Summary Draft 3 + Reader's Response Draft 2

Summary Draft 3

Article: ‘When Worlds Collide’: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9). (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/social-media-social-minefield/)

According to Rothbard in "When Worlds Collide: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media" (2014), social media has allowed users to share any information online readily and instantly. Yet, such ease can have negative impacts on a person's work life, as it overlaps with one's personal life. Just as the 'social mindfield' that one of Rothbard's interviewers (2014) points out, people have to be constantly wary about what they post online as their content may be distorted from it's original meaning by the audience. Whether it is intentionally or not, there would be undesirable effects. Therefore, social media presents a dilemma where people online can connect better or forge new relationships easily but it can also take a toll on the present ones they have.

Rothbard (2014) then introduces four different methods people generally used on social media; open being completely no censorship, audience being limiting content to specific audience, content being content that are oriented towards the majority of the audience and custom being striking a balance between the audience and content methods. Such methods can affect a person's reputation and appeal. Therefore, changing the methods  one already accustomed to would not be easy unless something major happens.

Finally, Rothbard (2014) concludes her research by presenting her results indicating that people should vary their methods of communicating to another person according to the situation, particularly on social media. This is due to the fact that it brings users online to a larger amount of viewers instead of one as much as they try to avoid it.

Reader's Response Draft 2

In 'When Worlds Collide': Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9), Rothbard claimed that the 'inherent paradox' of social media as 'social minefield' is due to the fact that people have to be constantly wary about what they post online as their content may be distorted from it's original meaning by the audience. This is unlike the idea of social media being able to share any content at your free will. Whether it is intentionally or not, there would be undesirable effects. I agree with Rothbard (2014) that social media has become more sensitive in terms of the way how information are being shared and uploaded. However, the root of this 'social mindfield' stems from the issue of creditability on social media. At the hands of wrong users, false information may be disseminated, causing unwanted happiness that led to users online being more cynical towards online sources. This is unlike what Rothbard (2014) claims that online content are being misinterpreted by the audience but rather, it is wrongly written by authors.

The issue of creditability of the content posted on social media has always been a problem for readers because it is almost impossible to have articles that is completely unbiased. The writers' own perceptions, stereotypes and other inducing factors can alter their views, which results in articles that leaned towards a certain stand. For example, in the case of the Qatar-based network Al Jazeera, their content is said to be anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-Western (Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) but it can also be formatting their articles in a way that suits their targeted audience (Roger). It definitely depends on how one look at the articles by Al Jazeera and form his or her own judgement.

There are also articles that does not report facts but rather speculate false information for various purposes, such as gaining more readers, to get more earnings when people click on the site. During the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines jet, MH370, there are websites claiming that it has been found where in fact, there was no news about the jet (Peptone, 2014). Many people believed what the articles wrote was true and even shared the websites on their own social networking sites until the Malaysian government came out to prove it otherwise. Not only does it affect the victim's families and friends by lifting their hopes up, this shows that there are authors who write articles containing false information for their own private gains. 

In conclusion, the notion of a 'social mindfield' will always be present unless bias ceases to exist. Since bias affects our judgement towards as issue,  when there is an idea that we do agree, we tend to be more harsh when it comes to giving critiques. 

References: 

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.aijac.org.au/news/article/a-noted-arab-journalist-reveals-the-biases-of-al

Rogers, T. Is Al Jazeera Anti-Semitic and Anti-American? Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://journalism.about.com/od/trends/a/Is-Al-Jazeera-Anti-Semitic-And-Anti-American.htm

Pepitone, J. (2014, March 9). Social Media Spread False Reports of Safe Landing. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/social-media-spread-false-reports-safe-landing-n48081

Reader's Response Draft 1,

In 'When Worlds Collide': Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9), Rothbard claimed that the 'inherent paradox' of social media as 'social minefield' is due to the fact that 'social media has so many amazing opportunities to connect, to enhance relationships and to build new relationships.' I agree that social media does offer many opportunities to allow people to communicate and socialise via means of social networking sites such Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You get to use the functions from the websites to start a group chat, sharing images about your life, catching up on your favourite celebrities, international news and more.

However, the nature of social media being widespread and possibly 'anonymous', such opportunities may be abused and taken advantage by people. These people are the ones who intend to make use of social media to prey on people who are seemingly 'weaker' on the Internet. For instance, there is an increase in number of criminal cases committed online in 2014, just in Singapore alone (Singapore Police Force, 2014). Therefore, I do not agree with Rothbard (2014) that social media is all about being able to make new friends, interacting with people online. These are just the benefits that social media can offer rather than looking at the big picture where the problems cannot be ignored.

The issue of creditability of the content posted on social media has always been a problem for readers because it is almost impossible to have articles that is completely unbiased. The writers' own perceptions, stereotypes and other inducing factors can alter the views of the writers, which results in articles that leaned towards a certain stand. There are also articles that does not report facts but rather speculate false information for various purposes, such as gaining more readers, to get more earnings when people click on the site. During the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines jet, MH370, there are websites claiming that it has been found where in fact, there was no news about the jet (Peptone, 2014). Many people believed what the articles wrote was true and even shared the websites on their own social networking sites until the Malaysian government came out to prove it otherwise. Not only does it affect the victim's families and friends by lifting their hopes up, it also causes suspicion around users online for being an accomplice by sharing false information online. 

