After reading the post from Henry Jenkins' blog, comment here. (Do your best to fold in the concepts from the Jenkins article I had you read last week!)
I found the blog post by Henry Jenkins to be very interesting. I myself was one of the people the night of the first talks of gay marriage in the supreme court was wondering what all of the equal signs were for on a Facebook. Before exploring more post and peoples pictures i simply just Googled about equal signs being profile pictures. I had heard about proposition 8 going in front of the supreme court but i didn't know when it would be and i found out through social media before i did on the news. In the article we read last week by Henry Jenkins he talked about how now we are using our cell phones for more then just communicating with one another and i realize Facebook is just like that. It was started as a way of communicating with one another and staying in touch with college and high school friends. Just like Jenkins described the change in cell phones to now being able to download data from the internet on your phone or being able to play games, Facebook has undergone a similar change. Now you can communicate with friends via instant messager, play games or find out the latest news before the news programs even know about it, or simply share pictures and data with people. We actually just talked about this in my Interactive Media Studies class (IMS)how news is now being broken via social media, a great example of this is the plane that landed in the Hudson river, the news was first broken over twitter with someone tweeting a picture of the plane in the river while they were floating by on a ferry. Technology is changing and allowing people to help take part in the change of laws and regulations and be actively involved in most current of events, its going to be interesting to see what technology changes next in future.
It is really weird but interesting that we are starting to find things that are happening in the world through social media first rather than the news. I usually figure out about famous' people's death through Facebook or twitter before I see any article about it on a news website. It's almost more convenient in a way but it's odd.
I also thought the blog was interesting. It’s all about the power of clicking to the individual. Henry Jenkins questions in the reading whether the media is out of control or if it is too controlled, and based on the incident with the red equals sign, I think it’s out of control to some extent. It’s come to be something we can’t avoid seeing when one is on Facebook. It’s come down to the power of clicking and spreading an image all over the country. Since the red equals sign image was on social media, the message gained authority due to people clicking around and changing their profile pictures on Facebook and sharing the image. It also gained power due to existing through Internet media and being shown to a diverse audience that are for or against what the particular image represents. By changing profile pictures and sharing images, we are actively participating in society and culture change, and it makes people socially connected on a cultural issue through the media. It probably sparked more discussions than we’re aware of. After seeing a few friends change their profile pictures to that image, I began to realize that this is the new trend and it’ll be off most people’s profile pictures in a month or so, and it’ll be out of the mainstream and we won’t see it anymore, and for that reason, I wondered how many people changed their picture due to everyone else changing theirs and because it was the thing to do. There’s a cultural force that made people act on that picture. And what about the people that don’t change their picture or share the picture, are they against it? Jenkins featured Matt Stempeck’s comments and that changing one’s profile picture “clearly establishes what side you are on in a cultural debate” and maybe those that didn’t interact with the image chose not to make their views known to everyone they know on the internet. We no longer have to state our views, but we can show them by images and memes we share on Facebook. It’s a silent action taken by many people, and they could have changed their pictures because it was a silent action; they didn’t have to provide an explanation to it. It’s creating a space of change by means of social media. We’re connecting what happens over social media to television media, and the digital space is impacted based on events in real life.
I thought the post was interesting. Something that stuck out to me was the fact that two posts related to the equality issue on Facebook encouraging people to change their avatar were shared over 70,000 times. It is crazy to think that such a post or some type of news can be spread around Facebook so much and so quickly. It made sense when the blog also said that the reason our media is so spreadable is the fact that we have easy access to direct information. This is why stories and different Facebook or Twitter posts can be re-posted or shared repeatedly. They are easy to access and be seen by all. Another factor that shapes Facebook and Twitter is the fact that people are able to create their own images or memes as the blog mentioned. These images and memes allow people to re-post or share them with their friends. They are another way that news is spread. I thought it was interesting how the equality meme was re-posted so fast and how a wide variety of people were able to see it because of social media networks such as Facebook. It is also amazing that so many people changed their pictures to the equality meme in support of the issue.
I liked how you pointed out what the blog said about "the reason our media is so spreadable is the fact that we have easy access to direct information" because that is 100% true. You can look at someone's profile on Facebook and be able to determine a decent amount of information about the person. Just like the Facebook video we had to watch, it's creepy how much we can tell about a person just by looking at their likes and everything on their Facebook!
