Social Media's Influence on America
Card 27 "An Old Man's Thoughts Of School" Walt Whitman "Only a public school?"- lucky, so much more "To girlhood, boyhood look, the teacher and the school." Princeton. 1874, etcweb.princeton.edu/batke/logr/log_220.html.
Card 28 "If we are guided by the well-being of American citizens the I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades." Politico. 28 Feb. 2017, www.politico.com/story/2017/02/ donald-trump-congress-speech-transcript-235526. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 9 "Along with the struggle to remain attentive, many people who overuse social media or use social media networks as their main form of communication report feeling anxious and depressed after overuse of social media." See Card 8
Card 10 "Jason Russell. Russell forwarded a link to an internet documentary called "Kony 2012," which shared his deeply personal web experiences regarding African Warlord Joseph Kony. The film received more than 70 million views in less than a week. While the film brought awareness to the issues facing African children and child soldiers, the sudden fame had a significant impact on Russell. Russell began obsessing over the number of views received and eventually underwent what doctors now call a temporary psychotic break. After posting a quote by Martin Luther King, "If you can't fly, then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward," Russell took off his clothes, went to the corner of a busy intersection and repeatedly slapped the concrete with both palms ranting about the devil." See Card 8
Card 11 "Well for starters, we don't live in a democracy. We never have, nor should we. We live in a republic, where we elect people to take the tough votes and make the tough decisions for us. And quite honestly, politicians should have some level of flexibility to cast votes that -- gasp -- we might not like, without their every action becoming a referendum via Twitter and Facebook." Donehue, Wesley. "The Danger Of Twitter, Facebook Politics." CNN, 24 Apr. 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/opinion/donehue-social-media-politics/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 12 "Too many politicians aren't voting their conscience, they're voting to placate blog commenters, and that's no way to run government." See Card 11
Card 13 "government by social media leads to an environment where in every setting a politician has to be "on."" See Card 11
Card 14 "American politics have been trending this way for decades. But technology has expedited our descent toward a political system devoid of real ideas and bold, controversial thought." See Card 11
Card 15 "As the use of social media accelerates, it's incumbent upon everyone involved in the political process to make sure its power is used to harness everything good about the American political system, rather than to hasten political trends that are hurting our republic." See Card 11
Card 16 "According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken." Jung, Brian. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals." Chron, smallbusiness.chron.com/ negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 17 "Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised." See Card 16
Card 18 "Our political discourse is shrinking to fit our smartphone screens. The latest evidence came on Monday night, when Barack Obama turned himself into the country's Instagrammer-in-Chief. While en route to Alaska to promote his climate agenda, the president took a photograph of a mountain range from a window on Air Force One and posted the shot on the popular picture-sharing network. "Hey everyone, it's Barack," the caption read. "I'll be spending the next few days touring this beautiful state and meeting with Alaskans about what's going on in their lives. Looking forward to sharing it with you." The photo quickly racked up thousands of likes." Carr, Nicholas. "How Social Media is Running Politics." Politico Magazine, 2 Sept. 2015, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/ 2016-election-social-media-ruining-politics-213104. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 1 Thesis: America is no longer the country in which people share ideas and opinions in a democracy without the influence of others; social media has taken over political and social aspects of society dismantling the country as a whole and inherently becoming the voice of America.
Card 2 "One of the great things and one of the horrible things about social media is that everyone can have their say," says Juana Summers, an editor for CNN Politics. "It's kind of a marketplace for ideas. And some voices that sometimes are not correct or have a very partisan slant can oftentimes get amplified." Ignant, Chanelle. "How Does Social Media Shape Our Political Views?" KQED Learning, 12 Oct. 2016, ww2.kqed.org/learning/2016/10/21/ how-does-social-media-shape-our-political-views/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.
