. An example of this is one of many articles I found about how Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris. For several weeks the news was flooded with articles about this, even though it had no real relevance in the world. The news simply talked about it because she’s famous, and people would click on articles about her. When I saw this I was simply appalled by the blatant pandering of the news,

putting out a petty news story just to get a few views. Another great example of the news pandering to audiences is an article in the La times about how Pepe the frog is a hate symbol. This article along with the many other articles that flooded the news about Pepe had no real significance in the world, and were simply posted in order to get views and make money. These articles show two growing trends within the news, the Kardashian articles were simply posted and viewed because she’s famous, and the Pepe articles were sophistry that got there views due to there strong impactful claims regardless of there accuracy. This trend of impact being more important than accuracy and relevance is one that I am very sad to see in todays society.

Sympathy for the devil
Although there are many problems with modern Journalism I do concede that it’s still an industry with the purpose of making money, and to make money, Journalists have to write the stories people want to look at. When you think of it this way it’s not really the fault of the Journalists when the news is bad, it’s the fault of the readers who endorse bad Journalism. This view is discussed in Stephen Harrington’s article “Popular news in the 21st century Time for a new critical approach?”. In the article scholar Harrington discusses how journalism is as it has always been, a way for people to share information. As the people’s tastes change so does the way the news is written. Harrington argues that there’s no arbitrary good or bad news, people just write what they think people want to read. Harrington also states that “anyone with a desire to be a journalist can pick up a pen grab a pad, and go”(pg. 1).This is especially true today

 with the existence of social media, people can simply write something on a tweet, or a Facebook page, and the whole world will be able to see it. With the existence of a powerful tool like this around, and accessible to everyone its no surprise that news stations would have to pander a bit in order to keep viewers.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Todays journalism is full of criticisms and flaws, some of which are more apparent than others. But we must remember that the news is always changing and evolving based on the wants of the readers, so if we aren’t happy with the state of the news its in our power to fix it. Also we as a people should try exposing ourselves to more perspectives, and not limit ourselves to just one or two news sources. We should learn to think for our selves, rather than just waiting on others to spoon feed us ideas. And we can’t always assume that everything we hear on the news is a fact. As the great Marcus Aurelius once said “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth”.

Works cited
Chakraborty, Barnini. “Obama’s not on the ballot – but his legacy is” Journalism (2016) http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/08/obamas-not-on-ballot-but-his-legacy-is.html

Corinthios, Aurelie. “Paris Police Chief Is ‘Very Confident’ He’ll Catch Kim Kardashian West’s Robbers” journalism (2016) http://people.com/crime/paris-police-chief-confident-catching-kim-kardashian-robbers/

Harrington, Stephen. “Popular news in the 21st century Time for a new critical approach?.” Journalism 9.3 (2008): 266-284. http://jou.sagepub.com/content/9/3/266.full.pdf

Mitchell, Amy Gottfried, Jeffery Kiley, Jocelyn Matsa, Katerina. “Political Polarization and Media Habits” Journalism (2014): http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/

Roy, Jessica. “How ‘Pepe the frog’ went from harmless to hate symbol” journalism (2016) http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pepe-the-frog-hate-symbol-20161011-snap-htmlstory.html

Young, Jeffrey. “Paul Ryan Makes Huge (Yet Really Obvious) Admission About Obamacare” Journalism (2016) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-huge-admission-obamacare_us_5820b47ee4b0d9ce6fbd8499

Memes

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Many people in the world today have heard about or seen a meme.  They are mostly found on the internet.  “The word “meme” originated from a book written by biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976. Dawkins defined the term as a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation and replication. Over time, the Internet adopted the term.”   This helps to show that a meme isn’t just one thing.  There are different types and styles of memes.   A meme can be interpreted in different ways.  One of the more popular memes over the past few years is the Grumpy Cat.  

This meme became popular because the cat is relate-able to  a lot of different type of people.  This cat took over the internet and helped the progression of memes to where it is today.  Memes can be looked at as a bad thing or they could see it as a good thing.  Memes are ways people interact online.  This is a way people can stay connected to important events going on in the world around us.  But other times Memes poke fun at important topics by distracting the viewer from the real issue that is being presented.  Memes have taken over the internet so people are blinded from big issues such as the presidential election, ISIS and more.  How you ask, this epidemic is an easy way out for people to laugh at important topics and hope they can go away.  

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Meme Creation

“Memes are said to resemble genes in that they produce cultural change through a process similar to natural selection: those memes that are passed on by imitation and learning tend to dominate social life” (Coker 904).  A meme goes through the process where it is created to when it goes viral.  For it to go viral lots of people need to share it so it gets around the internet.  By having memes go viral it takes over the internet and people are seeing them everywhere making them take over there social lives.  Memes are ways of social interaction on the internet.  They have impacted the way people communicate with each other online.  A meme can’t hold a place in a conversation similar to a response or a statement.  This Willy Wonka meme shows how memes can interact to keep conversation.   This is a sarcastic meme.  You can tell just by the facial expression and the body language of the meme.  This is a meme that was created from Willy Wonka,  they took this picture and it just suddenly became popular because someone was able to come up with a clever caption.  “The most ambitious memes, however, did more than marry the video to new audio; they tweaked the video. “   Many popular memes today are memes that were from music videos, movies, television, etc.

 People just find the spot where they find most funny and they make it a new meme.   The Hotline Bling video became more popular because people wanted to watch it to actually see where these new memes came from.  This helps people understand how anything can become a meme.   “The pervasive spread of the “Yes We Can” video makes it an example of an Internet meme. Internet memes are a digital version of Dawkins’ (1976) idea of memes, defined as individual bits of cultural information that propagate from person to person while undergoing variation, selection, and retention.” (Guadagno) By being altered and changed it gives videos a chance to become an internet meme.  Videos don’t only take pictures it takes quotes of what people say to make that into a meme.  The “Yes We Can” meme is the perfect example of it because the whole video was about this saying and they made it into this meme of Obama.

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Presidential Memes

Memes can affect how people are looked at and the image they portray.  In the most recent presidential election Donald Trump was elected our next president.  Since then many memes were  made, the most popular has been the Joe Biden memes.

 These are memes that make fun of Donald Trump.  This meme shows how that when Trump is being inaugurated they must keep their cool and not make a big scene.  “This also means that candidates have to be all the more cautious and careful about what they say because anything that comes out of their mouths could potentially morph into a viral meme—stripped of any context, taking on a life of its own, and potentially overshadowing an entire campaign.”    People like to make drama out of nothing.  This is just the nature of society now a days.  Many people doing everyday activities by just one picture can change things completely and taking it out of context.  By this Biden meme being posted it shows how Biden actually feels about the recent election.  “And there, in all that, is Joe Biden—a man in his 70s who has come to stand in for immaturity. A man whose team has lost, but who will, like many of his fellow Americans, take some solace in the fact that “I TOOK THE T’S, THEY CAN ONLY TYPE RUMP.””    With this said this shows how people can over exaggerate little things that can impact a person.  This is shown with the creation of the Joe Biden memes.

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Productive Memes

Although memes can make people look bad, they can make people look good as well.  Many memes can make people seem better than they actually are.  Memes are designed for people to laugh at them.  The new Kermit the Frog memes are a good example of this.