I thought this blog post was very interesting because it had to do with something big that was happening right now. It was also cool because all of us can relate to going on Facebook and seeing numerous people change their profile picture to the red equal sign. Like they said in the article, the small gesture of changing your profile picture to the equal rights symbol affected the online space in a big way. Earlier that day before I went online and checked my Facebook or twitter, I had no idea that the Supreme Court was deciding about marriage equality that day. But after going online and seeing everyone change their profile picture, I quickly learned about the issue and got to see how much support it got from the public. Just by scrolling down for a few seconds it seemed that every 5 or 10 people changed their profile picture in support of the issue. It really shaped the space, because for that day, Facebook was not filled with people uploading pictures from the weekend before or making statues complaining about their day, but it was filled with real life issues that people had very strong opinions about. Also, I noticed that by the red equal sign appearing almost everywhere on social media, it gave gay people a safe place to feel comfortable and show their support on an issue that affects them very closely. It created a space that was a mix of people who all had one common goal.
I like how you mentioned that people were joined in communicating about the common issue of gay marriage rights instead of the usual people complaining about their day or uploading weekend pictures (because that gets tiring to see, right?). It's true though, and whether people were expressing their beliefs about why gay marriage should be legal or getting into detailed disagreements with others about the issue, everyone was connected by talking about this issue.
The article does a nice job of explaining the thought behind spreadable social media like the red equals sign. As the article said, nobody was expecting to influence the supreme court by changing their profile picture. But when 70,000 people do something seemingly insignificant, it becomes hard not to notice. So people get curious, I know I did, and like Corbin I asked google what it meant and I found out. Just by doing something as simple and easy as changing their profile picture, people started an enormous movement and got an important issue lots more attention. That's what the internet has done, it has enabled information to spread faster than ever before. So now if you want to support a cause it's as easy as changing your profile picture, or typing your name on a petition on change dot org. The ease at which showing support and becoming a part of something bigger comes is allowing large movements to come to fruition much more easily nowadays.
I agree with you and corning both. These are all true things that you mentioned an really has become a great ordeal to the technology world. I was oblivious as well as you were and had to find out myself.
The changing of profile pictures on Facebook to a red equal sign may not have any affect on the political side of the debate over gay marriage laws, but it definitely has an affect on society and the Facebook community.In Jenkins article last week, he said "Imagine a world where there are two kinds of media power: one comes through media concentration, where any message gains authority simply by being broadcast on network television; the other comes through collective intelligence, where a message gains visibility only if it is deemed relevant to a loose network of diverse publics." The latter of this quote can be seen in the recent marriage equality blast on Facebook. Thousands of people changed their profile pictures to red equal signs in an effort to voice their support of marriage equality in the U.S. The media power (Facebook) gave the message of marriage equality huge visibility because it was "deemed relevant" to the members of Facebook. Our world is changing. No longer do people look solely to the news to hear about issues such as marriage equality, but our reliance on social networking has skyrocketed, with millions of people posting about events, voicing their opinions, or showing their support for different causes. Issues such as marriage equality can find a huge basis for support and/or opposition on social networking sites because of the huge number of users and the ease of the spread of information. We'll see a lot more of this in the future, we're a social networking world now.
Nicolas, I agree that the red equal sign has an affect on society and the facebook community. In our world today, facebook has become an everyday thing for millions of individuals so this media has become very powerful. If only one person were to have changed their profile picture to a red equal sign then nothing would have came from it but since thousands did, it was almost like a social network protest.
I think this article made a great point. Media effects so many things and whether it is changing the supreme courts decision or not it still has made an impact. For myself I know at school I have not been as up to date on big news in our world as I was in high school. But I do think Facebook has brought many events that would be seen in the newspapers to my attention by becoming relevant to others. I think the internet is a great way to see many people view points on different topics but I also see how some people still are limited to what they see. I know I have a few friends on Facebook who are constantly posting political and social views daily and I finally blocked them because it was getting out of hand. However maybe I would know more things happening in the political and social world if I had not done this. In this way I think we control what is being seen on the internet and though others deem it relevant we choose not to acknowledge their view point by blocking them.
I also feel that i am less informed on big up to date news than I was in high school. In high school I would often watch the news with my parents and discuss what was going on. It is nice that with social media we can quickly learn about current news during our busy days.
I really liked looking at this blog because I saw all of the equality signs on Facebook and didn't know all of the background behind it. I knew the basics, but the blog really helped me understand with facts. I thought it was cool that he analyzed his Facebook friends to show us how much media and social media can effect change in the world. I know that I have learned about major events from social media sites, and learned and understood them more quickly than I would have from a newspaper.I agree with Taylor of how it is crazy how information spreads like wild fire on social media networks. I saw so many shared pictures of the equality sign all over my facebook the other day.