Ever since the rise of social media, we have seen more occurrences of terrorist groups making use of it to spread propaganda and public threats. As mentioned before, creditability is a problem and precisely because most users online cannot differentiate between true and false, terrorist groups are able to tackle through this loophole. The infamous Al-Qaeda is known to make use of media strategies as means to achieve his ideals (Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, 2007). There are also other terrorist groups that use social media to induce fear and pressure on the public and governments. The recent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) events on beheading of the two Japanese and burning of the Jordanian pilot, saw the ISIS uploading the videos online for the government and public to view it. (MailOnline, 2015). Therefore, social media can also be a tool for terrorism as long as creditability is still an issue.

On the personal level, social media does improve relationships between people online. However, on the global scale, there are many more possible problems arising from the use of social media that may affect our daily lives. The lack of credible sources causes suspicion and unhappiness among people along with use of social media by the terrorists; it is definitely more difficult than ever to make use of social media to interact especially it is not as easy as it used to be. Rothbard's (2014) idea of a paradox is merely just a sweeping statement by relating social media on a personal level. Instead, a more comprehensive understanding of the ways social media can affect a person would be needed.

References: 

Singapore Police Force | Statistics | Annual Crime Brief 2015. (2015, January 29). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.spf.gov.sg/stats/crimebrief2015.html

Pepitone, J. (2014, March 9). Social Media Spread False Reports of Safe Landing. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/social-media-spread-false-reports-safe-landing-n48081

Al Qaeda: Propaganda and Media Strategy. (2007). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.itac.gc.ca/pblctns/pdf/2007-2-eng.pdf

Hall, J., Robinson, J., Wyke, T., Cockroft, S., & Williams, D. (2015, February 4). Jordan executes ISIS jihadists: Female suicide bomber among two put to death in dawn hangings in retaliation for terrorists releasing video of pilot being torched to death in cage. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2938199/Burned-alive-cage-ISIS-release-video-claiming-horrifying-murder-captured-Jordanian-pilot.html

Summary Draft 2,

Article: ‘When Worlds Collide’: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9). (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/social-media-social-minefield/)

According to Rothbard in "When Worlds Collide: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media" (2014), social media has allowed us to share any information online readily and instantly. Yet, such ease can have negative impacts on our work lives, as it overlaps with our personal lives. Just as the 'social mindfield' that one of Rothbard's interviewers (2014) pointed out, social media itself is a dilemma. People online can connect better or forge new relationships with one another easily but it can also take a toll on the present ones they have. 

Rothbard (2014) then introduces four different methods people generally used on social media; open being completely no censorship, audience being limiting content to specific audience, content being content that are oriented towards the majority of the audience and custom being striking a balance between the audience and content methods. Such methods can affect a person's authority and appeal. Therefore, changing the methods we are already accustomed to would not be easy unless something major happens.

Finally, Rothbard (2014) concluded her research by presenting her results indicating that we should vary our methods of communicating to someone according to the situation, particularly on social. This is due to the fact that it brings you to larger viewers instead of one as much as we try to avoid it.

Summary Draft 1,

Article: ‘When Worlds Collide’: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media (2014, June 9). (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/social-media-social-minefield/)

According to Rothbard in "When Worlds Collide: Navigating the Minefield of Social Media" (2014), social media has allowed us to share any information online readily and instantly, yet, such ease can have negative impacts on our lives. It happens when we make use of different methods to handle what we put online, which can affect your authority and appeal to your colleagues separately.

Rothbard (2014) observed that social media is able to create a film that segregates people’s personal and professional lives but also makes people constantly wary about what they share online. It allows you to connect better or forge new relationships with other people yet it can take a toll on the present ones that you have. One of the problems would be the issue of “invisible audience”. These groups of people are ones that secretly monitor what you are up to online but they do not reply to anything, which explains why they are almost non-existent.

Rothbard (2014) then summarises the methods we used into four categories; open being completely no censorship, audience being limiting content to specific audience, content being content that are oriented towards the majority of the audience and custom being striking a balance between the audience and content methods.

Such methods as mentioned can affect your authority and appeal; one may be lean towards boosting your appeal or either or even none. Therefore, Rothbard (2014) encourages one to pick a method that best suits you, able to fit into the targets you set for yourself on social media and that it suits the background you belong.

Rothbard (2014) also added that changing the methods we already accustomed to would not be easy unless something major happened, such as an unpleasant comment or switching of backgrounds.

Finally, Rothbard (2014) concludes with her results indicating that we cannot communicate similarly to someone right in front of you to someone online. This is due to the fact that social media brings you to a larger viewers instead of one that is beside you whether you like it or not.