Danielle's Blog

Week 7          This week we learned about how social media has dramatically changed the way we engage with social causes, giving to rise to both social activism and digital altruism. As a coach who values kindness and leadership, I find it fascinating how these concepts play out online. Social activism, which traditionally involved physical protests and grassroots movements, now thrives on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. These platforms provide a space for people to unite over common causes, whether it's fighting for racial equality, climate change, or women's rights. From donating to causes to offering support in online communities, digital altruism leverages the power of social media platforms to make a real change. It's incredible to see how the psychology behind these behaviors-empathy, collective identity, and social influence-pushes people to act and connect for the greater good. Social media isn't just about likes and shares; it's a tool for meanin...

Week six:                          This week we had a lot of great topics followed by a lot of great videos/articles. I specifically enjoyed the video explaining how oversharing information can lead to serious life-threatening danger. Example, when my parents went on a cruise over the summer, my mom posted when they were leaving, the exact day they would be back, checked in places, and I worried the whole time I bought a camera for outside their house to make sure no one would try to break in. I kept telling her to not post stuff to the public like that because situations such as that video can happen. I wish everyone would be aware more, especially on TikTok as sharing their addresses with people or showing surroundings, with this day people can track you down by the littlest things.                                   

 Week Five                                 This week was focused on something I feel is really important, especially with social media and the internet, fake news. When I was reading the articles for my discussion post this week, they all kept talking about the precautions to take when checking if something is true or not. I find it a little crazy to think that some people believe the first thing they read on the internet. Whenever I see anything pop up like for example I always see on Facebook "Taylor Swift is engaged!" I immediately go to fact check it; I do not just believe that singular post. It is just crazy that not everyone thinks to double check information before they believe it and start spreading it. Fake news is infamous I feel like when it comes to politics as both politicians make up stuff about one another without it being true. We are all entitled to freedom of speech, but...

 Week Four       This week was another informative week about journalism, politics, and social media of course. Starting off with my discussion question if social media was a good idea to use if I were running for my political campaign. I think that it absolutely would, social media is such an important part of our lives right now and it's the main way to get future voters' attention. Even this past debate they were using social media, like TikTok to gain voters. I learned the difference between traditional and citizen journalism, traditional is done by the professionals/people who work for companies like CNN or The New York Times, as they follow structured rules about fact checking. Whereas citizen journalism is where regular, everyday people report news using blogs, social media, or even videos; they do not have to fact check or follow rules so the information from them will be less reliable but often it spreads faster. I also enjoyed the videos of Katie Couric; sh...

 Week Three:                              This week had some pretty cool topics/discussion questions. It made me really sit back and think about the effect social media has on us. When it talked about storing/receiving information, it made me realize how nowadays, people do not print off photos, they just keep them stored on their phone or on their "iCloud." I know my mother and grandmother have tons of photo albums and polaroids. My mom does both, she keeps them on her phone, but she also prints them, she is nervous something could happen, and she would lose all her pictures. If everything were to be digitally erased right now, I truly would be in trouble. My notes keep all my passwords to work/school and any other important information, I would not be able to check my bank account online or even look at the news! Although social media/the internet has its negative effects on us, it has some posit...

  Week Two:  This week was a pretty interesting week two, as we learned a few different things. Beginning with some key concepts such as the information age and digital revolution which together were a major part of the rise of what technology is today. Another interesting part of this week's activities were reading the articles pertaining to the future of Facebook. Researchers from Princeton predicted a downfall due to the similar pattern it has such as MySpace did. They explained that it would be like an infectious disease as it would start to decline as users abandoned the platform. I think it was really interesting to read theories like this because I too wonder often about social media apps falling like Facebook, Instagram, or even Snapchat. I remember MySpace being great, but then it was gone. We see what shutting TikTok did to the world though, so who knows!