 This meme shows people that everyone has that inner evil voice inside themselves that makes them do stuff they know they shouldn’t do but they do anyways.  “Memes grab our attention, which is why companies use them to increase brand awareness in the hope you’ll buy their products. “  Memes like to use use a certain type of  image or text to catch peoples eye.  Major companies use them to help their product sell.  This helps people use their product to make it popular.  A good example of this is McDonald’s memes.

Although people know what they are already getting when they go there people still go there.  This particular meme shows the entire truth of how they advertise verse what they actually give.

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In conclusion a meme affects how people are looked at and how people see things from their eyes.  Everyone has different perspectives on different things.  That can affect how memes affect certain people.  Memes show that people are seen differently just by the body language and the type of meme it is.  This last meme is a representation of how people are looked at based on memes.  This shows how people think about memes.  Many people don’t appreciate them because to them they are not funny or they do not agree with what the message is in the meme.

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Work Cited

Coker, Christopher. “War, Memes and Memeplexes.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), vol. 84, no. 5, 2008, pp. 903–914. www.jstor.org/stable/25144927

Guadagno, Rosanna E. “What makes a video go viral? An analysis of emotional contagion and Internet memes” http://www.sciencedirect.com.udel.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0747563213001192 July 20 2013

 

How many times during the 2016 presidential election did you see your family, friends, and acquaintances post about the candidates on social media? Tweets from candidates and the public, jokes, and memes filled our feeds so that we had no choice but to look at what was going on. Research has shown that between 65-78% of adult Americans has at least one social media account. Because of this politicians use social media as a way of reaching many Americans quickly and efficiently. Social media is becoming the most powerful way for candidates to campaign in presidential elections. Because the use of social media in elections is so new and so powerful, it is important to know how the candidates and the public are using it as well as the effect that it has on the campaigns.

The use of social media in America is growing at a remarkable rate. Today it is estimated that between 65-78% of American adults have at least one social media account. This is up from only 7% in 2005. Social media has no boundaries. Even though some groups tend to use social media more that others, people from all ages, races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds use it. An article from the Pew Research Center shows the growing rate at which all adult Americans are joining social media. Because over two-thirds of adult Americans are on social media it is crucial that presidential candidates utilize social media to campaign.

The Rise of the Internet and Social Media in Elections

The 2008 election was the first where the Internet and social media became important factors in the campaigns. The 2008 election was also the first election where 55% of adult Americans used the Internet to connect to politics during the election, according to the Pew Research Center .In this election, the term “online political user” emerged. The Pew Research Center identifies these users as having three characteristics: the users go online to find out about politics or the campaign, they discuss politics or the campaign online, and they use twitter, instant messaging, text messaging, or email to share or collect information about the campaign. With the increased number of Internet users, especially those who are politically active users (using the Internet to spread campaign news through text, IM, Twitter, etc.), 2008 became a turning point for politicians where they had an entirely new place to campaign.

This was also the first election where Americans were turning to the Internet for their information on the election almost equally as much as they turned to printed news. For the fist time ever 26% of American’s got their news from the Internet while 28% of American’s got their news from newspapers (both the Internet and newspapers still being surpassed by televised news.) This shows the growing rate at which the Internet was being used to find out about the election as well as previews the power that it would have in the 2012 and later 2016 election because of its rapid growth.

In the 2012 election the use of social media took off. Both candidates (Mitt Romney and Barack Obama) decided to invest more in digital campaign spending than their party had four years before (Romney invested $4.7 million and Obama invested $47 million.) The two candidates decided to invest so much in social media because they realized that it creates a dialogue between the candidates and the public. A New York Times article shows expansion of social media platforms from 2008. Instead of just using websites and Twitter like candidates did in 2008, candidates used an array of different websites to campaign including Pinterist, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Spotify, Youtube, and Instagram. This allowed the candidates to reach more people because their message was constantly being seen by the public on a number of different social media platforms.Because more people were being reached, social media became even more powerful force in the election.

Obama’s investment in media spending paid off. Although some may question why Obama decided to spend ten times as much as Romney did on social media, we can see that the proof is in the pudding when looking at the number of Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, and Youtube likes/comments/views Obama received compared to Romney. The likes, comments, retweets, and views represent the spread of Obama’s campaign along with people’s positive thoughts about the campaign.With positive thoughts about his campaign, Obama gained more supporters and more voters which ultimately lead to his re-election. This shows the power that social media has to help campaigns.

Social Media in the 2016 Election

The use of social media in presidential elections started in 2008, expanded in 2012 and exploded in 2016. The popularity and use of social media lets candidates and the public use social media to share ideas and thoughts about the election. Media spending increased by twenty percent since the 2012 election for a number of different reasons. The two biggest reasons, described in a Huffington Post article are one: the fact that people are now turning to social media for news almost as much as they are turning to television, and two: because social media has the ability to reach a wide audience including minorities and millenials. Through the use of social media both the candidates and the public can share their voice with the world. Because everyone now has a platform to share their thoughts and ideas social media is acting as a powerful way to campaign.

Although many social media sites are used by candidates to campaign, Twitter and Facebook are by far the most influential sites. Articles, memes, pictures, and opinions are shared on the two sites that excite people and get them involved. The public uses Facebook and Twitter to share their opinions through articles and memes while candidates use social media for the same purpose as well as using it in a slightly different way. For example, Donald Trump used Twitter mostly to campaign while he used Facebook to campaign and fundraise. Facebook gave Donald Trump the ability to spread his message while raising money for his campaign. This is extremely important because this is something that could never have been done so easily before. This made funding the Trump campaign easier and with more funding, the campaign was more effective. Without social media his campaign would not have been able to raise as much money as it did, which means that the campaign would not have been as successful as it was.

Twitter is also an extremely powerful campaigning resource. In a hundred and forty characters or less both candidates and the public can receive reactions to their messages almost instantaneously. Another benefit that Twitter brings to the table is how people follow each other. As states in this article the way people follow each other on Twitter is much different than how people follow people on Facebook. For example, on Facebook, people are mostly friends with people that they are related to, friends with, or acquaintances. On Twitter, people have a much broader following. They follow the same group that they are friends with on Facebook along with people that they have never met, and only know because they have an interesting online presence. Because people follow more people on Twitter than they do on Facebook, they see a variety of different things (from both the same point of view as well as a different point of view.) This allows people to be better reached by candidates and better informed.

Internet memes are one example of how both the public and candidates interact with each other as well as share messages about their political views. A meme is defined as a piece of culture that is humorous in the form of an image, video, piece of text that is passed along from one individual to another. Political memes are spread all throughout the Internet (Facebook and Twitter especially) with the intention of spreading a message. An article in The Guardian states that the beauty of political memes is that they are quickly understood and then spread. This is important because people can now see information about candidates revealed through jokes interest them and make them more likely to get involved in the election. The more people are interested and involved in the election, the more powerful they become and social media is source of where this power comes from.

How 2016 Candidates Used Social Media

Although the public does the majority of tweeting, re-tweeting, sharing articles, and making memes, they are all tweeting about one thing—the candidates. Both Trump and Clinton has two very different styles when it came to social media. Trump for one truly embraced social media. He was constantly tweeting and sending out live video sessions while Hillary did the same kinds of things put not at all as frequently as Trump did. Another thing that Trump did was he tweeted everything himself (tweeting more daring things) while Hillary had someone hired to tweet for her (tweeting less provocative things.) The two different styles on social media spoke to different people and sent a message to voters about who they were. By using social media they were able to get across who they were on another platform, not just on television, radio, or through interviews.

