How Facebook Facebook Makes Us Unhappy

The global need to interact and stay connected is a big part of our daily lives, but like all things, has it’s positives and negatives. Consider the influencing roles that Facebook plays in today’s society and we can begin to realize how truly depressing some of our online activities can be. Although social media isn’t necessarily bad, it can have devastating effects on our mental state of mind according to an article known as “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy” by Maria Konnikova. It’s time to explore the deep connected world of social media and find the effects it has on society as a whole.

Social media tends to allow users to have better access to their friends and family, but this also increases the need for attention which often results in posts and/or photos that many would prefer to as foolish. The primary problem with Facebook and other social media websites, is the increasing amount of drama and attention seekers. Why would someone want to put a photo of themselves on Facebook, holding a bottle of vodka, smoking a bong, and begging for likes? Or even making statuses where they are intentionally trying to start arguments? It doesn’t make sense in the real world. Reason being, when they’re publicly expressing their desire for drugs and/or alcohol, for their family, friends, and some creep from another country to see, it can get them into serious emotional, legal, and monetary problems. Most people, it is assumed, would prefer to avoid that. Those who don’t end up “ruining their lives”. Although in the world of social media, if it’s somewhat important, to gain likes (basically attention), people will post pretty well anything.

Sometimes, social networking can be too addicting and may cause a society to become too network minded. In a world where social networking websites achieve hundreds of millions of users, it’s bound to become part of everyone’s daily life. However, when people become hooked on it, they start to lose the treasured communication of face-to-face conversation. People start missing out on this, which starts to reduce their verbal communication skills and their appreciation for the beautiful nature that the world provides humanity. They are too worried about the latest tweet from a celebrity, or the latest Facebook argument about John’s relationship problems. Overall, this constant state of mind and need to feel connecting can be hard on the brain due to the intense multi tasking and constant flow of information which can lead to stress. Although this can be a useful tool to humanity, sometimes the addicting smartphone needs to go away to appreciate life at it’s fullest.

Overall, the article was a very entertaining read and really acts as a true wake up call to the better things humanity could be doing with the time that they have. If more people realized that Facebook and social media isn’t always good to have 24 hours a day, maybe society would be happier and less stressful. By far, humans have a long way to go to perfect the art of balancing communication and happiness, and this article proves it.

“Glendale District Says Social Media Monitoring Is for Student Safety” – Tom’s Point of View

The internet is vast network of tools and resources and should be treated as such, but with millions of users interacting every single day, what are the laws governing it’s usage? Where is the line drawn between privacy and monitoring? Free speech and bullying? An article known as “Glendale District Says Social Media Monitoring Is for Student Safety” by Stephen Ceasar really brought up a lot of really interesting points in regards to this, some of which I would like to discuss. Overall, this has given me mixed opinions, but, I have my own proposal for how this system could work, which would be effective in protecting rights as well as students.

To start off, perhaps we should address the worry of invading on the freedom of speech or privacy. From my personal experience as both a supporter of freedom of speech and a victim of bullying, we don’t necessarily have to monitor private details and personal conversations, although I applaud Glendale in their efforts. Rather than monitoring all social media accounts owned by students (which would cost millions of dollars considering the terabytes of data that we, teenagers, use every day), why don’t they just enact legislation which would give educational institutions and/or police forces the right to seize the data for specific accounts? This would work similar to the way a warrant would work for a house arrest, instead, it can be a warrant to seize a Facebook account. I’ve personally been a victim of cyber-bullying multiple times in the past, and I assure you, it’s not fun to check Facebook and see a status posted saying “If you hate Thomas Burleigh, say I” along with multiple other inappropriate, vulgar, word. Again, it doesn’t mean we have to resort to extensive monitoring of everybody’s private conversations to stop it. Warrant systems are a fair way of handling the situation on a case-to-case basis while at the same time, protecting the rights to freedom and privacy of the average user, both of which are important.

There’s an interesting point I’d like to bring up as well, what’s going to stop people from continuing? Personally, as a student, whenever I’ve had bullying innocents, the situation was silenced once the school took care of it. However, in many places, this is not the case and the situation continues to escalate further simply due to the school’s lack of punishment for bullying. Schools need to increase the punishment for cyber-bullying as many schools just offer a “tap on the wrist” or a 1 day in-school suspension. Although some people may stop after the first warning, some will continue to bully and harass people resulting in continuous 1 day suspensions which have no effect on the student. What we need, for those involved in cyber-bullying, they need counselling. People who try to bring others down behind a computer screen clearly have problems they need to sort out, and a counselor can do that for them and hopefully cause them to avoid bullying in the future.

To summarize, I feel this school district and many others have the right idea. Many things including a warrant system to seize an account and perhaps improved counselling services can see the rates of suicide and depression among teenagers decrease. This is a big change but I feel it’s in the right direction. Again, I applaud Glendale for their efforts and I hope to see a further crackdown on cyber-bullying in the future while protecting the rights of the average social media user.

