Up@dawn 2.0

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Final Post- 006

Does Social Media teach us good morals?

I believe that social media has a large impact on how people treat others, how they act, and even how they think. Social media has blossomed with the start of the internet and the advancement of technology. These platforms have brought this generation so far into the future yet has also pushed us back. Across the internet, you could see Youtubers doing pranks and sharing testimonies. This brings laughter while also influencing younger generations to follow in their footsteps. One small YouTube “challenge” turns into a teenager going to the hospital. We think it’s funny to watch someone choke on some cinnamon or we think that it is hilarious to eat tide pods. These challenges are stupid and pointless and get people killed, but these days it’s all about likes and retweets. It’s morally wrong. We are always trying to one up the person next to us. What has this generation turned into? When did we start thinking that it is okay to put ourselves in a dangerous situation just for 5 seconds of fame? I think it all began with the shows, Ridiculousness and Jackass. They both showed people doing stupid things for a few seconds of fame. These participants risked their lives and their dignity for a few seconds on some tv show. I don’t see the point in it.

According to a survey,“Not least [of these is] the low level of agreement that social media can enhance or support a young person’s character or moral development […] While parents acknowledged that positive character strengths, including moral virtues such as love, courage and kindness, are promoted through social networking sites, they were reluctant to agree that these sites could have a positive impact on their child’s character.” Social media platforms are not all bad. They can be filled with people who just want to share good news and love on other people. There are many celebrities that are doing good with this community. For example, Brother Nature is an influencer that made his start on Vine. He started off with videos of him feeding deer in his backyard and now he is a celebrity known around the world. He teaches the younger and older generations that you don’t have to do a lot to treat animals with kindness. He shows love to all of his followers and any animal that he encounters. He is just one example of what it looks like do what is morally right and what makes you happy. I believe that anybody could follow in his steps. It’s not hard to do what is right in this world. We only have a few years to “live our best life,” so why not just do good things and get good things in return. 


Discussion Questions:
1. Is social media negatively influential? 
2. What are some ways to positively influence people through social media?
3. What are some negative ways to influence people?
4.Do you believe that you could be taught bad morals through social platforms?
5. Was there any way to prevent social media from becoming so influential?


Commented Posts: https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/god-vs.html?showComment=1556341257075#c6328862623461551079
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2019/04/spiritual-not-religious.html?showComment=1556340865876#c7164247108793027059

2 comments:

  1. Social media give a platform for every kind of person and behavior, and magnifies both the good and the bad. There's no intrinsic reason why any particular communications medium should either improve or compromise people's character, it depends on the norms governing the medium and its use. That said, it's commonly understood that anonymity and/or remoteness makes some people behave very badly, and that the opportunity to polish others' perceptions of us tempt some to become hyper-superficial in crafting a surface image for public consumption while never addressing who they really are, what's real, and what truly matters in life.

    And,too much time on social media makes it almost impossible for people to own and control their own powers of attention. That was young William James's definition of free will, "the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts". I just heard an interesting discussion of this by Tim Wu, author of "Attention Merchants: the Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads"...

    “As William James observed, we must reflect that, when we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. We are at risk, without quite fully realizing it, of living lives that are less our own than we imagine.”

    Hidden Brain, "Our Mental Space, Under Attack" - https://www.npr.org/2018/01/01/574073721/our-mental-space-under-attack

    https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/48656079-the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads

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