 

Social Media’s Effect on Voter Turnout

A study done by the University of California, San Diego, described in this article by the New York Times found that the simple act of posting an “I voted” on a friends Facebook page resulted in 60,000 more people going out to vote in a control group of 600,000 people. This study shows that people are influenced by their friends and family because they are more likely to go out and vote knowing that their friends and family are doing the same. This shows the power of social media in the final stage of the campaign—getting people to go out and vote. Without social media less people would be encouraged to get involved and vote. The more people get out and vote, the more power America is because the citizen’s voices are being heard, and this is all thanks to social media.

Conclusion

Social media has shown in the 2008, 2012, and now 2016 to be an extremely powerful force. Through a number of different sites candidates can connect with each other and the public to spread their messages. Social media has become such a powerful way to campaign because people can see how their friends and family members are getting involved with the election as well as participate in the fun of sharing pictures, memes, articles and funny responses from other people. This discussion is also great for the candidates because their messages are being talked about and spread like never before. Because social media has created this involvement, it has become the most powerful way to campaign in presidential elections.

 

 

Works Cited 

Andrews, Natalie. “On Social Media, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Have Different Styles.” Wall Street Journal. July 28,2016.             http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/07/28/on-social-media-hillary-           clinton-and-donald-trump-take-different-approaches-to-connect-with-            voters/

Borah, Porismita. .”Facebook Use in the 2012 USA Presidential Campaign”. Journal          of Information Technology &          Politicshttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/atharp%40udel.edu/157b9ed7462cd66   1?projector=1

• Candidates Differ in Their Use of Social Media to Connect with the Public.” Pew Research Centers Journalism Project RSS. http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/18/candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-                 connect-with-the-public/
• Green, R. Kay. “The Game Changer: Social Media and the 2016 Presidential Election.” The Huffington                             Post. TheHuffingtonPost.comhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/r-kay-green/the-                                         game-     changer-social-m_b_8568432.htm
• Hong, Sounman, and Daniel Nadler. “Which Candidates Do the                    Public Discuss Online in an Election Campaign?: The Use of                       Social Media by 2012 Presidential Candidates and Its Impact            on Candidate Salience.” Government Information Quarterly .                       http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X12000895

 

• Perrin, Andrew. “Social Media Usage: 2005-2015.” Pew Research Center Internet                           Science Tech RSS. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-                     networking-usage-2005-2015/

 

The Dark Side of the Internet

Eric Quinton

Every single day over 3 billion people worldwide log onto the Internet. In recent years it has become one of the most frequently visited and busiest places on the planet. The Internet has truly become the lifeblood of today’s generation. You can research information, connect with someone on the other side of the globe, and locate almost anything you desire. With the Internet being so popular and widely used, it would be hard to believe that any undiscovered or secret sites could exist. But what if I was to tell you that there is such a place on the Internet? A place concealed from the common eye that hosts illegal activity and fosters complete anonymity for its users. This place is known as the dark web. The dark web is a hidden, encrypted part of the Internet that cannot be retrieved by standard search engines like Google or Bing. To access it you need to install a special browser that lets you open dark web websites. The main allure of the dark web is the full anonymity it offers due to the inability to link users with specific activities. It is essentially a privacy tool. Not surprisingly, there is a huge problem with this. Criminals have been taking advantage of the anonymity of the dark web for illegal activity. A recent study conducted at King’s College London found that 57% of websites on the dark web are used for criminal activity (McGoogan n.pag). Specific crimes that occur on the dark web include the buying and selling of drugs and guns, illicit finance, hacking, illegal pornography (child abuse), and the hiring of contract killers. Law enforcement is becoming increasingly aware of the crimes on these sites and they are doing their best to curtail the illegal activity, but it has become a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. As soon as one site containing unlawful activity is dismantled, another one pops up. The amount of crime occurring on the dark web is growing at alarming rates and is starting to become an epidemic. Despite the fact that the crime rate is increasing on the dark web, little is being done to combat it, and it remains under the radar. A substantial portion of the Internet is being used on a daily basis for illegal purposes and it’s happening right under our noses. The crazy part about it is that most people are unaware that these illicit activities are taking place. I argue that we need to educate the public about what is occurring on the dark web in an attempt to prevent the criminal activities from adversely affecting our society.

Even with the dark web’s recent boost in popularity surrounding the 2013 FBI’s investigation of the biggest online drug trafficking website, The Silk Road, many people are still unaware of the dark web. Some individuals may have subconsciously heard the terms “the deep web” or “the dark web” and assume they are interchangeable. This is a common misconception since they are two different entities. The surface web is anything that can be found by a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. These search engines work by using links to connect you to websites and other content. For example when you click on a tab of a website like Facebook, it’s simply a link that brings you to another page. The deep web is considered anything that search engines can’t access. It is said that it is “impossible to accurately gauge the exact size and scope of the deep web, but some dare to put the figure at hundreds of times the size” of the surface web (Embed Link in “Surface web”) (Ingevaldson n.pag). Most of the deep web sites consist of government databases, financial records, and legal documents. The dark web is a small slice of the deep web that is intentionally hidden. This is where all the crime and illegal activity exists. It’s best to picture the Internet like an iceberg with the tiny surface web sticking out on top, the much bigger deep web underneath the surface of the water, and the dark web at the very bottom.

As I mentioned before, the dark web is an encrypted network that can only be accessed by a special browser known as Tor. Tor was created by the “U.S. Navy more than ten years ago,” and it was designed to “prevent browsing activity from being traced back to the user” (Ingevaldson n.pag). The dark web has taken advantage of this technology to preserve the total anonymity of each user. This has made the dark web a breeding ground for all sorts of criminal activity, and has also made it more challenging for “law enforcement agencies to catch those using the dark web for illegal purposes” (Bradbury n.pag). The fact that criminals have easy access to a convenient and untraceable environment to conduct illegal activity represents a big threat to our society.

 

 

With the amount of criminal activity rising at rapid rates on the dark web, this poses a huge concern for both law enforcement agencies and the potential victims of these offenses. Crimes like the buying and selling of drugs and guns, illicit finance, hacking, and illegal pornography run rampant on the dark web with no end in sight. People are unaware that this deep, dark corner of the Internet exists where crimes are being committed with no consequences for the people who are executing them. The dark web is essentially a tool for criminals that enables them to commit a crime with no repercussion. In Pierluigi Paganini’s article, he states how “Illegal activities in the dark web continue to grow,” and further discusses that despite the fact that these activities are growing at extreme rates, very little is being done by law enforcement agencies to counteract this problem. Paganini argues that, “the crooks seem to be one step ahead of many countries’ law enforcement agencies,” and that “law enforcement bodies are still not in a position to deal effectively with the illegal activities that leverage infrastructures in the Dark Web” (Paganini n.pag). It’s not necessarily that law enforcement agencies don’t do enough to stop illegal activity on the dark web, but it’s that they don’t possess the technology available to identify and locate the individuals who are committing these crimes. The criminals on the dark web are taking advantage of the anonymity of the dark web to remain under the radar of law enforcement agencies. The fact that the law can’t touch these criminals is a scary thought to contemplate. The dark web is empowering criminals by enabling them to get their hands on drugs and guns effortlessly thereby putting society at risk. The shooting that transpired in Munich Germany on July 23, 2016 is a textbook example of this. Ali Sonboly, an 18-year-old German man who was obsessed with mass shootings, shot and killed nine people before shooting himself with a gun he bought illegally off the dark web. Shortly after the shooting, German police said the “9mm Glock handgun used Friday in a shooting spree in Munich was bought online illegally” (Divac n.pag). Access to the dark web gave Sonboly an easy way to obtain a gun without bringing attention to him. Without the dark web, Sonboly most likely wouldn’t have been able to secure a firearm with strict gun laws in place, and the innocent people who died in the shooting would still be alive. Another aspect of the dark web that is damaging our society is the hacking and theft of people’s personal information, such as credit card accounts and social security numbers. The stealing of personal information has become a popular topic in the past few years and is growing wildly on the dark web. As Nyshka Chandran mentions in her article, “Doxing, the act of broadcasting an individual’s personally identifiable information like social security numbers and physical addresses, is also a common phenomenon,” (Chandran n.pag). People’s personal information is broadcasted to eager criminals so they may use it to steal from unknowing victims or to sell the information for financial gain. Doxing puts anyone who uses the Internet or accesses the dark web at risk of being hacked and it makes the Internet an unsafe environment for its users. Whether society realizes it or not, the dark web represents a serious threat by enabling criminals which ultimately makes the Internet more dangerous for everyone.

