Journey

Choosing Our Topic

When we first selected a topic, we thought choosing social media would be a good idea because it was something all of us were familiar with. Because our topic was the influence of social media (the good, the bad, and the ugly), we did not really need to venture far beyond the confines of our computer screens to find information. After all, we are basically always using social media. Now, that does beg the question: SHOULD we be on social media all that much? Is it a good idea? Or is it… a bad idea!?

We figured there are a lot of upsides and downsides to social media. Mostly upsides (research material, ability to communicate across long distances, Youtube videos, etc.). There are some downsides, though (people lying and stuff, bot and troll accounts, viruses). By the way, this is our impression when we come across misinformation:

Exploring the Positive Side

We explored the positive side of social media. At first, we primarily saw it as a place for chatting and entertainment, but we wondered whether it could also help people learn or effect change.

We searched online for keywords such as “social media education” and “online social movements”. We found a Pew Research article about how young people use social media to participate in social welfare activities; we also saw a Kurzgesagt video demonstrating how online platforms spread knowledge.

Image: Screenshot inspired by Kurzgesagt’s video about knowledge sharing and quality learning online.

After exploring these, we realized social media can do more than entertain — It can connect, teach, and inspire. Next, we’ll look at the negative side and misinformation to compare both views

Looking at the Negatives

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Solutions We Thought of

We looked at the solutions on how to use social media positively as well as how to spread awareness about digital literacy. Not only that, but we also got into why this is so important in terms of reducing the negative impact that social media can have on our daily lives. We did an online search and looked at this subject in three very specific areas.

There were three articles we came across, each connecting to the subjects really well. The first was a time well spent challenge that really outlined how social media can be used effectively. This was a great springboard into the next part of our research which revolved around finding out how we can spread awareness about digital literacy. The poster below, from the media smarts article we found on digital literacy 101, really helps with spreading awareness on the proper uses of social media.

After looking through these two articles we ventured further, by looking at some of the impacts social media has on society and how we can reduce those impacts being negative. We found a super helpful article from the Pew Research Center that really dove into these impacts and helped us work through some solutions. Ultimately, we learned a lot about our topic, and we will come out of this course changed people.