Author: Jason Barrios

K- I know that social media is relatively new compared to our history. It has only been around since the 2000’s. It was made to connect with friends and family via means online. It can be helpful to connect with people you haven’t spoken to in years and can help you see new things that you usually don’t see. I also know it’s very accessible and open and anyone can sign up for it. It’s good for spreading a message across to a broader audience.

W- I want to know what was the exact reason social media was created? By whom and what was their end goal? Did they know it was going to end up the way it ended up today. Did they have a predetermined agenda?

L- The first social network platform was created in 1997 and it was called “Six Degrees”. It was created so you could send messages to your friends and so you can create a list of your connections. It was founded by Andrew Weinreich and it didn’t have a preset agenda. The first largest platform which was adopted by many users was Facebook created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. It’s original agenda was to connect Harvard students with one another. Over a thousand people registered in the first day and it was a hit. Some would say it was a start of addictive behavior online. You could share videos, and instantly message your friends as well and meet new people.

Still want to know – I want to know what the long term affects of social media are. Also I want to learn how it got created and why were they created according to the developer of them.

My research question will be to see if social media has had any negative or positive impacts to society. Additionally, I will see if it has caused more isolation in people especially since 2020, or has it bringing people together more than ever before? I am interested in this question because everyone including myself has a cellphone with social media installed onto it, and we spend countless hours on it. My sister and I usually like to spend time on social media after a long day, as I’m sure a lot of people do. TV isn’t really a thing anymore, because were all on our cellphones. I expect to find multiple results in my research, ranging from yes, its beneficial, to no its bad for our social development. Also, a lot of businesses leverage social media to get new followers and get a broader outreach than they usually can. I believe that it has its positives and negatives which can outweigh each other depending on how you look at it. Overall, I think it’s positive if you use it in moderation and it’s just the way the world is progressing, as we saw all these different technologies progress. It can help us connect with people we didn’t know, or keep in contact with family which is far and see what they’ve been up too. If I find information that is other than what I expected to find, it will be okay since I am keeping an open mind while researching the topic. I know social media can be addictive and can even destroy some people’s lives in the long and short term. It will open me up to more exact scenarios where it shows me social media isn’t good. We also must remember that social media is only ~10 years old and is rapidly evolving. I believe that social media has also shortened our attention span. We went from consuming content that is hours long to only 10 seconds or shorter. Kids that are born today, are essentially engrained with social media which I don’t believe is positive at all. When I was a kid, I wasn’t on social media, so I grew up a little different even though I was born when technology was around. I also expect to find sources that have done research on this topic in a wider population. I will evaluate the data and see where it came from and who did the research. I believe this is important in creating a conclusion on my initial question.

Education narratives are an interesting section of writing. They can be fun to write, but hard to keep the reader engaged but with applying techniques you can make it smooth. It can teach a lesson in life or give you knowledge to apply in your life. You want to start with a background to the writing, such as a story that happened in your life to make it relatable and hook the reader. While writing this, you want to make sure your story is arranged in a logical sense with a beginning and end, and always remember your audience. A concern I have for myself is getting my hook right, I feel like they’re not usually good enough or lack luster. A good place to start for your writing would be referencing media or a news story that’s going on so people can understand. Also I feel like I can create a lot of run on sentences without knowing. I want to get better at writing so I know how to carry myself when writing papers and researching things. An educational experience that I had to go through was in high school, where I learnt that being yourself is the best you. You don’t have to act a certain way to stand out. Being your true self is the best way to put yourself out there and being honest is key.