 

Although it seems that criminals on the dark web are untouchable, some crooks utilizing the dark web for illegal purposes have been arrested. As I previously discussed, the FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht in 2013 for the creation of the biggest online drug market on the dark web. The site he created was known as “The Silk Web”, and Ulbricht was “said to have made hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues from his service,” (Bradbury n.pag).  Additionally in July of 2015, “two individuals from New York had been charged with online child pornography crimes,” (Paganini n.pag). Interestingly, in both of these cases it wasn’t the failure of the Tor technology that led to the arrest of the criminals, but rather, human error. In Bradbury’s article, he references this when discussing Ulbricht’s case when he states, “while the technology may have been flawless, Ulbricht wasn’t,” (Bradbury n.pag). Although law enforcement agencies are making strides in apprehending violators, they have a long, tough road ahead to deter and eliminate crimes of the dark web. Some people might say, “Well if the dark web is such a problem, why don’t we just delete it or erase it?” This was also my suggestion when I began researching the dark web. There are two sound reasons why we can’t simply shut it down. First of all, the operating system, known as Tor that the dark web runs on, is completely legal and is funded by the US Department of State from their Internet Freedom Initiative. Tor wasn’t created with the intention for people to use it criminally. As McGoogan says in her article, “The developers made Tor for a different purpose – they wanted security, not crime,” (McGoogan n.pag). Also if law enforcement did have the right to shut down and dismantle the dark web, they wouldn’t be successful. The dark web is extremely expansive and the fact that it is used worldwide means that it would take an inconceivable amount of time and money to try and eliminate it. Secondly, the dark web can’t simply be shut down because many people don’t want to see it disappear. Although 57% of the dark web is used for criminal activities, the other 43% is used for legal pursuits. While illegal activity makes up a majority of the dark web, innocuous content comprises the balance. There are many good things that are a result of the dark web. For instance, “Users in countries with strict censorship laws, like China or Iran, can use it to access mainstream sites – like Facebook – securely,” (McGoogan n.pag). The solution is not to shut down the dark web, but to prevent criminals from taking advantage of it for illegal purposes. There are steps we can take to bring the illegal activity of the dark web into the light. Raising public awareness through education and experience is the first step to help reach our common goal. If we see or experience something, we should say something. Victims of hacking or other dark web crimes need to swiftly report the activity to the proper authorities, including local, state, and federal agencies. Collaboration between agencies is critical. International and domestic businesses need to remain vigilant in safeguarding customer information to help prevent hacking. Worldwide public consciousness about the illegal activities of the dark web can go a long way to assist law enforcement authorities in their ongoing efforts of detection. Additionally, widely publicizing the capture and punishment of offenders will also aid in deterring criminal activity. Criminals may be discouraged from committing a similar crime for fear of being caught. Heightened detection will eventually lead to the reduction in crime. All of these aforementioned strategies will help to shed light on the illegal and unethical activities of the dark web and will fuel law enforcement success. Our ultimate and eventual goal will be extinction.

 The Internet is a vital networking infrastructure which society has become obsessed with and dependent upon for their daily lives. As with many good-intentioned inventions, they can evolve into vehicles for wrongful deeds. While the dark web advanced from the legitimate deep web, its main activities are illegal and criminal. The dark web has become a breeding ground for unlawful activities mainly due to the total anonymity it affords the user. A substantial fraction of the Internet is being used for illegal purposes and surprisingly the public is in the dark about it. It is imperative that we educate society about the misuse of this tool in an effort to assist law enforcement agencies in combating the crime that is growing at an increasingly alarming rate. While we can’t abolish the dark web, we can grow worldwide public awareness in an attempt to deter and prevent the criminal activities that are adversely affecting our society.

 

Works Cited:

Bradbury, Danny. “Unveiling the dark web.” Network Security, Vol. 2014, no 4, 2014, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135348581470042X

Chandran, Nyshka. “From drugs to killers: Exploring the Deep Web”. CNBC. 23 June 2015. Accessed 30 Oct. 2016.

Divac, Natascha and Schechner, Sam. “Munich Attack Investigation Shines Light on ‘Dark Web’. The Wall Street Journal. 26 July 2016. Accessed 23 November 2016.

Ingevaldson, Daniel. “What’s Lurking in the Deep End of Internet?” Wired. Accessed 28 Oct. 2016.

McGoogan, Cara. “Dark Web browser Tor is overwhelmingly used for crime says study”. The Telegraph. 2 February 2016. Accessed 28 Oct. 2016.

Paganini, Pierluigi. “Law Enforcement and the Dark Web: A Never-Ending Battle”. InfoSec Institute. 19 July 2016. Accessed 30 Oct. 2016.

 

 

 

 

From a personal perspective discussion of the subject of “recruitment” most commonly refers to the high school athlete commencing their college career, or a young person looking to enlist in the United States Armed Forces.  On a global scale, the most common conversation will guide you to a discussion on terrorist’s activities.   Although rather dormant since the 2015 Paris Attacks, terrorist groups have been a striking force through what some people say defines this generation-that is, the internet and social media.  Primarily through Twitter, but also through other sites like YouTube, Facebook, and private messaging apps such as Thunderclap, ISIS has been creating propaganda not only to promote their cause but also to recruit new members.   Many young people have been unknowingly misled into providing materials to ISIS and even traveling to the Middle

East to provide services.  In addition, the Islamic State publishes taboo videos that invoke an emotional response from Americans.  Social media sites have been struggling with what they should or should not remove from the internet and whether or not they should be deactivating ISIS accounts altogether.  There has been a great deal of debate between these companies and the government, as well as within the government exclusively, to determine whether or not the activity on the sites helps or hurts the United States mission to abolish the threat of terrorism. Today, many terrorist groups use propaganda through the internet to recruit new, young members to their belief systems and cause.  Although open to debate, the website owners and government should take action to remove these social media accounts.  There is widespread discussion as to whether or not closing these accounts is constitutional.  However, I feel shutting down their media sites is the solution to deterring terrorism.

