Post Eleven: Final - Culture of Truth & Online Consumption

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. I wish the class met twice a week and the schedule did not cut short and get all bent out of shape because of Covid as I really was interested in so much of what we learned throughout this semester. There are so many thoughts I wish to share on this final blog post to fully culminate this class and this really neat keepsake we get to keep from it, so bear with me as I hope to touch on all of the takeways.

What I love about this class is that it forced me to think about things deeper and things I hadn't really thought of through various perspectives prior. It made me look at my life through a different lens and brought closer to home some of the world's current events.

If you read the bio on the side of my blog, I mention "culture of truth." I coined this phrase years ago, as I was frustrated by the facades that surrounded both the media and my everyday life and interactions. Truth is a big principle of all I strive to seek, and if you head to my personal blog that I'm working to build, I've shared how I strive to create a culture of truth on and off the internet. 

When I coined this phrase though, I did not realize how 2020 would bring such a deeper need and call for my passion of truth. This year, we have been met with a pandemic, but even scarier than this ambiguous virus is a media and culture so quick to live and hide in immense fear. Where did this fear come from?  The media is the virus, as the media controls the behavior of the public. I'm not denying the gravity of this virus, but I do not believe fear is ever productive for a society and 2020 has proven the immense power of the media to control its people. Americans are being controlled by fear, and it's scary. That was a bit of tangent, but it touches on truth because emotions can sometimes prevent us from finding truth. Because emotions might be our reality, but they are not always the reality of the situation. I am firm in my belief that most individuals quarantined and scared to leave their house have trusted media sources for information without doing their own due diligence.

Prior to this course, I did not understand what a gift and blessing the First Amendment is to us and the gravity it holds for making America the "land of the free." And what a time in the world to take this course! During a pandemic and a pivotal election season! I have seen firsthand a slippery slope to censorship that is now occurring in this country. It's alarming how one party's voices have been silenced, and how media channels have "sold out" to biased and inauthentic reporting. 

Changing course, it is time to discuss the internet's role in my life... a profound and humbling question keeps surfacing as more and more of my time becomes consumed by my phone and social media: Do we consume technology or does technology consume us?

My online presence is not large by any means, but it consumes a large amount of my time. I use Instagram, snapchat, and Facebook, and I have dreams to grow my blog that I recently started. Besides my blog which anyone can access, my social media profiles are private. 

Social media consumes my life, which is sad to say, but the first step towards change is admitting the challenge. I allow my self-esteem and self-worth to be determined by a number of likes, and I allow comparison of myself and my life to others to rob me from joy. The grass is not green on the other side, it is green where you water it. If I spend more time watering my grass (my real life, offline) than investing energy into posting the perfect post or comparing my life to my followers or influencers, I think a profound change will occur within my self that will translate into all aspects of my life.

When I think about growing my blog, I see the double-edged sword of what seems like a too good to be true career path. This industry is called "influencers" and it's essentially turning your day to day life into a business and a brand. While I love to write and have a homemaker's desire to share all things from home decor, to travel, to fashion, to learning to adult, to chronicling my life, I don't want my personal life to be my professional life. 

I do not know where the line is drawn for the public vs. private balance in this industry and it makes it unappealing to me even though sharing my life seems like something I would desire to do! I follow many mom bloggers, and while I love so much of their content, I don't think the industry is fair to their kids. It's giving celebrity-like consequences to everyday people. While the benefit of truly "working from home" is appealing, I question if this sharing on the verge of oversharing is something I want for my life and my future family.

Thanks to this class, I'm making more intentional choices with my online presence and never again will I take for granted our First Amendment. I am more passionate than ever to pursue and cultivate a culture of truth, and this starts by advocating our First Amendment when threats of censorship are upon us and by committing to due diligence before forming stances on current issues. 

Post Ten: What I Learned From Others' EOTO - Disinformation

For my second EOTO, I discussed in class my topics of Confirmation Bias and Echo Chambers, and how these are slippery slopes to some pretty drastic consequences for societies. Learning about another group's topic of disinformation, I couldn't help but find a bit of a parallel between disinformation (which is intentionally false) and confirmation bias (which is sometimes a subconscious fallacy).

I'm not saying these are the same because they certainly are not, but they're both running rampant in society today. So what is disinformation?

Disinformation is false information that is spread to intentionally deceive. This is plaguing society today, as I firmly believe we are inundated with an abundance of false information. If you look at politics, disinformation is unreal. And regarding Covid-19, it's prevalent.

Disinformation is meant to purposely sway public opinion and attempt to cover up the truth. The line between true and false information is becoming quite ambiguous in modern society, as media networks try to create echo chambers within their organization's bias. 

I live in Nashville and our mayor has received national attention for supposedly lying about Coronavirus cases within the city to prevent restaurants and bars from opening. The mayor's deception was used to keep businesses go bankrupt and scare the public from going out in public. Now, more liberal sites are saying this narrative was made up by conservative media (which is leading into confirmation bias/echo chamber thinking). Our governor and mayor are on two different wavelengths of thinking when it comes to addressing coronavirus, and Nashville is the only city in TN that is still facing immense regulation and closures. Anyways, I digress. 

However, I have to look on the Mayor Lying Scandal with a bit of peace, as at least the issue was brought into light for citizens to be made aware of. I'm distressed thinking of things we hear and believe that are completely false every single day.

Post Nine: Privacy

My mom says about five times a day “they’re listening to us“. I think we’ve all felt this way at some point in time as we seem to talk or think about something and hours later, we’re bombarded with ads and content related to the thing we spoke about. It’s creepy and it feels like a violation, but it’s real. And I’m convinced that this is only the beginning and we are probably being tracked on the Internet in more ways than we can even begin to understand.

Whether it be from businesses trying to market and sell us their products to national or foreign government agencies trying to invade our personal data, I believe little privacy currently exists on the internet. 

This problem stems from society’s reliance on technology and the Internet. I took a really interesting course my freshman year of college. It was my first-year seminar focused on whether or not the American dream was still attainable in the modern world. We studied the concept of off the grid living and it was incredibly fascinating. 

Choosing to live in this way is a completely different way of life, but these are the people that refused to have a government or other interference in their lives and rejected the amenities brought forth through modern technologies. 

An article I read stated that 60% of United States adults believe it is impossible to go through daily life without having data collected online. That is insane. We are aware that it’s happening but we continue on without fighting it. Scary!

A few years back, I decided to give up social media for an entire month. At the time, I thought I was using it way too much and it would be a good way to get more connected with real life and ground myself in the present moment without being consumed by my media usage and overwhelmed by comparison in the negative effects that social media can bring. It was hard, but I stayed committed and made it the entire month without using social media. I will admit that in some ways it was freeing but outweighing this benefit were some drastic cons: I missed out on so much. I realize that I rely on Instagram and Facebook to keep me connected to the world, to my friends, to communication. I was so anxious not being able to access social media, but I approach that month thinking the lack of social media usage would alleviate so much of my anxiety. I think I was equally anxious because neither one leads to much peace. As with all things, I learned the importance of balance and attempted to move forward applying more balance to my technology and social media usage. We probably need to revisit this, but it was a valuable experience nonetheless. 

Complacency is the demise of society. We are aware of the threat to our personal freedom and the right to privacy, we are too complacent to fight it and we are too dependent on the benefits of the internet to protest. 

Read the article I referenced for some interesting insights: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/