I felt the same way at first about seeing all the equal signs on Facebook! I also agree that reading this blog helped me understand the logistics behind the equal signs posted everywhere. It's amazing how much we can learn from looking at social media.
I enjoyed reading this blogpost because I was quite confused when I first started to see all of the red equality sign pictures on Facebook. After I found out that they were pictures to try to spread the support of equal rights, I was still confused as to why this picture had become so popular recently and universally accepted as the dominating picture showing support for equal rights. I found it extremely fascinating how in detail this man went to discover all of the questions he had about the red equality signs he saw on Facebook. When most people are confused, they just type it into Google and ind the result that way. But instead of just simply doing that, he went extremely above and beyond what most people probably did. I find it fascinating how he made sure to go in detail and talk about how and why this equality sign blew up on Facebook the way it did. It just further reinforces the idea that the Internet and social media seems to run the life of many people and continues to be one of the main ways of communication.
I actually kind of forgot about everyone changing their profile pictures on Facebook to the red equal sign, because in the world of social media, the span of a week feels like a month. It felt like it had been so much longer than a week when everyone was changing their profile picture, probably because nobody actually kept it that way for a long time. Just today, I learned about the death of Margaret Thatcher through Twitter, then I proceeded to google it for more information. I learned about Lil' Wayne being in critical condition, and just a year ago the whole KONY2012 issue was a big deal on both Facebook and Twitter. Social media is an odd thing because it really is permanent; once it is on the Internet, it's on there forever. But at the same time, it is temporary. Spaces are created for short periods of time where certain groups are concerned about certain subjects. I haven't seen a single person post about Kony since it was made a huge deal on social media. I think that people are becoming more and more dependent on social media for information; when Lil' Wayne was in critical condition, instead of simply googling the situation, I saw people tweeting "what happened to Lil Wayne?" . Google is right around the corner, but they chose to tweet instead. I found it pretty interesting. It's always nice when people are concerned about social issues, especially the issue of gay marriage, but I hate seeing that people just move on after the fuss is over.
When I first saw people changing their profile pictures on Facebook to the red equal sign I was very confused what it meant and why they were doing it. Without social media I would have had no idea that that was even going on. I feel that social media is how most of us get our news now which is weird to think that people survived without it before and actually knew what was going on in the world. I agree with you when you talk about how social media in a way creates a temporary space. It is there permanently, but large crowds of people only pay attention to it for a certain amount of time until the next big stories comes out, then its on to the next.
I thought that this blog was very interesting. When I saw all of the red equal sign on Facebook I was confused like everyone else, but after reading a few statuses I knew exactly what it was about, without watching the news, or reading an article about it. I think that it's crazy how much information people can obtain from a social networking site like Facebook. When everyone was changing their profile picture I thought that this wouldn't change the supreme courts decision so it's pointless. After reading the blog he makes a good point that although it may not change the supreme court decision it is a social movement and shows that people support marriage equality and that our society has come to accept same sex marriage. I think that it is sad how fast people move on from an issue. I know that a few days after everyone changed their profile picture, I saw no other pictures or statuses about marriage equality. I also think that Facebook makes issues more of a trend instead of what you actually believe in because many people may change their profile picture or status in support of an issue because everyone else is doing it, and in reality they may not be well informed of the issue. This relates to the article last week because it shows how much power the media has in the world today, and how an issue can gain authority and attention by just posting it on a social networking site, such as Facebook.
Just as many of the people above me have stated, when I logged on to Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites, right away I saw the red equal sign. Sometimes it would be the sign itself, or a small caption under it supporting marriage equality. As an advocate for gay marriage and marriage equality and happiness for all, I was very confused at the first sight of this equal sign. I hadn't been up to date with the latest news, and like Roger stated I googled it right away after curiosity. Although I complain about how social media is taking over everyone's lives, it does have its extreme upsides as proven here. Without the help of social media and the thousands of users who simply changed their profile picture to support marriage equality, the Supreme Court may have looked at it differently. The use of social media and the "teaming up" of all of its users can be used for good in that it can gain awareness of other people and take steps to make the cause be acknowledged.
