Is Twitter making you STUPID? Social networking sites are making it hard for people to think for themselves

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2551578/Is-Twitter-making-STUPID-Social-networking-sites-making-hard-people-think-themselves.html#ixzz3ICHQhwF1

Some researchers think that Twitter and Facebook may be affecting our capacity to think analitically.

As this websites have been gaining popularity on sharing information between a large amount of people it is thought that we stop thinking for ourselves and we only copy ideas from others. We are not more intelligent because we have more information, it is merely a superficial intelligence. According to the experiment realised by the University of Edimburgh and Masdar Institure of Science and Technology, which consisted in asking to groups of people, individually and in common, a series of trick questions; like we are addicted to social networks we do not spend time thinking on our own.

From my point of view, I partly agree with this study because I think that we do not check if the information we keep in our mind is right or it is not, and also because unconsciously we take ideas from others. However, I think that the sharing of information is always good for everyone because it makes people more open-minded and they have more different points of view.

María Zaragoza

Claudia, Emma and Alicia: Top 10 Tips for students on university interviews

  • Be as confident as you can: go shopping for cloths and make up (girls) in order to feel comfortable.
  • Prepare yourself in advance, don’t wait until the last minute.
  • Ask a person of trust to interview you in advance, in order to identify your weaknesses.
  • Think about which questions might be asked and try to answer them.
  • Research the structure and content of your course so that you will be able to refer to it during your interview.
  • Think about your skills and your aims and try to illustrate your points with examples.
  • Don’t be afraid to show your enthusiasm for your subject.
  • Revise your subject in order to be able to connect different points and ideas during the interview.
  • Be concise and communicate your thoughts clearly.
  • Don’t panic!

“Does sharing photos of your children on Facebook put them at risk?”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/21/children-privacy-online-facebook-photos

The impact that social media have on our lives is enormous. For this reason, we are beginning to question some issues, such as: “Is it right to post photos of children on Facebook?”.
Is it safe, or even ethical to publish something about someone without their approval? And if we are talking about a child… Are these photos going to affect his future?
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are all filled with photos of cute little babies, posted by their parents; actually, a recent US study found that the 97% of mums that use Facebook also share photos of their children online. But not everyone is doing this in complete serenity: some of them claim to feel guilty while they are posting, because they are not sure if this action will lead to consequences for their adult sons and daughters. In fact, according to the website Career Builder, around a fifth of employers use social networks to research job candidates, and close to 59% say they would be influenced by a candidate’s online presence. “Wearable gadgets that can track the location of your child are already available, and some fear that these could be hacked. Meanwhile, Facebook already has a facial recognition tool on its US site that will scan photos and automatically identify people based on existing pictures and tags – although it is not currently available in Europe. But by the time today’s toddlers are teenagers, we can expect such algorithms to be far more sophisticated and widespread. Machine-learning algorithms have already advanced to the point where our faces are instantly recognisable, even as we age or if we deliberately change our appearance.” (2014, par 21)
To conclude, this fear is not unjustified : we all should be aware that everything we are sharing on the Internet will remain online forever, and we should learn how to deal appropriately with this modern issue.

Work cited:
Geddes,Linda (2014)Does sharing photos of your children on Facebook put them at risk?The Guardian (online), Sunday 21 September 2014

Carlotta Moro

Emma Holmberg ”Police retrain to tackle rise in cyber stalking”

According to Hannah Fearn, writing for the independent, “police officers are being trained to deal with digital stalking and harassment” ( 2014, para 1). The news comes after a law change that allows online criminals to be prosecuted in England and Wales. The law change is increasingly important since there has been a rise in the accessibility of spyware that makes it possible for stalkers to spy on victims through their smart phones or laptops (2014, para 1-3).

Fearn writes that the Collage of Policing was writing a new curriculum for officers on how to address interpersonal violence, which covered stalking and harassment. (2014, para 7) Furthermore, Fearn rapports that it is useful for policemen to learn these skills since they did not necessarily know it before and because policemen needs to be able to give appropriate consultation about how to deal with online harassment (2014, para 8).

For me this is an important step in the right way. It has been said that the Internet have revolutionised the way we live and our society; therefore, it is only right that the laws change with society. After all, so many have been affected by online bullying or harassment. For example, Fearn mentions a survey that was carried out by the national trust that showed that “offenders are most likely to harass their victims through digital means”(2014, para 5).

In conclusion, the law change along with retraining for policemen seems to be a step in the right direction. Hopefully this law change can prevent digital stalking and online harassment in the future.

Work cited

Fearn, Hannah (2014) Police retrain to tackle rise in cyber stalking. The independent. (Online) Sunday 26 October 2014 Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-retrain-to-tackle-rise-in-cyber-stalking-9818543.html

(Accessed: 201411-04)

Caroline Sautter: “How Facebook makes us unhappy” by Maria Konnikova (the New Yorker)

The article “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy” by Maria Konnikova shows that Facebook can have a negative impact on our mood.

Many studies suggest that the longer people are on Facebook the unhappier they feel afterwards. According to Kraut (1998) the same goes for the Internet in general as “the more people used the Web, the lonelier and more depressed they felt.”

