M2A4: Reflection Blog Post

 

There has undoubtedly been a bit of information regarding social media, the progress of technology, the pitfalls of information, and its benefits presented this week. While sometimes it seems contradictory and overwhelming, that is the point of this week's lesson. Information is coming at us from all directions. How accurate are news, social media, applications, websites, blogs, and web-based agencies? Is it beneficial? Is it hurting or helping us as a society? How is it affecting our children?

These are not easy questions to answer, and we often run into the same pitfalls when trying to answer them. There is evidence that it is not healthy for ourselves or our children to compare, idolize, or follow social media to determine their worthiness. We are shown that it causes them to have lower self-esteem, and cyberbullying is prevalent.   However, educationally, there are benefits to these social media platforms and internet/ computer or overall technology use. We are still trying to find the proper ways to mitigate and ensure the good while shielding the bad. 

This pertains to society as well; we have to mitigate. Because while there is "fake news" and reports that have not been factually verified. It is giving people in our population who have never had a voice in any forum, just that a voice. Should we be hearing every voice? Maybe not, but I would surely not want mine to be silenced. We must become better at discerning what's opinion from what is factual. Technology is not going anywhere. We must simply learn and adapt to what the future holds.