I still see the equal signs as profile pictures on my Facebook, even though this happened a while ago. I never Googled it, I just read what people's statuses were after they changed their picture, or read the comments with the shared photos. I probably could have learned a lot more if I did Google it. I saw hundreds of pictures of the equal sign that day. I think it's kind of crazy how this simple picture has done so much. People have been able to share their opinions about a hot topic, and created a safe place for gay people to go to. They know who will support and stand by them. I didn't even think about that before reading this blog, but I think that is so cool. It is a social movement and let's us know how our friends are feeling about the issue. Although it doesn't affect the outcome, I think it affected society. I feel like social media is getting more and more popular for a way to get updated on new information. The other day everyone was tweeting about Lily Pulitzer dying. That's how I found out about it at least. However, I do agree with everyone else that these topics come and go. After about 2 days the amount of profile pictures with the equal sign went down tremendously. I hope people wouldn't just changed their pictures because it was the "trend." They should only change the pictures if that's what they believe. The article we read last week was about convergence. He made a point and said that people "who are most affluent and most technologically literate becoming the early adapters and other segments of the population struggling to catch up." Especially with Facebook and social media. People without social media may be behind on what's going on.
I agree with you when you talk about how you hope some people didnt only change their profile pictures because its what everyone else was doing. I feel like some people sadly did do that because as the day went on I saw more and more red profile picture changes, but then only a few days later they were gone. It is cool that social media can bring people together for a good cause but if people are only doing it because its "popular" then nothing will actually be changed from it.
in this day an age people are finding things out through Facebook and not the news. The day proposition 8 went before the supreme court my Facebook news feed was filled with pictures of the red equal sign. If it wasn't someone changing their profile picture to it, it was someone sharing the picture on their wall. It an instant my news feed had been taken over by this political debate. People were getting into discussion, which some turned into heated debates and even fights. Facebook is not just a social media site to stay in touch with friends anymore, it is place to share your views on specific issue and converse with others about it. I personally did not know what proposition 8 was until I had all these equal signs on my news feed and decided to google it, so one could say this gained people's awareness and even caught the supreme courts eye. over 70,000 people joined in on this, how crazy. The gay community probably felt very supportive and loved. Even though proposition 8 may have not been passed, it showed America that social media can affect society. Social media is where i find out all the recent news that is going on in the world as sad as that is, i do not watch then news or go on CNN. Social Media is this generations informational center.
I thought that this article was very interesting and it brought my attention to many Facebook trends that I had never noticed before that occur on many people's newsfeed. Even today I am still seeing the Red Equal Sign profile pictures and people are still talking about marriage equality. I never realized that some people were not up to date on what was happening with those signs and didn't know what was happening in the Supreme Court. As soon as I started seeing the signs as profile pictures that morning, I also had those people posting about what was going on and linking to pages about the issue. I always have so many things on my news feed about what is happening in science advances and in politics, and I realized that because my friends and the pages I like on Facebook, I am actually keeping up to date with a lot of things just by checking my Facebook. I think that this is something that is amazing and very cool, when memes and news about significant events make it to social media before the news and people are informed, I think that it is awesome and we have so much new and up to date information at our fingertips. I learn so much about the world through reddit, Facebook, and twitter that I never really need to watch the news or read the newspaper because the same things are being discussed by the people I am friends with or follow or by reading the posts on the front page of reddit. This is something that I think everyone should take advantage of and use these social media sites to not only keep in touch with friends, but also stay informed about the world and what is going on around them.
It is both consoling and worrisome that information can be spread so quickly and efficiently on the internet, Facebook in particular. When news worthy events happen, social media is usually the the thing that informs people first. This is good because large quantities of information can be viewed by us on a daily basis, which can have an affect on our daily lives. However, false information and media propaganda is also rapidly spread on social media providing a negative stream of information that isn't all that helpful. It is the user's job to sift through all the "junk," and read the relavent thing. This isn't always so easy, as people will try to change other people's opinions by starting viral false memes or articles. While there is some negatives, I believe this free exchange of information is mostly a good thing. People will become aware of new government events, supreme court cases, and basic news perhaps not directly, but indirectly. For example, the equal marriage rights meme that everyone has talked about doesn't provide much direct information for observers. The reader must look up and investigate the meaning of the symbol, thus gaining knowledge on the topic.
I have in recent times not been as informed about issues as I used to be. I cannot provide a specific reason as to why this is, it just happened. Although as soon as seeing 60% of my friends on Facebook change their profile picture, I knew something was going on, so I looked into it. I find it truly fascinating how fast information can spread and how powerful social media can be at certain times. A gesture as small as changing your profile picture can have a legislation altering effect. Before the technology, this could have still been done but it would have taken days, weeks, months and not minutes. How long did it take for them to organize the million man march? There is so much power in social media, and so many great uses for it; but I do not take everything I see as the truth no matter how many people post something, I will do further digging to find out what is going on. For example, one day I see hundreds posting Joe Paterno died. And because it was reflected in such large numbers on social media outlets, regular credible news sources such as the Associated Press published the same information. But, as it turns out, they were all a day early and the AP and TV sources had to recant the report.