Furthermore some researchers argue that social networks provoke envy and hence can be seen as a burden on relationships.

Yet the author acknowledges that there have been other surveys that come to the opposite conclusion. For instance, Valezuela (2009) states that Facebook “increases social trust and engagement – and even encourages political participation.” However, this applies mainly to people who use social networks in an active way by sharing information.

The author therefore concludes that we need to differentiate between the positive effects of interacting with other people and the negative ones of passively reading through a lot of content.

Personally speaking, I can largely agree upon the effects it can have on your mood. On the one hand social networks tend to put a lot of pressure on teenagers who feel like they have to keep up with their peer’s “perfect life”, since many people mainly use Facebook to present themselves in a way they want to be seen by others. Looking at pictures of all the great things one was missing out on is hardly going to raise anyone’s spirit.

On the other hand we shouldn’t forget that Facebook allows us to stay in contact with friends who may live in a different country and their messages will certainly brighten up our day.

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-facebook-makes-us-unhappy

Nicholas’ comment on “Too much Facebook time may be unhealthy for kids”

This article is mainly about how the excessive use of Facebook and other social medias can bring negative impact on children’s life.

It’s commonly known that Facebook gives you the opportunity to stay connected with your old and actual friends. It’s continuously growing popularity is incredible, and scary at the same time. People spend time on it every day for several hours, without asking themselves how their mind and body could react.

It’s wandering how many, both physical and mental, problems it can give to it’s “addicted” users, in fact “Teens who use more technology, like video games or the Internet, tended to have more stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression, and they often missed more school”(Hernandez.D.). Moreover, people could start to be narcissist creating a distorted virtual alias of themselves, which can be the cause of isolation and an antisocial personality.

Nevertheless, these are not the only problems. Cyberbullying gets every day more popular, and differently than it’s “classic form”, it leaves you never alone, it follows it’s victims at home or wherever they have an internet connection, and what instrument could allow this form of bullying better than a social network?

In conclusion, the positive sides of Facebook are well known by all of us. Nevertheless, are we sure to be aware of the risks it can bring? Children are the ones most in danger, and their naivety could cause some irreparable damages in the present and in the future life if not well controlled.

Hernandez, D. For the Booster Shots blog. Los Angeles Times

Website: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/06/news/la-heb-facebook-teens-20110806

winnie wu: ‘The Effects of Social Media on Teenagers”

This article is about how negative effect social media on teenagers.
First, Social Media like Facebook provide a platform for people to communicate; even friends are thousands miles away. Moreover, social media allow us to meet new people without actual face-to-face talking, so teenagers are can build up their social life easier.

However, using the Social Media improperly could cause a serious problem. Researchers have found that the middle-school, high school and college students who used Facebook at least once during a 15 minute period get lower grades overall. (Chris, Crosby) Overuse of Social Media can affect teenager’s schoolwork, teenagers spend sleepless nights on social media, in result they cannot focus during the lesson. Apart from academic, excess use of Social Media will lead to lack of social skills, because they felt more comfortable talking through technology than in person, they have not learned the proper communication and conversation skills.
As a teenager, I would say Social Media did put on a big impact on us, both positive and negative results, is all depends how you manage and use it. If you are able to use it in proper way, you will have the most advantage from it in different aspect; academic, social life, business. However, if you fail to do so, it might be a major issue.

website: http://sociallyactive.com/social-media-effect/

Pitchaya Fai: Shanghai Girl Hints At Suicide In Instagram Posts, Claims Her Own Life Hours Later (Social News Daily)

Social media has been playing a role in people’s lives a lot nowadays. Some people use it to show their positive feelings, thoughts, and activities that they do. However, many others put negative things online including when bad situations happen to them. Personal problem could consider as a thing that some people might not want others to know, but also the others believe that social media can express their feelings very well. Sometimes when there is no one for them to talk to, they choose to put things online instead.

Having a relationship with someone would be the thing that most people want in life, also with this woman from Shanghai. A pretty Chinese woman had broken up with her boyfriend which she really loved. She did not know and understand the reasons why did her partner did not want to date her anymore. She posted several pictures with the emotional captions on her Instagram afterwards. One of the pictures was a picture of burning stuffs that her boyfriend gave it to her. She also put the long caption about her feelings and what did she do after the break up. She wrote “I don’t understand, if the one you [her boyfriend] choose isn’t me, why did you give me this much hope/expectations, give me this many promises?” (“Social News Daily”, 2014) The last picture that she updated was when she was at the top of the building which seemed like she tried to commit a suicide. After that she jumped off the building and passed away in that night.

From the thing that happened to this lady, what she posted online were pointing out the problems that she had. If someone had noticed it before, her suicide might not have happened. Using social media may be another way that some people decide to let others know what is going on with them. It could be useful for everyone if the online friends pay attention to the others enough and try to be like a real friend.

Website: http://socialnewsdaily.com/26700/shanghai-girl-hints-at-suicide-in-instagram-posts-claims-her-own-life-hours-later/