Category: Media Shares

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X

I once read a book on social media addiction called the power of habit. It was about how we can use our brains to become addicted to something. The book really reminded me of Dayna Tortorioi’s “My Instagram”. The power of habit was written by Charles Duhigg, and he is one of the most influential people in psychology. The book talks about how habits are formed through repetition. In this book, he talks about how you can learn to be more disciplined when you’re trying to become more disciplined. He also talks about how you can get rid of your bad habits if you want them to go away. As we know Instagram can be very addicting because of all the unrealistic lives and edited pictures that influencers post created a low self esteem for others who now feel embarrassed to post something that will probably be nowhere near that. I think it’s important to understand what makes us addicted and why we need to change our behavior.

After reading Dayna Tortorici’s My Instagram where she discusses her gradual addiction and dependence on the Instagram app, the idea of Skynet and how it affects those in the Terminator universe popped into my head. It’s weirdly similar how her problems with identity dependence due to app addiction mirrors the same dependence on technology that allowed Skynet to become the technological behemoth that John Connor faces in the future.

When Tortorici was detailing how drastically her life changed because of technology, the only thing that clicked in my head was how the Terminator universe was forever changed when Skynet became self-aware and nuked the world to hell. The magnitudes of these two events aren’t nearly the same, but stripped down to the bone, these events aren’t really different at all. Life for both Tortorici and 3 billion people were changed due to technology, and that’s as clear as the comparison gets. Tortorici’s dependence on the app led her to experiencing Instagram subcultures, life changes and made her see how different life is being shown in order to cater to Instagram audiences, while humanity’s dependence on computer systems led to the near-destruction of their world and species, and made them have to fight for their very lives and future.

It’s also really interesting and a bit scary how the trackers in Instagram and other similar media like Facebook view photos and human lives the way Terminators view their surroundings. Instagram image recognizing data is listed in basic detail such as “1 person, smiling, text”, and  “night, sky, outdoor”… that’s SERIOUSLY and creepily close to the way Terminator data is shown to be processed as depicted in the movies: “Scan Mode: Analysis Complete. Fit Match: 100%”, “Target Acquired. Analysis: Series 1000 Terminator Prototype”.  It makes you wonder what would happen in real life if we developed our technology sufficiently enough to be close to Skynet. Are we capable of such feats? Should we even attempt to try? The way technology is advancing nowadays really makes you wonder if the science fiction books about technology leading to conflict are really just science fiction…

https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/%3famp=true  

I chose this article for this weeks media share because it relates to Dayna Tortorici’s “My instagram.”As fun as Instagram is, its a very toxic place and can affect your mental health and wellbeing. These posts your constantly seeing can set unrealistic expectations and create feelings of low self-esteem, you might not feel like its doing anything but if your constantly on instagram and following these influencers, eventually it will get you thinking that there better than you and that there life is so called “perfect” but in reality thats not the case. In this weeks reading, we can slowly see how instagram affected her. When she first started using instagram, she thought it was innocent and she only followed people she knew but after awhile she began following fitness gurus and other influencers that posted unrealistic and edited photos and this ultimately made her self-conscious about herself. It states “I wish I could say I watched this all from a cool, critical distance. In truth, my self-image began to prune from swimming so long in the sea of fitstagram. I spent too much time at the gym and worried about my forward head position—an affliction common to people who spend too much time on their phones. My Explore page, which drives users via algorithm toward content similar to what they’ve seen or liked, became a mosaic of increasingly extreme exercisers. Looking at competitive bodybuilders, I caught myself thinking they didn’t look all that weird. This is how dysmorphia works, I thought; the algorithm only encourages it, nudging you toward extremity.”This quotes demonstrates the negative impact on instagram and how it can affected her, she proably never knew following these fitness gurus would affect her that much but sadly it did and this happens to majority of us who are on social media.

For my intro, I want to use this song ‘Brave’ by Sara Bareilles. I choose this song because it gives me strength to move on in  life. Whenever I feel that I can’t do anything anymore or I give up I listened this song. It always makes me feel better and believe in myself that I can do. One of the line “Say  what you wanna say and let the words fall” is my favorite because it encouraging the openness and fostering the communication. I see people who want to say something but they feel shy and keep that inside, So, I think we should being more open. Overall this song tried to show that we can be anything we want in our life. We just need to be brave and shouldn’t give up no matter how the hard situation is.

For my second Media Share I chose this artpeice that made me think about Chu’s text. The artpiece is of a girl being tied up with wires. The way I interperted this was that this girl is trapped and doesnt look happy at all. This reminded me of Chu’s text because she explained how even after her bottom surgery, she wasn’t satisfied or happy. It states “The truth was, I didnt feel any more like a women. I felt exactly the same.” This quote demonstrates that even with the surgery, she doesnt feel anything different about herself. The artpeice correlates to this text because the girl in the picture looks depressed and distraught.

For my first Media Shares I chose this song because of how meaningful it is to me and how it helps me calm down when i’m going through something difficult. The song might not have a deep message but the way it sounds and her voice really makes it sound beautiful and peaceful in my opinion. When I first listened to this song, I was going through something that really bothered me and as corny as it sounds listening to the song made my problems go away. The song made me forget about the things I was stressing about and it really helped me overcome those difficult times.

After reading the pink by Andrea chu, I noticed that She was explaining her personal experience as  being a transgender. She explained the idea of feminism and what being feminism mean in a society. She was talking about the history of transgender that how they changed the feminist movement and what difficulties they faced. They are not appreciated by people. Chu also faced many difficulties in her way. But finally she succeed in what she wanted. The one thing that surprised me was that after transition she didn’t feel like women but still she was not regretting or sad. Even though she was happy with it.
I want to share this photo because it connects with chu’s text that how transgender faced difficulties. They are disrespected by our society. People say everyone is equal but somehow they still discriminated in our community.

After reading Andrea Chu’s “The pink”, I saw Chu share the experience after                                     her gender transformation. She said, “IT IS DIFFICULT to explain why I wanted a vagina. There were technical concerns: tucking is a major inconvenience, and often has to be redone each time you stand up.” In her piece, she uses sensational language that feeds the lurid interest in trans people’s bodies at the expense of our rights and privacy. And in arguing for her right to transition no matter her uncertainty at the outcome, she largely ignores what we do know about the outcomes of transition for most people. I want to share this piece of art work by FUELADREAM in India . This art represent the cubist impressions, reflecting her struggles and emotions as a transgender.