I found the blog post by Henry Jenkins to be very interesting. I myself was one of the people the night of the first talks of gay marriage in the supreme court was wondering what all of the equal signs were for on a Facebook. Before exploring more post and peoples pictures i simply just Googled about equal signs being profile pictures. I had heard about proposition 8 going in front of the supreme court but i didn't know when it would be and i found out through social media before i did on the news. In the article we read last week by Henry Jenkins he talked about how now we are using our cell phones for more then just communicating with one another and i realize Facebook is just like that. It was started as a way of communicating with one another and staying in touch with college and high school friends. Just like Jenkins described the change in cell phones to now being able to download data from the internet on your phone or being able to play games, Facebook has undergone a similar change. Now you can communicate with friends via instant messager, play games or find out the latest news before the news programs even know about it, or simply share pictures and data with people. We actually just talked about this in my Interactive Media Studies class (IMS)how news is now being broken via social media, a great example of this is the plane that landed in the Hudson river, the news was first broken over twitter with someone tweeting a picture of the plane in the river while they were floating by on a ferry. Technology is changing and allowing people to help take part in the change of laws and regulations and be actively involved in most current of events, its going to be interesting to see what technology changes next in future.
ReplyDeleteIt is really weird but interesting that we are starting to find things that are happening in the world through social media first rather than the news. I usually figure out about famous' people's death through Facebook or twitter before I see any article about it on a news website. It's almost more convenient in a way but it's odd.
DeleteI also thought the blog was interesting. It’s all about the power of clicking to the individual. Henry Jenkins questions in the reading whether the media is out of control or if it is too controlled, and based on the incident with the red equals sign, I think it’s out of control to some extent. It’s come to be something we can’t avoid seeing when one is on Facebook. It’s come down to the power of clicking and spreading an image all over the country. Since the red equals sign image was on social media, the message gained authority due to people clicking around and changing their profile pictures on Facebook and sharing the image. It also gained power due to existing through Internet media and being shown to a diverse audience that are for or against what the particular image represents. By changing profile pictures and sharing images, we are actively participating in society and culture change, and it makes people socially connected on a cultural issue through the media. It probably sparked more discussions than we’re aware of. After seeing a few friends change their profile pictures to that image, I began to realize that this is the new trend and it’ll be off most people’s profile pictures in a month or so, and it’ll be out of the mainstream and we won’t see it anymore, and for that reason, I wondered how many people changed their picture due to everyone else changing theirs and because it was the thing to do. There’s a cultural force that made people act on that picture. And what about the people that don’t change their picture or share the picture, are they against it? Jenkins featured Matt Stempeck’s comments and that changing one’s profile picture “clearly establishes what side you are on in a cultural debate” and maybe those that didn’t interact with the image chose not to make their views known to everyone they know on the internet. We no longer have to state our views, but we can show them by images and memes we share on Facebook. It’s a silent action taken by many people, and they could have changed their pictures because it was a silent action; they didn’t have to provide an explanation to it. It’s creating a space of change by means of social media. We’re connecting what happens over social media to television media, and the digital space is impacted based on events in real life.
ReplyDeleteI thought the post was interesting. Something that stuck out to me was the fact that two posts related to the equality issue on Facebook encouraging people to change their avatar were shared over 70,000 times. It is crazy to think that such a post or some type of news can be spread around Facebook so much and so quickly. It made sense when the blog also said that the reason our media is so spreadable is the fact that we have easy access to direct information. This is why stories and different Facebook or Twitter posts can be re-posted or shared repeatedly. They are easy to access and be seen by all. Another factor that shapes Facebook and Twitter is the fact that people are able to create their own images or memes as the blog mentioned. These images and memes allow people to re-post or share them with their friends. They are another way that news is spread. I thought it was interesting how the equality meme was re-posted so fast and how a wide variety of people were able to see it because of social media networks such as Facebook. It is also amazing that so many people changed their pictures to the equality meme in support of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you pointed out what the blog said about "the reason our media is so spreadable is the fact that we have easy access to direct information" because that is 100% true. You can look at someone's profile on Facebook and be able to determine a decent amount of information about the person. Just like the Facebook video we had to watch, it's creepy how much we can tell about a person just by looking at their likes and everything on their Facebook!