Card 19 "Twice before in the last hundred years a new medium has transformed elections. In the 1920s, radio disembodied candidates, reducing them to voices. It also made national campaigns far more intimate. Politicians, used to bellowing at fairgrounds and train depots, found themselves talking to families in their homes. The blustery rhetoric that stirred big, partisan crowds came off as shrill and off-putting when piped into a living room or a kitchen. Gathered around their wireless sets, the public wanted an avuncular statesman, not a firebrand. With Franklin Roosevelt, master of the soothing fireside chat, the new medium found its ideal messenger." See Card 18
Card 20 "In the 1960s, television gave candidates their bodies back, at least in two dimensions. With its jumpy cuts and pitiless close-ups, TV placed a stress on sound bites, good teeth and an easy manner. Image became everything, as the line between politician and celebrity blurred. John Kennedy was the first successful candidate of the TV era, but it was Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton who perfected the form. Born actors, they could project a down-home demeanor while also seeming bigger than life." See Card 18
Card 21 "Today, with the public looking to smartphones for news and entertainment, we seem to be at the start of the third big technological makeover of modern electioneering. The presidential campaign is becoming just another social-media stream, its swift and shallow current intertwining with all the other streams that flow through people's devices. This shift is changing the way politicians communicate with voters, altering the tone and content of political speech. But it's doing more than that. It's changing what the country wants and expects from its would-be leaders." See Card 18
Card 22 "What's important now is not so much image as personality. But, as the Trump phenomenon reveals, it's only a particular kind of personality that works—one that's big enough to grab the attention of the perpetually distracted but small enough to fit neatly into a thousand tiny media containers. It might best be described as a Snapchat personality. It bursts into focus at regular intervals without ever demanding steady concentration." See Card 18
Card 23 "Social media favors the bitty over the meaty, the cutting over the considered. It also prizes emotionalism over reason. The more visceral the message, the more quickly it circulates and the longer it holds the darting public eye." See Card 18
Card 24 "Direct access to voters also has its down sides. Handlers and public-relations professionals often manage a candidate's image, and for good reason: Allowing a politician to send out unfiltered tweets or Facebook posts has landed many a candidate in hot water or in embarrassing situations" Murse, Tom. "How Social Media Has Changed Politics." Thought Co., 23 Aug. 2016, www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 25 "Because this technology exists, nothing can stay hidden anymore. Candidates can't control a news cycle. It's up to them to be transparent and stay in front of things now. There aren't three broadcast networks anymore. And the beast that is social media constantly has to be fed with information." Barrett, Jeff. "Social Media is Warping Politics More Than Ever." Digital Trends, 21 Sept. 2016, www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/ how-social-media-is-warping-politics-more-than-ever/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 26 "Social media is full of opinions — good, bad, strange and indifferent. We are a product of who we spend the most time with and who we listen to the most. If social media didn't shape our opinions, the term "influencer" would never exist." See Card 25
Card 29 "In fact, our children will grow up in a nation of miracles. But to achieve this future, we must enrich the mind, and the souls, of every American child." See Card 28
Card 30 "Compared to those with lower levels of political engagement, highly-engaged social media users take a fairly active role when it comes to entering into political discussions or otherwise engaging with political content. Roughly one-in-five (19%) of these highly engaged social media users "often" comment, post or discuss political or government issues with others on social media, triple the share among social media users who are less politically engaged (6%)." Duggan, Maeve, and Aaron Smith. "Social Media and Political Engagement." Pew Research Center, 25 Oct. 2016, www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/ political-engagement-and-social-media/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 31 "these highly engaged users also take a more active role when it comes to curating their online political networks. For instance, they are more likely to follow political candidates or figures: 53% do so, compared with 21% of users with low levels of political engagement. And when one of their friends posts political content they disagree with, some 30% of highly engaged social media users say they typically respond with a comment or post of their own. That is more than double the share of less-engaged social media users who typically respond in this way (13%). In addition, 42% of these politically active users have changed their settings to see fewer posts from someone they follow because of politics (30% of less-engaged users have done so), and 34% have blocked or unfriended someone as a result of politics (compared with 26% of less-engaged users). However, the root causes that each group give for doing so are largely the same: by a substantial margin, both groups say that the top reason they take these steps is because someone posted political content that they found offensive." See Card 30
Card 32 "These highly engaged social media users are also more likely to feel that the discussions they see on social media pertaining to politics are less enjoyable in a variety of ways than the political discussions they see occurring elsewhere. This is especially notable in the context of political correctness: Fully 57% of highly engaged social media users feel that social media conversations are less politically correct than those they see elsewhere: Just 39% of less-engaged users feel the same way. And a substantial majority of highly engaged users see social media as angrier, less civil and less respectful than other venues for discussing politics." See Card 30
Card 33 "One of the negative effect of social media or network is it leads to addiction. Spending countless hours on the social sites can divert the focus and attention from a particular task. It lowers the motivational level of the people, especially of the teenagers and students. They mainly rely on technology and the internet instead of learning the practical knowledge and expertise of the everyday life." Mwila, Ali Kingston. "Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society." Linked In, 31 Oct. 2015, www.linkedin.com/pulse/ positive-negative-effects-social-media-society-ali-kingston. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 34 "Another downside of the social media is that the user shares too much information which may pose threats to them. Even with the tight security settings your personal information may leak on the social sites. Downloading your videos or pictures and copying your status is an easy task and can be done within few clicks." See Card 33
Card 35 Concession "We are living in a time where the world is open to us. We can contact anyone around the world, at any time, with just a few keystrokes. It is free, unlike calling across the ocean, and live. We can also share elements of our life, from what we enjoy to photos of ourselves and those in our lives. It is like being a part of that person's world, even though distance keeps you apart." Smarty, Ann. "Social Media and Society: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." SeoChat, www.seochat.com/c/a/social/ social-media-and-society-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/.
