Media Literacy in The Digital Age

 

Media literacy is an incredibly valuable skill to have with digital sources being apart of our daily lives. While the new-coming digital age has many benefits, such as more connection with peers, increased invention, and accessibility, it also raises many questions about the legitimate safety of media. Safety is a concern with all devices, not just phones, its a concern to those who regularly use any type of technology, and while some connections seem like just coincidences, they often are much more than that. An example of this is when your speaking to someone, weather in person or on the phone, about an item that you wish to buy, and all of a sudden when you open your phone it is filled with ads for that item. This specific example is a result of social medias algorithm and age of consumerism preying on peoples specific interest.

One Ted Talk I watched that I felt really stuck with me was when Juan Enriquez was discussing media literacy and compared individuals media presence to tattoos which I thought was really interesting. He states that tattoos shout, even though they are silent, and outsiders can gather huge amounts of information from individuals just by looking, similar to media history.

After making this comparison, he explains various Greek lessons to strengthen this comparison. One lesson that really sat with me was the lesson of Sisyphus, which he compares to pushing a rock up a hill over and over, but it doesn't make a difference because your media history persistently follows you no matter what. Additionally, digital resources make it incredibly easy to detect facial recognition so Enriquez urges viewers to be extremely careful about what they post and remember it will follow them.

There are some things that will never change with the digital age and will always stay stuck in time, no matter how much technology advances. There are many things you can do about protecting your safety from third parties and the government, as the government changing their ways with surveillance isn't always promised. Examples include thinking about what you want to post before you post it, make accounts private, check app permissions, use strong passwords, and never use personal information. While the digital age makes new innovations daily, there are numerous ways to protect yourself and your loved ones and practice digital literacy.

The Importance of Individual Self-Fulfillment

 In the newfound age of social media and raging trends across newer generations, I believe that one of the greatest values people can have is a sense of self-fulfillment. Self-fulfillment as described by C. Edwin Baker is when free speech allows individuals free expression and sense of self. With this, it incentivizes people to be more creative and imaginative in work, play, and everyday life. Additionally, it creates a sense of human autonomy and individuality. In todays day and age, self-fulfillment can be threatened but also amplified with social media in numerous ways. 

Social Media plays a detrimental role in the development of self-fulfillment, especially in younger generations such as Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Social Media is run off of trends and algorithm to keep it successful and viewers entertained, and while things that are trending are popular for a reason, in some cases they can take away creativity from viewers. When looking at younger generations, its no surprise to see that many people dress identical, and while this has always existed regardless of generations, the lack of self expression has increased significantly since the social media boom. In an article from the North Texas Daily, the author goes into detail about how newer trend booms can hurt and distort creativity among large populations of viewers.

Additionally, it highlights that even though generations such as Gen X and Gen Alpha may feel creative, they are still limiting themselves to metaphorical boxes within trends. These boxes can include aesthetics and trends such as "clean girl", "cottage core", "Stockholm style", and "indie". The author also goes on to question why our so called creativity must fit in to labeled boxes, and questions weather its even counts as creativity in the first place. While these generations do value diversity more than past generations, it often isn't reflected in social media engagement. 

On the contrary, social media can sometimes play a positive role in creativity and self-fulfillment by introducing others to new ideas activities. For platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, it gives viewers an easy way to watch quick tutorials and get new ideas for their hobbies. This can be done with outfit ideas, cooking tutorials, hair tutorials, and art activities. Social media benefits viewers by giving them  new ideas or new ways to do hobbies, but on the other side of the screen it incentivizes creators to come up with new ideas and show their tips and tricks. I have experienced this in my own time on social media with a variety of different hobbies. For example, in the last six months I have really enjoyed learning how to watercolor paint and use oil pastels to create art all because I watched one TikTok of a girl painting her own birthday cards for her friends birthdays. Without seeing that TikTok, I may have never discovered how much I enjoy painting and discovering different medias within art. While this is just one example, and individual algorithms are completely dependent on the user, there are definitely positives to the connection of social media and creativity.

Ultimately, the practice of individual self-fulfillment should be a priority in todays digital world, and trying to break outside of the box leads to a richer life. When creativity is prioritized people are often happier, better at problem solving and have a greater sense of self as well as being more grounded. This topic is incredibly important to me because of how much I value individuality and self expression. With this, I believe that people should have the ability to express themselves however they wish to do so while understanding the role that social media plays.

My Top 5 News Sources

TV News: Watching television news is a pretty traditional way of accessing news and for a while was the fastest way of accessing news stories. One special thing about watching news on the television is access to breaking news, and having news anchors on the scene of any current event and be able to see the scene live. Some positives about watching television news is that it is quick to digest and there is typically fast information, as all you have to do is listen and watch graphics and many channels share info the same way.

Google: Google is a news outlet used every day by millions of people, and the attraction to it comes from the fact that it is a search engine. With one search you can see the same story from hundreds of different news outlets to gain all perspectives of the same story. One negative about it is that while you have loads of information right in front of you, its important to take time and read through the accuracy of information and the trustworthiness of some websites, which takes time.

Instagram: Instagram became incredibly popular for accessing news during the COVID-19 Pandemic, as it was a way to quickly release and digest information and news stories. Even now, Instagram is popular to releasing and sharing news articles, especially when it comes to politics, people can repost news stories and even post their own. While this seems positive for the general public, its a lot more accessible to the general public in terms of who can post, share, and repost when compared to Google and TV News, where a person posting most likely needs some level of qualifications.

TikTok: Similarly to Instagram, TikTok offers news in a quick and easy to digest form of media, often quick videos or slides. While this can be beneficial to viewers so they can learn and educate themselves quickly instead of for example reading a full news article, its also created for “clickbait”.  Additionally, similar to Instagram, it also runs off of an algorithm based on the user, so it can very quickly become very polarized.

X (Formally known as Twitter): X is another social media platform, but differs slightly from Instagram and TikTok as people typically don’t create well thought out planned slideshows sharing news that you typically see on other social media platforms. X is significantly more fast paced and post typically consist of 2-3 sentences of breaking news and a significant amount of replies and retweets. Additionally, any user of X has the ability to post and reply, so it makes information less credible and easier for people to put purely opinion on the feed.