It is apparent that there is Islamic state activity on the internet, but what type of activity exactly?  The terrorist group ISIS and others utilize YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and private messaging apps to convey propaganda, terrorize, recruit new members, and hold private conversations.  The account holders publish incredible amounts of media every day.  As stated by University of Maryland Scholar, Lisa Blaker, “There could be as many as 200,000 pro ISIS tweets a day.  That includes re-tweets and some generated by computer programs” (Blaker 1).  Not only do these terrorist groups produce massive amounts of content in an extremely limited time span, but, by incorporating hashtags, they draw a even larger audience.  The group has virtually developed the use of the hashtag into a weapon.  ISIS members have formulated a strategy that more or less spams the Twitter site, allowing hashtags to “trend”, without setting off Twitter’s spam-detection algorithm.

The application used to perform this “spamming” is titled “The Dawn of Glad Tidings,” or “Dawn,” for short (Farwell 51).  With such a large amount of information consistently incorporated into one of the 21st century’s most powerful tools, it is apparent that the uncensored information provided by the terrorists who operate these accounts could present itself on a screen in front of eyes too young to understand, or too vulnerable to handle.  As the Islamic State marched into Mosul, that is just what happened.  Members of the terrorist group began posting such a large density of content at such a timely speed that, when one searched “Baghdad” on Twitter, their posts were among the first results to appear.  Today teenagers and even pre-teens have social media accounts. For decades parents, doctors, and scientists have debated about the effects of the internet on adolescents in general.  The greater concerns lie within social media sites specifically.  Parents and guardians use to exclusively worry about kidnappers and pedophiles conversing with their children over the internet, but now they have to be aware of communication with terrorists and exposure to violent content.  James P. Farwell states in his article, “The Media Strategy of ISIS”, that “images of gore, beheadings, and executions are intended to intimidate opponents” (Farwell 50).

WARNING THIS VIDEO IS EXTREMELY VIOLENT.

https://www.zerocensorship.com/uncensored/isis/isil-machine-gun-executions-pov-battlefield-kill-iraq-video-357818

In the video provided by the link above, we see an example of the type of content that Farwell was referencing.  This video shows the cinema like qualities that many of my research articles depicted.  In addition, it depicts the execution of two ISIL prisoners as well as many pictures of Islamic State soldiers in battle while utilizing lethal weapons.  The video shows deliberate acts of aggression that aim to intimidate.  Anyone would agree such media is unfit for viewing by children.  This video shows two men being shot in the head!  Although it has been removed from the original site, a child or other vulnerable person can still come upon such content.  If terrorists were band from the internet all together, the media would have never been posted therefore protecting our children entirely from content like this.  Professionals claim that violent video games influence aggression in our children.  Replace the cartoon video games with real live footage and you have a recipe for disaster.

In addition to the fact that the unregulated posting of explicit content is detrimental to young people, it also has negative effects for ISIS themselves.  Because almost anyone has the use of a smart phone in today’s world, the Islamic State can’t even control what their fighters post regarding their own personal views.  Some videos are not welcomed by ISIS leaders because of unwanted backlash.  For example, one ISIS fighter took it upon himself to post a video of a Raqqa man’s hand being amputated.  ISIS leaders have band this filming because of said “unwanted backlash.”  The ability of ISIS opponents to gather information from ISIS’s postings is another example of how this action is detrimental to ISIS themselves (Farwell 52). Ted Poe of CNN feels that, although the intelligence community may get information from ISIS’s propaganda, the Islamic State is aware that what they post is meant to be shared.  More clearly stated, the terrorist organization is aware that the information they are putting out there is available for their opponents to see, illustrating that it’s not all that helpful to intelligence communities anyway (n.pag.). I personally agree with Poe’s opinion.  Although the actions of ISIS might seem insane to American citizens, they are not stupid people.  No one can achieve the amount of mass destruction that they have without some intellect.  Furthermore, anyone knows that information on the internet is available for everyone to see.  So if the Islamic State is putting information out there for their enemies to see, you can be certain that they are ready for whatever happens as a result of the information they’ve posted.

The act of child recruitment by ISIS over the internet is one of the greatest issues that must be overcome.  In a

ddition to using social media to document activity, gain followers, and communicate, the Islamic State has been recruiting children to provide their organization with resources.  Their recruitment strategies rely entirely too much on deceitful and misleading information.  According to The Washington Post, President Obama describes ISIL as, “particularly effective at reaching out to and recruiting vulnerable people around the world” (Higham et al, 2).  Surprisingly, recruitment even takes place in the United States.  While I was conducting my research, I came across a Teen Vogue article that contained interviews with young people who had actually been conned into providing ISIS with materials and services.  Many of the victims now face jail time.  Some traveled to the Middle East and were enslaved.  A specific example includes two young women.  “The two young women were lured by the fantasy of providing humanitarian aid in Syria where a civil war was raging.  A stranger not much older than them… capitalized on their good intentions, promising to help them gain entry to the war torn nation” (n.pag.).  Any compassionate human being would agree that one call fall victim to this type of trickery.  Although it is against United States law to aid in any type of terrorist group activity, these women were

not aware of the true reason for the recruitment and were willing to help in order to aid the greater good.  The women ended up being punished for their compassion and mission to help by forcibly serving as candidates for jihad marriage.  In addition, the were raped on a daily basis by Islamic State soldiers (n.pag.). This example shows evidence to support the specific reasons why all ISIL activity should be banned from the internet.  Although it might take some time to implement, the easiest way to make certain that all terrorist activity is exterminated through online activity is by removing them from the internet all together.

The final factor to this controversial issue of terrorist activity is how social media companies and the international governments are handling the vulgar content being placed out on the web.  After the media started appearing and receiving promotional feedback, companies were initially unsure of what to do.  Most of the companies were debating the fact that whatever information is being communicated on the internet, whether bad or good, it is not their right to take away others freedom of speech.  A Washington Post article I discovered while doing my research, written by Scott Higham and Ellen Nakashima, pro

vides a great deal of information regarding the opinions of government official’s as well as that of the social media companies.  The article tells us that Twitter has been the most prominent company defending their user’s freedom of speech.  However, after much pressure from the United States government, they did update their usages policies forbidding any support of terrorist groups.  This quote from an anonymous Twitter official, illustrates Twitters standpoint, “Twitter continues to strongly support freedom of expression and diverse

perspectives, but it also has clear rules governing what is permissible… The use of Twitter by violent extremist groups to threaten horrific acts of depravity and violence is of grave concern and against our policies, period” (n.pag.).  This quote in context was a response to death threats made towards Twitter from ISIS as a result of Twitter removing ISIS’s accounts and content from the social media site.  In my opinion, this quote outlines the approach that should be taken regarding this controversy.  Although freedom of speech is a human right, the threat to a nation’s humanity or safety revokes that right and obligates social media companies to remove the terrorist group’s content ultimately removing terrorist activity from the internet all together.  A quote from Victoria Grand, Google’s Director of Policy Strategy, supports the opposing view that because ISIL is news and will someday be history, their information should still be accessible on the internet.  Grand says, “There are some people who believe if you type ‘jihad’ or ‘ISIS’ on YouTube you should get no results… We don’t believe that should be the case.  Actually a lot of the results you see on YouTube are educational about the origins of the group, educating people about the dangers and violence” (n.pag.).  This quote has some valid points.  However, I do not feel that the benefit of education outweighs the threat of our safety and our children’s exposure to inappropriate content.  The government is of the opinion that the Islamic State’s propaganda should be removed from the internet.  The Washington Post article also provides a quote from President Obama stating that the government will continue to encourage removal of Islamic State propaganda online.  Obama says, “We also have to acknowledge that ISIL has been particularly effective at reaching out to and recruiting vulnerable people around the world, including here in the United States… The United States will continue to do our part, by working with partners to counter ISIL’s hateful propaganda, especially online” (n.pag.).  Although the government encourages companies involved to remove explicit content, he social media companies who host the terrorist group’s violent content hold the burden of deciding what to do with the Islamic States’s virtual voice.

