A Response to "Connected, But Alone"

This week in Social Media, we are discussing Sherry Turkle's TEDTalk entitled "Connected, But Alone", which is a speech about how technology and personal devices are affecting ourselves, and our interpersonal relationships.  Check out the TEDTalk and the transcript here:

Here's my response to Sherry's TEDTalk:

In This TEDTalk, Sherry Turkle, a professor and author of sociology and psychology, talks about technology and how our devices are affecting our relationships and interactions with one another.  To sum up her speech, she believes that technology and our devices are a very powerful tool psychologically, and they affect our lives greatly.  She also believes that this power is causing trouble in how people to relate to themselves and one another.  Turkle believes that our devices and the rise of communication through social media, text messaging, and all other forms with instant messaging are allowing people to “get used to a new way of being alone together.  People want to be with each other, but also elsewhere—connected to all the different places they want to be.  People want to customize their lives.  They want to go in and out of all the places they are because the thing that matters most to them is control over where they put their attention.”  
I do agree with Sherry Turkle to a point, because the idea that people want to “customize their lives” is completely true.  Since technology is making many things to easily accessible, everyone wants things instantly.  People certainly do want to be able to be plugged in to their friends and family no matter where they are in the world.  I certainly do not believe that technology is taking away from personal interactions and interpersonal relationships.  Technology is a great source of creating relationships.  May baby boomers and adults nowadays can say that they most likely still keep in contact with less than ten friends from high school or even college.  However, because of the rise of technology and social media, the millennial generation will be able to keep in contact with more and more of their friends from high school and college, even after graduation.  She also discusses how people would rather text than talk and spend time playing computer games rather than “going to the pub with friends.”  I want to pose the point that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a person having a comfort zone.  Many people in this world have varying degrees of anxiety and discomfort with face to face interaction, and the internet and technology has become a wonderful vehicle to help slowly transition people to face to face contact. 
I agree with Sherry that there is a time and place for technology, and that some times should remain sacred to face-to-face contact.  However, technology is a wonderful vehicle for people to keep in touch and share their world with others, and we should not be afraid of the rise of technology.

Do You Speak English?

Buzzfeed and How It's Affected My Life

Buzzfeed. The company describes itself as a "social news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media and digital technology in order to provide the most shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video." All of that is totally correct, but it's also my very public addiction.

I honestly don't remember exactly when Buzzfeed started essentially taking over my Facebook timeline. Instead of simply following pages like CNN or The New York Times to receive breaking news about world affairs, pop culture, or American politics, Buzzfeed became my go-to news channel to discover the daily happenings of the world. Not only that, but it has certainly become my main source of entertainment, with it's many quizzes, listicles, and of course, Buzzfeed videos. Recently, I've become extremely addicted to a new series they came out with, called "Buzzfeed Unsolved Mysteries", which discusses famous unsolved murder, myth, and disappearance cases from all over the world.  Check out this one which talks about the conspiracy theories about The Illuminati:

Buzzfeed has been a wonderful gateway for me to not only entertain myself, but to gain knowledge about current events and topics that I've never learned about, which in my opinion gives me topics to discuss and makes me a more interesting and well-rounded student and individual.

First Post

I've started this blog for my Social Media in Business applications course. Naturally, I'm not entirely sure what to write about, but I've decided to dedicate the blog to my daily/weekly life living as a full time college student in New York City, and write about my life.

I'm Lulu and I'm currently a college sophomore residing in New York City. Last year, I moved all the way from my home in Atlanta, Georgia to New York and it's been a wild year. I have a bit of experience with writing-- as a freshman, I was hired at The Odyssey Online, an online social media entertainment website as an author, where I was able to curate and write my own unique articles and content. It was an awesome experience getting to share my thoughts with my friends, family, and whoever else wanted to share my articles. Some of my articles hit more than several thousand shares, and I even made quite a bit of money working for The Odyssey Online. Needless to say, it was a wonderful first foray into the world of writing and social media authoring.

In the past, I've also had some smaller blogs that I've shared with my friends, that were mostly just small things that I blogged about my daily life as a middle schooler.  I've learned from going back and reading those blogs that you must always monitor what kind of information you are putting on the information, simply because of privacy or embarrassing childhood reasons.  Well, I hope whoever reads this and the students in my Social Media class enjoy my blog thus far! I will be updating regularly, and adding more information about my interests and daily life soon.

-Lulu