Chapter 8 of Howard’s Design
to Thrive really focused on the importance of social media in today’s
world. We rely so heavily on social media for communication that it has
completely changed the way information is spread. The Twitter example proved
that anyone with access to social media can share opinions and information
about events occurring around the world. The process of retweeting and
hashtagging enables users to spread news. Without social media, information
would not travel nearly as quickly, and less people would be able to talk about
their thoughts with others around the world. The problem with social media, as
Howard pointed out, is that it is so easy for people to post absolutely
anything they want to online.
The
tragic story of what happened to the U.S. Embassy in Lybia all started with an
offensive video that was made available to the public eye. The video was “anti-Muslim”
and really had nothing to do with the United States, but the violence got out
of hand and people who weren’t even involved in the production of the video are
the ones who suffered (FOX News Online). This example shows how powerful social
media can really be. The information and content that is placed online affects
how our world operates, whether good or bad. It can bring people together or
completely tear us apart. It’s scary how huge of an effect different videos and
posts have on the rest of the world.
Another
important part of social media that Howard mentioned is copyrighting. Most
people don’t think about copyrighting issues when they download a song or use
online pictures for different projects. Copyrighting protects authors and
publishers because their work should be their own, and if someone else tries to
display their work as their own without crediting the original producer, it
takes away all of the hard work that person put into that creation. I’m glad that we go over this in class for
our Camtasia projects because I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about
using a random song from the internet as part of my project. It’s important that
we know the consequences of copyrighting so we are more cautious when borrowing
other’s work.
I think it’s really important that you took the time to expand on copyrighting. You said most people don’t think about copyrighting issues when downloading something which I completely agree with. Also the part about simply using online pictures for projects isn’t well known. I was familiar with downloading as illegal and a clear violation, but I didn’t learn about the use of pictures I found online to be a problem until someone brought it up to me and made me aware of what kind of trouble I could land myself in. I definitely agree with your statement about the importance of being aware of copyright laws because ignorance is not a valid excuse.
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