Study: Facebook helps your self-esteem

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-01/tech/facebook.self.esteem_1_facebook-page-facebook-wall-esteem?_s=PM:TECH

This article argues that spending time online can boost your self-esteem.  It means that unlike a mirror that shows who we really are; Facebook can show a more positive version of ourselves.

Researchers at Cornell University, who conducted the study, say looking at Facebook, where we all tend to put our best digital foot forward, appears to provide a quick ego boost.

The study however has only measured self-esteem of people watching their own Facebook profiles. It does not talk about the effects of using Facebook to look at other people’s profiles.

I do not know many people how just use Facebook to promote themselves. Most people also use Facebook to keep track of friends. The danger comes in when we start to compare our profile to other’s profiles. The quick ego boost from you own profile can easily turn into the opposite, as all people tend to show their best side. This creates a world where people appear to be more perfect than they really are. 

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Perception

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/video/blog/2011/02/social_medias_role_in_egypt_pr.html

My CORE teacher posted this link with a video from PBS on Moodle. Mohammed El-Nawawy from Queens University of Charlotte is being interviewed about social Medias roll in Egypt. He argues that Facebook and Twitters roll in the protest has been significant but not as big as western media has made it look like.

Analysts add that even though only 15-18 percent of Egyptians regularly access the Internet, the content of blogs, tweets and Facebook posts can also spread via word-of-mouth to rally an entire population.

It kind of relates to what we talked about in class; it’s all about perception. Media can choose to show only parts of the picture. This is something we need to consider while consuming information.

By helping other people look happy, Facebook is making us sad.

http://www.slate.com/id/2282620

The Anti-Social Network

By Libby Copeland

According to Libby Copeland’s article Facebook is making us sad and depressed by helping people appear happy all the time. We have a habit of overestimating other people’s happiness and social networking contributes to making this worse. Copeland’s claim comes from "Misery Has More Company Than People Think," a paper in the January issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Copeland argues that ”By showcasing the most witty, joyful, bullet-pointed versions of people's lives, and inviting constant comparisons in which we tend to see ourselves as the losers, Facebook appears to exploit an Achilles' heel of human nature”

When we look at other people’s Facebook pages we compare our own lives to the pictures and post we see. Copeland and the paper “Misery Has More Company Than People Think," mean that we often overestimates other peoples happiness and think that they have a better life than we do, which makes us sad.

I don’t know if this is true, but it is an interesting question. We all tend to portray the happiest moments of our lives on Facebook. We choose a profile picture that we look good in (I have never seen a profile picture that makes the person look worse than in reality, unless it is a joke), make a status update about our latest accomplishments, and upload nice holiday pictures. I think that we all want attention, and we don’t get as much attention from sad and or everyday stuff.

So to make you all a little bit more depressed and sad I want you to look at this movie and see how cool I am!

"If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are” 

Facebook Adds

Charlotte Bucket List

partners.livingsocial.com

365 Things to do in Charlotte before you die.

One of the most common ads on my Facebook page. It was not that long ago that I change my Current City Status to Charlotte which explains this add. They want to show me all the things I can do with my money in Charlotte.

Ryan Air

Cheap Flight tickets from Stockholm Arlanda Airport

www.ryanair.com/se

I’m from Sweden. I like to travel and I have been flying a lot the last two years, but how do they know that? Can they see that I have been looking for flight tickets on the internet?

Ryan air on the other hand only flies within Europe. Lately I have been looking for flight tickets between Stockholm-New York and Charlotte-Mexico.

But the add got my attention and I found a flight in May from Stockholm to London for only 50 dollars. I might go to London when the semester ends and visited some friends…

Meet Singles Near You

christianmingle.com

Over 1,000 new members joining daily. Join at christianmingle.com! It's free to join. Signup Now!

Why do I get these adds? I get that I’m single and live in Charlotte witch is a very Christian city. But suddenly they forgot that I’m Swedish which means that I’m in all probability not religious. I’ve even started to click away them and respond “Offensive” and “repeating” on the question “You have removed this ad. Why didn't you like it?” But they still keep coming back. I don’t get it! 

Facebook Helps People Start Revolutions

Tuesday I attended the lecture "When Egypt Went Dark" led by Dr. Mohammed El-Nawawy. He spoke of the growing role of the media and its influence on the ongoing revolution in his country. Apparently there are about 160 000 political bloggers in Egypt. The majority is against the president and some of the most popular bloggers have become celebrities.  

Social networking has been the opposition’s main tool to communicate and attract followers to their cause. The negative opinions concerning the government first spread via Facebook groups and many anti-Mubarak demonstrations were organized through the social network.

El-Nawawy explained that “Even older people who don’t use Facebook got the information from their Facebooking kids”.

 

As the demonstrations turned violent, people started using twitter to inform other people about locations of the military, roadblocks, and other places to avoid.

 

Social networking led to such great problems for the Egyptian government that they decided to shut down all the internet services in the country.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/the-internet-goes-dark-in-egypt/613

Mark Zuckerberg talked about how he wanted Facebook to change the world. You can certainly say that Zuckersberg’s wish has come true as Facebook added their latest feature: to start revolutions.

Wordle

A CRITIC AT LARGE

Influencing People

David Fincher and “The Social Network.”

by David Denby

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/10/04/101004crat_atlarge_denby?currentPage=all
In his review in The New Yorker, David Denby sees Mr. Zuckerberg as “a symbolic man of the age, a supremely functional prince of dysfunction” who “leaves behind his friends as well as his intellectual inferiors,” which Mr. Denby calls “Zuckerberg’s tragedy.”

Visual Rhetoric

This picture by the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff was published in many different newspapers around the world last year. The cartoon wants to show how Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a violation against the UN’s human rights and how the rest of the world can’t do anything about it as Israel is protected by the US. The intended audience is anyone how sees the cartoon.

Barack Obama is draw bigger than the world to show the large influence the US has on the global politics and the UN.  The World is drawn small and angry like a child that is upset with its parents but deep down know that whatever they say will not change the decision of the US. The blood leaking out from Gaza and the spiked shoes on Israel symbols the inhuman treatment and the suffering of Palestinian people.