Choosing to study abroad in Barcelona was definitely a step out of my comfort zone. While transitioning from life in America to life in Spain, having social media was definitely a positive experience. The language barrier, for example, is one of the many obstacles that I was faced with as I moved to Spain. Not being able to speak with people in my native language made it hard for me to navigate my way through the city. Doing activities such as ordering food at restaurants, shopping at clothing stores, telling taxi drivers where to go, asking for directions, and simply communicating with the locals were all difficult upon my arrival as I did not know any Spanish or Catalan. Being able to go on my phone and use applications such as google maps, uber, food delivery, and google translate helped greatly with this challenge. Through the use of social media apps I was able to use my native language of English to help me feel more comfortable in my surroundings of Spanish speaking individuals. Another obstacle I faced while coming to Barcelona was being away from my family and friends that are back home in America. Luckily, I traveled here with 4 of my best friends from Syracuse University which made moving here easier for me, however, I still faced the challenge of missing my friends and family who were not here. The FaceTime application on the phone is perfect for curing the homesick feeling that occurs sometimes. With the press of one button, you are able to see your friends and family and communicate with them as if they are truly with you. This feature was extremely helpful during the time I lived in Barcelona. I am extremely close with my family, and therefore am happy that there is a way for me to see them and keep in contact with them while I am in Spain. I believe that since technology has grown to be so powerful over everything we do it is easy for us to be used to having these featured. For example, when choosing to come to Barcelona I never thought of feeling homesick of worrying about missing my friends and family because I am aware that I have easy access to communicate with them at all times through my cellular device, social media, the internet, and all other technology resources. We have grown so accustomed to using media that it has become second nature for us. Even though we have easy access to communicating with people from all over the world just with our fingertips, I also believe that we should remember to put our phones down, disconnect from the internet and live in the moment. We are digital natives, which means that we grew up with the use of technology, constantly being surrounded by computers and phones and having access to social media. Digital natives take advantage of the use of media and therefore, use these apps such as FaceTime, WhatsApp, and messaging forums in order to feel less lonely while abroad. I personally enjoy having the option of communicating with my parents and being able to call and see them. It made the transition to living in a foreign city more smooth. On the other hand, I believe that this experience is a personal journey that one should achieve on their own without the input of constant social media. Living abroad is a once in a lifetime opportunity and should not be wasted by spending the whole time on social media. While it helps with the feeling of homesickness, one should not live their whole life looking down on their phone. Digital natives need to learn how to look up more often and pay attention to life outside of their social media. Being able to disconnect from the internet and appreciate the now is an important aspect of life. Overall, there are days where I am thankful I was able to go on social media and keep up to date with what people at home were doing and also people here. Social media is a good way to stay connected to people all over the world. Facebook, one of the biggest social media platforms, mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. That statement in itself proves that social media is meant to connect people in the world with one another. So, while embarking on my journey to Barcelona, I was able to take advantage of the power that is given to me by social media platforms and stay in touch with people from everywhere no matter where I am in the world. This power gave me a satisfying feeling and was a positive impact on my experience in Barcelona. While living in Barcelona, I was also able to disconnect from social media and get to know my neighborhood, explore the city, and be present with my friends with the absence of social media. A balance between the two is a healthy way to live I believe. Staying in contact with my family was definitely necessary for me as I lived here, however, being able to embrace the city fully without distractions of social media also was necessary. I use my phone to take pictures to capture memories that I can look back on and always remember my time here in Barcelona. Social media is also good for this because without the use of instagram, snapchat, and facebook I would not have as many memories as I do now. I love going on instagram and seeing the pictures I took while in Spain and being able to share those memories with my friends and family back home is exciting. With every picture comes a story and memory that I experienced here, which are all special to me. Social media allows us to feel connected to people even when they are miles and miles away. There are many benefits of social media that I took advantage of while I was living in Barcelona.