DeleteI thought this blog post was very interesting because it had to do with something big that was happening right now. It was also cool because all of us can relate to going on Facebook and seeing numerous people change their profile picture to the red equal sign. Like they said in the article, the small gesture of changing your profile picture to the equal rights symbol affected the online space in a big way. Earlier that day before I went online and checked my Facebook or twitter, I had no idea that the Supreme Court was deciding about marriage equality that day. But after going online and seeing everyone change their profile picture, I quickly learned about the issue and got to see how much support it got from the public. Just by scrolling down for a few seconds it seemed that every 5 or 10 people changed their profile picture in support of the issue. It really shaped the space, because for that day, Facebook was not filled with people uploading pictures from the weekend before or making statues complaining about their day, but it was filled with real life issues that people had very strong opinions about. Also, I noticed that by the red equal sign appearing almost everywhere on social media, it gave gay people a safe place to feel comfortable and show their support on an issue that affects them very closely. It created a space that was a mix of people who all had one common goal.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that people were joined in communicating about the common issue of gay marriage rights instead of the usual people complaining about their day or uploading weekend pictures (because that gets tiring to see, right?). It's true though, and whether people were expressing their beliefs about why gay marriage should be legal or getting into detailed disagreements with others about the issue, everyone was connected by talking about this issue.
DeleteThe article does a nice job of explaining the thought behind spreadable social media like the red equals sign. As the article said, nobody was expecting to influence the supreme court by changing their profile picture. But when 70,000 people do something seemingly insignificant, it becomes hard not to notice. So people get curious, I know I did, and like Corbin I asked google what it meant and I found out. Just by doing something as simple and easy as changing their profile picture, people started an enormous movement and got an important issue lots more attention. That's what the internet has done, it has enabled information to spread faster than ever before. So now if you want to support a cause it's as easy as changing your profile picture, or typing your name on a petition on change dot org. The ease at which showing support and becoming a part of something bigger comes is allowing large movements to come to fruition much more easily nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and corning both. These are all true things that you mentioned an really has become a great ordeal to the technology world. I was oblivious as well as you were and had to find out myself.
DeleteThe changing of profile pictures on Facebook to a red equal sign may not have any affect on the political side of the debate over gay marriage laws, but it definitely has an affect on society and the Facebook community.In Jenkins article last week, he said "Imagine a world where there are two kinds of media power: one comes through media concentration, where any message gains authority simply by being broadcast on network television; the other comes through collective intelligence, where a message gains visibility only if it is deemed relevant to a loose network of diverse publics." The latter of this quote can be seen in the recent marriage equality blast on Facebook. Thousands of people changed their profile pictures to red equal signs in an effort to voice their support of marriage equality in the U.S. The media power (Facebook) gave the message of marriage equality huge visibility because it was "deemed relevant" to the members of Facebook. Our world is changing. No longer do people look solely to the news to hear about issues such as marriage equality, but our reliance on social networking has skyrocketed, with millions of people posting about events, voicing their opinions, or showing their support for different causes. Issues such as marriage equality can find a huge basis for support and/or opposition on social networking sites because of the huge number of users and the ease of the spread of information. We'll see a lot more of this in the future, we're a social networking world now.
ReplyDeleteNicolas, I agree that the red equal sign has an affect on society and the facebook community. In our world today, facebook has become an everyday thing for millions of individuals so this media has become very powerful. If only one person were to have changed their profile picture to a red equal sign then nothing would have came from it but since thousands did, it was almost like a social network protest.
DeleteI think this article made a great point. Media effects so many things and whether it is changing the supreme courts decision or not it still has made an impact. For myself I know at school I have not been as up to date on big news in our world as I was in high school. But I do think Facebook has brought many events that would be seen in the newspapers to my attention by becoming relevant to others. I think the internet is a great way to see many people view points on different topics but I also see how some people still are limited to what they see. I know I have a few friends on Facebook who are constantly posting political and social views daily and I finally blocked them because it was getting out of hand. However maybe I would know more things happening in the political and social world if I had not done this. In this way I think we control what is being seen on the internet and though others deem it relevant we choose not to acknowledge their view point by blocking them.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that i am less informed on big up to date news than I was in high school. In high school I would often watch the news with my parents and discuss what was going on. It is nice that with social media we can quickly learn about current news during our busy days.
DeleteI really liked looking at this blog because I saw all of the equality signs on Facebook and didn't know all of the background behind it. I knew the basics, but the blog really helped me understand with facts. I thought it was cool that he analyzed his Facebook friends to show us how much media and social media can effect change in the world. I know that I have learned about major events from social media sites, and learned and understood them more quickly than I would have from a newspaper.I agree with Taylor of how it is crazy how information spreads like wild fire on social media networks. I saw so many shared pictures of the equality sign all over my facebook the other day.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way at first about seeing all the equal signs on Facebook! I also agree that reading this blog helped me understand the logistics behind the equal signs posted everywhere. It's amazing how much we can learn from looking at social media.
