This video shows:
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The world is now becoming social media. When Erik Qualman says, "We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it," I think that he is referring to the world being so dominated by social medias, that there is no other choice but to fall into that norm. However, we do have the choice as to how we use that social media. This is to say that we can either choose to use it for a beneficial cause or for our own pleasure. For example, people may use social medias such as Facebook or Twitter to promote awareness about causes like cancer, or animal cruelty, or gay rights. This relates to how well we do social media. If it is being used to spread the word or a good cause, then it is being used well. That is not always the case for why it is being used. Some use social medias just for pleasure and to connect with their friends and family. This has no impact on the world itself and is not being used to its full potential.
The video above states that "1 in 8 couples married in the United States met via social media." That shows a clear impact that social media has on the world. Before the internet, couples would meet an old fashioned way of just seeing each other around town and getting to know each other in person. Now, with the internet and the affect of social medias, people meet online and have relationships through the internet. This is astonishing to think about because couples fall in love without even ever meeting in person. |
This picture is from a new television series on MTV right now called Catish. If you click the picture, it directs you to another page on our site that describes more about the impacts of relationships made through social medias.
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Digitally Lived world:
Such a large percentage of the world is digitally lived., especially through social media. The amount of people that are on Facebook, could make up its own country large enough to be the 3rd largest country in the world. The above video explains that Facebook reached 200 million users in less than a year. Whereas it took the radio 38 years, television 13 years, the internet 4 years, and ipods 3 years to reach 1/4 that amount of users. They are all digital technologies and show that our world consists of digitally lived people, more importantly, through social media and the internet. Through our lives being so digitally lived, we are able to see the affect identity plays on the internet and these social medias. With so much impact of social media, identity comes into question:
Do people stay true to their real identity?
Do people portray multiple identities?
What are the affects of people portraying multiple identities?
These are important questions to look at when we think about identity on the internet.
Do people stay true to their real identity?
Do people portray multiple identities?
What are the affects of people portraying multiple identities?
These are important questions to look at when we think about identity on the internet.
Click the image above to watch the video on Dick Hardt and his ideas on identity as well as more thoughts about the video.
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Dick Hardt discusses the importance of identity and his theories. He discusses the identity of a person online and offline. When you are offline, you have substantial evidence of who you are, such as a birth certificate to prove your existence and a license to show your general information about where you live and how old you are with a picture to prove your looks. In the online person, it is up to the people interacting to trust that the identity of the users are true and actually who they portray to be. If they are portraying someone that they really aren't in real life, does that make them have multiple identities or are they just falsifying their original identity? I think that people can get so sucked into their online identity, that they actually do have multiple identities. People want to explore multiple aspects of their own personalities and are able to enjoy the fact that they can portray a different person online yet still be credible to themselves. |
Discussed on our "Online vs. Offline" page, is the idea of people in Thailand not using their real names or pictures. Even though they act as they are in real life, yet use a different name and picture, does that mean they are portraying multiple identities or staying true to their real identity? Identity is defined by dictionary.com as "the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions." This definition contributes to the idea that the identity of these Thailand Facebook users can be of question. "Under varying aspects and conditions" means that even in an online social media setting, one should stay true to their original identity; that is through their personality and how they act and react as well as the image and name they portray as themselves.
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