Blog #10

While much of our discussions in this course have definitely talked about how the internet creates trouble. As the internet becomes smarter, we're beginning to be able to weed out false information. However, the ability to do so still relies on the reader having a critically thinking mind. Being in college, most if not all of us are taught to think critically about the information presented to us. However, before the dawn of the internet, those in the generations above us have not received the same knowledge or ability to weed out information that comes from unreliable sources. I remember time and time again as I went through K-12 education being warned about checking your sources when looking for information on the internet and to always be wary of what Wikipedia has to say. As the 2016 election illustrates time and time again, the dangers of false or misleading information being spread on the internet are relevant and frightening. It's interesting to find that the source of this spread does not come from the younger generations, but those who one could reasonably expect to also have a critically thinking mind--those older than us. They're older so they're supposed to be wiser right? So how do we combat this? I really like the feature that Facebook has begun to roll out in order to stop the spread of false or misleading information on their domain. The feature flags articles that show up as things that may be bias or misleading and tells you more information about from where the article originates, gives related articles, and includes statistics about how this article has been shared and how many times it has been shared. If there isn't much information, it can be deemed unreliable. While this tool is in its early stages, I think this tool has the potential to do good things in the spread of information, but I would like to see this feature rolled out on a larger scale.

Blog Post #9

When I think of something insane that's got a decent following, I think of InfoWars with Alex Jones. It's become a kind of funny thing within my friends group to sit down and watch compilation videos of the insane stuff that Alex Jones says with a drink in our hands. Honestly, I think that's the only way I would be able to get through his madness. With his crazy eyes and shouting voice, it's not hard to see how he grabs people's attention. With your attention now on him, he can shout whatever nonsense he wants and whether you disagree with it or not, now you've listened. Alex Jones started out as a talk radio host through which he developed and cultivated his brand--those on the far right who believe conspiracy theories. He catered to them in his early days, and has not stopped taking advantage of them since. He has his own brand of dietary supplements which he markets through the insecurities of those who listen to him (isn't that scary?). At this point, he doesn't need to advertise his talk show anymore because he continues to make most of his money by selling these mystical diet supplements. With him already having his target audience wrapped around his finger, it's easier to see how he still goes on and how people can believe him. They've put their trust in him to steer them clear of all the things they are afraid of and in exchange support him for all he's got. If you've got the chance to read articles on how Alex Jones' InfoWars show and website are operated, there's plenty of stuff out there to read and it's kind of fascinating.

Final Blog - Syeda

I’ve always been science heavy in my thinking and in everything I do.  Aside from faith, I tend to rely on science before I accept movements or claims for truth.  GMOs being bad?  Well, it seems that research in favor of them outweighs any research--so yeah, right mhm, next.  It’s already a tired argument.  Why do we still have to have a discussion?  And organic foods?  They might be good, but where’s the proof that they’re worth the price hike?  Global warming?  The evidence is there, why would I ever believe otherwise?  So I tend to be cut-and-dry with the facts presented to me, without necessarily thinking of the depth behind certain details and products.  As such, our discussion of GERD bothered me a lot.  I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but it felt jarring that something that is marketed to treat a physical condition, like omeprazole treats GERD, has so much room for capitalism and unethical business practices.  First, the fact that GERD may not be a legitimate medical condition but has medications to treat it amounting in the range of billions of dollars in profit, and second, that Astrazeneca produces omeprazole’s enantiomer esomeprazole, even without increased clinical efficacy, and patented it just for more profit, doesn’t sit right with me.  Plainly, it’s completely oppositional to my world-view that something with intentions that could be so pure, to help people with medical conditions, can instead be so predatory and unfair.  I’m used to wars that claim to liberate a region but only work to serve that invader’s own interests so the idea isn’t new, but the application to medicine remains more jarring because I'm starting pharmacy school at University of Illinois at Chicago this Fall.  It had me thinking, this is what I’m spending my future on.  How much of my field is like this?

So going forward, my biggest take-away from this class is that I’m fortunately and unfortunately more skeptical, and perhaps more realistic and critical of the information that surrounds me.  It’s depressing to acknowledge that the world isn’t motivated by benevolence or good intentions, but rather by greed and selfishness, but at the same time, this empowered me to realize that there’s always an underlying motive or bias behind products or ideas that are sold to us.  Whether it be omeprazole or the Iraq War, we are sold ideas of good health or ideas of freedom, paying for one product and supporting another with tax dollars and political support.  Now, it’s a matter of finding out what that bias is rather than questioning if one exists in the first place.  With this in mind, I truly do feel that I am a smarter and more realistic consumer given the ability to question the “why?” behind everything.  There are always connections between science, culture, politics, and economics, and now, it’s a matter of deciphering what those connections are.

Blog Post #8

August 7th, 2008. I distinctly remember the very day I received my first cellphone. At this point, I had already set-up Facebook and Twitter accounts, though neither hold quite the same nostalgia for me as the day I got my very own cellphone. A bright pink LG flip phone became mine on that day, and this access to technology and the internet at the palm of my hand has shaped me into who I am today. 

