{"id":758,"date":"2016-10-13T14:48:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=758"},"modified":"2016-10-13T14:48:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:48:31","slug":"ftv-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0E-Mail? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0It is pretty much a necessity in my main job and my side gig as the manager of WOAS-FM. \u00a0Twitter? \u00a0Nope. \u00a0I don\u2019t Twitter. \u00a0As for (feel free to insert any social media outlet of your choice here), I don\u2019t do that (or them) either. \u00a0I do get sucked into watching music videos on YouTube and I do look at a lot of music based websites. I signed up for Facebook and lasted less than a half a day. \u00a0I thought that with so many bands posting new music online that it would be a good way to keep up on new music trends. \u00a0Not understanding the whole \u2018liking\u2019 business, \u00a0my new found friends suddenly inundated with earth shaking announcements like \u201cI have planted twenty acres of beets in my virtual farm\u201d and \u201cI made a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch\u201d. \u00a0What? \u00a0It was not worth the hours I would have needed to keep up with all of this gossipy stuff just to mine the music information I could find elsewhere without being bombarded with these kinds of messages. \u00a0I won\u2019t even go into my thoughts on the whole Pokemon Go thing. \u00a0I will confess to even liking to take walks without earbuds shoved in my ears. \u00a0I happen to LIKE listening to the real world in real time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I am not allergic to new technology, but being an old goat, when I send my students to do research via computer lab or Chromebook, \u00a0I \u00a0insist that they also in corporate some form of old fashioned, written resources. \u00a0Among the other torture devices used in my classes for current events is that dinosaur of the information age, the NEWSPAPER. \u00a0\u00a0After the whining is over (\u201cWhy do we have to use an encyclopedia?\u201d \u201cNobody reads newspapers any more,\u201d) \u00a0I give them a few reasons why they must be fluent gathering information using sources that are not just sound bites (bytes?) or video clips. \u00a0The attention span of the user is a topic that comes up in my discussion points often. \u00a0I recently found this item in the Marquette Mining Journal. \u00a0It parallels my thoughts on the matter and \u00a0I could not agree with it more:<\/span><\/p>\n

Marquette\u2019s new UFO landing strip is a good idea<\/b><\/p>\n

(A Marquette Mining Journal editorial)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just checking. \u00a0There is, of course, no UFO landing strip , and possibly no UFOs – \u00a0but that is fodder for another editorial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What we really wanted to see is if anyone intended on reading past the headline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 2014, a study by the Media Insight Project found that 41 percent of Americans had watched, read, or heard any in-depth news stories – beyond the headlines – in the past week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, in other words, the majority of Americans don\u2019t read past the headline. \u00a0We get it. \u00a0You\u2019re busy. \u00a0Spending 10 or more minutes with an article is asking a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But, how much information can you get from a headline? \u00a0A candidate\u2019s name? \u00a0That city council has decided to do something?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And, oh boy, let\u2019s not get into the really complicated issues, like the U.P.\u2019s complex energy challenges. \u00a0I mean, as long as we know the U.P. has elaborate power issues, is it important also to know what they are? \u00a0Perhaps only if we want to find a workable solution. \u00a0Knowing – and understanding – what\u2019s happening in our community and the world around us is important because it impacts our way of life. \u00a0How can we go about solving problems if we don\u2019t know what they are? \u00a0How can we affect change if we don\u2019t understand the issue?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How can we responsibly elect officials we know nothing about?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The alarming aspect of headline-only readers is this appears to carry over to social media as well, where people continue to share stories that are not factual. \u00a0Users might see something interesting in their newsfeed and simply click share without ever reading the story they\u2019ve just played a part in disseminating to others.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Suddenly, otherwise false information is factual and hundreds, thousands or even millions now believe it to be true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just like you can\u2019t judge a book by its cover, you also can not make a snap conclusion from a headline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But of course, you know this – you finished reading this editorial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Please, spread the word – and share that on social media. \u00a0<\/span>MMJ<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another concept I like to reinforce is the sheer volume of material that we can now access at the click of the mouse or the tap of the track pad. \u00a0A couple of minutes ago, I did a quick Google search under \u201cGreen Bay Packers\u201d. \u00a0How quick was it? \u00a0In a mere .42 seconds (not 42 seconds, mind you, .42 seconds). \u00a0\u00a0Google returned 33,400,000 hits relating to the Green Bay Packers. \u00a0Over thirty three MILLION. \u00a0If one were to try and open just one of these sites every second it would take 386.5 days to open them all. \u00a0Now imagine taking five minutes to scan each site for content. \u00a0All of this information is totally useless if we don\u2019t develop the mental filter needed to sort through what is useful and what is not. \u00a0The annoying \u201calso see\u201d pop ups add to the \u201cattention span of the user\u201d discussion thereby putting the time management thing even further off track.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Will social media go away? \u00a0Other harbingers of doom (ie: \u00a0the telegraph. \u00a0telephone, cable TV and the Sony Walkman for example) did not go away nor did they kill off the human race as the most dire projections predicted. \u00a0Will our thumbs evolve to the point that the human arm will resemble stubby little T-Rex limbs with only one large and 4 smaller digits? \u00a0Will we ignore addiction to social media with the same blandness we take toward those afflicted with gambling addiction? \u00a0Some scoff when I refer to people having a social media addiction, but the symptoms are there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHi. \u00a0My name is Ken. \u00a0I am a newspaperholic. \u00a0I love reading the newspaper. \u00a0I get two daily papers and a weekly. \u00a0I am addicted to newspapers.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0How is this different than social media addiction? \u00a0While I am addicted to reading a paper every day, there are times when I don\u2019t get to them until the next day. \u00a0When the paper arrives in my mailbox, I don\u2019t drop everything I am doing to start reading it. \u00a0The next time you hear a cell phone ring (another annoyance that we will ignore for now), watch the person scramble to check out the message they just received. \u00a0My seatmate on a flight from Eugene, OR to San Francisco, CA nearly had a stroke because my phone buzzed just as I was shutting it down before our flight left Mallon Sweet Field in Eugene: \u201cAren\u2019t you going to look at that?\u201d she inquired. \u00a0\u201cNope, it will wait until we land in San Fran.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0She persisted: \u00a0\u201cIt might be important!\u201d \u00a0\u201cProbably not,\u201d I replied as she got more and more agitated at the thought of an orphan message sitting in cyberspace unread. \u00a0She is a social media addicted person. \u00a0As we landed in San Francisco, she was firing up her own phone before they actually announced it was okay to do so. \u00a0I teased her by taking my phone out of my pocket. \u00a0I turned it on, then put it back in my pocket but by then her thumbs were flying and she was getting her social media fix and oblivious to what I was doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People were concerned when computers were first introduced for general school use. \u00a0Sure, there were some abuses encountered as the system was upgraded and use patterns evolved. \u00a0Like the ballpoint pen, typewriter, and calculator before it, the computer was slowly accepted as an educational tool. \u00a0Will personal social media devices share a similar evolution? \u00a0It is hard to say. Give me another twenty years to study the problem and then we can compare notes. I am not traveling right now, so if you text me and don\u2019t get an answer, e-mail or call me instead. \u00a0I won\u2019t be turning on my phone again until my next trip out of town.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – Old goats like me like old school communications – thus the Tornado’s TELSTAR!