I have had some similar experiences with Christian themed social media in terms of glossing over important issues and sticking to superficial themes… however, given that social media is such a powerful tool for connection and religion/churches have always flourished as community hubs, I wonder if there are ways that churches can use social media to expand their message in a positive way rather than dumb it down. I know one example that’s been particularly intriguing is churches posting their sermons online as podcasts. However… I don’t know how churches might approach posting their messages via Twitter and Facebook in a meaningful way. Any ideas?

I agree that it’s clearly evident that much of American media is motivated by economical gain, but I don’t really see a way around it. How could we go about promoting positive changes in the media industry now that it’s so developed and has such strong traditions? How could we inspire leaders in a billion dollar industry to focus on creating products that improve humanity rather than products that make money? Or is there a way to do both?

Last week after class, I couldn’t stop thinking about someone’s (sorry, I forgot whose!) comment that boredom doesn’t really seem to exist the way that it used to. I remember countless Saturday afternoons as a kid spent lying on the living room carpet whining to my mom that I was sooo bored and that there was absolutely nothing to do. She’d always recommend playing outside or reading a good book, and those options never sounded appealing.

Upon further reflection, I realized that I while I remember being bored as a kid, I can’t remember the last time I was bored. If I start to feel antsy waiting in a long line, I pull out my phone and Yik Yak entertains me until it’s my turn. When I’m home after a long day of class, I turn straight to Netflix for a quick episode of Friends before beginning homework. Between classes, work, my social life, my email inbox, my favorite blogs, social media, online news, the online job hunt for after graduation, calling home to talk to my family, and a few other activities, my days are all completely booked. If I’ve got 20 minutes to kill, I’ll pull out my phone. I’m always busy, and I’m always plugged in.

I set out to do some research on boredom in the modern era, and I found this interesting article published by Psychology Today (link below) that explains that we don’t really see any mention of boredom in historic records until about the late 18th century. The author explains that in the days of hunting and gathering, people didn’t really complain about or experience boredom in the way that people do in modern times. Boredom arose when culture advanced and entertainment was widespread, cheap, and easily accessible. The author predicts that “as opportunities for entertainment proliferated, people began to compare their daily experience to the adventure and romance and glamour of the worlds they could experience through entertainment.” Essentially, we created the concept of boredom when we taught ourselves that we should be able to be entertained all the time.

I predict that we’re entering the next phase in historical development: just as quickly as boredom appeared, we will see it disappear. Now we are SO entertained and SO connected that we get nostalgic for the feeling of boredom… or at least I do. I would absolutely love a day where I had no emails, no work, no internet, and no commitments. We are so connected and so plugged in that we’re actually seeing it start to wear away at our mind and bodies. We’re now in an era where people have to teach themselves HOW TO unplug and HOW TO DO NOTHING (i.e. yoga and meditation). We’ve forgotten how to be bored, and we’ve forgotten its benefits. Boredom used to open my mind to new activities, new ideas, and often times, some much needed down time or self-reflection. Now that I’ve lost the ability to feel bored, I rarely find myself trying new activities or pushing myself out of my routine. I rarely make time to unplug and do something for myself, and I think it’s extremely detrimental to my well being. What do you guys think? What were some of the best parts of boredom? Do you ever feel bored? Do you miss it?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-drugs-and-boredom/200907/whats-the-opposite-boredom/comments

I agree that the notion of loneliness has changed. I think today when people talk (or Yak) about feeling lonely, they mean that they don’t feel truly connected to anyone. Yes, technology and social media makes it easy to be plugged into your social network at all times, and it’s so easy to strike up a conversation with someone online if you feel like you need some interpersonal contact. Today’s loneliness is a deeper, more sorrowful longing for a true connection- for an offline connection that is as powerful and as permeating and as easily accessible as an online one.

In this piece, Professor Rheingold presents some of Sherry Turkle’s ideas about what the online social communities and fragmentation of identity online are doing to our notion of self. He writes about the fragmented nature of social interaction online: “you cycle for a few hours among your identi-frags. Chat, compose, MUD, surf, chat, compose, MUD, surf. You do this all day, every day. For years.” For today’s youth, the cycle looks something more like “Facebook, write some of your paper, surf, browse, Snapchat, text, Facebook, text, write some more of your paper, Yik Yak, text, Tweet, Insta, text, write some more of your paper, Facebook, text, Snapchat, Facebook, Snapchat, finish the paper. Go to bed. Repeat.” but the general principle is the same. By constantly being semi-engaged in multiple social platforms and switching our attention from one thread to the next, we make it impossible for ourselves to ever be fully engaged in a task, and we place ourselves in the mindset of constant multi-tasking and prioritizing social interactions. Being constantly plugged into multiple social circles, we surrender some of our identity to the web, and we fragment our personality into discrete chunks for targeted broadcasting. Not only does the way we use the web shape our self-identity, it shapes the way that many other people view us as well. In today’s world, my first face to face meeting with a potential employer is inherently shaped by the information I found out about them while stalking their LinkedIn. A first date is inherently shaped by the information people find out about each other from stalking their Facebook accounts or dating profiles. Professor Rheingold urges us to consider what the long-term effects of these behaviors will do to our identities. Will we reach a point when we are so dependent on machines to convey our identities that we won’t know who we are if we’re unplugged?