I was the very last of my friends to have one, so I felt so good finally being in the loop with them again. As soon as I got home with my new accessory, I posted my number to my Facebook wall with the message "txt me!!" I was so excited. Immediately the texts came pouring in from those I was close with to those I barely knew. Years would pass and I would upgrade to another of the latest phones, hopping aboard with the dawn of the smartphone. When I finally got my hands on a smartphone, I was doomed. I let myself become so consumed by it all. I studied less, stayed up later at night to play games or watch stupid YouTube videos. Productivity went down pretty significantly. I also became more and more concerned about how I was presenting myself on social media. I became obsessed with self-image and it led to some pretty destructive behaviors. I think this became a huge source for some of my anxiety in social settings. I always worried I would say the wrong thing, post the wrong thing, or not appear cool enough for anyone to want to get to know me. Coming from a small town where my graduating class was about 150 people, we all knew each other and there wasn't room to hide. However, I found that I could hide behind social media and create an identity that would help with all of those worries. I became that person through high school and ended up really unhappy with myself and who I came out of it as. I've spent a lot of time since coming to college trying to figure out who I really am because I came here not really having a sense of identity and that was really hard to deal with. I still work on putting down my phone in order to have the best social interactions possible, but others being attached to their phones makes it difficult. We've all seen those groups of people who all sit together and don't talk while they stare at their phone screens. I think I can say that we've all been there at one point or another. We're losing our ability to interact with each other and that makes me wonder what that'll say or do to the future of the human race.

Blog #7

For me, reading Economix was a good crash course to something I did not think I was really interested in. As someone studying something completely unrelated, I hadn't taken an Economics course since high school. One thing I always enjoyed from that class was talking about markets and competition. Particularly in the section where they talk about price wars, I am reminded of two gas stations back home that are constantly at odds with each other. I live at the edge of a rural area, between a Reservation and a small city. The two have historically not gotten along very well. On the outskirts of the Reservation there is a tribal-owned gas station. Across the street, where the boundary lies, the other gas station sits. Typically the one in the bounds of the city sets the gas prices for the area. However, the other gas station has taken a liking to lowering their prices by 2-3 cents in order to attract more business to their side. This causes the other gas station to lower their price, too, and a price war ensues. This has been going on for as long as I can remember, and I remember asking my dad about it every time we would drive past. He had his own opinions on the matter, but last summer things got crazy for the Fourth of July. What started out as one of their price wars ended in all of the gas stations in the general vicinity lowering their prices way beyond the lowest anywhere else in the county. Gas prices lowered to around $2.00 for all of the gas stations in the area and people began to flock from all over the county just to fill up with gas. My dad, not wanting to miss the fun, took all the gas cans he had and a trailer, setting out to fill up. While economics in general has never really interested me (though it definitely should!), this particular facet of it has always fascinated me. While my dad made pretty decent sense of it all growing up, Economix was a good refresher to this information, but gives me a much deeper, more satisfactory answer to some of the questions I remember asking.

Last Blog Post! Let's Talk Meitu

The thing that shook me the most over the course of this semester was learning about Meitu. It’s one thing to use snapchat filters when talking to your crush to make you look cute, but to have a culture that is completely obsessed with these filtered versions of reality, so much so that individuals spends thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgery to alter their physical appearances, does not seem real. But it is.

Oh, AND THEN they make a living off of, not an educated job, but by taking videos of themselves looking prettily into the camera! This is a fantastic thing for them now (and I applaud them for profiting off the system while they can), but what happens a few years down the road when this is just a fad trend of the past and they have forever altered their appearance and have no qualifications for other employment. The Meitu life is unsustainable. It is kind of terrifying that an entire society has bought into this sensation.

Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, and her sisters, have profited in similar ways, but through entrepreneurship boosted by their short-term fame and beauty. This seems like a much more sustainable, and educated, way to pursue life. By setting up profitable businesses, that can make a name in a short-term spotlight, these will be able to generate revenue for years to come. Similar things have happened with child stars such as the Olson twins. This is smart! Meitu does not seem to be. I guess I personally just don’t see Meitu as a positive thing. It is nice the way the vloggers seem to pull people into their everyday lives and offer multiple perspectives of the world, but these casual videos are so planned out and choreographed that they, much like the Meitu personalities themselves, are only feeding into the toxic “perfect image” of the world. I’d love to see a study done on eating disorders and body dysmorphia from before Meitu’s release to now. Yikes. If individuals with the money to take a professional scalpel to their face are still not satisfied, imagine what teenagers without money are thinking, and doing, about their own images.

Blog 8

Social media is so influential and so easy to get caught up in.

When I was in middle school and early in high school, I became really obsessed with youtube and Instagram. I followed so many popular ‘influencers’ and bloggers who posted content all the time, and I would watch youtube videos CONSTANTLY. I never missed an upload from a lot of my favorite YouTubers. I really fell down a rabbit hole for quite a while of wishing my life was like these people’s lives and made plans in my head (and in my journals, let’s be real) about how I was going to become a famous Youtuber and make all this money and be so popular and live this amazing lifestyle in LA and eventually have my own brand and all of this insane stuff.

As much as it’s fun and inspiring to follow all these people and keep up with their lives and their content, it can be damaging. I’ve found now I need (to keep myself sane) to do a sort of detox every few months and go on an ‘unfollow’ spree wherein I go through all the Instagram pages and Youtube channels that I follow and really think about whether I am enjoying these people’s content in a happy and healthy way, or if they’re making me feel worse about myself and my life more often than good stuff. And if I’m still feeling shitty, I make sure to log off of all social media or delete the apps from my phone for a week or more so I can really reconnect with reality and my life and the people around me that really make me happy and fulfilled in a way that can’t happen through the internet.

These social media influencers really have impacted our culture in so many ways, and these platforms continue to grow enormously for so many people. And that’s awesome for them – so many people have worked really hard to get where they are with millions of followers and their own brands and creative endeavors. The way we see advertising, the way products and brands are launched, the way people interact with ‘celebrities’ and honestly the definition of ‘celebrity’ have all changed so immensely from social media and the internet. But I feel that it really should be taught (whether in school or not) to young people just how important it is to maintain that disconnect from the internet and really place importance on the people around you and your real life. It’s great to have dreams and goals and aspirations, but it’s not healthy to constantly be bombarded and surrounded by these perfectly curated lives that just make us feel shitty about ourselves.

                So there’s my social media rant I guess – I’ve really got a love-hate relationship with this stuff.