It’s not too far-fetched from the world we live in now. Just imagine if you combine your Uber rating with the amount of likes you got on instagram / facebook. Now imagine that that singular rating determined everything about your life, from where you worked to the home you were eligible to live in. That is what the society in “nosedive” is equivalent to. Study after study has found that when we engage with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, we may feel a temporary boost from likes or favorites, but there’s absolutely no link between social media use and long-term happiness. Some research suggests the opposite, in fact: that social media use is linked with an increase in negative feelings. A study of young US adults sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health found a “strong and significant association between social media use and depression.” Participants’ depression levels, the researchers found, increased alongside the total amount of time spent using social media and the number of weekly visits to social media platforms.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/da.22466

The social ranking system leads people to doing things that will better their rating, not things that will genuinely make them happy. Therefore, they live in a society where high ratings should mean that one’s life is perfect, however, they are most likely faking their happiness and not truly happy. Unfortunately, the character Lacie continues to pursue what she thinks will make her happy, like a high social media rating, while completely disregarding the things that might actually make her happy, like friendships with her co-workers or a real relationship with her brother. In the real world, many of us make Lacie’s mistake over and over again. The social rank system is bad for society because it takes away positive interaction between humans. Their interactions with one another are set up in a way to better their rate. These characters do not have relationships with one another aside from what they think they should do in order for the person they are interacting with to give them a high score. Research states that spending time with other people had the strongest link to positive emotions, while using social media had either a neutral or slightly negative link. Therefore, this social rank system is a negative society to live in.

In other words, since social media doesn’t do anything for our longterm happiness, it’s tough to imagine a functioning society that’s 100% dependent upon it. If we ever tried to create one, most of us would probably end up like Lacie Pound does at the end of the episode — screaming at a stranger from inside a prison cell.

China’s social credit system has been compared to Black Mirror. The target, eventually, is that the government system will be country wide, with businesses given a “unified social credit code” and citizens an identity number, all linked to permanent record. “If you go to a credit China website, and you have an entity’s credit code, you can type that in and pull up credit records,”Individuals will have ID-linked codes.” It’s less a score, she says, and more of a record.  China’s social credit system expands that idea to all aspects of life, judging citizens’ behavior and trustworthiness. Caught jaywalking, don’t pay a court bill, play your music too loud on the train — you could lose certain rights, such as booking a flight or train ticket. This is like the Black Mirror episode because not having a high enough social rating causes characters to not be able to do things such as buy an apartment.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

While creating my Wikipedia page I found that at first it was challenging to think of a topic to write about that did not already exist on Wikipedia. There are article pages on mostly everything and other articles that have not been written about may not be interesting to other people and worthwhile for them to read. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, meaning that it’s purpose is to provide knowledge to its readers. Therefore, the article may not have biased opinions. There are a lot of things to avoid while writing the article and things to keep in mind to allow the article to achieve success. The website Wikipedia:Your first article was extremely helpful while learning the do’s and dont’s of creating a Wikipedia entry. The article will not be approved unless it is referenced properly, excluding blogs, social media, etc. Referenced in the article must next to the material that is being cited in order for it to be approved. There is a website called “Wikipedia article Wizard” that lays out a step by step process to publishing a draft for an article. First, it is prompted to ensure that articles are not written about personal manners, not copy and pasted, and are not promotional. Once it is stated if the article is personal or not, if it is there will be a button to acknowledge disclosing of relationship. Now it is time to name the article. After naming the draft that is being created there is a layout for the draft which displays a place for the article to be written.

In order to properly format the article there is a “cheatsheet” to describe how to cite everything, the correct way to insert specific texts, how to create lists and tables, and shortcuts for different works in the article that are referred to as wiki tags. There are templates for things such as images, quotes, citing, and more, that make it easy to follow and know how to set up the article. For the format, it is suggested that articles should have multiple links to other articles to gain readers. Headings and subheadings should be before every new paragraph to keep the article organized and easy to read. The use of bold and italic words are carefully explained because all Wikipedia articles follow the same format, there must be consistency.

