Access & Equity

Despite the internet being such a huge part of education not all young students might have it. For the student who doesn'tlive in a household with a computer might have to find other way to get it done. By only being a able to do it at school or a public library. It might make it harder to keep up with there peers because of the lack of access in their area. For those students and people living in a more rural area, it might make it difficult to get internet. Some rural area doesn't have access to wifi or internet. Making online sources research more difficult.

Social Media & Learning

Social media has changed learning because knowledge is just a click away. I remember when I first had small research projects in elementary school we would still have to find books for our research. I have siblings that use the internet for all of the sources and maybe the textbook used in the class. No longer spending hours in a public library trying to find the right book. They can literally find the information on most of their cell phones.

I feel like social media can distract children. There is so much fake news that is put out, it makes it difficult to know what real. I as an adult sometimes find myself getting caught up in the next fake new or new article that went viral. The biggest thing we need to work on now is making sure that we start to teach more related to social media younger and how to combat fake new.

Social media is the future, despite its flaws. I think the best we can do is trying to stay up to date and teach way to weed out the flaws.

Business and Social Media

For the younger generation, social media is a huge way that they reach out to customers. Most young teenage children I know have social media like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat noow have sponsored post. Facebook is another social media with sponsored posts but not as popular around the teens that I have communicated with. These social media sites seem to all be connected in some ways because the sponsored post you see often seem to be similar to each social media. They also gear the sponsorships towards the people and sites you view within the application. It's quite crazy how you could have looked up something and put it in your cart and not bought it and it will show up in your sponored posted on your social media.

Business are also now paying influencer to talk about there ads. It helps reach out to the followers of that particular person. For example snap chat is so related to Kylie Jenner that when she talked bad about it there was a huge drop in there stocks. Influencers have huge role in what their viewers but sometimes they just show the sponsorship for the money

Social Media and Activism

Social media is so big for these younger generations. One big movement that has been moving across many different social media platforms in the #metoo movement. This movement is about to bring awareness to sexual assault. Many celebrities and influencers used their social media to bring more awareness. I am bringing this up, on my social media and children blog because I personally think this is an important movement. Many keep their stories quiet and this type of activism makes much more aware and feel like they are not alone. Social media a simple # can go viral and start a movement. That is also why it is so important for children social media is monitored. It is ever changing and things on the internet happen quick and "last forever"

Collaboration

Collaboration is made so much easier for younger generations. While I was in high school, there was barely and online collaboration among my peers. Messager with email hard just started to become prevalent. School group project were all done in person and would take a lot of time trying to fit everyone schedules.

Things have really changed. Now many social media sites have a poll that you can make on your profile if you need a quick survey of people. You design a question and answers options. Then you can set a length for the poll and get results in an hour. They can be serious or fun. I have seen people ask "Who is going to (blanks) concert?" and friends can reply "yes" or "no". Instead of having to send a bunch of individual messages.

Younger generations can use all these sites so readily available for collaboration. Websites like Google make it possible. Where you can share a single document that everyone can edit and put there work on. You can see what you and your peers are getting done. No, need for the fuss of trying to find a time that works for everyone schedule.

User Generated Content

User-generated content is huge among the kids that are growing up in technology. I know kids as young as elementary school, that have social media sites, despite the age restrictions that said social media site has. Above is an image of the revenue that very popular social media sites have that are all for people using user-generated content. I find it interesting that Myspace is still up there because when conversing with people I rarely hear it talked about anymore.  YouTube, however, is right where I expected.

YouTube is something that I always hear talked about among my generation and younger. I hear my younger siblings talk with there friends how they would want to be YouTube famous. Which is amazing to see because the site promotes posting user-generated content. Not only do they like watching them, they enjoy watching the content that so many creators take. I feel like there are not many people that can say they have never look through YouTube for instruction on how to do something. I know I for sure have. There are also many people that use it to document there life and people take an interest in watching their short glimpses into another person's life.

I personally watch some YouTuber's and see them struggling with some of the issues that Larry Lesser, in his Ted talk express might happen. That they are getting copyrighted without some form of review or their content is getting demonetized despite all the views because YouTube did not like the content posted. Is that fair or is this society's way of restricting the content people post. This makes me wonder if YouTubers will be the first to start the major talk that needs to be done around what user-generated content really is. 

I wanted to get accounts from a teenager on how they use social media. I interviewed a family friend name Olivia, she is 14, and a sophomore in high school. I asked these questions to get a better understanding of how she uses social media and understand what is more popular for her age group of youth.

Q: What social media do you use the most?

Olivia: Snapchat

Q: Do you use Twitter? Do you think it's popular with kids your age? 

Olivia: No, I don’t and not really with kids my age

Q: For Snapchat. Do you post your story frequently? How many friends do you talk to on Snapchat a day 

Olivia: Like 3 times a week or 4

And like 6

Q: Do you think snap chat is your main form of communication with your friends? 

Olivia: Well other than in person yeah

Q: How often do you go on Instagram? How often do you post on Instagram? Do you use the messaging option on        Instagram? Does your parent monitor your Instagram? Do you have multiple Instagram?

Olivia: Everyday and like once every 2 or 3 weeks and only to send memes and no and two

Q: Do you post a picture because you like them or for how many likes you can get?

Olivia: Because I like them

Q: Do you use Facebook?

Olivia: Not really

Q: Why do you think Facebook is not one of your main social media?

Olivia: Because it’s for old people