Terrorists groups, specifically ISIS, have utilized the internet as an extremely advantageous tool for themselves.  The Islamic State has been communicating with other members of their cause through sites provided by American Companies.  The United States law prohibits anyone from aiding in terrorist activity.  Therefore, the question today becomes, “Are social media companies allowed to let such activity occur?”.  The government communicated with said companies and continues to encourage their employees to work on algorithms and systems to better regulate terrorist activity online.  Few companies have worked into their usage policies prohibition of terrorist use.  The question post-secondary to this is “Can the United States government really dictate what owners what to do with their companies?”.  Likewise, terrorists continue to recruit teens and post media far too explicit for the children to see.  For all of these reasons terrorist attendance on the internet should be exterminated regardless of whether it is constitutional or not.

Works Cited

Blaker, Lisa (2015) ” e Islamic State’s Use of Online Social Media,” Military Cyber A airs: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 4. DOI: h p://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2378-0789.1.1.1004 In the article, “The Islamic State’s Use of Online Social Media, “

Geiger, Dorian. “This Is How ISIS Uses Social Media to Recruit American Teens.” Teen Vouge, 20 Nov. 2015, pp. 1-7. Conde’ Nast, www.teenvogue.com/story/isis-recruits-american-teens. Accessed 7 Nov. 2016.

Gladstone, Rick, and Vindu Goes. “ISIS Is Adept on Twitter, Study Finds.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 15 Mar. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/middleeast/isis-is-skilled-on-twitter-using-thousands-of-accounts-study-says.html?_r=0. Accessed 5 Nov. 2016. In the New York Times article, “ISIS is adept on Twitter, Study Finds,”

Higham, Scott, and Ellen Nakashima. “Why the Islamic State Leave Tech Companies Torn between Free Speech and Security.” The Washington Post, 16 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/islamic-states-embrace-of-social-media-puts-tech-companies-in-a-bind/2015/07/15/0e5624c4-169c-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1_story.html?kmap=1. Accessed 6 Nov. 2016.

James P. Farwell (2014) The Media Strategy of ISIS, Survival, 56:6, 49-55, DOI: 10.1080/00396338.2014.985436  

Kohlmann, Evan F. Al-Qa`ida’s “MySpace”: Terrorist Recruitment on the Internet. CTC Sentinel, 2008. Primary, Scholarly:

Poe, Ted. “Time to Silence Terrorists on Social Media.” CNN, Cable News Network/Turner Broadcasting System, 25 Feb. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/opinion/poe-terrorism-social-media/#. Accessed 6 Nov. 2016.

Censorship Pandemic

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Intro

Censorship is one of the many things that the US stands against, however, what happens when censorship is already in the US? Censorship is defined as the that act of suppressing unwanted text, film, or news. This censorship is here through other countries and Youtube. What is even worse is that this censorship can ruin everything throughout the entirety of the world if society let it spread through Youtube and the internet to those who would misuse it. I say misuse because like most countries the United States do have some censorship just not as common. Although this ill-advice over use of censorship is already spreading with what is happening with Youtube where it is already costing people their paychecks.  I argue with the effect of censorship causeing big name youtubers to stop helping support charities. Furthermore, if this needless censorship continues to spread it will go from being in other countries, like Pakistan and turkey, to the US which will silence everyone in the US.

The Disperse of Censorship

Other countries such as Pakistan view censorship as a weapon that they use to keep their people under their control. This country has done this by blocking certain websites to help with their image.  This is seen when Zubair Nuabi a writer for USENIX and other important internet web pages says: “Popular websites such as Google, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, and YouTube have borne the brunt of restrictions in recent years. At times, the side-effects of this censorship have affected connectivity outside the country as well.” (Nuabi 2.2) This quote shows how while using censorship to try to remove resistance it can cause other countries to have a negative view of them. This censorship can further cause other countries to not help Pakistan when they are in a time of need. The combination of these two things can further drive Pakistan into a whole that they themselves have made. This act of self-suppression can create a harmful cycle that can affect more than the people of Pakistan. The cycle that create can act like an act of self-harm. This happens when the country censors someone which causes the people to riot against this suppression which can lead to the country to use more resources and harsher means of control towards the people. The people then keep uprising against the rule which can escalate to a full blown civil war. This civil war can make it to

where the government needs help; however, they can’t get any since other countries disagree with the government’s rules. This further shows how ineffective harmful censorship can be. This censorship has also bled on Youtube itself.

The one thing worse than another country censoring Youtube is when it censors itself. What I mean by this is that Youtube has become counterproductive with their new terms and services. A person who can relate to the common Youtube user while still being a content maker such as Lumo blaze. He does this not through his own want but through the lack of people watching his videos.  The goal of a youtuber is the same of any company, to make money. A youtuber makes more money by getting more people to watch their videos. More people watching a content maker’s video the more traffic the site gets which gets the site more money through ad’s which the site then gives to the content maker. What Lumo Blaze, a newer youtube content maker, has to do with this is that Lumo recently made a video that talks about what some of the changes that Youtube has made to the site and what that then made him change in an attempt to get more people to watch him. Normally something like this wouldn’t cause such an uproar. However, this change has caused many people to lose money for something small. This further shows how much censorship has changed Youtube.  This also shows how this rule change can affect both content makers and the normal person who visits Youtube. While this shows that Youtube might have fixed everything they haven’t.

While Youtube might have used this censorship to try to correct things they have in fact made this worse. This is explained as that Youtube made things worse when they automated the process. Thus, making the threat, and spread, of censorship worse. While most people don’t know that this process has happened there is a show that does the ETC Show. This show briefly went over how Youtube does their video approval process. This process being where Youtube has set up bots to constantly review every new video that is posted on the site

and view if it is appropriate for their guidelines. After the video is reviewed and if it is marked as inappropriate, but so much so that it needs to be taken down, the site demonetizes the video. After this happens then an actual human is either messaged or told to go over that video and see if it actually needs to be demonetized or not. Demonetization is the process of marking a video and making it so the person can no longer get money from the views. More importantly the video also goes over what was wrong with the current process. That is this process is horribly flawed in the fact that these bots can flag videos that don’t come close to needing this treatment. Another problem is that these videos are then neglected until someone finally goes over them and sees what needs to be done. While the video just sits there and doesn’t collect money and therefore it causes the owner to lose money, like what happened to the guys running the ETC show. Another problem with all of this is that before this change in the rules the users didn’t even get notified that their videos were being demonetized. This source helps to show how easily censorship can spread. This spread is seen when the company just used bots to monitor their videos instead of actual humans. This also shows that if left unattended it can cause many people to get hurt. In summery censorship needs to be carefully watched to be effective. While I do normally argue against the way censorship is used, there is a way for this to be used to better protect others.