It’s funny too how even small, simple changes to interfaces are detected instantly. I remember when Apple first launched the update that changed iphone app logos from rounded, 3-D looking buttons to flat, simpler looking buttons, people FREAKED out. Yet in just a few weeks, people adapted and forgot that the change had ever occurred. When we look at an image every day, it’s shocking and paradoxical 1-how much we begin to depend on the stability of those images and 2-how quickly our loyalties to images can change when they’re “updated.”

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I agree that Snapchat is a really convenient way to keep in touch with people. I prefer to follow my close friends who live far away on Snapchat rather than Facebook because I think it provides a more unfiltered, legitimate feel for what their daily life is like.

In class we talked a bit about driverless cars, and I brought up my huge fear of them. I thought I’d make a pro con list to sort out my thoughts.

PROS:

1. Decrease traffic- obviously a good thing

2. Cut down on DUI’s- also obviously a great thing

3. Convenience factor/save time… if people weren’t focused on driving, cars could become a much more social or reflective or educational space. We could spend the 20 minute commute to work watching the news or catching up with friends and really engaging in conversation.

4. General increase in safety and decrease in deaths

5. Able to increase speed limits and save time

CONS:

1. Nobody will have to learn how to drive. This can often be a really fun/special time for parents and kids… I still remember taking driving lessons with my dad, and it was a really good way for us to spend time together in my otherwise tumultuous “I hate my parents” teenage years.

2. Cars will be crazy expensive… at least at first.

3. Increased dependence on technology. What would someone who doesn’t know how to drive do if their driverless car broke down or stopped working and they were totally stuck? I suppose we still have that problem today with cars breaking down on the side of the road, but giving up our ability to transport ourselves and our control over where we want to go/be seems like a huge sacrifice and loss of humanity.

4. There’s a potential for all that data to be put in the wrong hands. Do we really want data to exist on our every move? Trackers in cars raise all kinds of issues about privacy, security, and safety.

5. Kids won’t have to depend on their parents anymore. I remember “running away as a child” and not making it more than a mile down the road before I got tired and went back home to my parents. Parents hold so much authority over children in controlling their ability to leave home. What would happen in a world where teenagers could run out of the house and drive off whenever they wanted?

I agree with Gabe- social media and technology really are beginning to shift us away from traditional norms of social etiquette. Another example I can think of is the typical introduction. Growing up, I was taught that if I was speaking with one person and another joined the conversation or if I was having a conversation with multiple people that I knew, it was my job to introduce each of my friends to each other. For example, if I was at a party chatting with my best friend Alex and one of my co-workers came over to say hi, I was responsible for saying something like “Oh
Julie, good to see you! Alex, this is my co-worker Julie, and Julie, this is my friend Alex.” However, I’ve seen this tradition start to disappear… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been chatting with a person only to be interrupted by another one of their friends, and it is always SO awkward just standing there silently listening to them have a conversation while mine is on pause. On social media, people rarely make “introductions” anymore… we rely on lists of mutual friends, short bios, profile pics and usernames to display introductory material. Because everyone’s basic info is so readily available, we don’t really need to take the time for proper introductions online… And I think getting comfortable with this practice may be leading some of us to forget how important and helpful introductions are in the real world for facilitation conversation and keeping everyone involved!

Here it goes:

1. Multiple Members. This may seem like a pretty obvious statement (and it is), but in order to have a community, you have to have more than just yourself. I also think there ought to be some sort of hierarchy or sorting mechanism for members. There are typically a few community leaders, a few community leaches, a large number of active members, and a number of passive members as well. I personally don’t do well with ambiguity or uncertainty, so having an easily identifiable hierarchy is helpful.

2. Purpose. Because people are so different, for any type of unifying body, there needs to be a shared goal, vision, or purpose. There needs to be a clear sense of what members can expect to give to the community and what they’ll get in return. I can have a community of neighbors, of sorority sisters, of fellow gym rats, etc… but I can’t have a community of people with nothing in common other than the fact that they exist.

3. Means of Communication. A community of solitude sounds more like shared isolation than a true community. In order to band together, people need to have a mechanism to share their ideas and thoughts. That can be basic language, an organized forum, an email/Facebook/social media group, etc. But every community needs to have a designated space for communication.

4. Means of Building Loyalty/Relationships. In today’s ever-expanding society, if someone joins a community that they just don’t click with, they can hop right back out and join another community elsewhere. For a community to really engage and retain members, they need to establish relationships within the communities, bonds with other members, or some sort of loyalty to the community itself.

5. Clear Expectations for Behavior. In order for people to start building the aforementioned relationships and bonds, they need a bit of guidance. For example, online communities each have their own cultures and set of expectations for what is allowed and what isn’t okay, and people need this sort of consistency to help guide their interactions… particularly in the early days of a community. Without behavioral expectations — defined implicitly or explicitly — people may be shy, unsure of how to act, or at risk of offending other community members.