DeleteI enjoyed reading this blogpost because I was quite confused when I first started to see all of the red equality sign pictures on Facebook. After I found out that they were pictures to try to spread the support of equal rights, I was still confused as to why this picture had become so popular recently and universally accepted as the dominating picture showing support for equal rights. I found it extremely fascinating how in detail this man went to discover all of the questions he had about the red equality signs he saw on Facebook. When most people are confused, they just type it into Google and ind the result that way. But instead of just simply doing that, he went extremely above and beyond what most people probably did. I find it fascinating how he made sure to go in detail and talk about how and why this equality sign blew up on Facebook the way it did. It just further reinforces the idea that the Internet and social media seems to run the life of many people and continues to be one of the main ways of communication.
ReplyDeleteI actually kind of forgot about everyone changing their profile pictures on Facebook to the red equal sign, because in the world of social media, the span of a week feels like a month. It felt like it had been so much longer than a week when everyone was changing their profile picture, probably because nobody actually kept it that way for a long time. Just today, I learned about the death of Margaret Thatcher through Twitter, then I proceeded to google it for more information. I learned about Lil' Wayne being in critical condition, and just a year ago the whole KONY2012 issue was a big deal on both Facebook and Twitter. Social media is an odd thing because it really is permanent; once it is on the Internet, it's on there forever. But at the same time, it is temporary. Spaces are created for short periods of time where certain groups are concerned about certain subjects. I haven't seen a single person post about Kony since it was made a huge deal on social media. I think that people are becoming more and more dependent on social media for information; when Lil' Wayne was in critical condition, instead of simply googling the situation, I saw people tweeting "what happened to Lil Wayne?" . Google is right around the corner, but they chose to tweet instead. I found it pretty interesting. It's always nice when people are concerned about social issues, especially the issue of gay marriage, but I hate seeing that people just move on after the fuss is over.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw people changing their profile pictures on Facebook to the red equal sign I was very confused what it meant and why they were doing it. Without social media I would have had no idea that that was even going on. I feel that social media is how most of us get our news now which is weird to think that people survived without it before and actually knew what was going on in the world. I agree with you when you talk about how social media in a way creates a temporary space. It is there permanently, but large crowds of people only pay attention to it for a certain amount of time until the next big stories comes out, then its on to the next.
DeleteI thought that this blog was very interesting. When I saw all of the red equal sign on Facebook I was confused like everyone else, but after reading a few statuses I knew exactly what it was about, without watching the news, or reading an article about it. I think that it's crazy how much information people can obtain from a social networking site like Facebook. When everyone was changing their profile picture I thought that this wouldn't change the supreme courts decision so it's pointless. After reading the blog he makes a good point that although it may not change the supreme court decision it is a social movement and shows that people support marriage equality and that our society has come to accept same sex marriage. I think that it is sad how fast people move on from an issue. I know that a few days after everyone changed their profile picture, I saw no other pictures or statuses about marriage equality. I also think that Facebook makes issues more of a trend instead of what you actually believe in because many people may change their profile picture or status in support of an issue because everyone else is doing it, and in reality they may not be well informed of the issue. This relates to the article last week because it shows how much power the media has in the world today, and how an issue can gain authority and attention by just posting it on a social networking site, such as Facebook.
ReplyDeleteJust as many of the people above me have stated, when I logged on to Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites, right away I saw the red equal sign. Sometimes it would be the sign itself, or a small caption under it supporting marriage equality. As an advocate for gay marriage and marriage equality and happiness for all, I was very confused at the first sight of this equal sign. I hadn't been up to date with the latest news, and like Roger stated I googled it right away after curiosity. Although I complain about how social media is taking over everyone's lives, it does have its extreme upsides as proven here. Without the help of social media and the thousands of users who simply changed their profile picture to support marriage equality, the Supreme Court may have looked at it differently. The use of social media and the "teaming up" of all of its users can be used for good in that it can gain awareness of other people and take steps to make the cause be acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteI still see the equal signs as profile pictures on my Facebook, even though this happened a while ago. I never Googled it, I just read what people's statuses were after they changed their picture, or read the comments with the shared photos. I probably could have learned a lot more if I did Google it. I saw hundreds of pictures of the equal sign that day. I think it's kind of crazy how this simple picture has done so much. People have been able to share their opinions about a hot topic, and created a safe place for gay people to go to. They know who will support and stand by them. I didn't even think about that before reading this blog, but I think that is so cool. It is a social movement and let's us know how our friends are feeling about the issue. Although it doesn't affect the outcome, I think it affected society. I feel like social media is getting more and more popular for a way to get updated on new information. The other day everyone was tweeting about Lily Pulitzer dying. That's how I found out about it at least. However, I do agree with everyone else that these topics come and go. After about 2 days the amount of profile pictures with the equal sign went down tremendously. I hope people wouldn't just changed their pictures because it was the "trend." They should only change the pictures if that's what they believe. The article we read last week was about convergence. He made a point and said that people "who are most affluent and most technologically literate becoming the early adapters and other segments of the population struggling to catch up." Especially with Facebook and social media. People without social media may be behind on what's going on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you talk about how you hope some people didnt only change their profile pictures because its what everyone else was doing. I feel like some people sadly did do that because as the day went on I saw more and more red profile picture changes, but then only a few days later they were gone. It is cool that social media can bring people together for a good cause but if people are only doing it because its "popular" then nothing will actually be changed from it.