Card 36 Concession "Non-profits are seeing the benefits of using social media for their awareness campaigns. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others are a cost effective means of spreading the word and getting support. Not to mention socially shared petitions from sites like Causes.org, reaching hundreds of thousands of people." See Card 35
Card 37 "Then we have the issue of how it has taken over our lives. I hate being out in public and seeing people on their phones. Seeing them talking never bothered me as long as they weren't being obnoxious. Nor does sending off a quick text bug me; maybe they are meeting someone and telling them where they are, or something. It is the obvious Facebooking or tweeting or whatever else that keeps people's eyes glued to their phones" See Card 35
Card 38 "Each status message is a flat-out attention whoring sob fest, usually vague. Or way TMI about their struggling relationship with someone they should have dumped six months ago. Let's not forget the badly spelled, grammatical nightmares that you would need a magic decoder ring that translated moron into English to read." See Card 35
Card 3 "Living in a democracy means that all voices can be heard. But with the ability to curate our own news and limit the voices of those with opposing political views, we end up only hearing from people we agree with and completely missing out on anyone else's opinion. Instead of embracing a vibrant public conversation, we end up in an online echo chamber." See Card 2
Card 4 "Social media is great for networking and staying in touch with old friends, but it's gone beyond this simple structure and taken the social out of being social. We've come so far from normal human interaction that we would friend request a person before ever daring to actually say hi to them in public." Sheehan, Kelly. "Social Media Is Hurting Us, Not Helping Us." The Scout, 25 Oct. 2013, www.bradleyscout.com/opinion/ social-media-is-hurting-us-not-helping-us/. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Card 39 "One of the biggest problems is that social media has become so easily accessible, we are surrounded by technology on a daily basis allowing us to inform everyone of our current activities through the touch of a button; further deepening our obsession. We are glued to our screens 24/7 and cannot bear to tear ourselves away from our precious phones." Holdcroft, Katy. "Is Social Media Taking Over Our Lives?" Redbrick, 20 Apr. 2015, www.redbrick.me/comment/social-media-taking-lives/.