“Secrets of the Most Successful College Students” – Tom’s Point of View

    College is a very big step between high school and the workforce and as such, it can have it’s many challenges which you’ll need to overcome. However, with the assistance of an article known as “Secrets of the Most Successful College Students” by Annie Murphy Paul, there are many ways you can make this terrifying stage in your life, seem so much easier.

 

    The first thing I noticed about this article, was the difference between high school and college. Honestly, in high school, you wouldn’t be “content with failure” or “pursuing passion ahead of As”. In fact, that’s what you would be pursuing. It seems though that in college, at least to my understanding, the focus is more on being dedicated to your dream career and it isn’t based so much upon the numbers. If that’s the case, then I definitely agree, focus on the important things, the things that will matter in the future when you go to pursue opportunities outside of college. Pursue your dream job, your dream career, focus on what will get you there, and if you come out with good grades, then I suppose that’s a bonus.

 

    Another thing which I noticed, was how this article was focused on thinking big. They want you to ask big questions, create goals and then reach them, as well as to actively read and think. This makes perfect sense to me as it trains the brain to get deep into thought and to have objectives to overcome, which is usually quite important considering the positive motivation completing your goals can give you. If you can find a way to set studying goals for yourself, it can really help you do well. For example, on your first day, study for 10 minutes, then 15 the next day, 20, etc. until you’re at your desired time. As far as thinking big, like they suggested, think outside the box. Think about things as big as the nature of consciousness, or like they said, “Why do we have life, and what is it’s nature?” Ask yourself these questions, it really challenges the brain to think deep. I know it helps me when I think deeply like this and it will probably help you. I’m glad the author brought up the thinking big suggestion, because I find it to be very effective.

 

    Overall, I was very satisfied with the article and the assistance it gives to college students. Again, college can be a very terrifying time to go through. But if you keep these simple little tricks in mind, perhaps it won’t seem so frightening. I advise more students who are considering taking college, or are already taking college, to read this article as it’s a true asset as far as ways of thinking.

“Fat or ugly? Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t want you” – Tom’s Point of View

Very recently, I have stumbled across yet another article, however, this one kind of angered and confused me in many ways. Essentially, we’re dealing with a clothing business that’s only interested in certain people wearing their products, which I think is outrageous.

Here’s the part which I can kind of understand, but I’m also confused by it at the same time. Apparently, they want people who are appealing and attractive to be wearing their clothing. That’s fine, every company wants to showcase their product and make it look good in the best possible way, even if it means using attractiveness to market them. But what I don’t understand, and this is from a business perspective, why they just don’t offer something for those who they consider to be “unattractive” or “ugly”? Although they may not be what they are looking for in regards to marketing the product, they are still customers, and there is still money to be made, why not just make a few clothing sizes which may be better to suit them? Everyone wants the latest trends, so I don’t see what the problem is. If I owned a clothing company, sure, I’d want attractive people to wear the clothing, it helps sales, but I’d have no problem with anybody else wearing it. I wouldn’t want to start up a fight with potential customers and instead I’d try to suit their needs like any serious business should.

The part that angers me about this though, is that the CEO directly admits he doesn’t want “unattractive” or “ugly” people wearing the clothing. It’s bad enough that they don’t sell products for those people, but now the Chief Executive Officer, the owner of the company, says that? In my opinion, that’s equal to if Bill Gates were to say “Hey! We won’t sell Windows Phones to people who have iPods from Apple!” Do you know why? Because they are reducing their number of customers, they’re picking and choosing. It’s the worst business strategy I’ve seen in my life. If I was on their company’s Board of Directors, I’d vote to have that guy fired. It’s complete foolishness.

Overall, I was not impressed with the actions by this company. I highly doubt I will be buying their products anytime soon. I’m happy that Susan Kraskinsky brought this to the public’s attention, because in my opinion, this is one horrible excuse of a business.

“Turn Off the Phone (and the tension)” – Tom’s Point of View

Very recently I have stumbled upon this interesting article known as “Turn Off the Phone (and the tension).” It brought up a lot of interesting points in which we really need to take into consideration simply upon having these devices. This even made me, a computer hobbyist wonder about my usage of these devices which have become seemingly essential in our lives today. Allow me to express my point of view.

One of the first things that really struck me hard was how this article makes you realize how much you are missing out on life simply by engulfing yourself into these devices. When the author was discussing how the girl had begun to panic as a result of not being able to use her cell phone but managed to find other, more relaxing and enjoyable things to do, it really astonishes you. Basically you go from a technologically advanced environment of social media into a calming, peaceful, and relaxing environment where you can think, where you can enjoy life and what it offers. It makes you appreciate the simple things.

The other thing that I found interesting, was when the author brought up the point of reducing cell phone usage. Cell phone usage among other things, honestly needs to be reduced. Do we really need to text people who are right next to us? Whatever happened to speaking? Surely there is usage of cell phones such as the above example which aren’t even necessary. So why use it if you don’t have to? Don’t overcomplicate things. Go out and talk to people, hang out with friends, and put the cell phone away. You don’t need it all the time, which I think is a great point to bring up.

Overall, I agree with the opinions and point of views expressed in this article, I definitely would recommend to anybody who is a frequent user of cell phones, or any real social electronics (Computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) to take a look at this article.