Deletein this day an age people are finding things out through Facebook and not the news. The day proposition 8 went before the supreme court my Facebook news feed was filled with pictures of the red equal sign. If it wasn't someone changing their profile picture to it, it was someone sharing the picture on their wall. It an instant my news feed had been taken over by this political debate. People were getting into discussion, which some turned into heated debates and even fights. Facebook is not just a social media site to stay in touch with friends anymore, it is place to share your views on specific issue and converse with others about it. I personally did not know what proposition 8 was until I had all these equal signs on my news feed and decided to google it, so one could say this gained people's awareness and even caught the supreme courts eye. over 70,000 people joined in on this, how crazy. The gay community probably felt very supportive and loved. Even though proposition 8 may have not been passed, it showed America that social media can affect society. Social media is where i find out all the recent news that is going on in the world as sad as that is, i do not watch then news or go on CNN. Social Media is this generations informational center.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this article was very interesting and it brought my attention to many Facebook trends that I had never noticed before that occur on many people's newsfeed. Even today I am still seeing the Red Equal Sign profile pictures and people are still talking about marriage equality. I never realized that some people were not up to date on what was happening with those signs and didn't know what was happening in the Supreme Court. As soon as I started seeing the signs as profile pictures that morning, I also had those people posting about what was going on and linking to pages about the issue. I always have so many things on my news feed about what is happening in science advances and in politics, and I realized that because my friends and the pages I like on Facebook, I am actually keeping up to date with a lot of things just by checking my Facebook. I think that this is something that is amazing and very cool, when memes and news about significant events make it to social media before the news and people are informed, I think that it is awesome and we have so much new and up to date information at our fingertips. I learn so much about the world through reddit, Facebook, and twitter that I never really need to watch the news or read the newspaper because the same things are being discussed by the people I am friends with or follow or by reading the posts on the front page of reddit. This is something that I think everyone should take advantage of and use these social media sites to not only keep in touch with friends, but also stay informed about the world and what is going on around them.
ReplyDeleteIt is both consoling and worrisome that information can be spread so quickly and efficiently on the internet, Facebook in particular. When news worthy events happen, social media is usually the the thing that informs people first. This is good because large quantities of information can be viewed by us on a daily basis, which can have an affect on our daily lives. However, false information and media propaganda is also rapidly spread on social media providing a negative stream of information that isn't all that helpful. It is the user's job to sift through all the "junk," and read the relavent thing. This isn't always so easy, as people will try to change other people's opinions by starting viral false memes or articles. While there is some negatives, I believe this free exchange of information is mostly a good thing. People will become aware of new government events, supreme court cases, and basic news perhaps not directly, but indirectly. For example, the equal marriage rights meme that everyone has talked about doesn't provide much direct information for observers. The reader must look up and investigate the meaning of the symbol, thus gaining knowledge on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI have in recent times not been as informed about issues as I used to be. I cannot provide a specific reason as to why this is, it just happened. Although as soon as seeing 60% of my friends on Facebook change their profile picture, I knew something was going on, so I looked into it. I find it truly fascinating how fast information can spread and how powerful social media can be at certain times. A gesture as small as changing your profile picture can have a legislation altering effect. Before the technology, this could have still been done but it would have taken days, weeks, months and not minutes. How long did it take for them to organize the million man march? There is so much power in social media, and so many great uses for it; but I do not take everything I see as the truth no matter how many people post something, I will do further digging to find out what is going on. For example, one day I see hundreds posting Joe Paterno died. And because it was reflected in such large numbers on social media outlets, regular credible news sources such as the Associated Press published the same information. But, as it turns out, they were all a day early and the AP and TV sources had to recant the report.
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