Card 40 "Social media merely gives us the opportunity to portray the reality we wish others to see. It's time we stop spending so much time trying to make our lives look perfect and start focusing on living in the moment. Being continuously bombarded with everyone else's life updates, only causes us to get jealous, excessively compare ourselves to others and ultimately over-evaluate our lives." See Card 39
Card 41 "Youths are growing up in a self-obsessed world, where if you do not live up to a certain expectation you are deemed inadequate. Thus, altering how they view themselves, promoting unnecessary self-criticism and having a profound effect on self-esteem. I have no idea how we've got to this point, where we are so immersed in a virtual existence, craving attention from people we barely speak to, because to be honest there are more important concerns in the world. This problem is only set to get worse as online activities become increasingly popular, unless we educate the young people of today." See Card 39
Card 42 "One happens on Facebook all the time. Just about all of your friends are posting about the election, nonstop. And there are a few who brag about deleting friends, or who urge friends to unfriend them over their political leanings: "Just unfriend me now." Or something like "If you can't support candidate X/Y, we don't need to be friends anymore." Or "Congrats, if you're reading this, you survived my friend purge!" Etc. You know how it goes. This public declaration, if not celebration, of the end of friendships because of politics." Sanders, Sam. "Did Social Media Ruin Election 2016?" NPR, 8 Nov. 2016, www.npr.org/2016/11/08/500686320/did-social-media-ruin-election-2016. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 43 "Those two tweets seem reasonable enough. But there was more. In response to the Bush campaign's response, Team Clinton scratched out the words in Bush's redone graphic, added its own scribbled letters, and etched a large "F" on top, for the "grade given to Florida for college affordability under Jeb Bush's leadership." The campaign tweeted the image with the caption "Fixed it for you."" See Card 42
Card 44 "There may be even more problems for Twitter than what real live people are doing on the app. A recent study conducted by a research team at Oxford University found that during the period of time between the first presidential debate and the second, one-third of pro-Trump tweets and nearly one-fifth of pro-Clinton tweets came from automated accounts. Douglas Guilbeault, one of the researchers in the study, told NPR that hurts political discourse. "They reinforce the sense of polarization in the atmosphere," he said. "Because bots don't tend to be mild-mannered, judicial critics. They are programmed to align themselves with an agenda that is unambiguously representative of a particular party. ... It's all 'Crooked Hillary' and 'Trump is a puppet.' " So, if Twitter is a bunch of Post-it notes thrown on the ground, we now have to consider which of those notes are even real." See Card 42
Card 45 Concession "Among all of the factors examined, 82% showed a positive relationship between SNS use and some form of civic or political engagement or participation. Still, only half of the relationships found were statistically significant. The strongest effects could be seen in studies that randomly sampled youth populations." Wihbey, John. "How does social media use influence political participation and civic engagement? A meta-analysis." Journalist's Resource, 18 Oct. 2015, journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/ social-media-influence-politics-participation-engagement-meta-analysis. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Card 46 Concession "The study data — analyzed in collaboration with Facebook data scientists — suggested that certain messages promoted by friends "increased turnout directly by about 60,000 voters and indirectly through social contagion by another 280,000 voters, for a total of 340,000 additional votes." Close friends with real-world ties were found to be much more influential than casual online acquaintances." See Card 45
Card 47 Concession "Further, "Measuring participation as protest activities is more likely to produce a positive effect, but the coefficients are not more likely to be statistically significant compared to other measures of participation." Also, within the area of protest activities, many different kinds of activities — marches, demonstrations, petitions and boycotts — are combined in research, making conclusions less valid. When studies do isolate and separate out these activities, these studies generally show that "social media plays a positive role in citizens' participation."" See Card 45
Card 48 "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind." Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books, 1953.
Card 49 "All of those chemical balances and percentages on all of us here in the house are recorded in the master file downstairs. It would be easy for someone to set up a partial combination on the Hound's 'memory,' a touch of amino acids, perhaps. That would account for what the animal did just now. Reacted toward me." See Card 48
Card 50 "He took Montag quickly into the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside, revealing a television screen the size of a postal card. "I always wanted something very small, something I could talk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, nothing that could shout me down, nothing monstrous big." See Card 48
Card 5 "Social media has made us lazy. We count on social media to remind us of our friends' birthdays. Facebook has made it acceptable to write a quick message on someone's wall, instead of just personally calling your friend to wish them a good day." See Card 4
Card 6 Concession "Social websites have played an important role in many elections around the world, including in the U.S., Iran, and India. They have also served to rally people for a cause, and have inspired mass movements and political unrest in many countries." Ta, Jenny Q. "What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society." Business 2 Community, 13 Aug. 2014, www.business2community.com/social-media/ impact-social-media-truly-society-0974685#ASFFXfHqHq9BaRpZ.97. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Card 7 "Many companies have blocked social networks on their office Internet as addicted employees can distract themselves on such sites, instead of focusing on work. In fact, studies show that British companies have lost billions of dollars per year in productivity because of social media addiction among employees." See Card 6
Card 8 "The overuse of social media is a global problem impacting all generations, and research has shown that substantial internet usage can have a highly negative impact on our mental and emotional health." Shellabarger, RuthAnne. "Social Media's Impact On Society." The Odyssey, 16 Aug. 2016, www.theodysseyonline.com/social-medias-impact-society. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.