While excessive amounts of censorship is a toxic thing there are acceptable amounts of censorship that can be used. What I mean by this is that certain amounts of censorship are acceptable amount of censorship such as written in The New York Times: “YouTube users can flag any video as containing pornography, mature content, or graphic violence, depicting illegal acts or being racially or ethnically offensive.” (N.Pag) This all shows how effective a tool censorship can be to stop something that can cause harm to someone. This also further shows, in conjectured with the last evidence, that having actual humans can cause less accidental censorship. Like the bots however, humans are still capable of making the same mistake of censoring those who do not need to be. Unlike the bots people have a lower chance because they aren’t just mindless drones that are programed to search certain key words. The problem with this is that if this suppression is used without moderation this can still cause innocent people harm. Finally, there is a way to stop this from harming others, which would be having more people moderate the site. This heavier use of man power can be seen in the use of people being trained to deal with this subject instead of just random web suffers. Increasing people in this line of work would also help in producing more jobs. This increase would also help to lessen the amount of people being unjustly put down by misused censorship. In conclusion while censorship can a good tool to protect others if trained people were to use it as well as the people of the webs as well as moderation. If this method were used there are still things to be aware of like bias. Unfortunately for the those who use Youtube now this method isn’t being used. However, there are still things that youtubers still fear such things as bias even when dealing with moderators of Youtube.

While most companies and organizations try to avoid it, some people will always be biased. What I mean by this is that like many other people Youtube has also been biased. An example of this bias is when Jim Sedlak says,” YouTube would black-out our video warning the public about a Planned Parenthood sex video while it continues to carry the original Planned Parenthood video.” (N.Pag) This shows that, weather intentional or not, the censurer showed bias by removing this video but not the other. This also shows that people can be biased whether they know it or not. Finally, this bias can also affect others by causing people to be silenced when they have didn’t do anything that breaks any of the rules. This can also affect how people view Youtube. This incident can change how people see Youtube because if an incident like this constantly happens it can cause people to not trusty in Youtube or their systems thus causing youtubers to lose money due to the lack of trust causing a lack of viewers. This can further affect people by causing content makers to lose faith in Youtube’s systems thus having them make less content. In summery this shows how bias can affect people by misusing censorship. This censorship can stop many things such as charities.

Finally, misused censorship can stop one of the many good things that Youtube content makers can do such as supporting charities. What I mean by this is that big youtubers can get more people to donate to certain things like this youtuber has done in this video. This video shows how easy it is for a big-name person to make a difference with one video. This video shows that without this man, Markiplier or Mark, this charity wouldn’t have

gotten as many donations therefore not getting as close as they are to solving their problems. Another thing that Mark can do because of his popularity is spreading his ideas. While most people would normally use this renown to spread the wrong messages Mark doesn’t as seen in the video. Instead of just mindlessly posting videos he actually tries to change the world for the better by helping a charity get more renown and money.  The picture on the left shows one of the many occasions this has happened. Finally, this shows how easy it is to stop this flow of good energy. This can be stopped easily when censorship steps in this video can easily be flagged by a system that is automated and doesn’t carefully watch what the content is.  If a bot just flags this video because of the currently implemented system this video could be accidently be demonetized or worse removed from Youtube altogether. This removal would cause the charity to receive less donations therefore helping less people and losing the funding they need. Another problem caused by this is that this can happen to multiple youtubers and if this happens than that means many charities are losing out on this added help. In conclusion while youtubers do tremendous things they can easily be undone by neglect and censorship. In the end censorship, can be both a good and a bad thing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while censorship can be an effective tool to stop from having immature audiences, or audiences in general, from having to witness something that could mentally harm them. However, in the wrong hands this can be used to harm the very people censorship is trying to protect. Neglect, misuse, or automation can cause this harmful spread of distrust, hate, and generally stop the flow of positivity that can be found by the many youtubers of Youtube. The argument of how censorship can be used to stop the spread of information both good and bad is answered along with how we can stop this from seeping from other countries, like Pakistan, through the internet to youtuber and finally into the U.S. by reducing the amount of mindless bots on the internet and hire actual people to look out for one another so that the good done by youtubers and other people may continue to spread UN-hindered. No matter which way this harm is done the same question remains in place, “How much control are we willing to give before it is used to silence us?

Work Cited

“ICYMI: YouTube Censors American Life League.” Health & Medicine Week 25 Feb. 2008: 2667. Business Insights: Essentials. http://bi.galegroup.com/essentials/article/GALE|A215133794/5fa990e315605f44bdda798d52955939?u=udel_main. Web. 25 Nov. 2016

Zubar, Nabi. “Censorship Is Futile.” Cornell University Library 2 Nov. 2014, p. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.0225v1.pdf. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Zeller, Tom, Jr. “A Slippery Slope of Censorship at YouTube.” New York Times, 9 Oct. 2006, p. C5(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=News&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CA152499460&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&source=Bookmark&u=udel_main&jsid=c2538a474b1dbc9f4590e54127aa1487. Accessed 25 Nov. 2016.

Behind the screen

“Suicide isn’t cowardly. I’ll tell you what is cowardly; treating people so badly that they want to end their lives”
-Ashley Purdy

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“Drink bleach”, “Go die”, “You look so bad in this”. What would you do if you got one of these threats from someone you knew? What if it was someone anonymous? Imagine your kid receiving one of those threats. What would you do? According to Wikipedia, Cyberbullying is the act of harming or harassing via information technology networks in a repeated and deliberate manner. Social media has become one of the leading causes of cyberbullying between teens and pre-teens. The shocking thing is that around 90% of the cyberbullying that is taken place has been ignored and not reported. Cyberbullying may not seem as bad as face to face verbal, physical or social bullying, but it can be just as harmful as those, causing depression, health issues and even suicide. Therefore, if people take more precaution, such as having parents get more involved or thinking about what kids are posting before they hit the send or post button and just become aware of this issue, we can hopefully eliminate cyberbullying all together.

Cyberbullying vs. Traditional Bullying

The difference between cyberbullying and traditional bullying has to do with the anonymity of hiding behind the screen. If you are thinking about traditional bullying, that has to do with face to face interaction. Who ever the bully is, strives to see the reaction of the victim, most likely taken place at school or some type of social event. But with that, it can be more of a smaller audience. It could be two girls in the bathroom, in the halls, or classroom. Cyberbullying is a whole different concept. Online, anyone can comment on a post, anonymous or not, hiding behind the screen. According to Keita Suzuki, “The anonymous nature of cyberspace seems to be attractive to teenagers inclined towards bullying” (28). The bully doesn’t have to see the face of the person they are bullying making it a better chance for them to not feel guilty about hitting the post/send button. Unlike the traditional bullying, it can take place any time of any day. There’s no restrictions with who the target is and the size in which the audience may be. Anyone that goes on social media, including the followers and non-followers will be able to see it.

Let’s say it’s a tweet. If the bully has 400 followers, all of them will be able to see it including the non-followers if people retweet it. No matter what, when something is posted on the internet, its always going to be there. Along with that, one big difference between the two is that there is no adult supervision with cyberbullying. Its harder to know when the bullying is going on because there is no in person contact where people will witness it as its happening. It’s more of a behind the scenes action but easily accessible. The teens can use screen names instead of their actual names in order to remain a mystery, giving them a lesser chance of getting in trouble for their actions.