Trying to follow the format to my best ability was a challenge I faced while creating my Wikipedia article. There are a lot of aspects of creating the article that I was not aware of before I read the description of the required format. After learning about the format and how to cite references and create headlines and what words to make bold, I had to make changes to my article in order for it to fit the format. Overall, I enjoyed making a Wikipedia entry and I learned a lot about the website, how it operates, what articles are considered to be better than others and why, and how to make an article. I also learned that articles are open for anyone to have access to edit. However, the process to create a draft and have that approved is not necessarily easy. If the references are not correct and the article does not meet standards it will not be published. Even if a draft is declined, there is still room for improvement. If there are changes made and the article is Wikipedia ready it can eventually be published if submitted again and goes through review. I am excited about my new Wikipedia article and am hopeful that it is published.

This meme is from the popular television show, Friends. One of the characters, Ross, finds out that his ex girlfriend and best friend are now dating. The ex girlfriend and best friend, Rachel and Joey fear for Ross’s state of mind after he finds out about their relationship https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583484/. He pretends to be “fine” with it while simultaneously acting as if he is clearly not fine. The episode is on the last season of the show and Ross saying “i’m fine” has become a famous meme. Below are modifications of the meme as there have been updated versions of the picture entitled “i’m fine” alongside different captions.

The original meme is stating simply that they relate to Ross in the episode of the show where he pretends to be fine when he is not fine. Then the picture of him saying “i’m fine” was created with different captions, meaning all different things as shown below.

All modifications of the meme include a reference to a person being fine in a situation where they really are not. The high pitched squeaky voice he says “i’m fine” in reveals the lie in his voice. The cultural motivation for this meme is people in society having to put on a face to others and pretend they are fine even if they are not. In the society we live in people care so much about what others think of them that they have to constantly hide behind a mask and pretend they are someone they may not be. This meme is a mock of that type of behavior.

Identify yourself: Rachel Finkel, Age 20, Female

First Social Network Site was made May 15, 2010, it was a Facebook account, and my parents were aware of my account because I had to ask permission in order to create it.

My first account was Facebook which I was very active on when I first created the account. I posted status updates, pictures, on other friends timelines, and communicated through message and groups. It was a great way to keep up with friends and stay connected. After Facebook, I made a tumblr. I made this account the same year as my Facebook. On this site I reposted other people’s pictures and also my own. I used it as inspiration for fashion and photography. I slowly stopped using tumblr as soon as I got my Instagram account. I made my Instagram account on December 17, 2011. Instagram became popular very quickly. The platform was easy for people to share photos and get likes. In February of 2013, I joined twitter. The same year I also made a snapchat account. Both of these social media networks I used a vast amount at the time. One, snapchat, was for communicating with friends via pictures. The other, twitter, I used for tweeting updates, funny jokes, mostly using characters of words. My most recent site is LinkedIn, which I joined in 2018.

Today I use four Social Network Sites, including Instagram, FaceBook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.

My chosen SNS is Instagram. Instagram is a social network site where users can share pictures with captions with their followers. On Instagram, users can post, like, share, message, story, explore, and also use it for business purposes. Social media influences use Instagram as a platform to update their followers about their life and to promote business deals they may have. Instagram also contains advertisements for outside sources which brings revenue for the site. People are constantly on Instagram liking other people’s pictures as well as posting their own.

What did it extended from previous sites? Instagram extended sharing pictures like on Facebook, however it is more simple. Rather than being able to post various different things such as status, albums, etc., on Instagram users can only post photos.

What became obsolete with it? Instagram took users away from Facebook. People do not post as much on that site as they used to. It is starting to take away stories from snapchat. It is taking away the normal use of pictures. People do things just to get a good Instagram picture and take away from the memories. No more scrapbooks or other way of keeping pictures since they are all on a social network site.

