Category: Posts

Our Attention as a Commodity

The nature of our humanity and society is that of constant improvement. In all of history, everything that has been created has been tweaked and perfected throughout the years, it’s in our nature. Technology and digital media are no exception, but today it begs the question, is technology doing its job too well? The goal of Twitter, the internet and other digital technologies have irreversibly woven themselves into modern society, and we are left to grapple with it. Douglas Rushkoff brings up the idea of FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” and how it is further aggravated by digital media. Rushkoff uses the example of the woman who spends a night on the town in New York City on her phone, sharing pictures and finding out where her friends are. On one side, we are pressured to constantly post updates on all the cool stuff we are doing, on the other, we scroll through on the receiving end of these updates, feeling like we in turn are not doing enough ourselves. It’s a vicious cycle.

Digital media perpetrates this cycle, where it sometimes can feel like people are more focused on making it appear online like they are having a good time, rather than actually enjoying the moment itself. Rushkoff uses the example of “Gina” in his book. Gina is a popular high school student who spends a Friday night on the town in New York City: “She’s at a club on the Upper East Side, but she seems oblivious to the boys and the music. Instead of engaging with those around her, she’s scrolling through text messages on her phone, from friends at other parties, bars, and clubs throughout New York.” She then moves to another party, where “…she turns her phone around, activates the camera, and proceeds to take pictures of herself and her friends – instantly uploading them to her Facebook page for the world to see.” This chapter resonated with me to an uncomfortable degree. I am all too familiar with this in college, out and about and everywhere I see people on their phones and taking pictures. Granted, I love getting pictures and there’s nothing harmless about it if done right. However, there are certain people that as soon as something funny or entertaining happens, they whip out their phone to shoot or record it to send around social media. One night sophomore year my roommate and I were getting ready for bed, when our friend came by. My roommate said something funny and she quickly took out her phone, flash and all, and began filming him, “what did you just say?” While I can definitely be a phone addict, I think I do a decent job of not trying to capture everything digitally and rather just enjoy it physically.

For free services like Facebook and Twitter, they wage a constant war for our attention in order to realize profits. They are constantly working to get us to check our phone one more time. It is not just in the casual world of entertainment. Our jobs today feel more and more connected, even beyond the office. I am currently an intern in Creighton’s marketing department, and I receive dozens of emails a day from our project management system, even when I am not in the office or when the projects no longer relate to me. While I could change the email settings, that would mean me possibly missing notification for projects I am involved in. I have not even fully entered the workforce yet, and am already feeling work’s technological reach beyond the workspace. My mom comes home from work and sits down at her computer to answer emails for several hours after she has physically left the office. Increased technology in the workplace has made it more and more difficult for us to keep work within office hours.

In our world of ever-increasing connectivity, it becomes more and more difficult to unplug in numerous facets of life. When we hit the town to relax after a stressful week, we check our phones to see what our friends are up to elsewhere. When we come home from work, we are still inundated with emails and projects that can be done online. Technology advances faster than we can determine how to best regulate it, and we as a society are still grappling with how to best balance our technology intake with the rest our lives, lest they be overtaken completely.

Photo by YIFEI CHEN (@imchenyf) on unsplash.com. Link: https://unsplash.com/photos/HGXfNxxfU-Q

An Introduction

Hi! My name is Ryan King, and I am pleased to introduce myself for JRM 215: Media and Digital Literacy. I am enrolled in this class as part of the JMC department core of classes, of which I am taking five this semester! I am very excited for my schedule this fall, as I get to dive head first into the journalism curriculum after changing my major at the end of my sophomore year. I am a junior from the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Above is a picture of myself with my brothers and sister-in-law at my brother’s graduation.

I have had an extensive and casual career with media. I mean that as in I have long been a consumer of media and other digital formats (the internet, social media, television, etc) but I have not necessarily taken much time to study it. My first real experience with the study of these concepts was my sophomore year taking BIA 253, studying information systems with very introductory coding, and History of American Mass Media, where we examined American news and journalism’s evolution throughout the years and its impact on significant historical events in the United States. This semester being enrolled in courses such as Media and Digital Literacy, Social Media and Digital Foundations for the Web, I am really looking forward to acquiring more “media and digital literacy” (wink wink).

As I previously mentioned, I am a regular consumer of media. I usually read the news surfing different sites on my laptop or by following news organizations’ social media accounts on my phone. I would like to think that I read up on the news more than a lot of my fellow students, but I know there’s always a bigger fish. In high school I would watch CNN in the morning while I ate breakfast, but since moving off campus, I no longer have cable television. Now the only programs I watch are mostly Netflix and Hulu, which I can watch on my Xbox in my bedroom. I find it funny that more and more people are forgoing cable in favor of streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu, or even programs that mimic cable television such as YouTube TV and Sling. I personally think these advancements are great for consumers. When I come home, I can turn on my gaming system and have access to hundreds of shows and movies through different streaming apps. I don’t even have to play a game if I don’t want to!

That being said, I recognize such a thing as too much technology, and I have been trying to diversify how I spend my free time by doing more reading and less screen time (with mixed results, albeit). It concerns me that our world is so immersed in media, as with the good comes plenty of bad. I have seen first hand that technology has the power to weaken social interaction. Every time I see two people out to eat, both staring into their phones, or I am hanging out with friends doing the same, I wonder how things used to be before technology was so dominant. There is even a difference in how I was raised versus how children now are. I see so many parents who just give their kid the iPhone or tablet when they are being disruptive at dinner. I hate to be judgmental or act like I know anything about parenting, but that just doesn’t seem right to me. Society has a lot of reckoning to do regarding technology and media’s roles within it.

Thanks to my History of American Mass Media class, I now not only analyze the news I read, but I also think critically about the news organizations that produce it and journalism in general, now that I understand journalism’s history better. What I enjoy about the news media is how well connected and advanced they are in delivering content to consumers. Large networks like CNN have strong social media presences, well-known anchors and a broad array of content beyond just headline news. What can be frustrating, however, is how some individuals and networks have allowed themselves to become politicized beyond just delivering the news. I was a frequent watcher of CNN’s morning news, then I stopped whenever when Chris Cuomo came on. While I can’t say I disagreed with his political beliefs, it bothered me in the way he clearly expressed them, through snide comments and unprofessional rhetoric in his delivery, especially regarding Donald Trump. It makes it difficult for someone like me who just wants to receive the proper information and make a judgment for myself.

This semester, I look forward to the opportunities this course will bring, and I want to leave with a better intellectual understanding of the media I surround myself with constantly. I also hope that through said understanding, I can make my media consumption more meaningful, and less wasteful and unproductive. I’m excited for a great year!

Picture taken by me.

How do you use Social Media??

A good place to start in my Social Media class is to break the subject down, and examine social media at its core before I can understand it at a deeper level. While I have never formally studied it, I am a regular user of social media. I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and LinkedIn somewhat regularly, all for different purposes. Facebook is best for keeping up with family members and adult friends, along with a mess of food and travel videos my friends share. My Twitter feed consists of mostly news accounts, memes and angry political discourse (I often find people tweeting about President Trump are actually more annoying than his own tweets). I enjoy Instagram because it provides visually and aesthetically appealing photos and videos, which resonate with a visual learner such as myself. Reddit is likely my favorite platform. Because of its customizable nature and thousands of communities, I can fill my feed with content I don’t get elsewhere, such as unique art, gaming and music news.

I really go back and forth with social media. What I enjoy most about it is the immediate and convenient nature that I am able to receive information and communicate with others. I may not be in front of a tv, (and I certainly don’t have cable) but I can whip out my phone and reach CNN’s page, and access news stories in seconds. It’s easy as pressing “@” on my keyboard or pushing a message icon to send a friend or colleague something I think they will enjoy for one reason or another. For everything I enjoy about social media, there is also plenty for me to criticize, mainly its increasingly polarized tone and propensity to captivate its audience TOO much. It seems that social media does its job too well. It is far too easy to zone into my phone and just scroll on social media for copious amounts of time. To think of the interactions and experiences I let pass me by with my face buried in my phone. I’ve also found that social media, Twitter especially, has become increasingly polarized and aggressive. I believe the presidential election and the American political climate in general have contributed to this. I summed it up well to a friend when I said, “Twitter is full of unqualified people telling me what I should think.” Twitter is no haven for proper debate, and its increasing politicization and plain rudeness by its users has been slowly driving me away.

Over the years, my social media interaction has increased and matured as I have. What began as a fun new plaything as a middle schooler to an increasingly influential part of my life, I believe this transition has happened not just to me but to society as social media has aged and expanded. Personally, I would say I now use most forms of social media frequently throughout my day. While I enjoy being on social media, I acknowledge that I waste far too much time on it. From this class I hope to learn to use social media more effectively and efficiently. I want to spend less time on social media, and the time that I am logged on to be more positive and productive. I’ll admit, upon enrolling in this class, I didn’t quite see the value of learning about something I had been engaged in for years. After the first class, I left realizing that there was an abundance of skills I could take away from the course about both social media and the greater world of journalism and media. My goal is to learn as much from this class as I possibly can, and take what I learn far beyond the classroom.

 

Image: “Social Media Class” courtesy of mkhmarketing on Flickr Creative Commons.
Photo can be found at https://bit.ly/2P1NWMq. Author requested sharing this link – startbloggingonline.com