The Effects of Cyberbullying

There are a ton of psychosocial factors associated with cyberbullying that people probably did not know. The victims learning and social environment tends to get disrupted by the cyberbully. They become less focused in school. They tend to get worse grades and in some cases even skip school to isolate themselves away from the stress and people. On the social side, they become less interested in hanging out with friends, making them a lot more distant. Along with that, teens are more likely to go into depression, develope self esteem issues and that could lead to them harming themselves. What may start as little instances of self harm can escalate to the victim committing suicide. If you are a worried parent, make sure you are paying attention to if your childs behavior is changing or is seeming unusual. Looking at the picture below to the right, you can see the relation between cyberbullying and history.

According to nobully.com, “the end results can be tragic” (n. pag.) and the tragic part is that these teens are willing to take their lives over something that is being said or done through social media. That being said, with the increase of bullying on social media, the amount of teen suicides has been increasing as well, due to the constant attacking towards an individual. It usually gets to the point where they feel like there is no where else to go, and that they are worthless. Everyone should be able to feel safe in their own home and not have constant fear that wherever and whenever, someone could attack them.

This is Real, Its Not Made Up

This happens to real people every day, its not just the things you see in movies. One well known cyberbullying case is the one with Amanda Todd. As told by Michelle Dean in the article “The Story of Amanda Todd”, Amanda was talking to someone she had met online and at his request, she flashed him. He ended up taking a picture of it and continued to follow her on different social media sites. After she refused to send him anymore pictures, he would send the picture he had of her to her classmates on Facebook. Everyone started to judge her and call her names. All of that made her depressed and anxious and that resulted in her doing things like drugs and alcohol. The reason this tragedy went viral was because of the YouTube video she made where she told her story using flashcards. She didn’t think she had anything left and didn’t think she could escape, but at least she got to get her story across. As Michelle Dean mentions “She got to drown out the version of her that strangers had put out on the Web. It’s a small comfort. But it was perhaps the only one she had left” (n.pag.).  The reason that was the only one she had left was because of her finally committing suicide after many attempts; like drinking bleach and overdosing. Which explains the picture of her as a bleach bottle. She died just about a month later leaving behind her video for everyone to see. With Amanda’s situation, it shows that anyone that has access to the internet can get affected by this or affect others when its least expected.

The Issues Behind Instagram and Ask.fm

The social media sites you use on a day to day basis are effecting someone’s life and you might not realize it. The specific sites that have been causing issues are Instagram and Ask.fm. Some might not think that Ask.fm would be an issue and some might not know what it is. It’s a site where you can post comments or questions to a person’s profile, anonymous or not becoming a place where people are communicating abusively and bullying others.

A couple years ago, when it first became popular, there were around 300,000 new users daily. Most of these users were young teens seeking for the opinions of their peers but with it being anonymous, it took a turn to the dark side. In 2013, there had been 5 deaths across the nation in less than a year that were linked to Ask.fm. In his article, Abad-Santos states “these suicides are tragic, no doubt, and they represent only a small number of the thousands of teens out there who may be getting threats” (n.pag.). That being said, a ton of teens are either going into depression or keeping it to themselves making it harder to detect since its not taking place in schools.

The issue with Instagram, is that teens, mostly girls, post pictures of themselves with the hashtag #rateme or #hotornot looking for positive comments, but if their accounts are public they are more than likely going to get a bunch of negative comments, a lot from anonymous accounts. When finding that the similarity between the two is the anonymity, it shows that people hiding behind a fake name and a screen, then they are more likely to say those harsh comments because they either know they can’t be found or know they can’t see the reaction to feel guilty. The use of the internet is making it way more accessible for teens to bully others and making it harder to detect who the bully is.

We Can Find a Way to End Cyberbullying

After becoming aware of cyberbullying and the effect it causes, we should be able to find a prevention for it. So in order to do that, we have to figure out the causes. According to the article “Are you raising an internet bully? Here’s how to end that behavior.” By Monica Leftwich, she thinks that the reason some kids engage in certain behaviors like bullying online has to do with the parents. She mentions a guy named Robert Faris, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, who believes that the parents behavior can promote aggression in the kids. Along with that, he thinks if the parents don’t enforce priorities or have healthy social relationships then they are more likely to engage in inappropriate online behavior. That means the parents shouldn’t be so focused on their kids’ popularity because that could lead to kids thinking that popularity is more important than true friendships. Some other ways to prevent this online aggression towards others, the parents should become more involved in their kid’s life or just monitor what social media sites they are using.

On top of that, a really important thing for the parent to do is to know what type of people your kids are hanging out with early on that way they have an idea if the relationship is going to be healthy or not. When it comes to the kids, they need to learn how they can protect themselves. A good start is knowing 4 simple things they can do if they are being bullied or harassed; unfriend/block the person, report them to the social media site, avoid looking at messages or posts, and let an adult know as soon as possible.

 

Essentially, If parents and teens take more precautions and become aware of these types of situations, cyberbullying can have a better chance of being eliminated all together; meaning they should know who their kids are friends with and what type of social media their kids are being associated with. Since most parents pay for their phones, they have the right to stay updated with what is on there. That being said, most of the cyberbullying is sparked from the use of social media and the idea that they can hide behind a screen and an anonymous name. Once again, if you are seeing or receiving the posts like “drink bleach” “kill yourself” “you’re ugly”, then report and block. We can only eliminate it if we take it step by step. Will you be willing to report the bully? Will you talk to your child about whats happening? What will you do?

 

Work Cited

Abad-Santos, Alexander. “Ask.fm Is the New Way for Teens to Cyberbully Each Other to Death.”            The Atlantic. Web. 7 August 2013.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/twitter-bullying-over-ask-new-way-people-be-awful/312421/

Chang, Fong-Ching, et al. “The relationship between parental mediation and internet addiction among adolescents, and the association with cyberbullying and depression.” Comprehensive Psychiatry, vol. 57, 2015, pp 21-28. Science Direct, http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0010440X14003253/1-s2.0-S0010440X14003253-main.pdf?_tid=b6560b1c-9a3a-11e6-b986-00000aacb35e&acdnat=1477348944_81fae51d24b84b83a731d393ac912f37 Accessed 26 October 2016

Leftwich, Monica. “Are you raising an Internet bully? Here’s how to end that behavior.” The       Washington Post. Web. 29 September 2016.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/09/29/are-you-raising-an-           internet-bully-heres-how-to-end-that-behavior/

 

Suzuki, Keita, et al. “Cyberbullying and adolescent mental health.” International Journal of                     Adolescent Medicine and Health, vol. 24, no. 11, 2012, pp 27-34. De Gruyter Online,   

https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ijamh.2012.24.issue-1/ijamh.2012.005/ijamh.2012.005.xml. Accessed 31 Oct. 2016.

 

Scheff, Sue. “Teens, Cyberbullying, Sexual Harassment and Social Media: The New Normal?”     The Huffington Post. Web. 25 February 2016.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-scheff/teens-sexual-harassment-a_b_9310060.html

 

Dean, Michelle. “The Story of Amanda Todd” The New Yorker. Web. 18 October 2012.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-story-of-amanda-todd

 

Straus, Lindsey Barton. “Cyberbullying: Which 3 Social Networks Are the Worst?” momsteam.
http://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cyberbullying-which-3-social-networks-are-worst