 What did it recover from other technologies? Instagram recovered a way to easily and instantly share pictures. It also gave the marketing industry a new way to reach target consumers and please their clients. Instagram and social media has a big influence on society therefore an easy way for marketers to do business. It also enhances digital advertising. The advertisements blend in with all other pictures on your feed and with just one click you are redirected to the site of the advertisement. Instagram brings a new form of creativity to social network sites where people can express themselves through photography.

What was reversed, in your opinion? In my opinion, I believe that spending time with friends/family has declined since the rise of all social media. People do not take pictures for memories anymore, they take them just to post on Instagram hoping to receive a lot of likes. People estimate their self worth based on how many likes they get on their Instagram pictures and use that as a judgement of happiness and self confidence instead of just being who they are. The natural beauty of people has also been reversed due to Instagram. People use editing apps to edit their pictures so much in order to have approval of society that what people naturally look like and what places look like are starting to disappear online. The nature of taking pictures has gone from wanting pictures for memories to wanting to get a good Instagram.

In 1989, Berners-Lee thought of the idea of what would eventually become the Internet. The reason he created this was for people to have openness and freedom and be able to expand their knowledge through the Web. At the time, Berners-Lee did not expect the Web to hold the great the power that it now has. All types of people have access to the web including scholars, musicians, artists, students, professors, and all can use it to enhance their knowledge in different ways through different sites, however all on the same platform.

The success of the Internet has become an issue because people began to use it for the wrong reasons. Some governments are spying on pretty much everything their citizens do and say online, regardless of whether or not they are suspected of any crime. Other governments want to be able to decide what can or cannot be published online without going through any kind of legal process. These events are the reasoning for a necessary online Magna Carta. What was supposed to be an open system for users to enjoy, is now being threatened and needs to be protected. Berners-Lee speaks on the subject stating, “Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what’s happening at the back door, we can’t have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture. It’s not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it.”  

There is now a campaign in order to let people explore the web freely, the way it was supposed to be. “The web web want” campaign aims to foster increased awareness of online digital rights. The campaign focuses on five principles: affordable access, the protection of personal user information, freedom of expression, open infrastructure, and neutral networks that do not discriminate against content or users. Berners-Lee wants to save the Internet and hopes a digital bill of rights will do so. The internet growth was much vaster than he had ever expected it to be. From a business perspective, that is quite amazing, however, when safety concerns unveil it is not successful. The rise of social media, ask engines, and growing technology helped the internet grow to the lengths that it has. After this growth, the internet was no longer a free open space that was envisioned by Berners-Lee, instead it was an unsafe environment. Principles of privacy, free speech and responsible anonymity would be explored in the Magna Carta scheme. “These issues have crept up on us,” Berners-Lee said. “Our rights are being infringed more and more on every side, and the danger is that we get used to it. So I want to use the 25th anniversary for us all to do that, to take the web back into our own hands and define the web we want for the next 25 years.”

However, some may say that an online Magna Carta is not necessary. If the whole purpose of the web was freedom and openness why change it now. People use the internet because of the freedom it provides an the available knowledge, taking it away would defeat the principle.

1. Jemima Kiss, “An online Magna Carta: Berners-Lee calls for bill of rights for web” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online-magna-carta-berners-lee-web
2. “The web we want” https://www.eyerys.com/articles/people/1367632976/opinions/web-we-want-and-magna-carta-internet

My name is Rachel Finkel. I grew up in West Bloomfield, Michigan, but currently attend school at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. A few of my hobbies include dancing, photography, shopping, eating, and traveling. Since I do not speak Spanish, the language barrier was hard for me while settling in to Barcelona. However, the city is so beautiful and welcoming that it did not take long for me to feel comfortable here. Regarding social media, my favorite people to follow are dancers such as, Bobby Newberry, Delaney Glazer, Stevie Dore, etc. I love following food and travel blogs, and learning new places to go to. Looking forward to this semester!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton